11/14/23
Newsletter #511
The Crack of Dawn
How many Jews are there in the world 2023?
As of 2023, the world's "core" Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 16 million, 0.2% of the over 8 billion people worldwide.
At the time Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 there were 12 million Jews in the world. By the time Hitler committed suicide (and not a moment too soon), along with his wife and unwilling dog, on April 30, 1945, through extreme diligence, he had winnowed that number by half, meaning 12 million Jews down to 6 million. Therefore, as of now, Jews have just managed to replace, and slightly increase, their own numbers back from 6 million to 16 million, and it only took 75 years.
I’m choosing the country Burkina Faso because it came to mind first. Burkina Faso is a small, landlocked country in West Africa, formerly known as Upper Volta, whose capital is Ouagadougou, and has a population of just over 20 million people. I’ve never met anyone from Burkina Faso, although I have met a number of West Africans over the years. Well, there are more 4 million more Burkina Fasoians than there are Jews.
Jews have an extremely long history of being conquered, enslaved, and sent into exile. Jews celebrate Passover commemorating their freedom from enslavement to the Egyptians. As per the Old Testament Bible, Jews weren’t Jews when they were slaves in Egypt. It wasn’t until they were freed, then wandering aimlessly around the Sinai Desert that Abram encountered God on a mountaintop with a burning bush and received a covenant and 15, I mean, 10 commandments, as well as an extra “A” in his name, making him Abraham, that Hebrews “legitimately” became Jews.
In any case, Jews were enslaved and sent into exile by Assyrians, Babylonians, then 2,000 years ago, by the Romans. “Diaspora” is a word that means: the dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland. But the word presently means: the dispersion of the Jews from Israel by the Romans in 70 AD. This military action taken during the reign of the Roman Emperor Vespasian gives us basically the present world distribution of Jews (excluding the homeless Jews released from concentration camps in 1945, many of whom immigrated to what was then the British Protectorate of Palestine. This is when the concept, and mythology, developed about the “Wandering Jew,” which goes like this: According to the myth of the Wandering Jew, Ahasverus denied Christ a resting place while Christ was traveling to Golgotha. In turn, Ahasverus was cursed to roam the earth until the Second Coming. This story was so popular throughout the years that it even made up to the classy, 1933, British production starring Conrad Veidt (who would later go on to play Nazi Major Strasser in Casablanca).
To briefly explain, the Roman Empire encompassed the Middle East. When the Jews revolted against the Romans, the Jewish-Roman Wars were fought, and surprise, surprise, the Jews lost (as had most of the western world at that point). As I’ve said, Vespasian was the Emperor of Rome – Caesar, if you will – and his main general was his son, Titus Caesar Vespasianus, known as Titus. In 70 AD Titus burned down the main temple of Judaism in Jerusalem, known as the Second Temple or Herod’s Temple (which had been rebuilt after the destruction of the original Temple of David), and he kicked the Jews out of the Roman Province of Judea. Thus causing the Diaspora (it’s supposed to be capitalized).
Meanwhile, back in Rome, Titus was declared a great hero. He was given a triumph – a parade into Rome attended by every Roman – and had bestowed upon him a crown by Caesar himself, his father. Soon thereafter Vespasian came down with a seriously bad case of diarrhea. His last words were: "Vae, puto deus fio." ("Dear me, I think I'm becoming a god").
Titus ascended to the throne, thus becoming the first naturally born son to succeed a Caesar. The Roman Senate declared that a monument be built for Titus’ heroic victory in Judea, and his “destruction” of the Jews. This is the Arch of Titus. It presently stands on the Via Sacra in Rome. Why, since it’s a monument to hatred and the destruction of the Jews, is it still there? It’s a 2,000-year-old Roman monument, stupid. You don’t tear down monuments, even if they were erected for bad things. Why? Because it’s your history. Idiotic Americans can go and tear down their statues of their honestly great forebearers, like Lincoln, Washington or Teddy Roosevelt, or even their ignoble forefathers, like Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis, but Jews don’t demand that of history.
Thus, being wanderers by nature, the Diaspora caused the Jews spread out to damn near every country in the world. There are presently Jews inhabiting:
Africa:
Algeria, Angola, Bilad-el-Sudan, Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Benin, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Eswatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria (Igbo), Republic of the Congo, São Tomé, Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda (Abayudaya), Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Asia:
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (see below), Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kurdistan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.
Europe:
Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech lands, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary (where my maternal grandmother was from), Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland (where my fraternal grandfather was from), Portugal, Romania (where my maternal grandfather was from), Russia (where my fraternal great-grandparents were from), Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
Northern America:
Canada, United States, Latin America and the Caribbean.
South America:
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela.
And of course, Oceania:
Australia, Fiji, Guam, New Zealand, and last but not least, Palau (which was where the TV show, Jack of All Trades, starring Bruce Campbell, with episodes directed by me, was set).
Iraqi Jews were one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities, starting around 600 BC. As of 1947 there were 156,000 Jews living in Iraq. As of 2022 there are exactly three Jews left in Iraq.
And there you have it.
Excellent history of our PEEPS!!