American Jewry Order nov 3

In the United States around 1992, American Jewry came into a process of reformation directing toward a consolidation of the Council of Jewish Federations, the United Jewish Appeal, and the United Israel Appeal into the new broad-based organization that could speak in the name of American Jewry in new ways ( Elazar, http://www. jcpa. org/dje/articles3/rwjintro. htm). Travel and communications advances facilitated the increasing solidity of the Jewish race across the world.

With the progress noted, more and more of its people have connections throughout the Jewish world, or at least across long distances within in it. Gradually more individual Jews, their families and communities relied upon resources in other communities, in the form of religious guidance from Israel or whether it is just for encouragement from the American Jewish experience as measures of intensifying Jewish identity. Even with the overabundance of organizations and organizational activities, a majority of the Jewry seem to be oblivious of them.

For most Jews, familiarity of their area community involvements is all they know about structured Jewish life, if that. Nevertheless, an institutional structure has developed and a network of connection more or less involving most of the existing organizations and institutions has been progressing. The Jewish people now have a superior prospect to uphold unity than it has had since the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. Up to this day, American Jewry remains the primary pioneer in the advancement of world polity.

They are committed to nation-building, the development of Israel, relief and rescue of Jewish communities in need, fighting anti-semitism, representing collective Jewish interests in world affairs, mobilization of leadership and activists to undertake these and other functions, governance functions in the world Jewish polity, assuring that there are appropriate bodies for the carrying on of the functions, raising funds to cover the costs of these functions, oversight of the organizations and institutions handling the functions, developing appropriate inter-organizational relations both among the authorities that comprise the world Jewish polity and the local, countrywide, regional, and worldwide arenas (Bubis). The National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) 2000-01, a $6 million study carried out by The United Jewish Communities, is said to provide the most all-inclusive, trustworthy picture of American Jewry to date. Records show that there are 5. 2 million American Jews. This is 5 percent less than the 5. 5 million counted in the 1990 population study. There 4. 3 million American Jews attend Passover seders and light Chanukah candles.

This figure also takes account of those more Jewishly devoted — families who maintain kosher homes, regularly join synagogue meetings, enrolled Jewish schools and go to at least one Jewish society. The percentage of intermarriage is growing, but at a stable rate, with 47 percent of today’s Jewish newlyweds marrying non-Jews. The mean Jewish age is 42, in contrast to 35 for Americans in general, and the birthrate was 1. 8, lower than the 1. 9 rate for American women generally. The picture of American Jewry highlighted by the study is multifaceted. On the one hand, the American Jewish population is aging and shrinking, as the birthrate is falling and intermarriage is rising, and most Jews do not take on communal or religious pursuits.

On the other hand, a vast majority of American Jews attend a Passover seder and celebrate Chanukah and Jewish education is booming. Jews are more affluent than Americans generally. More 33 percent of Jewish households report an annual income of $75,000 or higher, compared to just 18 percent of U. S. households. The median Jewish household income is $54,000, compared to $42,000 for Americans generally. Speaking about affluence, the world’s richest Jew is Steve Ballmer, a Detroit-born son of a Jewish mother, 43 years old, whose worth is an estimated $25 billion. Steve Ballmer was selected president and chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp.

on January 13, 2000. In his position as president and CEO, Ballmer is oversees the entire management of Microsoft. It has been said that the outside terrorization, such as pogroms, coped with by Jews over the centuries act as unifying power. Jews needed each other in order to survive in a Jew-hating world. In line with this idea, the elimination of those external threats has become a factor to assimilation. The more accepting the non-Jewish world has become of Jews, the less Jews have felt they need other Jews and the Jewish community for support and the more Jews have become open to giving up their Jewish ways in an effort to blend with the world around them.

Thus, the cost of Jewish living exceeded the value of Jewish living for many 20th century American Jews. While Jewish community efforts to lower costs and increase value have attempted to tip the scales in the other direction, combating the integration of Jews in America, the “Land of Opportunty”, has been a harsh struggle to win. In an effort to assimilate and minimize threat, the American Jewry of late has developed a system of beliefs wherein it has become a community characterized with an exclusive and normalized behavior that is attributable to a specific people and that is expressed through certain images, symbols, rituals, myths, and other kinds of stories.

There developed a sense of pluralism which is defined in their context: having the conviction that more than one religion can instruct truths. To put it strongly, religious pluralism maintains that no specific religion can assert total certainty to teach absolute truth. Within the Jewish population, there is a collective history, a shared expression of prayer and study, a shared Bible and a shared set of rabbinic literature, consequently often providing for Jews of considerably diverse worldviews to nevertheless identify some level of common ideals and purposes. Reference: 1. Bubis,Gerald B. The Costs of Jewish Involvements and barriers. http. //Judaism. about. com. 2. Elazar, Daniel E. Jerusalem Center for Public AffairsI. http://www. jcpa. org/dje/articles2/futureamerjewry. htm.