The Jewish people lost a third of their children in the terrible Holocaust. According to estimates, we have lost another similar number of our people through assimilation and assimilation. The primary interest of a people that desires its continued existence is to work for its growth and prosperity.
Ostensibly, this should have been the most important task of the Jewish state – to take practical steps that would increase the number of Jews in the country and around the world.
But we have been taken over by liberal and progressive agendas that prohibit us from thinking, let alone speaking, in such terms. Words like "Jewish majority" have become inappropriate (unless they are intended to serve retreatist movements).
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Value perception
Increasing the number of Jews must be done in all arenas. Both in cultivating Jewish identity, in an effort to curb assimilation, and in the aspiration that the younger Jewish generation receive a Jewish education. Both in encouraging Jewish birthrates - to work to ensure that more and more children are born to the people of Israel, and these will compensate to some extent for the assimilation and assimilation.
This week's Torah tells how the people of Israel increased their numbers in the face of the decrees of the Egyptians who tried to harm their growth: "And the children of Israel were fruitful and multiplied and multiplied and waxed exceedingly strong, and the land was filled with them.".
There were no government incentives at the time, and apparently economic conditions were not the best, but our ancestors behaved like a healthy people, wanting to survive and develop, and indeed they left Egypt as a great nation.
It is difficult to understand the disproportion between the enormous investments in immigration and the lack of investment, and even the cuts, in the birth rate. The state spends a huge amount of money on systems to encourage immigration, and provides an absorption basket and exorbitant benefits to every immigrant; while with an extremely small budget it is possible to achieve an increase in the Jewish population, without needing a Hebrew language studio or absorption centers.
This is not just a matter of budgetary investments, but of a value perception. The Jewish people see the birth and bringing another Jewish soul into the world as a supreme value. This is the first commandment in the Torah, and the sources are full of wonderful expressions about the value of every Jewish child and the great privilege of its parents.
It is all the more appropriate to cultivate this value in light of the demographic danger, and to create a cultural climate that encourages families to have children.
Set a vision
There is no doubt that raising a large family requires the investment of greater human and financial resources, but nowadays there are support systems that ease the burden on parents. If the state invested more in these systems, such as daycare centers, enrichment classes, and counseling and guidance services, while also fostering the value of the birth rate, we could easily increase the Jewish population through 'internal immigration.'.
To be realistic, the current government is incapable of even thinking about such directions. However, the fact that this challenge currently does not seem practical should not prevent us from positing this vision as correct, essential, and just. Not everything depends on the government.
If each and every one of us speaks to those around us about the value of a large family, its beauty, and its great benefit to the future of the Jewish people, waves of consciousness will be created that will bring about a greater Jewish birthrate and a healthier and stronger nation.
