Israel has more Jews than Brooklyn
Sachnut: Israel To be world’s largest JComm – A first in 2000 years.
Israel will next year become the largest Jewish community in the world, figures released by a Jewish Agency think tank revealed Sunday. However, the report issued by The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute predicted that even in 15 years time, the majority of world Jewry will not be living in Israel
the really awful stats contained in that report are that 15 years from now there will only be an additional 600,000 jews in the world; and that outside of israel the majority of jews intermarry. if we want a jewish community, we will have to marry jews and have children – all the rest is commentary.
if we want a jewish community, we will have to marry jews and have children – all the rest is commentary.
Or encourage non-Jewish partners to convert, or actually present Judaism as a spiritually vibrant and open-minded religion that “stands for something.” In other words, we have to look at the real reasons why people do what they do, including why they intermarry, live where they live, etc. I bet it has more to do with Jewish leaders’ failure to “market” Judaism than anything else. The fact is, we live in a capitalistic society, in the Information Age, where everything is suddenly open and possible. So, we have to realize that Jews will no longer marry Jews just because “that’s what Jews do” or because they have no other choices. Especially in countries like Russia and Ukraine, the myriad good reasons to be Jewish, as well as the different WAYS one can be Jewish, need to be seriously played up.
What I think is funny, is you glass-half-empty clowns are missing a point:
In 15 years, most of the WW2 generation will have passed away.
It’s not that we’re not REPRODUCING – because lord knows, *I TRY AND TRY AND TRY AGAIN*… y’know, at least until my wife smacks me and tells me to stop humping her shin.
The matriculation of the WW2 generation costs us roughly a quarter to a third of our population, especially in the States. That we aren’t LOSING significant numbers by that point, but GAINING 600,000 IS A GOOD SIGN . It’s like losing thirty bucks, then finding a crisp 50 on the street. *I* worry about THIRTY years from now when we lose the BABY BOOMER generation.
Now if you said in 15 years, there’d only be like… 18 of us… and we’d all be sitting in Katz’ deli crying into our Cel-Ray tonics… well, that’s something else.
We’re not going to dissappear.
And saying so does the OPPOSITE of motivating people to explore their potential for Yiddishkeit.
Quit talking about vanishing Jews, and just focus on what a Jew is supposed to do. We don’t exist solely for our own survival.
shmuel, you’ve presented the classic frum response to the demographic disaster we are facing: but may i quote another principal that is taught over and over, g-d helps those who help themselves. obviously we have the duty to be good jews, but we also have the obligation of seeing there are enough jews to do good in a meaningfull way. if there were not a significant (but now shrinking) number of jews in america, does anyone think there would be an israel today? if you want to see an insignificant and marginal group of jews look at the situation in britain, where muslim extremests run ramant and the governing party (labour) kisses their behind. heaven help us all if that situation were ever to prevail in america.
Shrinking Jewish population???
where do you guys live??
I actually find our communities (frum, orthodox) growing, in the US and Israel.
If anything you must be referring to reform and conservative, whose youth are joining us in numbers and the rest are intermarrying or just plain assimilating.
meanwhile, the more important ramification of having a majority of the world’s population of Jews in Israel: Prophesy comes back. watch out!
QUICK! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU RACE TRAITORS DOING WASTING YOUR TIME DELIBERATING!
DROP THOSE KEYBOARDS, GET OUT THERE AND PROCREATE FOR FUCK’S SAKE! WE ONLY HAVE FIFTEEN YEARS!
HURRY! IT IS OUR SOLE PURPOSE AS JEWS!
avigreen,
the answer is to make aliyah, because we know that the other options aren’t realistic.
flurry,
actually present Judaism as a spiritually vibrant and open-minded religion that “stands for something.”
Jewish leaders’ failure to “market” Judaism than anything else.
Wow, I could chew out these bits all night long.
On one hand, you are 100% correct. There is a very strong idea in ‘Judaism’ to attract through example, instead of trying to do marketing and selling the ‘religion’. In chabad, the discussion is a bit prevalent. Should they stop ‘wasting’ time trying to attract Jews and spend time making themselves stronger? Their question is mute since the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave them a mission to ‘attract’, but for the rest of us, I think the ‘if you build it, they will come attitude’ is more realistic. Discover ‘Judaism’ for yourself and build yourself. Once you do that, ‘people’ will be naturally attracted to you and want to emulate your ways as well.
‘Jewish leaders are guilty’
Judaism is not TV. If the shows suck, you can blame the major media corporations. But if ‘Judaism’ ‘sucks’, only blame yourself. The Jew is not a passive part of Judaism. The torah requires each and every Jew to be very active in life. The praying in the synagogue isn’t done only by the cantor, it’s done by every single person in the congregation, if they want.
That’s Jewish life in a nutshell. There are no secrets anymore (you can learn hidden ‘sod’ these days quite easily). Everything is out in the open, but you have to make the choice for yourself. Others will see how rich your life becomes and will follow. There’s very little instant gratification in Judaism, stuff takes time to sink in. Start now.
HEY. FUCKO.
WHAT PART OF ‘DROP THE KEYBOARD’ DIDN’T YOU UNDERSTAND?
—> WE’VE GOT BABIES TO MAKE. THE FUTURE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE RESTS IN YOUR LOINS!
Monk, you are awesome 🙂
josh – Should they stop ‘wasting’ time trying to attract Jews and spend time making themselves stronger?
Yeah, I think they should do both (as much as possible). I think there’s different ways of “spreading the word” — one is to ambush people into going in a sukkah or doing other rituals (I’m not dissing that method, it happened to my sister and was pretty amusing), and the other is just laying it all out in an open manner: “Look, this is what Judaism is about, this is why it’s meaningful, etc.” Like a “Top Ten Reasons To Be Jewish” list. When I think of “marketing,” I think of the second method, because you’re “selling” what you have, not pushing it on people.
I agree with flurry, but would go further: We need to not just market the status quo, but change the Jewish community so that it actually reflects our Jewish values, rather than focusing only on self-preservation as an end.
I see our jewish values, where it concerns promoting our “faith”, as a money making scheme. I’m a lower income member of our faith who finds the “cost”, financially to attend services both sickening and greedy.
I don’t need to make others rich in order to love the Lord.
Something needs to change in this respect. Other faiths don’t try to pillage wallets in order to adhere.
I say let us all intermarry. Judaism is all based on a forgery anyhow. The best and quickest way to put an end to the sham of the bible is to intermarry and maybe one day religion will be all but a forgotten dream.