Sometimes, alarming facts can be concealed behind seemingly
innocuous jargon. That is the case with the Pew Forum on Religion &
Public Life’s latest polling on the “migratory patterns” of religious groups. As it turns out, one particular group is consistently on the move:
Of the seven groups examined in this report, Jews have by far the highest overall level of international migration, in percentage terms. About one-quarter of Jews alive today have left the country in which they were born…
By contrast, only one-in-twenty Christians [the next most migratory religious group] alive today (5%) have emigrated from their country of birth.
Obviously part of the answer has to do with the number of believers
the religions claim. If five percent of 2.4 billion Christians migrate,
we are talking about 120 million people. If one fourth of the world’s 14
million Jews pack up and move, only 3.4 million are hitting the road.
Still, the high percentage of Jewish migrants is striking, and to understand why these numbers matter, one must turn to the Washington Post,
which enlisted experts to explain the reason so many Jews have been on
the hunt for greener pastures. The answer is sadly unsurprising:
“The world Jewish community is consolidating,” said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University… “Jews are abandoning Third World countries where historically they had been persecuted and moving to large and generally free First World countries.”
…A positive spin on Jewish migratory trends is that Jews, so often persecuted in their homelands, are safer in their new countries.
But “what we’re losing is one of the great themes of Jewish history,” said Sarna, referring to the collapse of Jewish communities in the Middle East, North Africa and other lands where they had lived for millennia.
In other words, anti-Semitism is alive and well across the globe, and
there are millions of persecuted Jewish refugees as a result. That the
majority–some three million–have found a haven in Israel is a reminder
of that country’s essential importance.
Via Meadia looks forward to the day when people of all
faiths are safe in their homes and when hope and not fear is the reason
that most people move.
Soph: Sadly, Mr Mead is mistaken if he believes that the First World countries are going to be a safe haven for Jews. Anti-semitism in Europe is exploding and, as seen on campuses, protests, and elsewhere, it is alive and well here in the United States, especially within the Left.
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