Getting your Israel facts straight

(re: “Speaking for all the oppressed,” Sept. 17)

Wayne Price certainly has a right to his opinions, but he is factually mistaken when he calls the Jews of Israel “a mostly European population.”

According to the most recent survey of Israel’s population, from 2019, only 16 percent of Israel’s Jews have an origin from what we would call the “West,” including Latin America as well as Europe, North America and Oceania. Another 14 percent hail from the former Soviet Union, which includes many people from Central Asia.

Some 47 percent of Israeli Jews have been in the country for more than two generations. (My family, by the way, has been there for more than 100 years.)

Data about the population of Israel can be found in English at CBS.gov.il/en.

Mr. Price also shows ignorance of the facts when he asserts that Israel being a Jewish state is equivalent to the United States declaring itself a “white Christian” state. Putting aside the fact that Jewishness has nothing to do with race (in fact, the majority of Jews in the world would be considered “people of color,” according to the definition used in this country), it is, in fact, the United States that is unique in not defining itself based on an ethnic or religious identity, while Israel is no different in this respect from any other country.

It is because of the unique nature of the United States that immigrants like me love this country so much.

Finally, Mr. Price faults Israel for being an ally of the United States.

This confirms my observation that often, hostility to Israel is nothing more than a symptom of hatred for America.

Ron Wegsman

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