Measuring Jews

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

In 1882, there were 24,000 Jews in the land of Israel, a tenth as many as in the United States at the time and a mere 0.3 percent of the world Jewish population. Today, a decade into the 21st century, Israel is solidifying its place as the cultural and demographic hub of Jewish life. Out of 13 million Jews worldwide, 5.7 million live in Israel, as opposed to an estimated 5.5 million in the U.S.

Relevant Links

Israeli Jews by the Numbers Asaf Shtull-Trauring, Haaretz. A new government study shows the number of religious Jews rising while the proportion of secular Jews continues to drop modestly.

American Jews and Their Birthrate Jack Wertheimer, Commentary. Unless the fertility rate increases, the prospects for non-Orthodox Jewry in America are dismal.

Roughly 60 percent of Jewish Israelis are now native-born; fifty years ago, the same percentage was foreign-born. Despite an average monthly wage of but $2,100.00, most Israelis own their own homes, travel abroad regularly, are connected to the Internet, and own at least one car. Religiously, 50 percent identify themselves as either Orthodox (12 percent), observant (13 percent), or traditional (25 percent), with ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jews at 8 percent and climbing; self-identified secular Jews come in at 42 percent. The median age of Israeli brides is twenty-four.

The figures for American Jewry tell a different story, beginning with an average monthly income four times the Israeli figure. Religiously, the majority of American Jews goes under one or another non-Orthodox description—Reform 34 (percent); Conservative (26 percent); Reconstructionist (2 percent); or "just Jewish" (25 percent)—while the Orthodox make up only 13 percent. Yet the non-Orthodox American Jewish majority is graying. Its young people are marrying non-Jews at the rate of 50 percent, and its women tend to marry much later and to have fewer children (1.86, below the replacement rate) than their Israeli counterparts (2.88). In sum, Israel's Jewish population is younger and growing while Jewish America is older and essentially shrinking.

Statistical comparisons can, of course, take one only so far. They do, however, hint at the need for both of the world's largest Jewish populations to think hard about how best to further their common heritage and solidify the links between two communities whose fates are intertwined.

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