Posted on 10/11/2018 7:58:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The state of Israel is bucking the trend: It has a very high fertility rate for a developed nation. What's behind it?
In addition to things like a high per capita income and high levels of literacy, one of the defining characteristics of a "developed" country is a low fertility rate.
We've often spoken of the demographic crisis facing industrialized countries. No member of the European Union has a "replacement level" fertility rate. Even with high levels of immigration, most members' populations are on a downward trajectory.
In East Asia, the outlook is even bleaker. In Japan, more adult diapers are sold every year than baby diapers.
Then there's the United States. Our fertility rate is only slightly higher than China's, even without the latter's infamous "one-child" policy. It seems that the command to be "fruitful and multiply" has been forgotten–with the notable exception of the people to whom that command was first given.
I'm speaking of course of Israel. A recent Wall Street Journal piece by pediatrician Robert C. Hamilton took notice of Israel's unusually high fertility rate: 3.1 births per woman as opposed to an average of 1.7 births in the rest of the developed world.
The obvious question is "Why?" The automatic answer is that Israel's numbers are "inflated" by Ultra-Orthodox women having seven kids each. By the way, ultra-Orthodox Jews are known as "Haredi" in Hebrew.
That's part of the story, but not all of it. As Hamilton points out, "the rise in the Israeli birthrate since the late 1990s has been driven by the non-Haredi population." While, not surprisingly, observant Orthodox women average 4.2 births, less religiously observant, and even completely secular Israeli women also have fertility rates that are well above what demographers call "replacement level."
Israelis are so good at being fruitful and multiplying that some Israeli academics are publicly fretting about the possibility of overpopulation: "crowded hospitals, classrooms, and roads; depletion of biodiversity; and mounting greenhouse emissions."
Now, while the Haredi or even the very religious alone do not account for Israel's high fertility rates, this doesn't mean that religion isn't important in this story. On the contrary, as Hamilton writes, these rates "seems to arise from cultural norms sustained by religion."
In Hamilton's words "Israel treasures" children. Its high fertility rate "reflects a consensus among Israel's communities," secular as well as religious, about what "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" means. These beliefs, in turn, "inform each citizen's personal choices, and inevitably affect the nation's demography."
Where did these beliefs come from? The obvious answer is Judaism. The Talmud says that "childhood is a garland of roses." Psalm 127 calls children "an inheritance from the Lord." And one Jewish sage taught that God gave the Law to the Israelites for the sake of their children, who were to be the guarantors that the Law would be kept.
While many Israelis may not believe these things, or even be aware of them, these beliefs have shaped how many Jews, even secular ones, view children. Having children is not a purely private act. It has communal dimensions.
This communal dimension is especially important in light of recent history, which saw approximately half of the world's Jews murdered. Only in recent years has the world's Jewish population recovered to pre-World War II levels.
One way of expressing why Israel is an outlier when it comes to fertility is that it's an outlier in an even more important sense: It is a society with a telos, a purpose: a haven for a people whose history, as one wag put it, is "paranoia confirmed by events."
The rest of developed world, including the United States, lacks a sense of purpose beyond personal gratification. Having kids is something you get around to, not something you build your adult life around.
Thus, in contrast to Israel, many of these countries look "old and fading." It could hardly be otherwise. Hamilton quotes one Jewish sage as putting it this way, "A child without parents is an orphan, but a nation without children is an orphan people."
The Persians had some pretty hot chicks before the Ayatollah brought the burquas back.
Threats to one's survival are a powerful motivator. Israelis are "outbreeding" the ethnically undifferentiated Arab squatters in Israel, have been for a while now.
“Jews in the US have a particularly low birth rate around 1.5, so I don’t think the religious heritage alone explains it.”
The non- or only slightly religious have much higher intermarriage rates, and then have less children per couple on average. The more religious one gets, the less intermarriage and the larger the number of children per couple. The problem for Jews in the US is that probably 80% are JINOs, so only 20% is actively boosting their population. It’ll likely still decline for a while, but will pick up as the religious become a higher percentage of the Jewish population. Of course, a lot of the religious leave for Israel, which goes far toward explaining the current state of American Jewish and Israeli demographics.
“Israeli men are equally as hot.”
Check out post #23!
Tonto... Tonto Goldstein but my friends call me Bubba
I heard a rumor that it was illegal for an Israeli woman to give birth to an ugly baby.
Looks like its TRUE!!
The Pill has had a profound effect beyond what most imagine, and is linked to the growing snowflake society today.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
..................
I know, I know ...
“Hot Jewish SDF chics maybe?”
Mine hot IDF wife didn’t hurt my fecundity, yes.
I have 6 daughters.
“hot chicks in the islamic world are few and far between. “
Actually, Persian women are often very beautiful.
Arab women, not so much.
Why thank you. But I am very married.
In seriousness, the real reason, I think, behind Israelis being generally good looking are:
1. Physical fitness. We have a draft. And men and women (typically) stay in the reserves for most of our adult lives. I’m well past middle age but still lift heavy, watch my diet, and do sprint work -— because I have to stay at a certain level of fitness to make sure the ejection seat in my ride won’t break my back if I had to use it(and I can fit in it). Most countries are a lot fatter.
2. We are literally from all over the world. So there are lots of people that fit whatever people like. (Like blonds? Plenty of those? Redheads? Sure. Weird combos like dark skin, blue eyes, and black curly hair? Yep.)
3. We’re generally pretty smart.
4. The entire country is a couple of miles from a beach at any given location. So people stay in beach shape, to reinforce #1.
Lol yeah, something about ‘em...
“hot chicks in the islamic world are few and far between”
I have a relative who married an Islamic man. I was at the wedding. I’ve never seen so many brown eyed beauties in my life.
A love of family will do that for you.
Being willing to sacrifice your children on the altar of selfishness tends to make for empty nests.
They don’t realize that the ultimate cost is living a selfish, lonely and empty life. Love is the true commodity of life. Love involves risks and pain, also vulnerability, but is worth everything.
Without it, you may not miss it until you come face to face with your own emptiness. Many do many things to cover up, even from themselves, their inner emptiness, trying to fill their emptiness with many things. The only thing that truly satisfies is LOVE.
Genesis 1:
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Israelis are always close to death by terror/war/traffic accidents. They still live in the shadow of WWII.
Jewish values dictate that one should marry and raise a family whether you are religious or secular. That means it is, in essence a “Conservative” society believing in the sanctity of marriage and having kids.
While the Western young couples invest thousands of Dollars on Pet clothes, food and pampering, Israelis invest in their kids. They now have a lot of dogs there too but the main emphasis is still on God, life, family, country, defense, promise and hope.
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