Germany has the world\u2019s fastest-growing Jewish population.<\/p>\n\n
One of Judaism\u2019s hottest schools of spiritual renewal has its roots in Argentina.<\/p>\n\n
Jews in Atlanta set out to raise $25 million and ended up with $50 million, including nearly $5 million poured into the project by Coca-Cola \u2014 a corporate pillar of the old Protestant South.<\/p>\n\n
These are snapshots of modern Judaism. Get used to it.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cObviously, when people think of Judaism they think of Israel and that\u2019s as it should be,\u201d said journalist Larry Tye, author of a provocative travelogue entitled \u201cHome Lands: Portraits of the New Jewish Diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut right now, anyone who wants to see what is happening in Judaism needs to look outside of Israel. If you just focus on Israel, you can\u2019t see the big picture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
When Tye talks about the diaspora, he is referring to Jewish communities that exist and often thrive outside of Israel. While Israel remains the unique homeland, the Boston Globe veteran is convinced most Jews increasingly feel at home in a wide variety of lands. In fact, the diaspora Jewish communities have \u201cmore in common with each other than with the Jewish state as they search for spiritual and religious meaning in a largely non-Jewish world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Nevertheless, the Passover Seders that start next week \u2014 the season begins Wednesday at sundown \u2014 will end with Jewish believers reciting this vow: \u201cNext year in Jerusalem!\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe words will stay the same, but the meaning is changing,\u201d said Tye. \u201cMost Jews don\u2019t want to move to Jerusalem. They are doing just fine where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
If Tye sounds upbeat about modern Judaism, that\u2019s because he is. While researching his book, he traveled from Germany to Ukraine, from Argentina to Ireland, and from France to the United States \u2014 the Bible-Belt South as well as the urban Northeast.<\/p>\n\n
But he knows many do not share his optimism. Debates about the health of Judaism have been driven by two statistics \u2014 soaring intermarriage rates and the falling numbers of Jews in pews. There are 20 percent fewer Jews today than when the Holocaust began. Then again, notes Tye, there are three times as many Jews right now than there were a century before the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cEverything I heard said that these numbers were going way down and that they would keep going down,\u201d he said, during a South Florida pilgrimage. \u201cYet I kept visiting Jewish communities around the world and what I was seeing with my own eyes was not jibing with what I was hearing. \u2026 I know that the bad news stories are real. But there is good news out there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Yes, an infamous 1990 survey of American Jews found that the rate of Jews marrying non-Jews had topped 50 percent. Then again, researchers found that the intermarriage rate had actually fallen 10 percent among those who openly claimed and practiced their Jewish faith.<\/p>\n\n
Here\u2019s another Tye snapshot. Half of Atlanta\u2019s Jews have no ties that bind them to any Jewish institution. That\u2019s bad. But the other half of the Jewish community is so active in worship and educational activities that it seems everyone is building a new synagogue. That\u2019s good.<\/p>\n\n