I worry about the Jewish future. I worry perhaps, because I am paid to worry about such things. But we must all share this particular worry.

 

According to the article, “Prospecting the Jewish Future: Population Projections, 2000-2080”, the Jewish population of Israel is projected to double to 10 million by the year 2080, contributing to a mild increase in the Jewish population world-wide. However, the Jewish population of North America is expected to shrink from 5.7 million to 3.8 million — while the population of the Jewish Diaspora will decline from 8.3 million to 5.3 million by 2080. By the middle of this century, an absolute majority of Jews in the world will be living in the land of Israel. Within the next two decades, an absolute majority of the world’s Jewish children will be living in Israel.

 

The imbalance in the Jewish age composition of the Diaspora is likely to endanger the effective functioning of Jewish communal services. As moral and material resources dry up in the Diaspora, Israel will be forced not only to rely on its own productive and intellectual resources, but also to help support the shrinking, ageing population of the Diaspora.

 

Before the Holocaust, Jews numbered some eighteen million. However, since the deaths of the Six Million only 60 years ago, the Jewish population of the world has scarcely budged.

 

There are practical steps we can take to reverse the sociology of an ageing, declining Diaspora population. For example, young couples might resolve to have another child or two. Another tactic might be to actively seek converts. The most energetic, inspiring Jews of Winnipeg often are those who come to it by choice.

 

And this is my final point. Tremendous spiritual resources such as Shabbat, Kashrut, and Davennen, gifted to us by our ancestors, are severely underutilized. In the end, I believe that our ignorance about the Jewish past, and our unwillingness to apply it to our present, is the root cause of what endangers our future.

 

I believe that our reluctance to be “too Jewish”, and our reticence about raising our children to be such, springs from a lack of courage and conviction about who we really are, and the great contributions that Jews have made — and must continue to make — to the tapestry of civilization. If we can finally get clear about the crucial difference Jews make in the overall quality of life here in Canada and around the world, perhaps we can resolve to alter the destructive trends that threaten our Jewish future outside the land of Israel.

 

Here is wishing everyone a happy New Year of peace, progress, and fulfillment on every level of our experience.

 

Rabbi, Chaya, Eve, Daniel, and Shoshanah