Jewish atheism and Jewish theism in America

By Roger Price
Published on April 12, 2013

Rumors of mass Israeli emigration are much exaggerated

By Pini Herman
Published on April 25, 2012

Interviewing Israel’s President Shimon Peres in the April 4 issue of Time magazine, a correspondent quoted the often-cited number in suggesting that 1 million Israelis live outside their native country: “It’s not as if Jews are flocking there [to Israel]. What do these demographics say about Israel’s future?” Peres, without disputing the reporter’s figure, responded: “Maybe we are swimming against the stream.”

What Israelis really want? That’s easy

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on January 4, 2012

LimmudLA—by the numbers

By Julie G Fax
Published on February 21, 2008

LimmudLA -- by the numbers.

Assume everyone is Jewish

By Tom Teicholz
Published on March 1, 2007

Los Angeles is not only a city where Jews present their identity through Jewish museums; it is also a place where Jews have had an unparalleled role in shaping the cultural identity of the city.

Clergy sexual misconduct: What’s being done to rein in abuse?

By Eugene L. Meyer
Published on January 11, 2007

Even as the Catholic Church has been rocked by a massive pedophilia scandal in recent years, the Jewish community also has been buffeted by high-profile cases of sexual impropriety involving rabbis and other authority figures.How extensive is the problem of clergy sex abuse in the Jewish community? It depends on which criteria are used as a yardstick.

British theater group Stan’s Cafe uses piles of rice to bring statistics to life

By Sarah Price Brown
Published on September 21, 2006

Upon entering the museum, visitors will receive a grain of rice, representing themselves. Then, they will walk into a room filled with 300 million grains of rice - one for every person in the United States. The rice will be divided into piles, each one illustrating a statistic, such as the number of people who have walked on the moon or the millions of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. One grain of rice will stand for one person.

And there it will be, among all the piles: a large mound with 6 million pieces, representing each individual Jewish life lost in the Holocaust.

Hate Crime Stats Not Always Precise

By Idan Ivri
Published on July 15, 2004

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) new report titled, "Unpatriotic Acts," warns that acts of hate against Muslims in the United States skyrocketed in 2003. At face value, the numbers are grim: CAIR notes a 70 percent increase in "reports of harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment" against Muslims in the United States between 2002 (602 acts) and 2003 (1,019 acts). That also represents a 300 percent increase between the years 2000 and 2003.

Those numbers, however, do not entirely speak for themselves. Tracking hate is a complex process; statistics may be influenced by outside variables. That's especially true since the CAIR report also includes noncriminal acts of discrimination, sometimes called "hate incidents." CAIR is not alone in using this methodology: Some groups tracking anti-Semitism do the exact same thing.

Increasing Political Isolation for Jews

By James D. Besser
Published on November 7, 2002

If all those statistics are true about Jews still being one of the most liberal voting blocs in the nation, why are they increasingly estranged from the American left?

Easy: The left, ranging from the anti-globalism fringes to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to some segments of the mainstream liberal community, has adopted policies and perspectives that even many progressive Jews regard as offensive and dangerous.

Israel Maintains Hope Through Despair

By Steven L. Spiegel
Published on September 5, 2002

As we enter the year 5763, the mood of the Jewish people is justifiably dark indeed.

It has been a year of increasing violence in the Middle East, growing anti-Semitism in Europe, hostility toward Israel, and a general air of crisis and ominous headlines -- a shared misery of collective despair.

Negev: Full of Adventures

By Tom Tugend
Published on August 29, 2002

Amid the gloomy statistics of declining tourism to Israel, there are a couple bright spots for the foreign visitor willing to explore beyond the beaten track and eager to save some serious money.

For one, there are few places in the world where the ancient and the modern meet and meld as spectacularly as in the northern Negev.

On Statistics and Heroes

By Hal Klopper
Published on August 29, 2002

The current conflagration in Israel and the territories is now two years old. News of each explosion in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv alarms me and fills me with a dread that does not retreat until I hear on the phone the voices of my friends in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Countless times now I have woken my friends in the middle of the Israeli night. I confirm their voices, and then my dread recedes into statistics.

Advice From the Trenches

By Lynne Z. Gold-Bikin
Published on February 8, 2001

The statistics haven't changed much in the close to 30 years I've been in practice. About 50 percent of all American marriages end in divorce. As a family law attorney, I work with people every day who are giving up on their dreams of marital bliss. And in many cases -- for my client and for the well-being of children involved -- ending the marriage is a good idea. Marriages that break up because of untreated physical abuse, gambling, drug and alcohol problems, and infidelity are often damaged beyond repair. In those cases it's usually best for everyone concerned if the marriage is dissolved, allowing the innocent spouse to move on with his or her life.

Spin Cycle

Published on March 26, 1998

A spate of new polls shows Jews divided, Arafat unpopular and pollsters getting rich