Demographics
Eizenstat on the Jewish FutureFriday, March 15, 2013 by Jerome A. Chanes | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In his new book on the Jewish future, Jewish diplomat Stuart Eizenstat sees Jewish destiny evolving in the friendly competition between the sovereignty of Israel and the pluralism of America.
Denominational DelusionsWednesday, February 6, 2013 by Andrew Apostolou | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
With synagogues closing, congregations ageing, and the non-Orthodox majority dwindling, American Jews are caught in a crisis. Yet no one is tackling the root of this problem: intermarriage.
The Real Jewish GeographyFriday, November 16, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A new series of high resolution maps, produced by geographer Joshua Comenetz, provide a view of American Jewish life that is seemingly familiar—but, beneath the surface, spread unevenly across the 50 states.
The Jewish Vote, Once and FutureTuesday, November 6, 2012 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
This Election Day reminds us, yet again, of the paradox of the “Jewish vote” in American politics. Here is a series of varied snapshots of the Jewish vote as it has looked to different writers for Jewish Ideas Daily over the past two years.
Promises, PromisesThursday, October 25, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
City of Promises, a new three-volume history of Jewish New York, is remarkable for the complex metamorphoses it explains—and for the 21st century transformation it doesn't mention.
More Expensive by the DozenThursday, October 11, 2012 by Dara Horn | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A hundred years ago, industrial efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth, Jr. claimed that children were “cheaper by the dozen.” Recently the economist Bryan Caplan made the modern version of the self-interested argument for producing more offspring. In an exclusive feature from the current issue of the Jewish Review of Books, novelist Dara Horn elegantly begs to differ. —The Editors
The Jewish Vote, 2012Thursday, September 27, 2012 by Michael Barone | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Jewish vote, once pivotal in American politics, is still important, though not as much as it was seven decades ago. Back in the 1940s, Jews cast four percent of the votes in America, twice the percentage they do today. And they cast a much larger share in the state of New York.
At Last, ZionFriday, September 21, 2012 by Charles Krauthammer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Milan Kundera once defined a small nation as "one whose very existence may be put in question at any moment; a small nation can disappear, and it knows it." Israel is a small country. This is not to say that extinction is its fate. Only that it can be.
Return to FuldaTuesday, September 11, 2012 by Kenneth R. Weinstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Once my son Harry’s bar mitzvah teacher told him he was ready to read Torah and Haftarah fluently anywhere in the world, Harry decided that after his bar mitzvah in Washington, D.C. he would have a second bar mitzvah in Fulda, Germany.
Jewish Studies, Once and FutureThursday, August 23, 2012 by Adina M. Yoffie | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
It’s that time of year again—not just the High Holidays but the time when Jewish college students pore over online course catalogues and make their choices for the fall semester. Will they take Jewish Studies courses? If so, does it matter which ones?
Editors' Picks
Jerusalem Today Danny Adeno Abebe, Ynet. Jerusalem's economy and religious population are growing, but the exodus of young professionals from the capital continues, according to a new report.
Defying the Demographers Yoram Ettinger, Israel Hayom. Demographers have long projected an Arab majority west of the Jordan River. But, today, Jewish fertility is surging as Arab birth rates collapse.
The Khazar Calumny Razib Khan, Discover. A new demographic study resurrects the idea that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from the Khazars of Eurasia. But the claim flies in the face of history.
Israel's Shifting Demographics Yoram Ettinger, Israel Hayom. Israel's Jewish population surges and fertility rates across the Arab world collapse. It seems Jews won't become a minority between the Jordan and the Mediterranean anytime soon.
Heat Wave Diego Melamed, JTA. Panama’s Jewish population has grown by 70 percent. There are 20 percent more children in Argentina’s Jewish pre-schools. Latin American Jewish life is booming.
The Endangered “New York Jew” Jack Wertheimer, Commentary. If one insists on indulging in the dubious exercise of identifying types of Jews who are “undeserving,” it behooves us to ask who, in fact, is most worthy of communal support: those who are failing to raise and nurture a successor generation of Jews or those who are producing and educating enough Jewish children to make up for the indifference of the rest?