Friday, September 18, 2015

The State of Israel in Numbers

In case, in the holiday rush, you missed these 5776 Jewish New Year tidbits, here we go. They're from the Sept 11, 2015 Haaretz (Hebrew).

1.      Israel’s Population Hits 8.4 Million on Eve of Jewish New Year
2.      Of these 6,300,000 are Jewish
3.      28,000 people immigrated to Israel (nine percent from the United States)
4.      70 percent of Jewish Israelis believe in God – obviously including the majority non-Orthodox population
5.      63 percent want public transportation on Shabbat
6.      55 percent want civil marriage
7.      In terms of happiness, 59 percent of secular Israelis, 64 percent of traditional Israelis, 74 percent of Orthodox Israelis and 78 percent of ultra-Orthodox Israelis say they are happy.
8.      51 percent of Israeli Jews eat kosher exclusively.
9.      42 percent support single-sex marriage
10.   28 percent prefer SMS to using the telephone
11.   Only 47 percent of Israelis are happy with their jobs
12.   59 percent prefer home cooking to restaurant eating
13.   14 percent said they're thinking about emigrating
14.   27 percent have been in therapy- 3 percent are currently in therapy
15.   32 percent prefer spending time on the Internet against 18 percent who prefer TV
16.   34 percent told surveyors they are "right now" reading a book
17.   About seven percent of Jews are vegetarian  (3 percent vegan)
18.   82 percent self-define as "Zionist"
19.   42 percent say they have sex at least once a week