Annual Assessments

2019 Annual Assessment

Global Trends and Policy Recommendations
Integrated Anti-Semitism Index: Europe and the US
Special Chapters: Jewish Creativity and Cultural Outputs

PROJECT HEAD

Shmuel Rosner

Contributors

Avinoam Bar-Yosef, Dan Feferman, Shlomo Fischer Avi Gil, Inbal Hakman, Michael Herzog, Dov Maimon, Gitit Paz-Levi, Steven Popper, Uzi Rebhun, John Ruskay, Noah Slepkov, Adar Schiber, Rami Tal, Shalom Salomon Wald

EDITOR

Barry Geltman

2019 Annual Assessment

The situation of the Jewish people is affected by external and internal developments; it is also influenced by short – and long-term developments. In response to rising anti-Semitism, institutions and organizations are developing and deploying various security measures and other initiatives, but history shows that anti-Semitism is more greatly affected by external events and trends than by what the Jews do (which does not, of course, diminish the necessity of taking action and trying to have an impact, to the extent possible). Similarly, the erosion of religiosity documented among both Israeli and Diaspora Jews is not an isolated phenomenon. Although it certainly has important internal drivers and ramifications, it reflects general worldwide (primarily Western) trends toward a decline in the power of religion and, to an even greater degree, the power of traditional religious authority structures.

The recent uptick in anti-Semitic incidents has been documented over a relatively small number of years. Thus, at this stage, we refer to it as a short-term development, despite strong suspicion (and fear) that it heralds a new era in which anti-Semitism will again be a determinant factor in the trajectory of the Jewish future. Israel’s two election seasons in the space of a year are an internal matter with a defined endpoint. However, these elections may also, depending on their outcomes, have effects of long-term impact – on Israel, on Israel-Diaspora relations, and, directly, on Diaspora Jewry.

 

This chapter utilized the following studies, articles, and books:

JPPI 2019 Pluralism Survey, Camil Fuchs, Noah Slepkov, Shmuel Rosner.
JPPI 2018 Israeli Judaism survey, Camil Fuchs, Shmuel Rosner.
JPPI 2018 Dialogue: 70 Years of Israel-Diaspora Relations: The Next Generation, John Ruskay, Shmuel Rosner.
AJC 2019 Survey of Israeli Jewish Opinion conducted by Geocartography.
AJC 2019 Survey of American Jewish Opinion conducted by the research company SSRS.
AJC 2019 survey of French Jewish Opinion conducted by the research firm Ifop.
2018 Survey of Jews in Canada, Robert Brym Keith Neuman Rhonda Lenton, conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research in partnership with The University of Toronto and York University.
Jewish Electorate Institute Poll, Greenberg Research, 2019.
2017 Greater Washington Jewish Community Demographic Study.
Raising Jewish Children: Research and Indications for Intervention, Sylvia Barack Fishman and Steven M. Cohen, JPPI.

Hebrew Texts

The Israeli Century and the Israelization of Judaism, Yossi Shain, Yedioth Books, 2019.
#IsraeliJudaism: a Portrait of a Cultural Revolution, Shmuel Rosner, Camil Fuchs, Dvir and the Jewish People Policy Institute, 2018.

PreviousNext