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Israel Booms with Babies as Developed World's Birth Rates Plummet

(Christian Science Monitor) Dina Kraft - Israel is having a sustained baby boom, and now has the highest per capita rate of population growth in the developed world, experts say. Families here have an average of 3.1 children, compared with 1.7 in other developed countries. In the country's Jewish sector there is a lingering post-Holocaust imperative to replace the 6 million who were murdered. Driving this focus, argues sociologist Orna Donath, "is the collective fear of annihilation. It continues to haunt us, and children are seen as symbolizing a continuance of life, of survival." Even among secular Jews, three children is the norm. "In America you are an individual who is not necessarily going to live close to your parents. But in Israel the whole basis of society is familial," says Dr. Elly Teman, a medical anthropologist and senior lecturer at Ruppin College. Moreover, "We hear that if we don't have enough citizens, we don't have enough soldiers. And people are acting on those messages [whether] they are aware they are or not." She points to the immigrants who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union. Those who came as adults usually had one child. By contrast, those who came as teenagers and absorbed the societal message have gone on to have two to three children.
2018-12-21 00:00:00
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