SocialAction.com - Issue: Are There Too Many

Are There Too Many Jews in the World?

By RABBI LAWRENCE TROSTER

Why is this a specifically Jewish issue?

The world Jewish population lives mostly in developed countries. Within those countries, including Israel, Jews are usually in the middle and upper-middle classes, where resource consumption is at the highest levels. Look at any synagogue or JCC parking lot, for example, and you will see large numbers of low mileage SUVs. Jews have also continued to move into suburbs with larger and larger homes even as their family size has declined.

Jewish continuity discussions have always been based on the assumption that the community is underpopulated as a result of the Holocaust, low birthrate, intermarriage and assimilation. But based on consumption levels, can not a claim be made that there are too many Jews in the world?

When the Jewish community first debated Zero Population Growth (ZPG) over twenty years ago, there was a general consensus that Jews did not have to adhere to ZPG because of the Holocaust. It was argued that our losses in the Holocaust and from intermarriage morally exempted us from promoting ZPG among our own community, even while we could advocate it for other people. Even though most Jews actually did follow ZPG with lower birthrates (probably for reasons of education and economics), the community as a whole continues to assume this exemption.

We no longer have a moral exemption from limiting our own population growth. Jews can no longer call for other people to limit their populations unless we deal with our own personal and communal consumption, not just as middle class consumers but as Jews. The wastefulness of simchas--our parties for bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings, and the like--and the constant movement of our communities to environmentally sensitive areas are but two examples of how we cannot claim to be outside of the population/consumption debate.

In our rush to suburban and exurban areas, we have increased car use and taken up land that should be left untouched by development. Many of the fastest growing Jewish communities are in cities like Las Vegas which are in environmentally problematic areas. These urban areas have no limits to growth and have given little thought as to how to sustain a community of millions of people in a desert.

Overconsumption will also have a disastrous effect on Israel. Israel is already one of the most densely populated areas of the world, yet it wastes water and has little in the way of sewage or toxic waste treatment. The assumption that the majority of the world's Jews will soon live in the state of Israel ignores the limitations of the environment of the land of Israel. A rampant consumer society will soon turn the Holy Land into the Despoiled Land.

As Jews, we are going to have to make a moral commitment to a sustainable economy, and to adopt personal practices and communal policies that reflect that ideal. After all, the future of the Jewish community is bound up with the environmental fate of the world. Many of the world's Jews live near coastlines and will feel the affects of global warming in this century. And the violent conflict that results from environmental dislocation and scarcity will not pass us by. In the Middle East, conflicts over limited water resources have already begun, and will only get worse.

Our tradition provides us with values that serve as the foundation for a Jewish ideology of a sustainable society. The prohibition bal tashchit ("do not destroy") tells us that the wanton abuse of creation for frivolous selfish reasons is prohibited. And moderation is a value that Jewish ethics has preached for centuries.

These concepts need to become the personal and communal values of today's Jewish community. They should govern how we live our day to day lives, how we observe our traditions, how we construct our communal buildings, how we invest our personal and communal money, and where we build our communities. Then we can call for more Jews in the world.

Websites devoted to sustainable living: The best website for Jewish environmentalism is that of COEJL: The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life. They have two sections devoted to how you can make your home and your synagogue more environmentally sound:

COEJL's site also has extensive links to many of the major US environmental organizations, including those dealing with sustainable living at www.coejl.org/resources/usenvorg.php.

To see the United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) information on the state of the world, go to www.unep.org.

Finally, the World Watch Institute publishes annually a book called "The State of the World", which is the basic statistical report on progress towards a sustainable world. They have regular updates at their website www.worldwatch.org.