R MacDonald
08-21-2004, 07:43 PM
Jews just love to brag, don't they? Even with their numbers falling, all they can think about is money... How Jewish! The first paragraph sums it up well.
Fewer Jews, more money
http://www.jafi.org.il/papers/2004/june/prof.jpg
By Yair Sheleg
Prof. Sergio Della Pergola calls for involving the Jewish world.
Credit: (Haim Tzach / BauBau)
A total of 92 percent of the world's Jews live in the wealthiest fifth of the world's population, according to a report prepared by the Jewish Agency's Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning research group. The first of its kind, the report examines the condition of the Jewish people in the year 2004.
The abstract released this week is a mere summary of the complete 600-page report to be published in the fall. Many of the study's findings are not outlined in the abstract, but the first page reveals a series of interesting trends.
Emigration of Jews from Arab countries in the `50s and from the former Soviet Union in the `90s has contributed to changing distribution patterns in the world population. The quality of life of Jews in the world has definitely benefited from residence in wealthy nations, but Jewish demographics have suffered. According to the report, the world population grew by 70 percent between the years 1970-2003. (Most of this growth, of course, was in poorer nations.) The Jewish population, however, grew by only 2 percent.
The report presents intermarriage statistics in various nations as well. The Jewish communities of Russia and Ukraine lead in this area with 80 percent intermarriage in both countries. The German and Hungarian communities follow with 60 percent intermarriage. Jews in the United States intermarry at a rate of 54 percent. Jews from France, Britain, and Argentina follow with 45 percent. Canadian Jews intermarry at a rate of 35 percent. Closing the list are Australia (22 percent), South Africa (20 percent), and Mexico (10 percent). In Israel, the rate of intermarriage was only 5 percent - most intermarried families came from the former Soviet Union.
The report found a clear, inverse relationship between attendance at Jewish day schools, and intermarriage: intermarriage drops with increased enrollment of children in Jewish educational facilities on a daily basis - and not as part of an extra-curricular program. Therefore, the countries which lead the world in Jewish education appeared at the bottom of the intermarriage list. In Israel, 97 percent of [Jewish] children are enrolled in a Jewish school. In South Africa and Mexico, 85 percent of Jewish children attend Jewish schools, in Britain 67 percent, in Australia 65 percent, in Argentina 60 percent, in Canada 55 percent, and in the U.S. 29 percent. In Russia and Ukraine, only 15 percent of Jewish children attend Jewish schools.
Most of the published report is devoted to analyzing statistical trends and making recommendations. In this analysis, the report concludes that the most critical and pressing issue facing the entire Jewish world is the formulation of policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report refers to the conflict's importance to the entire Jewish community by saying, "The conflict threatens Israel's welfare; it is used in the international arena to delegimitize the very concept of Jewish sovereignity; and it is used as a tool to attack Israel's Jewish supporters."
Prof. Sergio Della Pergola, who headed the research committee, concludes that the importance of the conflict throughout world Jewry indicates a practical need: "Involve representatives of the entire Jewish community in deliberation on this issue, even if the final decisions are Israel's right to make alone."
Seeing Israel and the Diaspora as one The report is to be the institute's flagship project. The institute was founded two years ago with the goal of creating policy to address the needs of the Jewish people as a whole. According to Della Pergola, an expert on Jewish demographics at the Hebrew University's Institute of Contemporary Judaism, "The institute's basic approach, reflected in the report, is to view Israel and the Diaspora as one body, and not to separate Israel from the Diaspora, as was done in the past."
Della Pergola adds that not only the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but all decisions made by Israel's government, "must take into account their implications for the Jews of the Diaspora. This includes questions of immediate security, like the decision to assassinate Sheikh Yassin. This does not mean that considerations regarding the Diaspora should take precedence over Israel's needs, but that the implications, at least, should be taken into account and that preparations should be made accordingly."
Della Pergola says he warned the research committee during its first year of work to avoid making recommendations that were too detailed and practical. Instead, they concentrated on general concepts and directions.
Although he does not say it out loud, it appears that the institute preferred to assimilate the idea of the report and its importance before becoming embroiled in arguments over its recommendations. However, the cautious analysis in the current report does reflect a line of reasoning which will undoubtedly spark more than a little debate.
For example, the perception of Israel and the Diaspora as one entity is unlikely to please Israel's Arab and post-Zionist citizens. The specific recommendation to create a general Jewish "advisory" framework, that results from the same perception, will also be met with opposition.
Additionally, the report advises that Jewish funding of Israel be directed toward "assuring Israel's long-range future rather than its immediate needs."
On paper, everyone will agree with this general direction. In practice, this could mean that education might take precedence over economic welfare. Many arguments would result, as they would if recommendations for distributing Holocaust reparations would lend greater weight to the "needs of the Jewish people" as opposed to the needs of individual survivors.
Another of the report's recommendations will certainly be opposed in countries where there is separation of religion and state, like France and the U.S. This report calls for encouraging Jewish support of organizations of religious character throughout the world that support multicultural policy. In careful language, the report says The traditional Jewish outlook, which opposes government support of religious schools in the U.S. should be reexamined, as should the Jewish community's support in France of government efforts to keep religious symbols out of public schools.
Other recommendations include strengthening Israel's Jewish character by "upgrading Jewish identity in the education system," recognizing non-Orthodox Jewish movements; subsidizing Jewish education in the Diaspora; establishing an "academy of Jewish leadership," to prepare young Jews from all corners of the globe to head Jewish organizations; to formulate global Jewish policy regarding the international arena as a whole and Islam in particular; as well as policy to encourage the conversion of non-Jewish mates in intermarriages in Israel and abroad. Another interesting recommendation calls for strengthened involvement of world Jewry in human rights issues, to fulfill the Jewish value of tikkun olam (mending the world), but, also for political reasons, to lend weight to the role of the Jewish people as a significant player in the international arena.
Former Mideast envoy named board chairman The Jewish Agency's Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning research group was the joint brainchild of Prof. Yehezkel Dror, the institute's founding president; Stephen Hoffman, outgoing president and CEO of the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of the Federations of North America; and former journalist Avinoam Bar-Yosef, the institute's establishing director.
In order to firm up the institute's standing among decision makers in Israel and the Jewish world, Dennis Ross, former Middle East envoy during the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations, was named chairman of the board.
Other board members include Prof. Yaakov Neeman, Dr. Uzi Arad, Israel Defense Forces Generals (res.) Uzi Dayan and Yaakov Amidror, Stephen Hoffman, and Jewish Federation of New York CEO John Ruskay. Prof. Irwin Kotler, an internationally renowned expert on human rights, also served on the board, until his appointment as Canada's justice minister.
© Copyright 2004 Haaretz. All rights reserved
http://www.jafi.org.il/papers/2004/june/june24hz.htm
Fewer Jews, more money
http://www.jafi.org.il/papers/2004/june/prof.jpg
By Yair Sheleg
Prof. Sergio Della Pergola calls for involving the Jewish world.
Credit: (Haim Tzach / BauBau)
A total of 92 percent of the world's Jews live in the wealthiest fifth of the world's population, according to a report prepared by the Jewish Agency's Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning research group. The first of its kind, the report examines the condition of the Jewish people in the year 2004.
The abstract released this week is a mere summary of the complete 600-page report to be published in the fall. Many of the study's findings are not outlined in the abstract, but the first page reveals a series of interesting trends.
Emigration of Jews from Arab countries in the `50s and from the former Soviet Union in the `90s has contributed to changing distribution patterns in the world population. The quality of life of Jews in the world has definitely benefited from residence in wealthy nations, but Jewish demographics have suffered. According to the report, the world population grew by 70 percent between the years 1970-2003. (Most of this growth, of course, was in poorer nations.) The Jewish population, however, grew by only 2 percent.
The report presents intermarriage statistics in various nations as well. The Jewish communities of Russia and Ukraine lead in this area with 80 percent intermarriage in both countries. The German and Hungarian communities follow with 60 percent intermarriage. Jews in the United States intermarry at a rate of 54 percent. Jews from France, Britain, and Argentina follow with 45 percent. Canadian Jews intermarry at a rate of 35 percent. Closing the list are Australia (22 percent), South Africa (20 percent), and Mexico (10 percent). In Israel, the rate of intermarriage was only 5 percent - most intermarried families came from the former Soviet Union.
The report found a clear, inverse relationship between attendance at Jewish day schools, and intermarriage: intermarriage drops with increased enrollment of children in Jewish educational facilities on a daily basis - and not as part of an extra-curricular program. Therefore, the countries which lead the world in Jewish education appeared at the bottom of the intermarriage list. In Israel, 97 percent of [Jewish] children are enrolled in a Jewish school. In South Africa and Mexico, 85 percent of Jewish children attend Jewish schools, in Britain 67 percent, in Australia 65 percent, in Argentina 60 percent, in Canada 55 percent, and in the U.S. 29 percent. In Russia and Ukraine, only 15 percent of Jewish children attend Jewish schools.
Most of the published report is devoted to analyzing statistical trends and making recommendations. In this analysis, the report concludes that the most critical and pressing issue facing the entire Jewish world is the formulation of policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report refers to the conflict's importance to the entire Jewish community by saying, "The conflict threatens Israel's welfare; it is used in the international arena to delegimitize the very concept of Jewish sovereignity; and it is used as a tool to attack Israel's Jewish supporters."
Prof. Sergio Della Pergola, who headed the research committee, concludes that the importance of the conflict throughout world Jewry indicates a practical need: "Involve representatives of the entire Jewish community in deliberation on this issue, even if the final decisions are Israel's right to make alone."
Seeing Israel and the Diaspora as one The report is to be the institute's flagship project. The institute was founded two years ago with the goal of creating policy to address the needs of the Jewish people as a whole. According to Della Pergola, an expert on Jewish demographics at the Hebrew University's Institute of Contemporary Judaism, "The institute's basic approach, reflected in the report, is to view Israel and the Diaspora as one body, and not to separate Israel from the Diaspora, as was done in the past."
Della Pergola adds that not only the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but all decisions made by Israel's government, "must take into account their implications for the Jews of the Diaspora. This includes questions of immediate security, like the decision to assassinate Sheikh Yassin. This does not mean that considerations regarding the Diaspora should take precedence over Israel's needs, but that the implications, at least, should be taken into account and that preparations should be made accordingly."
Della Pergola says he warned the research committee during its first year of work to avoid making recommendations that were too detailed and practical. Instead, they concentrated on general concepts and directions.
Although he does not say it out loud, it appears that the institute preferred to assimilate the idea of the report and its importance before becoming embroiled in arguments over its recommendations. However, the cautious analysis in the current report does reflect a line of reasoning which will undoubtedly spark more than a little debate.
For example, the perception of Israel and the Diaspora as one entity is unlikely to please Israel's Arab and post-Zionist citizens. The specific recommendation to create a general Jewish "advisory" framework, that results from the same perception, will also be met with opposition.
Additionally, the report advises that Jewish funding of Israel be directed toward "assuring Israel's long-range future rather than its immediate needs."
On paper, everyone will agree with this general direction. In practice, this could mean that education might take precedence over economic welfare. Many arguments would result, as they would if recommendations for distributing Holocaust reparations would lend greater weight to the "needs of the Jewish people" as opposed to the needs of individual survivors.
Another of the report's recommendations will certainly be opposed in countries where there is separation of religion and state, like France and the U.S. This report calls for encouraging Jewish support of organizations of religious character throughout the world that support multicultural policy. In careful language, the report says The traditional Jewish outlook, which opposes government support of religious schools in the U.S. should be reexamined, as should the Jewish community's support in France of government efforts to keep religious symbols out of public schools.
Other recommendations include strengthening Israel's Jewish character by "upgrading Jewish identity in the education system," recognizing non-Orthodox Jewish movements; subsidizing Jewish education in the Diaspora; establishing an "academy of Jewish leadership," to prepare young Jews from all corners of the globe to head Jewish organizations; to formulate global Jewish policy regarding the international arena as a whole and Islam in particular; as well as policy to encourage the conversion of non-Jewish mates in intermarriages in Israel and abroad. Another interesting recommendation calls for strengthened involvement of world Jewry in human rights issues, to fulfill the Jewish value of tikkun olam (mending the world), but, also for political reasons, to lend weight to the role of the Jewish people as a significant player in the international arena.
Former Mideast envoy named board chairman The Jewish Agency's Institute for Jewish People Policy Planning research group was the joint brainchild of Prof. Yehezkel Dror, the institute's founding president; Stephen Hoffman, outgoing president and CEO of the United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of the Federations of North America; and former journalist Avinoam Bar-Yosef, the institute's establishing director.
In order to firm up the institute's standing among decision makers in Israel and the Jewish world, Dennis Ross, former Middle East envoy during the Bush Sr. and Clinton administrations, was named chairman of the board.
Other board members include Prof. Yaakov Neeman, Dr. Uzi Arad, Israel Defense Forces Generals (res.) Uzi Dayan and Yaakov Amidror, Stephen Hoffman, and Jewish Federation of New York CEO John Ruskay. Prof. Irwin Kotler, an internationally renowned expert on human rights, also served on the board, until his appointment as Canada's justice minister.
© Copyright 2004 Haaretz. All rights reserved
http://www.jafi.org.il/papers/2004/june/june24hz.htm