Oh, sure, there's plenty to do. But everybody's busy telling everyone else that they're doing it wrong instead of doing it themselves. If only there were more of that Tocquevillian spirit in the air.
This is like saying "90% of startups fail, so don't open a startup" or "50% of marriages end in divorce, so don't get married." Life, like most interesting games, is a combination of luck and strategy. Investing in Jewish education, being affiliated with a Jewish community, and emphasizing the importance of Jewish values and tradition in the home is a strategy that has mostly worked in the diaspora for the people who have pursued it, which is, unfortunately, a small minority of American Jews.
Great, we need more entrepreneurs. We can quibble over the odds of each outcome, but at the end of the day, I am the person you are describing. Anecdote: my two siblings and I, all with Israeli names, grew up in a Jewish home, belonged to a conservative shul in a very Jewish area, went to Hebrew school (after school) thru 18yo -- have produced a grand total of 2 grandchildren for my parents, neither of whom will be bar mitzvahed.
Actually my parents sound a lot like you too -- Anglos who made aliyah in their 20s (separately), met in Israel, then moved to the USA six or seven years later.
I'm certainly grateful for my upbringing, it's just how I see it for all diaspora Jews short of being orthodox or ultra Orthodox -- out marriage rate ~60% and American Jews have TFR of ~1.2
I wonder if it's possible to rebrand Bennett in a way that will bring some DL voters back. That's the closest-to-reality way of bringing forth the vision you describe imo, but it still sounds far fetched.
Bennett's not doing the podcast round for nothing. He's waiting for Bibi to exit the stage. We'll be hearing more from him if he plays his cards right.
Does the ‘Ashkenazim as non-whites’ thing have any actual traction? The only place I’ve seen this in the wild is among left-leaning Jews who want to see themselves as POC. Maybe I’m just in a bubble that excludes the dumber wing of white nationalists.
It's mostly the Jews stuck in the intersectional left who take this stance in order to retain the few oppression points they're still allowed to have. But most Jews who know a thing or two about Judaism reject the racialization of Jewish identity as a category error.
Hazony is an excellent example of added-value Aliyah. Instead of converging into the local Bolshevik-cantankerous shtetl, he is importing the wisdom of the Anglo-Protestant world.
Don't leave. There's a lot to do here, and anything you build there is built on sand.
Oh, sure, there's plenty to do. But everybody's busy telling everyone else that they're doing it wrong instead of doing it themselves. If only there were more of that Tocquevillian spirit in the air.
I'm doing it myself
I didn't think you'd be excited about the idea of an Anglo-Protestant Israel.
Obviously it's a non starter
Why not? It's an example of good aliyah on Hazony's part - importing the best of one's source country.
You're very repetitive
Trying to drive a point.
Well, it's not a very good one
America is great for Jews. The only difference is you'll have 1/9th as many grandchildren, and they won't be Jewish.
This is like saying "90% of startups fail, so don't open a startup" or "50% of marriages end in divorce, so don't get married." Life, like most interesting games, is a combination of luck and strategy. Investing in Jewish education, being affiliated with a Jewish community, and emphasizing the importance of Jewish values and tradition in the home is a strategy that has mostly worked in the diaspora for the people who have pursued it, which is, unfortunately, a small minority of American Jews.
Great, we need more entrepreneurs. We can quibble over the odds of each outcome, but at the end of the day, I am the person you are describing. Anecdote: my two siblings and I, all with Israeli names, grew up in a Jewish home, belonged to a conservative shul in a very Jewish area, went to Hebrew school (after school) thru 18yo -- have produced a grand total of 2 grandchildren for my parents, neither of whom will be bar mitzvahed.
Actually my parents sound a lot like you too -- Anglos who made aliyah in their 20s (separately), met in Israel, then moved to the USA six or seven years later.
I'm certainly grateful for my upbringing, it's just how I see it for all diaspora Jews short of being orthodox or ultra Orthodox -- out marriage rate ~60% and American Jews have TFR of ~1.2
Simple solution, be practically Jewish, not incidentally Jewish. Frum Jews have the same birth rates and retention rates inside and outside Israel.
Even inside Israel secular Jews are sub replacement, and as they increasingly radicalize their tfr will plummet.
I wonder if it's possible to rebrand Bennett in a way that will bring some DL voters back. That's the closest-to-reality way of bringing forth the vision you describe imo, but it still sounds far fetched.
Bennett's not doing the podcast round for nothing. He's waiting for Bibi to exit the stage. We'll be hearing more from him if he plays his cards right.
I too thought of Bennett.
Does the ‘Ashkenazim as non-whites’ thing have any actual traction? The only place I’ve seen this in the wild is among left-leaning Jews who want to see themselves as POC. Maybe I’m just in a bubble that excludes the dumber wing of white nationalists.
It's mostly the Jews stuck in the intersectional left who take this stance in order to retain the few oppression points they're still allowed to have. But most Jews who know a thing or two about Judaism reject the racialization of Jewish identity as a category error.
Hazony is an excellent example of added-value Aliyah. Instead of converging into the local Bolshevik-cantankerous shtetl, he is importing the wisdom of the Anglo-Protestant world.