Facts from Diane Tobin’s lecture on Global Jewry

photo from Jweekly

If you missed the Jewish Diversity program and weren’t following the tweets on BecomingJewish, here is a quick rundown of the tweets.

*Diane Tobin heads Be’chol Lashon: A Global Jewish People.

*Young Jews are into social media and live in diverse circles.

*Most countries don’t count religions. There’s a lot of controversy about who’s a Jew. And many Jews are not forthcoming.

*Jews face “demographic challenges,” and there are about 15 million Jews, about 0.2% of the population.

*Jews are part of American life. Gallup Polls show that 86% approve of interracial marriage, as opposed to 4% 50 yrs ago

*Ethnically diverse Jews feel very connected to Jewishness but not to established institutions.

*Researchers estimate that approx 26 synagogues and 30,000 Ibos practice some sort of Judaism in Africa.

*The Abayudaya of Uganda trace their Jewish origins to early 1900’s; their Christian leader decided he liked the Hebrew bible.

*Be’Chol Lashon offers family and summer camps in the SF Bay Area for interracial families.

Read more about Be’chol Lashon in this NY Times article

Thank you to Linda B for providing the tweets.