An Open Letter to the Pro-Israel Community on X
As of the last estimate, there are about 15.7 million Jews living in the world today. Just to put that in context, that is less than the population of the 11 largest cities by population in the world today. That is less than Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai, SĆ£o Paulo, Mexico D.F., Cairo, Mumbai, Beijing, Dhaka, Osaka and New York City. That's right. When I was in Manhattan yesterday meeting with a friend from Winnipeg, I was in a place with more people than the total number of Jews in the world today.
Roughly 46% of Jews live in Israel. This is about 7.2 million people. This is followed by 6.3 million in the USA (where I live), with the greatest concentration of about 1.7 million Jews in the New York Metro area (where I also live). That leaves only about 2.2 million Jews living elsewhere in the world.
As you can see, there aren't very many of us. In fact, there are fewer Jews alive today than there were in 1939. That seems to defy logic, but it is true. If you chose almost any other group of people based on race, nationality, religion, or ethnicity, you would find that their numbers have increased over this 86 year period. So, you will find more Arabs, Swedes, Hindus and Argentinians today than there were before World War II. But this is not the case with Jews.
So, as you can see, we are truly outnumbered. With over 8 billion people in the world, that makes Jews a fraction of a percentage point in the world population. As I already pointed out, 11 citizens outnumber us. And when you take into account nations based on religion, we have but one: Israel.
This is why it is so crucial for Jews to be united. It is also why it is vital for us to have allies. But, sadly, disunity and lack of allies are something that has plagued us throughout history. This is what we are seeing now. Jews in Israel were divided over Judicial Reform before 10/7, which may have made Hamas see weakness. American Jews were divided over the past year during the presidential race. We are divided over Ukraine, over the direction of the war, over the future of Judaism, over Kahane, over left and right, and even here on X over who are our allies. But what we shouldn't be divided over is the knowledge that we don't have the luxury to allow our divisions to harden our hearts and to spill over into public spats.
There is no dearth of enemies who have large platforms. Tucker Carlson, Jackson Hinkle, Ian Carroll, Rotten Candy Owens, Dan Bilzerian, Jake Shields, Mehdi Hassan, Rathbone, Syrian Girl and so many others have massive followings on X and other social media platforms. Some do it purely out of hatred for Jews and Israel. Others are charlatans who get paid handsomely by our enemies for propagandizing against us. Our blood is cheap but those in Qatar, Iran, China and elsewhere pay a premium for these influencers to spread Blood Libels that lead to the spilling of Jewish blood.
We are fortunate, though, because we are not alone. There are many non-Jews of good faith who support us. Many are Christians, whether Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox or non-denominational. There are Hindus and Buddhists and atheists and even Muslims. These are all Righteous Among the Nations.
We even have many non-Jewish influencers and reporters who have shown their support on X for the Jewish people and the nation of Israel in our time of need. Recently, some in our community have questioned the motives of these popular figures. There are those who suggested that they are only in it for the money. Let's assume for arguments sake that this is true. Would this change the message? Would this make it less likely that the undecided and nonaligned might change their minds to support the Jewish people after hearing these people speak? If the answer to these two questions is "no" (as I believe it is), then why should we care if our non-Jewish supporters and their motives are not ideologically "pure"? Our enemies have no problems lavishing large amounts of money on high profile Jew haters to spread lies and innuendo. So it shouldn't make a difference if we have people saying the truth about the Jewish people and Israel that shows we are right, even if they happen to be motivated, at least in part, by a paycheck.
There is also another issue I would like to address. A number of the recent attacks that have been dividing our community here have been launched by those who are neither Jewish nor Israeli. While I am eternally grateful to those who have shown alliance with us, I hope they understand that getting into arguments over ideological purity are self-defeating. These witch hunts and dog piles are more harmful than they can imagine. They are also frustrating when they are perpetuated by those with no skin in the game. This is a deadly serious business we are dealing with. The only guarantee of safety for the Jewish people is the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish State. If we lose Israel, there will be nothing standing in the way of our enemies completing Hitler's work. As the saying goes, Israel doesn't exist because of the Holocaust, but the Holocaust happened because Israel didn't exist. Myself, my wife, my children and every other of the 15.7 million Jews in the world is currently threatened with extinction. We saw this on 10/7 and the ensuing 17 months of Hell on earth. Our asses are literally in the jackpot. So, if you wish to support us, then may Hashem bless you as He said to Abraham. But don't use that support to launch attacks that divide us.
Thank you.