WORLD JEWISH DEMOGRAPHICS LAUSANNE CONSULTATION ON JEWISH EVANGELISM

WORLD JEWISH DEMOGRAPHICS LAUSANNE CONSULTATION ON JEWISH EVANGELISM CEO CONFERENCE 2017 – HASLEV, DENMARK WES TABER LIFE IN MESSIAH INTERNATIONAL

CHALLENGES IN JEWISH DEMOGRAPHICS 1. “Who is a Jew? ” (Definition of people group) 2. People are transient 3. Data collection methodologies vary 4. Birth and death rates, emigration and immigration, “passages” (people joining or leaving a subgroup by choice)

Jewish Identity Definitions Figure 1: Configuring contemporary Jewish populations (not shown proportional to actual). Representative of Diaspora only*

JEWISH IDENTITY DEFINITIONS • The “core” Jewish population: those who “identified themselves as Jews; or who are identified as Jews by a respondent in the same household, and do NOT have another monotheistic religion. ”

JEWISH IDENTITY DEFINITIONS • “Enlarged” Jewish population: sum of: the core Jewish population; persons reporting they are partly Jewish; all others of Jewish parentage who – by core Jewish population criteria – are not currently Jewish; and all respective non-Jewish household members.

JEWISH IDENTITY DEFINITIONS • Non-Jews with Jewish background: (a) persons who have adopted another religion, or otherwise opted out, although they may claim to be also Jewish by ethnicity or in some other way…; and (b) other persons with Jewish parentage (PJBs) who disclaim being Jewish.

JEWISH IDENTITY DEFINITIONS • Law of return: one who was born to a Jewish mother OR converted to any form of Judaism AND who has NOT joined another (presumably monotheistic) religion.

JEWISH IDENTITY DEFINITIONS • “Jewish ancestry ever” definition: includes “lost Jewish communities, ” with the most visible the Beta Israel (Ethiopian non-Jews of Jewish ancestry”

SOURCES American Jewish Yearbook 2016 1. Sergio Della. Pergola, Hebrew University professor 2. Focuses on Jewry regionally as well as globally 3. Includes studies by professional demographers 4. Published annually, updated data as available http: //www. Jewishdatabank. org/Studies/details. cfm? Study. ID=803

American Jewish Yearbook 2016 • Beginning of 2016 – world’s Jewish population estimated 14, 412, 200 • Increase of 100, 000 (0. 70 %) over the 2014 revised estimate. • World’s total population increased by 1. 38 % in 2015, world Jewry increased at about half the general population growth rate. https: //link. springer. com/chapter/10. 1007%2 F 978 -3 -319 -46122 -9_17

American Jewish Yearbook 2016 • Jewish population highly concentrated in two countries, Israel (44% of the world total) and the US (40%); 10% Europe, 5% other in North and Latin America, and 2% in other continents. • Diaspora stagnation or decline: low birth rates, frequent intermarriage, aging, and emigration. Tens of communities now below critical mass needed to sustain community institutions. https: //link. springer. com/chapter/10. 1007%2 F 978 -3 -319 -46122 -9_17

Jewish Data Bank – USA • “The trends that are affecting mainstream Christian groups in the US are affecting American Jews as well. “ • Current Pew finding: 23% of US adults identify as atheists, agnostics, or "nothing in particular" • Paralleled in Pew Research Center's a portrait of Jewish Americans (2013), which found that 22% of Jews were “Jews of no religion. ” • Non-Christian adult groups increased from 2007 -14, notably Muslims (0. 4 to 0. 9%), Hindus (0. 4 to 0. 7%), and Jews (1. 7 to 1. 9%). Jewishdatabank. org -- Pew findings

SOURCES Jewish Virtual Library 1. The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), established 1993 “to strengthen the U. S. -Israel relationship by emphasizing … the values our nations share. ” 2. Information about Jewish history, Israel, U. S. -Israel relations, the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and Judaism. (16, 000+ articles and 7, 000+ images) http: //www. Jewishvirtuallibrary. org/about-aice

SOURCES Jewish Virtual Library – May 20, 2017 (Yom Ha’atzma’ut) 1. Israel’s total population = 8, 680, 000 (10 x 1948) 2. Jewish population = 6, 484, 000 (74. 7%) 3. Arabs = 1, 808, 000 (20. 8%) 4. “Others" (non-Arab Christians, Baha'i, etc. ) = 388, 000 (4. 5%) Jewish Virtual Library -- latest Israel population statistics

CURRENT REALITIES Globally, Jewish people are concentrated in metropolitan areas. • Slightly more than half (52. 9%) of the global Jewish population at present resides in these five major metro areas: 1. Tel Aviv 4. Haifa 2. New York 5. Los Angeles 3. Jerusalem -

CURRENT REALITIES European Jews remain uncertain about the future. • Institute of Jewish Policy Research Director Jonathan Boyd: ““It is clear that Jews in parts of Europe are genuinely concerned about their future, most likely because of antisemitism, but the levels of anxiety and apprehension are nowhere near those experienced during previous periods of intense stress, like the 1930 s and 1940 s. The Guardian: rise in Euro Jews leaving for Israel

CURRENT REALITIES European Jews remain uncertain about the future. • 4% of Jews in Belgium and France had left for Israel between 2010 and 2015. The proportion leaving from the UK, Germany and Sweden was between 0. 6% and 1. 7%. https: //www. theguardian. com/world/2017/jan/12/rise-in-numbers-of-Jews-leavingeurope-for-israel-is-not-an-exodus

CURRENT REALITIES European Jews remain uncertain about the future. • Human Rights First report: “antisemitic incidents in France doubled from 423 in 2014 to 851 in 2015 and were becoming increasingly violent. • UK’s Community Security Trust: 11% increase in antisemitic incidents in Britain in the first six months of 2016. https: //www. theguardian. com/world/2017/jan/12/rise-in-numbers-of-Jews-leavingeurope-for-israel-is-not-an-exodus

CURRENT REALITIES US Senate Bill re: European anti-Semitism – Jan. ‘ 17 • . According to reporting by the European Union agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), between 2005 and 2014, anti-Semitic incidents increased in France from 508 to 851; in Germany from 60 to 173; in Belgium from 58 to 130; in Italy from 49 to 86; and in the United Kingdom from 459 to 1, 168. https: //www. congress. gov/bill/115 thcongress/senatebill/198/text? q=%7 B%22 search%22%3 A%5 B%22 combatting+europe+antisemitism%22%5 D%7 D&r=2

CURRENT REALITIES European Jews remain uncertain about the future. • “The near-total disappearance of Jewish pupils from France and Belgium’s public schools due to anti-Semitic harassment…. The alternative of sending them to a distant Jewish school that is under the constant protection…also comes with problems. After the 2012 murder of four Jews at a Jewish school in Toulouse, enrolling them in a Jewish school feels like turning them into a target. ” http: //blogs. timesofisrael. com/im-jewish-and-i-just-became-an-eu-citizen-it-feels-alittle-like-boarding-the-titanic/

CURRENT REALITIES American Jews concerned about the future. • Anti-Semitic incidents in the U. S. surged more than one-third in 2016 and have jumped 86 percent in the first quarter of 2017 • “a massive increase in the amount of harassment of American Jews, particularly since November, and a doubling in the amount of anti-Semitic bullying and vandalism at non-denominational K-12 grade schools”. https: //www. adl. org/news/press-releases/us-anti-semitic-incidents-spike-86 -percentso-far-in-2017

CURRENT REALITIES American Jews reclaiming German citizenship. • in the first quarter of 2016, 13 people of Jewish origin reclaimed their German citizenship through the Boston consulate. That number nearly quadrupled — to 49 — in the first quarter of 2017. http: //www. npr. org/2017/05/09/526706661/fearing-anti-semitism-some-american. Jews-are-reclaiming-german-citizenship

CURRENT REALITIES Jewish Metropolitan Areas in USA Community • 1 New York • 2 Los Angeles • 3 Chicago • 4 Boston • 5 San Francisco Number of Jews 1, 538, 000 519, 200 291, 800 229, 100 227, 800

CURRENT REALITIES Jewish Metropolitan Areas in USA Community • 6 Washington • 7 Philadelphia • 8 Broward County • 9 Atlanta • 10 Miami Number of Jews 215, 600 214, 600 170, 700 119, 800 119, 000

CURRENT REALITIES Boston • "Greater Boston is the fourth-largest US Jewish community with 248, 000 Jews: 190, 600 adults and 57, 400 children residing in 123, 400 households. • Population increase of approximately 4. 6% since 2005. There also 61, 200 non-Jews living in Jewish households. " http: //www. jewishdatabank. org/Studies/details. cfm? Study. ID=813

CURRENT REALITIES Boston • Demographics: Israelis (8% of adults), Russian-born and Russian-speaking (7% of adults), and LGBTQ communities (7% of adults). “ • Half of Greater Boston’s Jews do not identify with a Jewish denomination. http: //www. jewishdatabank. org/Studies/details. cfm? Study. ID=813

CURRENT REALITIES Conversion • Ellen Gerecht, National Center to Encourage Judaism: “Jews haven’t proselytized in the past because they weren’t in a strong enough position to. But things have changed. If Jews don’t spread their religion now Judaism simply will not survive. ” http: //www. jta. org/2016/01/03/life-religion/jewish-foundation-seeks-to-covertgentiles-saying-we-all-want-judaism-to-grow

CURRENT REALITIES Conversion • Lubavitcher rebbe’s stance (video at 1: 00): • http: //www. chabad. org/therebbe/livingtorah/player_cdo /aid/878374/jewish/Welcome-Home. htm http: //www. jta. org/2016/01/03/life-religion/jewish-foundation-seeks-to-covertgentiles-saying-we-all-want-judaism-to-grow

CURRENT REALITIES Conversion • Over the last seven years, approximately 1, 275 conversions have been certified by conversion courts affiliated with the Rabbinical Council of America, but plenty of Orthodox conversions take place outside the RCA’s system. http: //www. jta. org/2014/10/06/life-religion/conversion-to-judaism-denominationby-denomination

CURRENT REALITIES Who is converting? • Spiritual seekers • Non-Jews dating Jews • Gentiles drawn to Judaism through friends • Those who converted through other Jewish denominations, including individuals raised in non. Orthodox households who realized they don’t count as Jewish according to Orthodox Jewish law. http: //www. jta. org/2014/10/06/life-religion/conversion-to-judaism-denominationby-denomination

CURRENT REALITIES “Lost” and dying Jewish communities http: //www. dailymail. co. uk/wires/afp/article-4450146/In-Muslim-Indonesia-tiny. Jewish-community-lives-on. html

CURRENT REALITIES “In a remote corner of the Indonesian archipelago, a modest synagogue stands in a tiny Jewish community that has found acceptance despite rising intolerance in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country. “The red-roofed building on Sulawesi island is the only synagogue in the nation of 255 million people. Here, unlike other parts of the country, the Jewish community feel safe to practise their faith openly. ” [About 200 Indonesian Jews. ] http: //www. dailymail. co. uk/wires/afp/article-4450146/In-Muslim-Indonesia-tiny. Jewish-community-lives-on. html

IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DATA FOR US? 1. How much should population data influence our strategic plans? A. Given the reality that more than half the world’s Jewish population is concentrated in five metropolitan areas, to what extent should gospel proclamation be centered in those cities? B. Do smaller Jewish communities (and perhaps more remote, as in far-east Russia) tend to be less gospel resistant?

IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DATA FOR US? 1. How much should population data influence our strategic plans? C. How much more open to the gospel are transient people (e. g. , new immigrants, backpacking Israeli youth)? D. How many places in the world have a Chabad house but no gospel proclamation?

IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DATA FOR US? 2. In Israel, what should we be doing more (or differently), given the realities that: A. Global population shifts likely will continue to increase the percentage of world Jewry living in the land? B. The percentage of observant Jews (orthodox and haredim) continues to rise?

IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DATA FOR US? 3. How will our evangelistic zeal, commitment, methods, etc. , be affected by shifting attitudes in: A. The global Jewish community, including I. Increasing active opposition to the gospel (in terms of “anti-missionary” preparation and training, as well as methodologies, especially where Jewish populations are concentrated)? Ii. Growing acceptance of Messianic Jews (on the part of some)?

IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DATA FOR US? 3. How will our evangelistic zeal, commitment, methods, etc. , Be affected by shifting attitudes in: B. The Evangelical church (perhaps especially in the U. S. Where “anti-Christian Zionism” may cloak a waning concern for the salvation of Jewish people)? C. The wider (gentile) world, with anti-Israel and anti. Semitic sentiments and actions?

IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DATA FOR US? 4. What are the implications for the gospel of: A. The increasing secularization among the Jewish populations in the diaspora? B. The growing divide between haredim and hilonim (seculars) in Israel?

IMPLICATIONS OF THIS DATA FOR US? 5. What more we can do together to tackle the larger and more difficult challenges in Jewish evangelism?

STRATEGIES? 1. What about “halfway” houses for ex-haredim, e. g. ? (Language acquisition, job skills, community. ) 2. What about “pearls on the necklace” of trekking Israelis (e. g, , Andes, India, China) 3. How do we identify new attractive locations (e. g. , Tblisi in Georgia)?