Frightening Statistics

 In 2007, a study by Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman entitled “Beyond Distancing” asked American Jews whether the destruction of Israel would be a personal tragedy for them. The study, we should note, asked about the destruction of Israel, not its gradual disappearance, or the slow withering away of the State. The study asked about a cataclysmic disappearance, and with it, presumably, a good portion of the six million Jews (itself a highly ironic number) who now dwell there. Among Jewish Americans sixty-five years of age and older, more than 80% said that Israel’s destruction would, indeed, be a personal tragedy for them. Amazingly, among those aged thirty-five and younger, a full 50% said that it would not.