JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

10/28/09 04:14 AM

I strongly urge all Jewish readers of JTA to read Sharansky’s full article: it is a beautiful statement of shared Jewish identity between the Jews of Israel and those of the Diaspora.  Sharansky is an authentic hero of our generation, broadminded, idealistic, knowledgeable and dedicated, a model for us all.  That he is now the Chairman of the Jewish Agency is an honor to that agency, and gives some hope that it will again amount to something in world Jewish life.

Steve Ariza’s abusive and hateful post in response shows at the least that he is not pro-Jewish, and that he cannot help reacting emotively and very negatively even or perhaps especially to such a basic, proud and loving affirmation of Jewish identity.  Let that instruct us on how to view all his posts.

10/29/09 06:42 AM

In an article entitled “Four Questions about American Jewish Demography,” in Jewish Political Studies Review, 20:1-2 (Spring 2008), Ira M. Sheskin describes

“the methodological difficulties involved in estimating Jewish populations. It is likely that somewhere between 5.2 million and 6.4 million Jews live in the United States, with the most probable range being 6.0-6.4 million. Whether the American Jewish population is increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same is not totally clear, though it will almost certainly decrease in the future. It appears that the number of Jews in the United States is currently higher than the number in Israel, though this also is very likely to change in the future.”

The usual figure given for the percentage of Jews in America at present is 2.5% In any case, the decline in numbers, if it has occurred at all (lower birth rates than formerly and than in Israel today, high intermarriage rates - not found in Israel - and lessened Jewish knowledge are the usual factors named), has nothing to do with Zionism but, quite the opposite, with lessened affiliation with all forms of Jewish life and involvement, which Zionist ideologies, groups and activities actually have very significantly countered.  Zionism has been an energizing factor in American Jewish life, as in Jewish life around the world.  It has saved Russian Jewry, for example, holding together those repressed “Jews of Silence” during the Soviet years, and leading to a rebirth of all forms of Jewish affiliation there since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The full article by Sheskin is on-line at http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/showpage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=84&FID=625

Scroll down to the Vol. 20 issue.  For Jews interested in Jewish life and affairs anywhere, by the way, this is a wonderful and highly informative website.

I am not and have never been known in any context as “ari.” There is nothing else to respond to in “steve ariza“‘s rant.