The Pew Research Center completed a survey in 2016 comparing world religions in regards to their levels of education. To the surprise of very few, Jews were the most educated group with an average of 13.4 years of education. What was also notable, was that Jews were the only religious group in which the level of education for men and women was the same.
Religion
Men
Women
Difference
Jews
13.4
13.4
0.0
Christians
9.5
9.1
0.4
Buddhists
8.5
7.4
0.9
Muslims
6.4
4.9
1.5
Hindus
6.9
4.2
2.7
Pew Research Center review of average number of years of education, by religion
The educational level for all ages in each religion has been rising, with Hindus and Muslims making the strongest gains (people over age 55 in those religions have only about 3.5 years of education). Unfortunately, as younger Hindus and Muslims get educated, the gender gap remains significant. Due to a rigid patriarchal society in many poor countries, 33% of young Muslim women and 38% of young Hindu women receive no formal education.
The exact opposite trend is happening among Jews. For older Jews, men (66%) outpace women (59%) in post-secondary degrees, while for younger Jews, women (69%) outpace men (57%).
At Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, students have been accepted to dental schools at the rate of 100 percent for three years running.
Jews have a higher level of education in every country they live in. In Brazil, Jews average 12.5 years of schooling while non-Jews average 6.8 years. In South Africa, Jews average 12.0 years in school and non-Jews average 7.2 years.
Latin America is a curious anomaly regarding educational gender gaps for Jews and non-Jews. Jewish men average 12.1 years of education and Jewish women 11.6 years, a 0.5 year gap. Meanwhile, non-Jewish men and non-Jewish women have 7.4 and 7.3 years of schooling, respectively, almost no gap at all. So while Jews in Latin America are more highly educated than non-Jews as they are in every continent, the gender gap is uniquely more pronounced in that community than in society.
Overall, Jews are the most highly educated and have achieved gender parity unlike any other group.
As the United Nations meets in March 2021 to discuss the role of women around the world, perhaps it is time for it to promote Jewish women into leadership positions at the troubled agency.
The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is represented in mathematics by the Greek lower letter Pi. To visualize this relationship, consider using a string to make a circle, and then straighten that string to run right across the circle through its center. The ratio of the length of the entire circle to that straight diameter line is pi, constant regardless of the size of the circle.
pi, or 3.14……
Beyond the geometry, people are drawn to this figure for other reasons. The number, when represented as a decimal goes on forever. People have used modern computers to take the number out to a trillion decimals! The first numbers 3.14159265359… are often abbreviated as 3.14.
Pi can also represent fertility. A circle is often used to represent women, such as in genealogy tables. Women were likely given the circle (as opposed to men who are denoted by squares) because of the roundness of their bellies while pregnant. Meanwhile, lines are used as a connection to spouses and offspring.
pedigree table, with women represented by circles
Pi represents the intersection of these ideas – women, generations, an infinite line and constancy. They all come together in the matriarchs of the Hebrew Bible.
Genesis 15:5 tells the story of God telling Abram that his descendants will be like the stars:
He took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He added, “So shall your offspring be.”
Immediately after this story, Abram took Hagar, Sarai’s maid because Sarai was barren, and had a child with her. Some years later, Sarai (then Sarah) was able to have a child, Isaac. After Sarah died, Abraham took a third wife, Keturah, and had six children with her (Genesis 25:1-2).
Abraham’s son Isaac had only one wife, Rebecca. The Jewish people continued its lineage through Jacob who fathered children through four women: Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah.
This is the beginning of the promise to Abraham to have offspring too numerous to count: he had children with three women, Isaac had children with one woman, and Jacob sired children with four women: 3 1 4. Hebrew pi is infinite and constant, just like God’s promise to Abraham.
The United States Congress passed bi-partisan legislation which was signed into law by President Donald Trump in March 2018 which limited funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as long as it supported terror.
H.R. 1625 included language from the Taylor Force Act, named for an American murdered by a Palestinian Arab while visiting Israel, which specifically called out:
“The Palestinian Authority’s practice of paying salaries to terrorists serving in Israeli prisons, as well as to the families of deceased terrorists, is an incentive to commit acts of terror.“
It added that Congress further
“calls on the Palestinian Authority, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and any successor or affiliated organizations to stop payments for acts of terrorism by individuals who are imprisoned after being fairly tried and convicted for acts of terrorism and by individuals who died committing acts of terrorism and to repeal the laws authorizing such payments.“
The terms “terrorists” and “terrorism” being used for Palestinian Arabs is an anathema for The New York Times. The liberal paper actively seeks to portray the Palestinian Arabs in a favorable light as much as possible and did so in a March 11, 2021 article called “Chance of Renovation of School on West Bank Hinge on Aid From U.S.”
March 11, 2021 pro-Palestinian propaganda article by The New York Times
After twenty paragraphs of describing the students in an Arab school simply wanting an education and fearful of “ultranationalist settlers,” the article described the Taylor Force Act, albeit quite differently from than the actual text cited above. The Times wrote:
“The Act restricts the U.S. government’s ability to disburse aid that “directly benefits” the Palestinian Authority as long as the authority pays the salaries of Palestinian security prisoners and slain attackers.“
The word “slain” is defined as “to kill violently, wantonly, or in great numbers.” In other words, according to the Times, it is the Palestinian “attackers” who are killed violently and wantonly by Israelis. In regards to the Palestinians, they are not terrorists, but just “attackers” who may or may not kill violently, wantonly or in great numbers. Probably not.
This is a complete inversion of the U.S. law which sought to defend basic human rights by denying the funding of terrorism, turning the killers into the victims.
The misdirection of the Times continued a few paragraphs later with:
“The Palestinian Authority hasn’t announced plans for any significant reforms to its highly popular payment system.” That’s true. Palestinian Arabs love the flow of money coming from U.S. taxpayers to terrorists even if it means that they will be denied any aid from the United States. They would rather continue funding the murder of Israelis than have money to pay for a school.
But that story is lost in the Times’ misinformation piece which made the money to Palestinians look like a convenient system set up to aid the impoverished. Instead, the article finished with the plea “Our [Palestinian] kids have nothing to do with politics… why should they pay the price?” A brilliant advertisement, making the reader adopt the first person image that their “own” children are the ones who suffer from the U.S. law.
The United States stands against terrorists and those who fund and support them – not just including, but specifically – the Palestinian Authority. It is an insult to the memory and families of the American and Israeli victims of Palestinian Arab terrorists that the Times actively inverts the killers and the victims.
The mainstream media has been advancing the notion that the United States has always been, and remains, a country entrenched in systemic racism. It uses myriad statistics to support this theory such as higher Black unemployment, poverty and incarceration nationwide.
Recently, the liberal media has used the pandemic as another example to support their belief of systemic racism. For months, they reported that more Black and Hispanic people lost their jobs, and have been infected and died from COVID-19. The media informed the public that it was because of systemic racism and rich White people taking all of the vaccines as a matter of privilege.
So it was a (momentary) nice surprise to see The New York Times finally write that a major reason that Black people have not been vaccinated is that they don’t want to be vaccinated. The March 11, 2021 Times article “Misinformation Deepens a Gap in Vaccinations” described how Black people do not trust the government and believe that the vaccines are harmful because they have been fed “misinformation”. As the Times has repeatedly described mis/disinformation campaigns as a right-wing phenomenon, it was clear that the Times was attempting to portray another right-wing racist assault on people of color.
Front page article of New York Times on March 11, 2011
The Times article described over-and-again how Blacks and Hispanics and “communities of color” were weary about being vaccinated because they distrusted the government – and for good reason. It noted that “the belief that doctors are interested in experimenting on certain communities has deep roots among some groups, Ms. Kolai said. Anti-vaccine activists have drawn historical examples, including Nazi doctors who ran experiments in concentration camps, and the Baltimore hospital where, 70 years ago, cancer cells were collected from Henrietta Lacks, a Black mother of five.” Somehow, the Times omitted that the Nazi victims were Jews (who have been getting vaccinated), leaving a reader to imagine that those in concentration camps may have been Hispanics at the Mexico-U.S. border, as liberals termed those detention facilities.
The Times went on to accuse White people because “Many Black and Hispanic people were already struggling to make appointments and reach vaccination sites that are often in whiter, wealthier neighborhoods. And officials in some cities say that people from those [whiter, wealthier] neighborhoods also have been flooding appointment systems and taking supply intended for poorer Black and Hispanic residents.” It seemed like the Times was pushing a narrative in which rich White right-wing racists convince Black people that the vaccines are unhealthy so they could then sweep in to take all of the vaccines intended for poorer neighborhoods.
Lost in all the conspiracy peddling was self-reflection. The progressive disinformation campaign about American systemic racism has further instilled the sense of distrust in the government and the medical profession, making minorities increasingly wary of signing up to get vaccinated.
Indeed there is a disinformation harming minorities, but its sources is the very media that points elsewhere.
The Catholic Pope went to Iraq in March 2021 to visit the land that used to be home to nearly two million Christians. A country which was at one time an example of coexistence, routed its Jews in the 1940’s and 1950’s and other religious communities over the past decades. The Christian population has plummeted by 80 per cent.
Upon arriving in Iraq, Pope Francis said “Iraq has suffered the disastrous effects of wars, the scourge of terrorism and sectarian conflicts often grounded in a fundamentalism incapable of accepting the peaceful coexistence of different ethnic and religious groups.” He used the term “fundamentalism” without tying it to Islam, so as to not offend his hosts and trying to build bridges to salvage the remains of the Christian community.
No one is confused about the situation.
Open Doors, a Christian advocacy group, published its 2021 World Watch List highlighting the 50 worst countries for Christians. Other than North Korea (#1) and India (#10), all of the worst anti-Christian countries had a Muslim majority. Not surprisingly, almost all of these countries have seen their Christian populations decline.
Yet, about 500 miles away from Iraq, next to war-torn Syria, lies the new Garden of Eden, a sanctuary for Christians in the center of the Middle East/ North Africa (MENA): the Jewish State of Israel.
When the Modern State of Israel was founded in 1948, there were 34,000 Christians in the country. That number has grown by 5.2 times, to 177,000 today. It is a rate higher than the growth of the Christian population worldwide and dwarves the rate of change of Christians in the MENA region.
Christian tourists also love visiting Israel. In 2018, Christians made up 56% of the tourists visiting the modern Jewish State. The country actively encourages Christians to come visit to see the birthplace of Christianity and visit sacred sites.
Being baptized in the Jordan River are Latin celebrities, from left, Zuleyka Rivera, Luis Alfonso Borrego, Andrea Escalona, Sherlyn González, and Carlitos Perez-Ruiz (Luis Fonsi’s manager). Photo courtesy of America’s Voices in Israel
In 2015, the Christian community built a new museum in the heart of Israel’s capital of Jerusalem, the Friends of Zion Museum. It is designed to “tell the stories of both the dream to restore the Jewish people to their historic homeland and of the brave non-Jews who assisted them in the realization of this dream.” It is a feat of religious harmony enabled by the Israeli government in Judaism’s most holy city. It stands in sharp contrast to the treatment of Christians and Christianity elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Pope’s tour of the Muslim Middle East is a reminder to Christians everywhere of the uniqueness of the one Jewish State and reasons to continue its commitment to see Israel thrive.
On March 1, 2021, Frontier Airlines forced a Hasidic Jewish couple to deplane a flight from New York to Miami because they allegedly refused to wear a mask. The airline stated that “a large group of passengers repeatedly refused to comply with the U.S. government’s federal mask mandate,” which led to the ultimate cancellation of the flight.
Martin Joseph, A Hasidic man on the flight disputed the airlines claim saying “[w]e understand that the mask has to be worn, and everybody has to wear a mask, and that’s the law. We comply one million percent.“
I took a flight from New York to Miami with many Hasidic families during the pandemic. In my experience, both the airlines and the passengers were correct. Hasidim do wear masks, but it only covers their necks and chins.
January 6, 2021 was anything but a regular day in the United States, but it did showcase the routine and pervasive anti-Israel attitudes in the media.
D.C. Mob
The day began with thousands of Americans who were upset about both the result of the presidential election and how the vote was carried out amidst the pandemic. While the protestors filed for a permit to conduct their protest in front of the US Capital, an unruly mob soon stormed the building and pushed their way inside. In the mayhem, police opened fire on the surging crowd, killing a woman. Investigators recommended that the police officer not be charged in the shooting, as the action was deemed to be appropriate.
The media would not identify the officer. However, the woman, Ashli Babbit, was described as being consumed with “radical conservative topics and conspiracy theories” and “a loyal Fox News watcher” who “engaged on social media with the conspiracy site InfoWars.” The media called her en extremist who came to D.C. with the intent to do harm.
The media was clear as to the good and bad actors in the episode and championed the actions of the capitol police. If anything, they bemoaned there not being enough police to stop the mob infiltrating the halls of Congress.
The media took the exact opposite approach in describing Israel’s defense of its border from thousands of attackers from Gaza in 2018 and 2019.
Gaza Mob
Gaza is the home to Arabs hell-bent on destroying Israel and killing Jews.
Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005 to local Arab rule. In 2006, the Arabs in the Strip and West Bank voted Hamas, the terrorist group sworn to the destruction of Israel, to 58% of the Palestinian parliament. In 2007, Hamas took over ruling the area from the Palestinian Authority and subsequently launched wars against Israel in 2008, 2012 and 2014. The militants also built numerous tunnels underground into Israel used to kidnap Israelis, sent fire-kites into Israel in arson attacks and launched hundreds of missiles into Israel in between all-out battles.
So when Hamas sent thousands of people – including teenagers – out to the fence which separates the Strip from Israel, with the stated desire to invade the country, Israel sent its army to confront the mob.
A picture taken on March 30, 2018 from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz across the border from the Gaza strip shows Palestinians participating in a protests, with Israeli military vehicles seen below in the foreground. (AFP PHOTO / Jack GUEZ)
The intent of the vicious mob was quite clear, manifest in the 1988 Hamas Charter which calls for the killing of Jews and total destruction of Israel under the banner of Islam. Armed with wire cutters to cut the fence, blazing tires to set it on fire, mines and bombs to attack Israeli trucks and rocks to pelt the soldiers, the Israeli Defense Forces opened fire, as necessary to protect the country from invasion.
The press did not write about the story that way.
The Guardian called the violent mob “protestors” who had just “turn[ed] out to commemorate mass displacement of people in 1948.” Hamas was never described as a terrorist group and their political status was portrayed as just: “Palestinian political factions and civil society groups have demanded an end to a severe Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza and for Palestinian refugees to be allowed back to their ancestral homes in Israel.” There was no description of the stated intent to destroy Israel.
TRTWorld showed pictures of Israelis with guns and wounded Palestinians in their reporting, rather than the thousands of Gazans amassed at the fence. It made light of Israeli security concerns stating “Israeli forces often fire on demonstrators, under the pretext of preventing the border from being infiltrated, but among those killed are medics and journalists.“
Al Jazeera wrote that the “protestors” were simply on a “march” as part of a “a coalition of civil organisations” when they were shot by Israeli forces. The Arabs take part in such marches because “People have lost hope. There is only despair and misery all around them.“
The United Nations once again took up the cause of their historic wards and stated that it “has found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli security forces committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.“
The press and U.N. wrote that it was shocked at Israelis shooting teenagers and never wrote nor condemned Hamas for putting minors at the front of a battlefield.
The Mobs at D.C. and Gaza
The situation and reaction to the mobs in D.C. and Gaza could not have been more different.
Citizens vs. Invaders. The mob at the U.S. Capitol began the day with peaceful protests of Americans at their representative body, before mob mentality set in. The mob in Gaza were foreigners who reject Israel’s right to exist who want to kill Israelis who were seeking an invasion.
Unarmed versus Armed. The mob at the Capitol had to use poles and barricades found on site to break into the building whereas the Gazans all came heavily armed.
One day versus years. The attack on the capitol happened on a single day. The attacks from Gaza have been raging since 2008.
Vilification versus Defense. Despite the differences, the press vilified the Americans and defended the Gazans. It pointed out the conspiracy theories and hateful ideologies of some American protestors but never called Hamas a terrorist group or referenced its Nazi-themed foundational charter. The press zeroed in on Americans wearing anti-Semitic t-shirts but never on the Arabs hoisting swastikas.
Palestinian flags and a swastika are seen amid the black smoke of Gaza demonstrations, April 6, 2018 (IDF Spokesperson Unit)
More defense versus stripping defense. American politicians supported the shooting of the American mob and were furious that there were not more police officers to defend the Capitol, however, the United Nations believes that Israel has no right to self-defense and must allow these Arabs to enter Israel – which is why the temporary agency UNRWA continues to exist 70 years after it was formed.
The hypocrisy of attitudes towards condemning the mob at the U.S. Capitol and defending the rioters from Gaza once again demonstrated the systemic anti-Israel orientation of much of the liberal press, politicians and United Nations.
The Ultra Orthodox Jewish community does not often get represented in mass media. In recent times, two shows focused on that community with dramatically different results – and seemingly, intentions.
Netflix aired two seasons of an Israeli show “Shtisel” about an Ultra Orthodox family in Jerusalem. The show revealed the complicated family structure and dynamics of a dysfunctional Haredi family to a surprisingly broad public appeal. Jews and non-Jews around the world flocked to watch the show as they saw much of themselves in the family relationships despite the distant and insular community in which they lived.
This was in sharp contrast to a recent episode of NBC’s “Nurses” which aired on February 9 which also featured religious Jews. In that episode, a young Hasidic patient refused a bone graft lest the skin come from a “dead goyim leg from anyone. An Arab, a woman.” Due to howls of protest of the disgusting portrayal, NBC pulled the show from its online library.
“Shtisel” did not shy away from the peculiar traditions of the Hasidic community such as rigid gender roles, courtship rituals or dress code. The writers did not try to make the characters perfect in any matter: they were at once deeply flawed and deeply human. Their failures and pains enveloped the audience. While the people on screen were clearly different, the common humanity was appreciated and celebrated by all viewers.
This was in sharp contrast to the approach of “Nurses.” The show did not try to show religious Jews as sharing the same day-to-day conflicts and concerns but cast them as distinctly foreign with unheard of alien beliefs. These Jews held racist and xenophobic attitudes that were designed to shock the audience. These were another set of the “deplorables” that Hillary Clinton had warned America about. They weren’t the classic white-hooded clansmen, but black-hatted supremacists all the same.
Screenshot from episode of TV show ‘Nurses’
Not two weeks later, NBC’s Saturday Night Live aired a segment of “Weekend Update” which accused Israel of only vaccinating Jews against COVID-19, leaving non-Jews to die, a complete falsehood. No apology was forthcoming from the comedian, the show or network.
The vilification of religious Jews in the United States is growing ever more commonplace and mainstream media and liberal politicians will tell you that it is all from right-wing fringe groups, even as they air anti-Semitic segments with increasing regularity.
Much of Gaza’s economy relies on exporting goods like textiles and agricultural products. After the terrorist group HAMAS took over the area in 2006, Israel and Egypt put a blockade in place to limit the importation of weapons. After three wars from the Gazans in 2008, 2012 and 2014, as well as intermittent rocket fire and arson balloons launched into Israel and attacks against the separation fence, Israel limited exports to the strip as well.
From June 2007 to October 2014, an average of 13.5 trucks left Gaza each month according to Gisha. As part of the “hudna,” or truce after the summer 2014 war, Israel began to allow more exports to the West Bank through the Kerem Shalom Crossing. The monthly average soon jumped to 113 truckloads of goods in 2015 and to 178 truckloads in 2016. The numbers continued to grow.
Kerem Shalom Crossing (photo: Reuters)
In December 2019, Gazan exports broke the 400 truckload milestone for the first time, and did so again in January 2020. In September 2020, Israel began to increase its purchase of Gaza’s exports. In December 2020, Israel purchased over 100 truckloads of Gazan goods.
Last month, in January 2021, Gazan exports broke the 500 monthly truckloads milestone for the first time. There were 143 truckloads destined for Israel and 361 and 4 bound for the West Bank and other locations, respectively.
Despite the attacks on Israel and Gazans support for killing Israeli civilians, Israel is actively engaged in supporting the Gaza economy. It’s a story that will not be told by the mainstream media.
The New York Times has begun its latest battle with Israel and other Arab countries which seek to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons and threaten the region, now that Joe Biden is president. The paper’s game plan is seemingly to make Iran appear as a benevolent actor, akin to other nuclear powers like France.
The February 20, 2021 print edition of The New York Times had an article called “Israel Reacts to U.S. Strategy on Iran Quietly, but Warily.” The article contained two black and white pictures with the larger top picture featuring two Iranian women shopping, while the bottom picture featured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surrounded by security people. The caption read “Above, a bazaar in Tehran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, avoided direct comment on the U.S. plan to reopen negotiations with Iran.“
For a story about the Iranian nuclear deal, the “news”paper opted to showcase a couple of women shopping to “educate” its readership about the nature of Iran. It declined to use footage which would have actually added context to the story such as:
There are many pictures which would have been appropriate to include with the article as to why Israel is against the leading state sponsor of terrorism which threatened to wipe it off the map, gaining nuclear weapons. However, The NY Times wants to portray Israel as unduly nervous and paranoid about Iran, perhaps even racist. For the Times, Iran is much like France where women like to shop for handbags. Perhaps the Times will re-launch its tourism junket to Iran (which it billed as a “powerful country [which] has entranced, mystified and beguiled the world. Discover the ancient secrets and modern complexities of this influential land”) as soon as the pandemic winds down.
First One Through 