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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DrGrabow who wrote (24176)	4/9/2002 3:21:44 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If members of a population only have two children (somewhat more due to infant mortality, etc.) per couple then the population never increases. Figure some are gay, and the rest use birth control, and some marry outside the faith, and there's the answer. The birth rate among affluent, educated people tends to be low.

To: DrGrabow who wrote (24176)	4/9/2002 3:47:32 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 281500

There was an article in the NYT Magazine a couple weeks ago on the topic, but unfortunately I can't link it. Judaism, as a mostly non-proselytizing religion , has some demographic disadvantages. McLaughlin? Is That a Jewish Name? By Russell Shorto (NYT) 3410 words Late Edition - Final, Section 6, Page 44, Column 1 LEAD PARAGRAPH - It is a mild december evening in Georgia, and in the community room of their synagogue in the town of Marietta, Felton and Deborah McLaughlin talk with typical parental pride about their elder daughter's bat mitzvah, which took place earlier in the year. Felton, wearing a purple skullcap, smiles at the memory. ''It was literally the most wonderful experience of my life,'' says Deborah, who works as a librarian at a private school in Atlanta. ''It was very spiritual. Everyone loved it -- everyone in both of our families was so proud of her.'' The grandmothers, aunts, uncles and cousins, moved as they were, needed some help understanding the rituals and language surrounding the Jewish rite of passage to adulthood because none of them had ever been to a Jewish service. Three years earlier, the family -- Felton, Deborah and their two daughters, Allison and Elizabeth -- converted en masse to Judaism. The conversion ceremonies, which followed more than a year of study of all things Jewish, from the history of the religion to blintzes and latkes, were brief: a hearing before a tribunal of two rabbis and a cantor, then a submerging naked into a ritual bath. When they stepped out again, a seemingly elemental barrier had been breached. Generations of matter-of-fact Christian heritage, going back on both sides to Scotland, came to a formal end. The crucifix was set aside; Christmas was over for good. They were Jews.