Jews don’t always recognise it, but Israel shapes vast swathes of Jewish life in the Diaspora

Without Israel, the global Jewish population would likely be in freefall

Here’s the thing: At JPR, we monitor closely how Jewish populations worldwide are changing – most fundamentally, whether they are growing or declining, and why. And when I look at the global demographic data on Jews, Israel is one of the very few anomalies. Its Jewish population is growing – not so much because of immigration, but because of fertility. And that’s not just because of high birth rates among Haredi Jews; it’s because all Israelis, even the most secular, have more children than their equivalents in the Western world.

Israeli women have about three children each on average; by contrast, total fertility rates across Europe and the West are all below replacement level – they range from 1.2 in Ukraine and Italy, through 1.6 in the UK, to 1.9 in France and Iceland. While Western Jewish rates tend to be higher than the national average in each country, most Jewish populations are still in a state of decline. The combined forces of low fertility, ageing and assimilation are just too powerful. In simple terms, without Israel, the global Jewish population would likely be in freefall, save perhaps for the Haredi sector.

I say “perhaps” because the absence of Israeli industry, creativity and religiosity would further exacerbate this demographic collapse. Jews don’t always recognise it, but Israel shapes vast swathes of Jewish life in the Diaspora – from kosher food products to Jewish music, art, literature and television, and from life-changing Jewish educational experiences to sifrei kodesh and numerous items of Judaica. Israel suffuses Jewish life in the Diaspora; Jewish communities around the world would be immeasurably poorer without Israel’s presence or contribution.

October 7 affected Jews worldwide. It still does.

The events of October 7, the subsequent war in Gaza, and the dramatic rise in antisemitism that we have witnessed in recent months have shaken many Jews worldwide to their core. For some, the loss of Palestinian Arab life at the hands of the IDF has been too much to bear, and they are struggling deeply to reconcile their understanding of what Jewishness is with the images of death that litter their screens. For others, the heinous attacks of October 7 and the callous and cynical way in which the enemies of Israel have worked to demonise it only reinforces their resolve to use whatever means possible to defend the country. For still others, the past seven months have thrown up numerous moral, psychological and social challenges, creating a daily mix of thoughts and emotions that are disconcerting, distressing and destabilising.

But whatever position Jews take on the war – and we’ll learn much more in our forthcoming Jewish Current Affairs survey – we’d do well to take a moment this Yom Ha’Atzmaut to appreciate just how significant a role Israel has played in Jewish life for the past 76 years. In many respects, it is impossible to measure – very fortunately, we do not have the counterfactual of a contemporary world without a Jewish State to do so. But whatever political positions Jews worldwide take, and irrespective of whether they realise it or not, they need Israel to help sustain Jewish life today. Israeli leaders would do well to ponder on this, too – they hold something profoundly precious in their hands, and how they manage it will have profound implications for the future of Jews everywhere.