Witnessing a Miracle in Israel

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As the sole descendant of my family, all Hungarian and Czech Jews starved and gassed in Auschwitz, I was always worried about Jewish fertility. The Jews in post WWII Hungary had abysmal rates, to the point that of the some 200,000 survivors, today there are not more than a few thousands. Not enough children to fill the Lauder kindergarten, generously maintained by American donors. That's why I consider the total reversal taking place in Israel as a miracle, something contrary to the expected and the explainable (*). 

I quote the Wiki: "Jewish total fertility rate increased by 10.2% during 1998–2009, and was recorded at 2.90 during 2009. During the same time period, Arab TFR decreased by 20.5%. Muslim TFR was measured at 3.73 for 2009. During 2000, the Arab TFR in Jerusalem (4.43) was higher than that of the Jews residing there (3.79). But as of 2009, Jewish TFR in Jerusalem was measured higher than the Arab TFR (2010: 4.26 vs 3.85, 2009: 4.16 vs 3.87). TFR for Arab residents in the West Bank was measured at 2.91 in 2013, while that for the Jewish residents was reported at 5.10 children per woman. 

The ethnic group with highest recorded TFR is the Bedouin of Negev. Their TFR was reported at 10.06 in 1998, and 5.73 in 2009. TFR is also very high among Haredi Jews. For Ashkenazi Haredim, the TFR rose from 6.91 in 1980 to 8.51 in 1996. The figure for 2008 is estimated to be even higher. TFR for Sephardi/Mizrahi Haredim rose from 4.57 in 1980 to 6.57 in 1996.^" 

I have seen this process with my own eyes in Samaria. From nowhere appeared young boys and girls and went to live in containers in the middle of hostile Arab population. Forty years after, not only that they had established themselves and build beautiful villages and industrial areas, but their example has diffused into the urban, secular Jewry of the country. Yesterday we went to a country club, and there was a surprising number of pregnant women and babies. We live in Kever Benjamin City, an upper middle class (number 8 in the socio-economic scale) city that always had left wing majors, with our own gay carnivals. A miracle.

(*) I presume that the Jewish religion has something to do with it. But looking in detail to that religion and the motives of the religious, it seems impossible, incredible. HaAretz today writes about a religious dispute about the kashrut (purity) of the Barkan and the Tepperberg wines. The Haredi Religious Court forbid drinking Barkan because non-rabbinical/doubtful Jews were employed in the winery (Ethiopian immigrants) and the Tepperberg because women (possibly menstruating) could come into touch with the wine. HaAretz makes fun of our holy religion ("Santa Fe" in Spanish) asking if male babies could be breastfed by their mothers. Illustration by  Dr He Qi, The miracle of Jonah and the fish.