NEWS
The Jewish People Want Judaism
by Yitzchok Roth
The obsessive persecution of the Leftist camp and its supporters against the public loyal to the word of Hashem stems from one and only one cause: fear. Demographic statistics indicate that in a few years the secular majority of the present population is about to disappear from the world. In truth they only managed to achieve this majority through great efforts made by the founders of the State through the camps of shmad which were established to eradicate religion at the very beginning. The blessed increase of the religious and chareidi camps versus the decline of the other camp, is already evident today through the impressive growth of the mitzvah-observant sector which will continue to grow with the passing of time.
Already today, the Israeli public in the main seeks religion. The efforts of the State since the establishment of the State to uproot every yearning for true Judaism from the younger generation was met with dismal failure. The Central Bureau of Statistics publicized, among other facts, the profile of the religious orientation of Jews in Israel according to their personal definition: 45% defined themselves as secular; 25% as traditional, 16% were religious or "very" religious, and 14% professed to be chareidi.
These categories are very vague and fluid. The religious and chareidi categories are pretty well-defined, but the traditional and secular categories are not. The boundary between them is not clear and the nature of these categories is that they will include a great variety of attitudes. Many people who define themselves as secular observe a significant level of kashrus, for example.
According to one report, in 2007 only a third of restaurants in Israel were kosher, except of Jerusalem where only a third were no kosher. However in 2021 the Israel Institute of Democracy said that two thirds of the restaurants had a kashut certificate.
Even after the High Court established the "right" of Israelis to eat pork, with great fanfare, according to the Ministry of Agriculture only about half a million Israelis eat this kind of meat. That is only about 5% of the total and it includes Christians. Even with the culinary freedom granted by the High Court, only a very small minority indulges and the vast majority, of its own free will, avoids it.
According to a recent report by the Israel Institute of Democracy, 69% of all Israelis declared that they keep kosher. That must include many of those who define themselves as secular. Only 5.6% of couples who could marry through the Rabbinate chose civil marriage. Of some 57,000 converts over the last 20 years, only several hundred chose a Reform or Conservative conversion. According to a survey of Ma'ariv, 72% of Israelis kashered their homes for Pesach.
Death is almost entirely religious as only 4.3% chose secular burial on 2021. As a columnist in Ha'aretz put it, "[Israelis] want not only to feel Jewish but to live Jewish."
In the darkness of our golus there are points of light. Not because of the State of Israel but in spite of the State of Israel, the Jewish people have remained Jewish. Kiruv organizations know very well that ears and hearts are open, and there are real results. When people are offered real Judaism, they want it.
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