Harvard professor finds Judaism tops the list; American attitudes toward Jews ‘better than ever.’
What is the most popular religion in the US?
Is it one of the Protestant denominations, brought over from the Old Country with the pilgrims and pioneers? Catholicism, whose ranks in the US grow daily by the steady stream of devout believers coming from Latin America? Or is it perhaps Mormonism, the country’s truly unique religion born in America?
If you said yes to one of the above, try again. According to a study featured in American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, a new book co-written by sociologists Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, which asked a cross sample of 3,000 ordinary Americans to rank religions, the most popular faith in the US is Judaism.
“We asked everyone in the survey to say how they felt about Catholics and Evangelicals and Jews and Mormons and Muslims, and so we were able to calculate a popularity ranking, so to speak, of different religions,” Putnam told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. “Most surprisingly, the most popular religion in America are Jews among non-Jews, followed closely by Catholics. Fifty years ago, or 100 years ago, that almost certainly would not have been true.”
For the book, which was released in October, the authors set out to find how American religiosity affected democracy and inter-communal relations.
According to Putnam, a renowned Harvard University sociologist who in 2001 published the influential Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, which presented his theory that America was losing its social capital, the new study confirmed that Americans were a deeply religious people – more so on average than in Iran, he said.
For instance, most Americans, around 90 percent, believe there is a heaven.
“Although somehow puzzlingly more Americans say they believe in heaven and not in life after death, so I’m not quite sure what they believe in,” Putnam said.
It also showed that while religion can be harmful in many instances to democracy, as evidenced in Belfast and Beirut and elsewhere, in America, rather uniquely, it has had some positive effects.
Back to the surprising findings regarding Jews. What has brought about the surprising popularity of this historically persecuted people who, even in America, had it rough when they began arriving en masse in the late 19th century?
Putnam, who converted to Judaism when he married his wife, a Jew from Chicago, said the American public may have learned the lessons of the injustices wrought upon the Chosen People in the past.
“There was a lot of anti-Semitism in America during the 1930s and 1940s,” he explained. “We know this from surveys from the time. It was not as high as Europe but a high level of anti-Semitism in America. If you look at the trend data year by year by the same measure that the Gallop poll has been doing, for 70 years now there was a very, very sharp drop in expressed anti-Semitism in 1946.
“Now, of course, you know why that happened. That was the revelation of the Holocaust, and the revelation of the Holocaust had the effect of completely delegitimizing anti-Semitism in America. It became much, much harder to say anti-Semitic things in public. I don’t mean to say people’s private beliefs changed instantly. But you can see in the data that younger Americans who came of age after that point in time were much less exposed to the virus of anti-Semitism because it was being suppressed, initially by political correctness, but it became hard to transmit that disease of anti-Semitism when you couldn’t talk about it publicly.
“So the next generation were less anti-Semitic and the process continued. So all the anti-Semitic stereotypes in America, the Shylocks and Christ-killers, all that kind of stuff disappeared from public culture and then private culture,” he said.
Putnam offers a piece of anecdotal evidence to illustrate just how positively Jews are allegedly viewed in the US at the moment. According to the professor, people signing up for dating websites who say they are Jewish are more sought after than others.
“If you say you are Jewish, you get more date offers than less,” he said. “Why is that?”
Could this trend be reversed? Could Jews somehow once again become the scapegoats of a governmental, economic or military debacle of some sort?
Putnam doesn’t think so. Despite the US recession of the past two years, when it was feared some might turn against Jews, with many senior bankers considered pivotal to the downturn being Jews, most Americans still have a benign opinion of Jews.
So can American Jews finally let out a collective sigh of relief and take pride in what they’ve accomplished? Asked if he felt proud of his findings, being a member of the tribe, Putnam gave a nuanced response.
“Not pride so much as satisfaction,” he said, “because I think that despite our problems, they are different than those our predecessors had 50 or 60 years ago, and I worry a little bit that if we continue to think that our worst problem is how non-Jews feel about us, that detracts from serious problems we as a community have.”
The link was a response to your claim that – and I quote you verbatim:
At the 0:51 mark, you will find a banner with the christian messianic menorah, Magen David, and fish symbol.
At the 2:27 mark, a participant states that the Jews have to “be witnessed to, just like everybody else.”
An example of that witnessing comes at the 2:45 mark, also followed by another example at the 3:00 mark.
A Jews for Jesus t-shirt shows up at 7:24.
But that’s just in this video. Hagee and his wife are personally on record endorsing Maoz Israel, one of the biggest and well funded messianic christian missionaries in Israel, as well as promoting and financially contributing to Marcus Lamb’s Daystar TV missionary station, which broadcasts missionary programs right here in Israel, in English, Hebrew and of course Russian.
Besides all that, you will find Hagee’s personal publisher, Steven Strang, produces Charisma magazine, which explicitely lauds and promotes evangelical missionary work against the Jews here in Israel.
You’re only fooling yourself.
I’ve already linked elsewhere to these and other documented facts in these 2 articles:
The CUFI Files – part 1
The CUFI Files – part 2
I ended my comment elsewhere with the following words:
Don’t believe me? Don’t believe documentation? Can’t connect the dot? Can you perhaps believe someone who was once one of them and is now one of us?
Rabbi Gavriel Sanders
And there are plenty more like Rabbi Sanders who came from the far side and say the exact same thing.
Yidden, start using your kupf, dammit!
OK, Raymond, I watched the link. It was a conference for CHRISTIANS, not Noachides. It’s always easy to find someone to interview who will say what you want but in his very first statement on the video, Hagee states — declares — his is not an end times program. So what if a portion of his audience is there for what we consider the wrong reason. Hagee is not. I take back the statement that your IQ does not exceed you shoe size. Obviously it should be your hat size.
I love (not really) the way leftists debate. The first order of business is to demonize your opponent as soon as you see the facts are not in your favour. So everyone who opposes the socialism of Obama is a racist as is anyone who doesn’t insert “extremists” after Muslim when talking about terrorism. Even talking about terrorism makes you Islamophobic. I can tell you, having worked as a reporter in the Middle East and having been tossed in the Gaza prison, anyone who isn’t Islamophobic is insane.
OK Liberal Lover, I’ll bite. Make your case. Divide it into two parts 1) her policies and 2) her qualities.
I have no problem when a person doesn’t like her policies, that is his right but it doesn’t make him right. Usually if he doesn’t like her qualities, inteligence integrety character etc, he probably knows little about her.
Liberal Israel Lover says:
My goodness from your comment you certainly have us fooled.
Another Sarah hater and liberal left winger who has all the answers except the right ones.
I am sure you won’t. Now I am beginning to see why my Israeli friends label liberal American Jews as “Self-hating Jews”.
You kiss the butt of a community organizing pamphlet distributing anti-Semite, pretending to be a Christian, embracing Islam, incompetent president who is no friend of Israel.
If you fail to recognize this, please don’t pawn yourself off as being highly intelligent and a friend of Israel. Because your not.
Yes you kiss his butt and he bows down to the Saudi princes. “Liberal Israel Lover”, please.
Says Raymond: “I have issues with Obama, but I’ll never vote for a right-winger, either will most Jews.”
Translation: My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with facts.
3rd try! Really short this time!
Marshal, go to SG’s link and then tell us your shoe size. My jewish friends and I are highly intelligent, educated and aware of the issues.
Arnold, I’ll never convince you about Sarah Barracuda, who you are so enamored with. I could write all day! You’re on the wrong team if you’re concerned about peak oil. Your guys have been fighting against climate-change, conservation and alt-energy for years. Dinesh D’Souza, and his current book, have been debuunked for years. Fox Noise, Rush Limbaugh, etc. are proven right-wing hate machines. I have issues with illegal immigration, but thry’re no different than our ancestors, desperate people doing desperate things to make their lives better. I have issues with Obama, but I’ll never vote for a right-winger, either will most Jews.
Have a Nice Day
I clicked on “click to edit” and you blocked that too after I was done. What are you afraid of?
I said nothing vile, although I’m sure you didn’t agree with it.
Are you blocking my comments? I tried to post a rebuttal twice and both times it didn’t go through. Are you afraid of the truth as others see it?
SG,
Thanks for posting the N-O-T-H-I-N-G link. Watch it, Marshall, and tell us your shoe size.
Marshall and Arnold,
Obviously, you are the ones who are imbecillic about Sarah Barracuda. Myself, and most of the Jews I know, are intelligent, highly educated and very aware of the issues. We obviously have different viewpoints than you guys. I could write about her all day, but I know it would be a waste of time to convince you of anything other than the rapture that has captured you by her allure.
And Arnold, if you’re so concerned about peak oil production, which I have been for years, than you support the wrong team. They have been fighting against climate change, conservation and alternate energy production for years. I also have issues with illegal immigration, but I have compassion for them. They are no different than our ancestors. Desperate people will do desperate things in desperate times. Why don’t you move back to the 18th century and buy yourself some slaves?
Dinesh D’Souza has been so debunked over the years that I don’t pay attention to him anymore. As a progressive, I have my own issues with Obama, which I’m sure are mostly different than yours. There is nothing that he could do wrong that would convince me to vote for any of the current Republican contenders or probably any of the others that are sure to follow.
You guys should try turning off Fox Noise and start digging out of the mire of lies that you have been propagandized by for so long.
Have a Nice Day,
Raymond B
SG,
Thanks for the N-O-T-H-I-N-G link. I hope everyone who thinks I am ignorant (in particular, Marshall) goes to see it.
Marshall and Arnold,
Ignorance is in the eyes of the beholder. I, and most Jews that I know, are highly intelligent, educated and aware of the issues. Obviously we have a different point of view. By the way, Marshall, what’s your shoe size?
Obviously, you guys have been blinded by the propaganda presented on Faux News. Dinesh D’Souza has been debunked on so many issues over the years that I don’t even pay attention to him. I could write about Sarah Barracuda all day, but I know that it would be pointless to even try to change your perspective on her.
And Arnold, if your’re so concerned about peak oil production, which I have been for years, you are supporting the wrong team. They do everything they can to debunk climate-change and the production of alternative energy.
Being a Progressive, I have my own issues with Obama, which I’m sure are different from yours. However, there is nothing that he could do wrong that would get me to vote for any of the current potential Republican presidential candidates. Despite my misgivings about Obama, I know your views, and most of those on this site, are totally twisted.
Raymond,
The presence of Governor Sarah Palin on the Republican Party ticket in the 2008 presidential election was, in my memory, the most significant thing I have seen in American politics since the advent of Harry S Truman as Roosevelt’s vice president in November 1944, then assuming the presidency a few months later upon Roosevelt’s death.
Truman, like Palin, was unschooled. He was and she is a relatively simple and straightforward American, with strong roots in our culture, great belief in our national destiny, and have the same uncanny ability to communicate with and motivate the electorate. Truman demonstated that against all odds in the 1948 election. If Palin runs against Obama two years from now — which of course is dependent on the Democratic Party actually nominating Obama for a second term — I am convinced she will beat him and end his public career.
Obama is proving out not as an American president, not even as a leader of the American black community, but as an African nationalist with Moslem cultural roots whom history one day will judge as an enemy of his own country. Assuming of course that America really is Obama’s country. There is an interesting new book out by Dinesh D’Souza who has traced what he thinks is a secret rage against this country and the white race in general on the part of the man we elected to the presidency two years ago. I intend to review that book, because I believe its premise. Obama will be removed from power by the great American nation. It has nothing to do with race, but it has much to do with national identity.
As for removing 12 million illegal aliens from this country, you probably are right. But if so, the rest of us will treat the Mexicans as a permanent class of day-labor wage slaves with no rights whatsoever. The money in this country is all running dry, and if you imagine any of us want to spend it on social services for Mexican illegal aliens, then guess again. And if you imagine otherwise, then whom do you think will stop us? Your pack of liberal lawyers? The ACLU?
Before all this is turned around in the USA, you will live to see much of the public school systems gutted as well, because there is not enough money to pay for all that unionized labor for teaching jobs that could actually be performed by any ordinary citizen able to maintain strict control of children in classrooms, and to follow a lesson plan. A lot of things you liberals take for granted in our country will be dying in front of your eyes in the next few years, to say nothing of what will occur as the petroleum supplies of the world pass peak production. If you are young enough, you will live to see that the 21st century will be known as the age of unobtainii, as populations continue to increase and drain what is left of the mostly used-up fossil-based energy sources.
As for Pastor Hagee and the Christians United For Israel, I could not care less about the underlying reasons for their intense support of the Jewish nation, religion and state. All I know and care about is that Christian Zionism always has been the most significant non-Jewish support base for the regeneration of the Jewish nation on its own soil.
Besides all that, Raymond. I have never trusted most liberals from the time I was learning life’s real rules on the harsh and cold-blooded streets of Chicago when I was a child. That is why the National Rifle Association is my particular American Civil Liberties Union, and I treat them with the loyalty and respect that I think I owe them.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
You know N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Yes, I feel dirty for having to reference a self-hating Jew like Blumenthal. Yet all he does is have CUFI people tell it like it is.
Only christianity can mess up such a simple Torah verse. Can you guess what christians think is the great thing since the crucifix to bless the Jewish people with? Go on, guess.
“…va’chamushim ahlu Bnei Yisrael me’Eretz Mitzrayim.” – Shemot 13:18
Raymond, I hope you are writing out of ignorance, not conviction. I know Hagee’s people and proselytizing is definitely not in their play book, Genesis 12:3 is. If there is an ulterior motive, it is simply the desire for blessings and for that I wish them every blessing in the world. Only a Liberal could be so imbecilic about Sarah Palin. She may not make it to the presidency but to applaud Obama’s popularity being greater than hers makes one wonder if your IQ is exceeded by your shoe size. Being proud of being a Liberal is like bragging about supporting Kapos.
Arnold Harris (and all right-wingers with his views),
SG is more in tune with reallity than you are. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for the support of Israel by John Hagee and other evangelicals and fundamentalists. But what are the real reasons for their support? They are strict believers in the New Testament, and their support comes through Revelation. They are waiting for the 2nd coming of Christ, which can only happen if Jews rebuild the Temple Mount. Jesus will return, all of their believers will be swept to heaven, and the rest of us infidels will have to deal with Armageddon and the anti-Christ. In the meantime their goal is to convert as many of us as possible.
And your “I don’t care…” screed is totally rediculous. The people with the SS on their belts and
other radical Jew haters will never support Israel. The enemy is your enemy and you better get used to it.
By the way, Sarah Barracuda is an ignorant danger to America and the world were she to be elected. Thank G-d all current polls show that Obama would beat her by a VAST majority. LOTS of Republicans don’t like her! And you think 12mil+ illegal alliens will be removed? HAHAHAHAHA!
Proud to be a Member of the Liberal Majority of Jews,
Raymond B
I’m confused. Is it the the Jewish religion or the Jewish people who win this popularity contest? Consider this quote from the article: “Most surprisingly, the most popular religion in America are Jews . . . ” Shall I pick this cherry? Jews are not a religion, we are a people, and many Jewish people don’t believe in any religion at all. Similarly, Catholics and Evangelicals and Mormons and Muslims are not the same things as Catholicism and Evangelism and Mormon and Islam. So, if the researchers framed their questions the way they report in this article, then they can’t really be sure exactly what they found.
Jerusalem, Rome, and Constantinople: The Genius of Protestantism
http://www.apologetics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=482:jerusalem-rome-and-constantinople-the-genius-of-protestantism&catid=43:kkla-995-fm-los-angeles&Itemid=74
Unfortunately, the fastest growing religion in the US and elsewhere is Islam. And in light of this unpleasant fact it matters very little what percentage of Americans love Jews or their religion.
Yamit, that’s a good history.
There are times that I think about how that happened. And I also think that if it happened that way once, it can happen again.
But for now, it is interesting to learn that the first heroes who stopped the Islamist onslaught into what would become southern Russia were the Khazars who become Jews. And in battle, not some disputation between competing scholars. That means lots of Russian Jews no doubt have some interesting genes to pass on to their kids.
When Stefi and I were in Russia, we met some Caucusus Jews. Gruzim, they were known as. Tough guys who were influenced by cultures in which blood feuds were fought out at knife-point. Stalin was one of the Gruzim, but from an Eastern Orthodox family, not a Jewish one. But character traits cross religious lines within most cultures, which is something Stefi and I both noted from numerous encounters with some of Israel’s many “yeckes” — German Jews who picked up such a nickname from insisting on wearing the jackets while doing physical labor out in the hot sunlight of ha’Aretz in summertime. Some of these people kept their “germanity” right through the War of Independence. It’s said that during the invasions of the Arab forces, someone in the Palmach called Nahariya to find out if the place was still in Jewish hands. The man who answered the call said:
“Nahariya bleibt Deutsch!” (Nahariya remains German — apparently a play on photographs from Germany as the Soviet Army was closing in from the east three years earlier: “Wien bleibt Deutsch!” and “Berlin bleibt Deutsch!”
But you have to hand it to them. Nahariya was, and probably still is, one of the nicer looking towns in Israel, and I would be amazed ever to see so much as even a discarded cigarette stub on the street. Or am I wrong about that place today, Ted?
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
A Khazar king debates religion with a Neo-Platonic philosopher, a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jewish rabbi, and chooses Judaism.
Why choose a bad copy and fake when the original can be had?
At some point in the last decades of the 8th century or the early 9th century, the Khazar royalty and nobility converted to Judaism, and part of the general population followed. Some researchers have suggested part of the reason for this mass conversion was political expediency to maintain a degree of neutrality: The Khazar empire was between growing populations; Muslims to the east and Christians to the west. Both religions recognized Judaism as a forebear and worthy of some respect. The exact date of the conversion is hotly contested. It may have occurred as early as 740 or as late as the mid 800’s. Recently-discovered numismatic evidence suggests that Judaism was the established state religion by c. 830.
The first Jewish Khazar king was named Bulan. A later king, Obadiah, strengthened Judaism, inviting rabbis into the kingdom and building synagogues.
Jewish figures such as Saadiah Gaon made positive references to the Khazars, and they are excoriated in contemporary Karaite writings as “bastards”; it is therefore unlikely that they adopted Karaism as some (such as Abraham Firkovitch) have proposed.
The Khazar rulers viewed themselves as the protectors of international Jewry. They were known to retaliate against Muslim or Christian interests in Khazaria for persecution of Jews abroad.
When I was still in Toronto, I used to be invited to all the Christian Zionist events. One year Rev Hagee was the guest speaker and I had ocassion to meet him. What a powerfulorator. Another time it was Ralph Reed and another time it was Joseph Farah.
So I have been following CUFI for a long time. Its great to have them on our side.
SG, if Ted says you’re okay, that’s fine by me. Anyway, happy 17 Tevet 5771 to all you guys and girls. (Did I get it right, Yamit?) And take good care of Israel for all the rest of us.
Ted. I’ve studied Pastor John Hagee’s stuff at great length. I’m convinced he had a real change of mind and heart somewhere along the line. Now he’s made the cause of helping to guard and protect Israel — in the only real way a Christian pastor can successfully do it in a place like the USA — his life’s work. And all of you should have to admit that it’s paying off for us. You know when someone is a Christian minister is a friend of Israel when the real old-time Nazis and their Islamist buddies — along with the really weird leftist Jewish “peace lovers” all start putting him on their political shitlists.
I’ll make some time next week to begin looking up documents and maps from the Jerusalem master plan, as you suggested a couple of weeks ago.
It’s as cold and snowy as Finland around here this month. What’s the weather like around Jerusalem, the coast, and down the Jordan valley? In 1973-1974, the winter weather in Jerusalem was nasty, and to top it off, we could’nt get neft deliveries to heat all those solid stone apartment buildings everybody lived in, because the tank-truck drivers were all on active duty. One day, we decided to buy some plastic jerrycans, which we took to the local fueling station and filled with neft, then brought them back to our building and used to fill the supply tank. The neighbors thought we were nuts, but nevertheless, we were all able to stay warm until the paid drivers were back on local municipal duty. The American way — which Stefi showed me is also the Croatian way — is that G-d helps those who help themselves.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
What’s wrong with fisking? It’s common practice all over the net.
I am always being fisked and I kinda of like it why don’t you?
As for fisking there is always differences of opinions stated. As you know, I have called AE a Bully and have tried to get him to stop attacking people. sofar to no avail. Shy Guy has his own axe to gring when it comes to missionizing. He is very knowledgeable on the subject, I know him personally and can vouch for him. He is a very pleasant guy. I have had many discusioins with him and Yamit who are both concerned about missionizing and giving Hagee a pass. I am with you.
Meyer Levin was one of the greats of the early 20th century. He was a strong Zionist and wrote the Settlers and the Harvest.. He also wrote Compulsion. You will love them all. I also read The Fanatic
Wikipedia
Toronto was not different from Chicago. In the thirties there was a series of famous riots, The Christi Pitts Riots. Various ethnic groups in big numbers came looking for Jews to beat up. The Jews met them with baseball bats and whatever. The clashes were violent and went on for days. These riots are still talked about by the Jews with great pride.
Ted,
In truth, I never heard of Meyer Levin. But I surely will google up his works and see what he’s about.
I don’t know how it was for you growing up around presumably polite and well-mannered Toronto, as a Jew or just as an anglophone Cainuck. But Chicago? That was something a hell of a lot different. And not just because of the fabled Capone vs Moran era. Every neighborhood that was ethnically defined, which meant most of them, had its own little street mafia to protect their turf. I don’t know how the real religious Jews handled this sort of thing. Maybe they just got the shit kicked out of them and hid in their shtiebls to try to avoid trouble. But expecially coming out of the great depression, a lot of the Jewish families were just ordinary wage earners looking for wages to earn. They weren’t too different from the Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Greeks, the Swedes, and so on. At one time, I even lived in a part of the city that centered upon old Luxemburger families who owned greenhouses in which they raised for market not just flowers but also fresh vegetables.
And around here for the past 34 years? My wife and I are just about the only Jews for miles around. Which is okay by me. Most of the ones we know from nearby Madison, Wisconsin are either Obama ass-kissing liberals of a type I have no use for, or are self-hating Jews who openly side with our Arab enemies. And the only use I have for folks like that is to fill otherwise empty spaces in graveyards.
Gently remind Israpundit commenters that fisking comments in attempts to play online gotcha is a poor way of carrying on blogosphere disputations or even friendly discussions.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Arnold. You reference above to Jewish boys in Chicago banding together for protection reminded me of Meyer Levin’s The Old Bunch. I am sure you have read many of his great books.
SG, this below is how I responded to you there and this also is how I choose to respond to you here. So that you have no reason whatsoever to mistake exactly who I am, what I repreent, what I want for the Jewish nation.
One more thing. Stop this business of fisking comments of other people. Which refers, if you don’t know, to an English blogosphere commenter who slices and dices other commenters’ statements in order to take them out of context. Most blogworld commenters despise people like that. And if you continue doing this to me, I will despise you as well. Understand?
————————————————————————————————————————–
I don’t give a royal shit about whatever may have been attributed to Pastor John Hagee in the past. Everyone has a right to change his or her mind. I’m living in the right now and for sake of the Jewish future, never for the sake of re-living the horrors and degradations of the past. And what is happening right now is that Christians United for Israel (CUFI) has become the main muscle of support for the State of Israel, Jewish Zionism, and the future of the Jewish nation on unpartitioned Aretz-Yisrael.
I’m writing as a born Jew who feels stronger about the Jewish nation and its growing power than he does about Jewish observance. I also write as an American conservative with good feelings about the Tea Party, the prospects of Sarah Palin beating Barack Hussein Obama in the next presidential election, serving the National Rifle Association as their election volunteer coordinator (EVC) in the 2nd Congressional District of Wisconsin, restoring America to moral and economic greatness, getting rid of all illegal aliens who crossed our borders, and making sure that no Islamic Shari’a ever is recognized as law in this free country of ours.
For purposes of protecting the rights and the future of the now-regrowing Jewish nation, I will freely accept allies from any group that will stand by our sides against our present set of national enemies. I don’t care if these allies come from anti-semitic backgrounds. I don’t care if they wear belts with SS slogans at their nationalist parades around Europe’s capitals. I don’t care what their religious or social views are. All I want to know — and all that I will pay even so much as a scrap of attention to — boils down to precisely this:
“Are you with Jewish Israel, or are you against it?”
Now do you understand? Because if not, then just screw off.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I responded to you here.
Ted, the growing interest in all things Jewish obviously is growing all around the USA. And I know for a fact all this has happened in the 65 years since the end of World War II or shortly afterward, with the ghastly revelations about the mass murder production lines of the Nazi vernichtungslagern in Poland before Stalin’s Red Army swept in from the east.
Much of this attitudinal sea change could clearly be seen in the daily lives of Jewish families and their relationships with neighbors, even in ethnically-defined urban communities such as Chicago has comprised since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was a time when youthful gangs — including Jews — organized for self-protection and general comradeship. This too began passing away in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Education, employment, social, residential and even political opportunities opened up for Jews. (For a number of years, until last month’s national election, Wisconsin, with a relatively small Jewish population, had two Jewish US Senators. One of them, Russ Feingold, lost his election not because of his Jewish background but because he was one of the most steadfast liberal members of the US Senate.) As to be expected from all this, intermarriage between Jews and others has been rampant especially during this time. To be sure, many branches of Jewish familial trees have withered. But many new ones have grown as non-Jewish husbands and wives have turned to Judaism.
The most recent manifestations of this vast new interest in Judaism and Israel have been mounted by Christians, such as those of the Evangelical Christian churches who have founded Christians United For Israel (CUFI), whose appeal and whose presence is being felt in churches on Sunday morning all across the national spectrum of America’s 65 million Evangelical Christians, which is affiliated with the worldwide Evagelical Christian movement which is said to number almost 700 million. Those of you who read my comments on Israpundit or other blogosphere sites know that, as a strongly committed Zionist, I talk these people up both strongly and repeatedly. And this is because I see them as nothing less than a great force which has become the mainstay of support for Israel, with strength of commitment now at least equal to the combined strength of the purely Jewish pro-Israel movements.
Do these Christians want something from the Jews? Some of them are beginning to sound as if they want Christianity to rejoin Judaism, rather than the other way around. And frankly, I never have seen pro-semitism reach such levels of intensity. If so, it could well mean that social historians some time from now will be discussing a worldwide Jewish community greatly larger even than the 16 million before Hitler destroyed 6 million Jewish lives in World War II. One local effect of all this could turn Jerusalem into a sort of Jewish Mecca with its own “hajj” of scores of thousands showing up for visits on a regular basis, requiring space in hotels hardly even envisioned in today’s political and economic climates. For which I could make a very good case that Jerusalem — more than ever — must the be the administrative, economic and regional transportation center of the entirety of Aretz-Yisrael, minimally from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, and from the Golan in the north to the deserts in the south.
A brief thought that comes to my mind from listening to a local English language radio broadcast in Jerusalem shortly after the Yom Kippur war in October 1873. Some friendly Christians were visiting wounded Jewish soldiers of Zahal. They ceremoniously told them:
“We bring you our love and affection for you and for Israel in the name of Christ.”
To which the Zahal guys in the hospital beds replied:
“And we thank you in the name of Moshe Rabbeinu”.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Jews get more dates because they are seen as family-oriented and smarter than average. It is a eugenics issue.