The estrangement between Orthodox and secular, pulling the Jewish world in opposite directions, is no less a problem than assimilation, he says. The challenge for the Jewish People in the coming century, says Della Pergola, will be to halt its increasing polarization and seek cohesion. This demands leaders capable of creating discourse and finding common themes. Jewish survival, certainly one of history's oddest phenomena, has been sustained by religion, by an apartness partially self-imposed and partially imposed by the outside world, and by survival stratagems. The latter have permitted the Jews to adapt with amazing success to new environments, as if by an organism with a will to live.
Religion is no longer a strong adhesive and apartness is also a muted factor in the modern world.
It will be of no small interest in the coming years to see whether the will to live is sufficiently strong to enable new survival strategies to be shaped. Della Pergola hesitates to predict the Jewish demographic situation a century hence but his successor in 2100 will doubtless have a tale to tell. See the articles you read most frequently during the last three months. The Western Wall Enjoy this great online photo exhibit. Support Israel's Soldiers The Fund for Strengthening Israel's Defense.