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Statistical Vignettes About Israel

By HAIM SHACHTER

There were 743,000 families liv-
ing in Israel in 1969. Of these
675,000 were Jewish. The average
family in Israel consisted of 3.8
persons, with 3.6 persons per fam-
ily for the Jewish sector and six
persons per family for the non-
Jewish sector.
Of the non-Jewish families, 53
per cent consisted of six persons
and more, whereas only 14 per
cent of the Jewish familes had
four children or more.
A perusal of the data contained
in the recent Statistical Abstract
for 1969, issued by the Israel Cen-
tral Office of Statistics, shows
that there were 614,000 urban
wage-eaining families in the coun-
try with an average of 3.9 persons
Per family; in other words, there
was an average of two children
and 1.5 wage earners per family.
In the year 1968-69 the average
monthly income per family came
to 1,114 Israeli pounds, while out-
lays amounted to 1,017 Israeli
pounds; about 27 per cent of the
monthly outlays went for food,
including fruit and vegetables;
13 per cent for h o u s i n g; 18
per cent for health, education,
culture and entertainment; 16 per
cent for transportation, cigarettes
and services; 10 per cent for cloth-
ing; 8 per cent for furniture and
domestic equipment; 6 per cent
for house maintenance; and 2 per
cent for contributions, organiza-
tional fees, etc.
Wage-earning families average
income in 1969 was only $3,045
per year. About 22 per cent of the
urban Jewish wage earning fam-
ilies earned as little as up to $145
a month. Then taken together ac-
counted for only 8 per cent of the
total income of all -families in
the country. At the other end, 2.6
per cent of the Jewish urban
wage-earning families came in the
$580 per month and over income
bracket, and they also pocketed 8
per cent of the general income in
the country.
About Oa per cent of the urban
families last year owned a gas
cooker, and 94 per cent an electric
refrigerator. This is a far cry
from the year 1958 when only 38
per cent of the urban families
owned refrigerators. The propor-
tion of urban families in posses-
sion of electric washing machines
also rose steeply from 10 per cent
in 1958 to more than 40 per cent
in 1969.
In 1969, about one-third of all
families in the country had a tele-
phone in their homes. Consider-
able differences, however, are to
be noted insofar as country of

origin and length of residence in
the country are concerned. Where-
as about half the families born in
Israel had telephones in their
homes, only about 12 per cent of
families of Asian or African ori-
gins had telephones. About 46 per
cent of the families of European-
American origin had telephones.
Of these, 62 per cent arrived in
the country on the emergence of
the state. Only 35 per cent had
arrived since 1958.
According to latest statistics
over half of the families in Is-
rael owned television sets, as com-
pared with 30 per cent a year ago
and only 3 per cent four years
ago.
Whereas in 1964 only 7 per cent
of the families in Israel owned
cars, at present the number has
been doubled: 14' per cent of all
families in Israel own cars.
The standard of education of the
Jewish and non-Jewish population
is steadily and markedly improv-
ing as the years go by. The latest
figures point to a drop in the per-
centage of illiteracy in the Jew-
ish population from about 13 per
cent in 1961 to 10 per cent in 1969.
The proportion of people with only
eight years of schooling dropped
from about 43 per cent in 1961
to 38.5 per cent last year. On the
other hand the proportion of
people with 9-12 years schooling
rose from under 35 per cent to
39 per cent, whereas the propor-
tion of people with 13 years of
schooling and more rose from 10
per cent of the total Jewish popu-
lation in 1961, to 12.5 per cent in
1969.
In the non-Jewish sector, the
figures for the period under re-
view (1961-1969) show that illiter-
acy has dropped from 49.5 per
cent to 38 per cent; those with up
to eight years of schooling have
risen from 41 per cent to 43 per
cent, whereas the proportion of
people with between 9 and 12 years
of schooling has risen from 7.6 per
cent to 12.4 per cent. The percen-
tage of people with higher educa-
tion has remained stable at 1.5
per cent of the total non-Jewish

population.
The demographic improve-
ment of the Jewish population
in Israel continued in 1969, when
there was a growth of 2.5 per
cent, and so constituted the high-
est rise in the past four years.
This rise was due on the one
hand to an increase in the birth
rate, and on the other to a rise
in immigration and a drop in
emigration, which accounted for
about 35 per cent of the total
rise in population.

The percentage of Jews resident

Golan Heights Believed to Be Site
of Ancient Fortress, Grave of 5,000

JERUSALEM-An ancient Jew-
ish fortress where 5,000 Jews killed
themselves rather than succumb
to a ravaging Roman army has
been uncovered in the Golan
Heights, it is believed by Israeli
archeologists.
The hilltop town of Gamala lies
in the occupied area, just inside
the ceasefire line with Syria and
due east of Tiberias.
The Roman historian Flavius
Josephus described the month-long
siege of Gamala in 67 CE and its
steep cliff where 5,000 Jews jumped
to their death and another 4,000
were slaughtered.

Although the location of the
fortress has been a puzzle to
historians, Shmariahu Guttman,
a 60-year-old archeologist, be-
lieves that his team has found
the correct ruins.
"We have found the remnants
of a settlement exactly where Jo-
sephus said it should be," he said.
Government officials said, how-
ever, that positive identification
would require systematic excava-
tions-that could not be completed
until next summer. Consent has
not yet been granted for such a
project.
Guttman is among other arche-

in Israel, of the general Jewish
population throughout the world,
has also increased. In 1968, 17.7
per cent of the world Jewish popu-
lation of 13,800,000 lived in Israel.
The rising trend in marriages
in Israel generally,and among the
Jewish population in particular,
has continued. Following the low
figure of 7.7 marriages per thous-
and of the Jewish population in
1967, the number of mariages rose
to 9.0 per thousand in 1969. There
was a corresponding rise in birth
rate, reaching the figure of 23.4
per thousand, which is the highest
since 1967. Provisional figures for
1970 show that there has been a
still further rise in births.
A slow but steady increase in
"mixed marriages," in which one
of the partners is of Asian-African
origin and the other of European-
American origin, has also been
registered. The percentage, which
stood at about 10 per cent in the
middle of the 1950, rose to 16 per
cent in 1968.

The average age of Jewish
bridegrooms marrying for the
first time in 1968 was 25 and of
brides. 22. The average age of
non - Jewish bridgegrooms in
1968 was 25, while for brides it
was 21.

Friday, November 27, 1970-41

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Sociologist Gives Views on Alienated Students

NEW YORK (JTA) - A New
York professor of sociology pre-
sented the findings of studies and
surveys here which confirmed the
view cf many Jews that college
campuses are "the crisis area of
Jewish survival."
At the 47th anniversary conven-
tion of the women's branch of the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congre-
gations of America, Dr. Bernard
Lander of Hunter College observed
that 80 per cent of American Jew-
ish youth currently attend college.
He said a study by Prof. Ernest
Van den Haag of political and re-
ligious attitudes of students at 12
colleges demonstrated that liberal
arts colleges, with the exception of
Catholic-oriented schools, "exer-
cised a generally destructive ef-
fect on their students' religious
convictions."
He said the data showed the de-
fection rate to be "dramatically
higher" among Jewish students at
those schools than among Prot-
estant students.

Dr. Lander said other studies

indicated that 26 per cent of Jewish
college students raised as Jews "no

longer consider themselves Jews."
Those studies found the defection
rate to be highest among students
majoring in the humanities.
The study also found that 40
per cent of the defectors felt "it
. was likely that they would marry
non-Jews" while only six stu-
dents who identified as Jews
gave that response. Dr. Lander
said studies showed that rejection
of Jewish religious identity was
of cultural
a
d pletdy by
well.
identity

He said the indifference toward
Israel shown by many Jewish stu-
dents in the late 1950s and early
'60s "is now being transformed
into outright hostility."
Dr. Lander added that Jewish
students "have been especially af-
fected by the virus of the New
Left and anti-establishmentarian-
ism."

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There were 2,212 divorces
Bobs)
among Jews in 1969. Data for 1968
shows that of the 2.272 divorces in
3 Masseuses Available
that year. 42 per cent had been
married up to four years, 22 per
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cent between 5 and 9 years. 23 per
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cent of the couples divorced in
1968 had children; 26 per cent had
one child; 14 per cent two children
A
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and 7 p.ar cent had three children
and more.

The fertility of Jewish women
picked up in 1969. rising to 3.39
as compared with 3.36 in 1968
and 3.20 in 1967. These figures
compare unfavorably with a fer-
tility of 7.70 among non-Jewish
women in Israel during the two
years 1968-1969.
As for mortality among the
Jews. the rising trend engendered
mainly by a "superannuation"
among the population, continued.
Among the Jewish population
there was a mortality of 7.2 per
thousand, the highest since the es-
tablishment of the state. As
against this, there has been a

steady drop in mortality among
the non-Jewish population, to 5.9
per thousand in 1969.

Infant mortality among the
non-Jewish population, which
has been on the decline since
the establishment of the state,
has dropped from 48.0 per thous-
and in 1960 to 40.3 per thousand
in 1969. At the same time, how-
ever, infant mortality among
the non-Jewish population is far
higher than it is among the
Jews. In 1969 it stood at 19.0
per thousand, which is the low-
est since the emergence of the
state.

ologists from Gamala who also
worked on the excavation of Ma-
sada in 1963-65. The some 967 Jews
The average life expectancy
of Masada revolted against Roman
rule in 72 CE but were overcome among the non-Jewish population
in
Israel has in recent years been
by the 5,000-man 10th Legion. They,

too, are said to have chosen sui- on a par with that among the
Jewish population.
cide rather than surrender.
As an outcome of the birth - and
mortality rates. the natural in-
100 Deported Palestinians crease rate in 1969 rose to 19.2 per
thousand in the general popula-
Seeking Return to Israel
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Israel is tion: 16.2 per thousand among the
accepting applications for return Jews, and 40.5 among the non-
by some 100 Palestinian politicians Jews. Figures for the Israel oc-
cupied areas show that the natural
deported since the Six-Day War.
Already returned are six from increase rate in the West Bank
Nablus and Gaza, who had been in 1969 was 24.3 per thousand,
deported in September in the wake while in the Gaza Strip and Nor-
of the plane hijackings by the thern Sinai it was 29.4 per
Popular Front for the Liberation thousand.
An analysis of the composition
of Palestine.
Israeli authorities believe the of the Israel population shows that
7
per
cent of the Jewish popula-
evicted Palestinians are more
eager to - leave strife-torn Jordan tion as aged 65 and over at the
end
of
1969, as compared with 4.1
than they are to live in the Jewish
State. The Israeli - decision comes per cent among the non-Jewish
population.
The percentage of this
concurrently with a series of New
Left demonstrations at the Hebrew age bracket among the Jewish
University here, with students de- population has been on the in-
crease over the years. In 1948
manding Palestinian "rights."
when the state emerged, this age
Philosophy asks the simple ques- bracket constituted only 3.5 per
cent of the population, and in
tion: What is it all about?
-Alfred North Whitehead 1961. 5.3 per cent.

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