Pew Center Survey shows rapid climb in the percentage of US Orthodox Jews – and their influence goes beyond their numbers.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Although the overall percentage of Jews in the US has held steady for the last two decades at about 2.2 percent, the percentage who consider themselves Orthodox is skyrocketing.
Overall, the findings point to a dramatic shift in American Jewry. According to Steven Cohen, Professor of Jewish Social Policy at Hebrew Union College and a key consultant to the Pew study, “Orthodox birthrates in just the last few years have been soaring.” However, “The sky is falling for the rest of the Jewish population.”
According to the Pew Research Center study, approximately 10% of the 5.5 million American Jews consider themselves Orthodox in comparison to the 18% who consider themselves Conservative, 35% Reform, and 30% no denomination.
However, the Orthodox population is much younger. In the “grandparent” generation, those aged 56-73, only 5% are Orthodox. In the “parent” generation, aged 28-45, 15% are Orthodox. In the “child” generation, aged 0-17, 27% are being raised in Orthodox homes.
In other words, over the course of 3 generations, the percentage of Orthodox among Jews in America has more than quintupled – from 5% to 27%.
These findings are in alignment with a 2012 UJA-Federation study, which found that 60% of the Jewish children in the New York City area live in Orthodox homes.
These numbers are due to a number of factors, including
• Dramatically lower intermarriage rates: Just 2% of Orthodox married couples are intermarried vs 44% of American Jewish couples overall.
• Dramatically higher birth rates: Orthodox families have an average of 4.1 children per family vs 1.9 children per family overall.
• Dramatically lower age at time of marriage: 80% of Orthodox women aged 18-29 are married vs 20% of non-Orthodox Jewish women of the same age, according to a 2006 study by the American Jewish Committee.
Furthermore, the influence of Orthodox Jews in America on the character of Jewish life goes well beyond their mushrooming numbers. 69% of Orthodox Jews, according to the Pew study, are members of a congregation vs 31% for Jews in America overall. 92% of the Orthodox contribute money to Jewish causes, vs 56% of Jews overall.
When it comes to Israel, 91% of Orthodox Jews say they are somewhat or very attached to Israel vs 69% overall among Jews. 77% of Orthodox Jews have been to Israel, vs just 43% of Jews overall. According to the 2013 survey, just 30% of Orthodox Jews believe that a two-state solution could work, vs 61% of Jews overall who believe it’s a viable possibility.
The study has implications for American politics as well, where the differences are also striking. Among Jews overall, according to the Pew study, 70% say they are Democrats or lean towards the Democratic Party, while only 22% are Republican or lean Republican. For Orthodox Jews, however, the balance is in the other direction: 57% are Republican or lean Republican, and 36% are Democrats or lean Democratic.
So maybe intermarriage isn’t such a bad thing after all. The ones who are inter-marrying are the ones who want to leave anyway, and while they are still here, they want to give away the store. You know Lenin’s paternal – oops, I just looked it up, it was his maternal — grandmother was Jewish. So, he was halachichally Jewish. Maybe that’s where he got the idea for this gem I posted a long time ago. He was certainly attached to his extended family his whole life and he was a kind of carefree party animal as a youth who became a revolutionary to honor his older brother who was hanged for revolutionary activity. He swore to devote himself to the revolution and never listen to Beethoven again among other things because it was too pleasurable. He lived like a Monk in the Palace while the other Communist champions of the working class stuffed their faces with champagne and caviar.
He’s writing as a Bolshevik against the Menshevik faction when they both belonged to the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. substitute “Zionism” for “Freedom” and make other substitutions where relevant. You know, he was a philo-semite, though anti-Bundist and Zionist because he was opposed to separation — he wrote:
“”Freedom”–it’s a great word, but under the flag of “freedom of industry” the most rapacious of wars were conducted. Under the banner of “freedom of labor” workers have been robbed. The very same internal hypocrisy is contained in the contemporary phrase “freedom to criticize.” People who are truly convinced that they have advanced the frontier of science would not demand freedom for new ideas to coexist next to old, but to replace them. . . .
We are walking in a small, tight group along a steep and difficult path, firmly joining hands. We are surrounded by enemies, and must continue almost always under their fire. We have freely and consciously decided to unite to fight the enemy and not stumble into the neighboring marsh, where dwell those who from the beginning have reproached us for separating into a special group and choosing the path of struggle, and not the path of compromise. And now some of us are beginning to cry: “Let’s go into the marsh!” And when we start to shame them, they object: “What a backward people you are! And aren’t you ashamed to deny us the freedom to call you to a better way? Oh yes, gentlemen, you are free not only to call us, but to go anywhere you like, even if it’s into the marsh. We even consider the marsh to be the right place for you, and are ready to assist you as best we can to move you there. But just let go of our hands–don’t clutch at us and soil the great word “freedom,” because we too are “free” to go where we like–free to fight with the marsh and with those who turn to the marsh. . . .”
V. I. Lenin: What Is to Be Done?(1902)
https://public.wsu.edu/~brians/world_civ/worldcivreader/world_civ_reader_2/lenin.html
Can’t find it now, but he is reputed to have said in response to anti-semites in the party that any committee without any Jews won’t be worth a damn.
He was Ukrainian Jewish, Stalin suppressed it.
http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Lenins-Jewish-roots-put-on-display-in-Russian-museum
Some famous Ukrainian Jews
Lenin, Trotsky, Golda Meir, Natan Sharanksy, Mischa Elman, Vladimir Horowitz, David Oistrakh, Isaac Stern, Jacob Adler, Sholom Alecheim, Anatole Litvak was from a Litvak family that lived in the Ukraine where he was born and raised.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ukrainian_Jews
Pre-Final Solution Jewish Population by Country in millions
Ukraine: 1,500,000
Killed in Final Solution: 900,000
Percent killed: 60%
Ukrainian Jews massacred/lynched in Russian Civil war: 1918-21: 50,000
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/russian_civil_war
Ukrainian Jews murdered in Chelmieniki Massacres 1648-9: 100,000, 300 communities destroyed.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_04259.html
Couldn’t find the figures on 19th and early 20th Century massacres of Ukrainian Jews, particularly from 1880’s on.
Ungrateful murderous bastards.