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Do not fill this in! === Demographic changes === {{main|Historical Jewish population comparisons}} ==== Assimilation ==== {{main|Jewish assimilation|Interfaith marriage in Judaism}} Since at least the time of the [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greeks]], a proportion of Jews have assimilated into the wider non-Jewish society around them, by either choice or force, ceasing to practice Judaism and losing their [[Jewish identity]].<ref name=Johnson171>Johnson (1987), p. 171.</ref> Assimilation took place in all areas, and during all time periods,<ref name=Johnson171 /> with some Jewish communities, for example the [[Kaifeng Jews]] of [[China]], disappearing entirely.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shavei.org/communities/kaifeng_jews/articles-kaifeng_jews/chinese-jews-reverence-for-ancestors/ |title=Chinese Jews: Reverence for Ancestors |last=Edinger |first=Bernard |date=15 December 2005 |publisher=Shavei Israel |access-date=2 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003094552/http://www.shavei.org/communities/kaifeng_jews/articles-kaifeng_jews/chinese-jews-reverence-for-ancestors/ |archive-date=3 October 2012}}</ref> The advent of the Jewish Enlightenment of the 18th century (see [[Haskalah]]) and the subsequent [[Jewish emancipation|emancipation of the Jewish populations]] of Europe and America in the 19th century, accelerated the situation, encouraging Jews to increasingly participate in, and become part of, [[Secularism|secular society]]. The result has been a growing trend of assimilation, as Jews marry non-Jewish spouses and stop participating in the Jewish community.<ref>Elazar (2003), p. 434.</ref> Rates of [[Interfaith marriage|interreligious marriage]] vary widely: In the United States, it is just under 50 percent,<ref>{{cite web|title=NJPS: Defining and Calculating Intermarriage |url=http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=46252 |website=The Jewish Federations of North America |access-date=2 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812024158/http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=46252 |archive-date=12 August 2011}}</ref> in the United Kingdom, around 53 percent; in France; around 30 percent,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-prod.akadem.org/medias/documents/Rapport-Erik-Cohen.pdf |title=Les juifs de France: La lente progression des mariages mixtes |trans-title=The Jews of France: The slow progression of mixed marriages |last=Cohen |first=Erik H. |date=November 2002 |publisher=Akadem |language=fr |access-date=12 October 2020 |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416230622/http://www-prod.akadem.org/medias/documents/Rapport-Erik-Cohen.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> and in Australia and Mexico, as low as 10 percent.<ref>{{cite web|title=Australia|url=http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/communities/show/id/2|publisher=World Jewish Congress|access-date=2 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521082932/http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/communities/show/id/2|archive-date=21 May 2012}}</ref> In the United States, only about a third of children from intermarriages affiliate with Jewish religious practice.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jppi.org.il/uploads/Annual%20Assessment%202007.pdf|title=Annual Assessment 2007|access-date=3 July 2008|last=Waxman|first=Chaim I.|year=2007|publisher=Jewish People Policy Planning Institute ([[Jewish Agency for Israel]])|page=61}}</ref> The result is that most countries in the [[Jewish diaspora|Diaspora]] have steady or slightly declining religiously Jewish populations as Jews continue to assimilate into the countries in which they live.{{Citation needed|date=March 2016}} ==== War and persecution ==== {{further|Persecution of Jews|Antisemitism|Jewish military history}} [[File:The Emperor sends Vespasian with an army to destroy the Jews (f. 177v) Cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|The Roman Emperor [[Nero]] sends [[Vespasian]] with an army to destroy the Jews, 69 CE.]] The Jewish people and [[Judaism]] have experienced various [[persecution]]s throughout [[Jewish history]]. During [[Late Antiquity]] and the [[Early Middle Ages]] the [[Roman Empire]] (in its later phases known as the [[Byzantine Empire]]) repeatedly repressed the [[History of the Jews in the Roman Empire|Jewish population]], first by ejecting them from their homelands during the pagan [[Roman era]] and later by officially establishing them as [[Justinian I#Suppression of religions|second-class citizens]] during the Christian Roman era.<ref>Goldenberg (2007), pp. 131, 135–36.</ref><ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 164–65.</ref> According to [[James P. Carroll|James Carroll]], "Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of the [[Roman Empire]]. By that ratio, if other factors had not intervened, there would be 200 million Jews in the world today, instead of something like 13 million."<ref>Carroll, James. ''[[Constantine's Sword]]'' (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) {{ISBN|0-395-77927-8}} p. 26</ref> Later in [[Middle Ages|medieval]] Western Europe, further persecutions of Jews by Christians occurred, notably during the [[Crusades]]—when Jews all over Germany [[Rhineland massacres|were massacred]]—and in a series of expulsions from the [[Edict of Expulsion|Kingdom of England]], Germany, and France. Then there occurred the [[Alhambra Decree|largest expulsion of all]], when Spain and Portugal, after the [[Reconquista]] (the Catholic Reconquest of the [[Iberian Peninsula]]), expelled both unbaptized Sephardic Jews and the ruling Muslim [[Moors]].<ref name="Johnson207-208" /><ref name="Johnson213plus" /> In the [[Papal States]], which existed until 1870, Jews were required to live only in specified neighborhoods called [[ghetto]]s.<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 243–44.</ref> [[File:The Jews the world over love liberty poster.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[World War I]] poster showing a soldier cutting the bonds from a Jewish man, who says, "You have cut my bonds and set me free—now let me help you set others free!"]] [[Islam and Judaism]] have a complex relationship. Traditionally Jews and Christians living in Muslim lands, known as [[dhimmis]], were allowed to practice their religions and administer their internal affairs, but they were subject to certain conditions.<ref name="Bernard1020">Lewis (1984), pp. 10, 20</ref> They had to pay the [[jizya]] (a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males) to the Islamic state.<ref name="Bernard1020" /> Dhimmis had an inferior status under Islamic rule. They had several social and legal [[Disabilities (Jewish)|disabilities]] such as prohibitions against bearing arms or giving testimony in courts in cases involving Muslims.<ref>Lewis (1987), pp. 9, 27</ref> Many of the disabilities were highly symbolic. The one described by [[Bernard Lewis]] as "most degrading"<ref name=Lewis131 /> was the requirement of [[Yellow badge|distinctive clothing]], not found in the [[Quran]] or [[hadith]] but invented in [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval]] Baghdad; its enforcement was highly erratic.<ref name=Lewis131>Lewis (1999), p.131</ref> On the other hand, Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession.<ref>Lewis (1999), p. 131; (1984), pp. 8, 62</ref> Notable exceptions include the massacre of Jews and forcible conversion of some Jews by the rulers of the [[Almohad Caliphate|Almohad]] dynasty in [[Al-Andalus]] in the 12th century,<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 52; Stillman (1979), p. 77</ref> as well as in [[Islamic conquest of Persia|Islamic Persia]],<ref>Lewis (1984), pp. 17–18, 94–95; Stillman (1979), p. 27</ref> and the forced confinement of Moroccan Jews to walled quarters known as [[mellah]]s beginning from the 15th century and especially in the early 19th century.<ref>Lewis (1984), p. 28.</ref> In modern times, it has become commonplace for standard [[Anti-Zionism and antisemitism|antisemitic themes to be conflated with anti-Zionist]] publications and pronouncements of Islamic movements such as [[Hezbollah]] and [[Hamas]], in the pronouncements of various agencies of the [[Iran|Islamic Republic of Iran]], and even in the newspapers and other publications of Turkish [[Refah Partisi]]."<ref name=Lewis_MEQ>{{cite journal|url=http://www.meforum.org/396/muslim-anti-semitism|title=Muslim Anti-Semitism|first=Bernard|last=Lewis|author-link=Bernard Lewis|journal=Middle East Quarterly|publisher=Middle East Forum|date=June 1998}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2022}} Throughout history, many rulers, empires and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely. Methods employed ranged from [[Deportation|expulsion]] to outright [[genocide]]; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent. The [[history of antisemitism]] includes the [[First Crusade]] which resulted in the massacre of Jews;<ref name="Johnson207-208">Johnson (1987), pp. 207–08.</ref> the [[Spanish Inquisition]] (led by [[Tomás de Torquemada]]) and the [[Portuguese Inquisition]], with their persecution and ''[[Auto-da-fé|autos-da-fé]]'' against the [[New Christians]] and [[Marrano]] Jews;<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 226–29.</ref> the [[Bohdan Chmielnicki]] Cossack massacres in [[Ukraine]];<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 259–60.</ref> the [[Pogrom]]s backed by the Russian [[List of Russian rulers|Tsars]];<ref name="Johnson 1987, pp. 364–365">Johnson (1987), pp. 364–65.</ref> as well as expulsions from Spain, Portugal, England, France, Germany, and other countries in which the Jews had settled.<ref name="Johnson213plus">Johnson (1987), pp. 213, 229–31.</ref> According to a 2008 study published in the ''[[American Journal of Human Genetics]]'', 19.8 percent of the modern [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberian]] population has Sephardic Jewish ancestry,<ref name="Adams2008">{{cite journal|last=Adams|first=Susan M.|year=2008|title=The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula|journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=83|issue=6|pages=725–36|issn=0002-9297|doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.11.007|pmid=19061982|pmc=2668061}}</ref> indicating that the number of [[converso]]s may have been much higher than originally thought.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/europe/04iht-gene.4.18411385.html|title=DNA study shows 20 percent of Iberian population has Jewish ancestry|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 December 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=Susan M. |last2=Bosch |first2=Elena |last3=Balaresque |first3=Patricia L. |last4=Ballereau |first4=Stéphane J. |last5=Lee |first5=Andrew C. |last6=Arroyo |first6=Eduardo |last7=López-Parra |first7=Ana M. |last8=Aler |first8=Mercedes |last9=Grifo |first9=Marina S. Gisbert |last10=Brion |first10=Maria |last11=Carracedo |first11=Angel |last12=Lavinha |first12=João |last13=Martínez-Jarreta |first13=Begoña |last14=Quintana-Murci |first14=Lluis |last15=Picornell |first15=Antònia |last16=Ramon |first16=Misericordia |last17=Skorecki |first17=Karl |last18=Behar |first18=Doron M. |last19=Calafell |first19=Francesc |last20=Jobling |first20=Mark A. |title=The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=December 2008 |volume=83 |issue=6 |pages=725–736 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.11.007 |pmid=19061982 |pmc=2668061 }}</ref> [[File:Bundesarchiv N 1576 Bild-006, Minsk, Juden.jpg|thumb|Jews in [[Minsk]], 1941. Before World War II, some 40 percent of the population was Jewish. By the time the Red Army retook the city on 3 July 1944, there were only a few Jewish survivors.]] The persecution reached a peak in [[Nazi Germany]]'s [[Final Solution]], which led to [[the Holocaust]] and the slaughter of approximately 6 million Jews.<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 512.</ref> Of the world's 16 million Jews in 1939, almost 40% were murdered in the Holocaust.<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 February 2015 |title=The continuing decline of Europe's Jewish population |url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/09/europes-jewish-population/ |archive-date=1 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200401012738/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/09/europes-jewish-population/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Holocaust—the state-led systematic [[persecution]] and [[genocide]] of European Jews (and certain communities of North African Jews in [[History of North Africa#European colonization|European controlled North Africa]]) and other [[minority group]]s of Europe during [[World War II]] by Germany and its [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborators]]—remains the most notable modern-day persecution of Jews.<ref>Donald L Niewyk, ''The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust'', [[Columbia University Press]], 2000, p. 45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans in World War II." However, the Holocaust usually includes all of the different victims who were systematically murdered.</ref> The persecution and [[genocide]] were accomplished in stages. [[Nuremberg Laws|Legislation to remove the Jews from civil society]] was enacted years before the outbreak of [[World War II]].<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 484–88.</ref> [[Nazi concentration camps|Concentration camps]] were established in which inmates were used as [[Slavery|slave labour]] until they died of exhaustion or disease.<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 490–92.</ref> Where the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]] conquered new territory in [[Eastern Europe]], specialized units called [[Einsatzgruppen]] murdered Jews and political opponents in mass shootings.<ref name="BBC-Grave">{{cite news|title=Ukrainian mass Jewish grave found|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6724481.stm|newspaper=BBC News Online|date=5 June 2007|access-date=10 October 2012}}</ref> Jews and [[Romani people|Roma]] were crammed into [[Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe|ghettos]] before being transported hundreds of kilometres by freight train to [[extermination camp]]s where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were murdered in gas chambers.<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 493–98.</ref> Virtually every arm of Germany's bureaucracy was involved in the logistics of the mass murder, turning the country into what one Holocaust scholar has called "a genocidal nation."<ref name=Berenbaum103>Berenbaum, Michael. ''The World Must Know," United States Holocaust Museum'', 2006, p. 103.</ref> ==== Migrations ==== {{further|Expulsions of Jews}} [[File:Expulsion judios-en.svg|thumb|left|Expulsions of Jews in Europe from 1100 to 1600]] Throughout Jewish history, Jews have repeatedly been directly or indirectly expelled from both their original homeland, the [[Land of Israel]], and many of the areas in which they have settled. This experience as [[Jewish refugees|refugees]] has shaped [[Jewish identity]] and religious practice in many ways, and is thus a major element of Jewish history.<ref>de Lange (2002), pp. 41–43.</ref> The patriarch [[Abraham]] is described as a migrant to the land of [[Canaan]] from [[Ur of the Chaldees|Ur]] of the [[Chaldea|Chaldees]]<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 10.</ref> after an attempt on his life by King [[Nimrod]].<ref>{{cite Jewish Encyclopedia|title=NIMROD|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11548-nimrod|first1=Emil G.|last1=Hirsch|author-link1=Emil G. Hirsch|first2=Max|last2=Seligsohn|author-link2=Max Seligsohn|first3=Wilhelm|last3=Bacher|author-link3=Wilhelm Bacher}}</ref> His descendants, the [[Children of Israel]], in the Biblical story (whose historicity is uncertain) undertook [[the Exodus]] (meaning "departure" or "exit" in Greek) from [[ancient Egypt]], as recorded in the [[Book of Exodus]].<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 30.</ref> [[File:Vertreibung der Juden 1614.jpg|thumb|upright|Etching of the [[Frankfurter Judengasse#The Fettmilch Uprising|expulsion of the Jews from Frankfurt]] in [[Timeline of antisemitism|1614]]. The text says: "1380 persons old and young were counted at the exit of the gate".]] [[File:Jewish refugees Liverpool 1882.jpg|thumb|Jews fleeing pogroms, 1882]] Centuries later, [[Assyria]]n policy was to deport and displace conquered peoples, and it is estimated some 4,500,000 among captive populations suffered this dislocation over three centuries of Assyrian rule.<ref name="Smith-Christopher" /> With regard to Israel, [[Tiglath-Pileser III]] claims he deported 80% of the population of [[Lower Galilee]], some 13,520 people.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3hc1Yp0VcjoC|title=The Study of the Ancient Near East in the Twenty-first Century|year=1996 |isbn=9780931464966 |last1=Cooper |first1=Jerrold S. |last2=Schwartz |first2=Glenn M. |publisher=Eisenbrauns }}</ref> Some 27,000 Israelites, 20 to 25% of the population of the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]], were described as being deported by [[Sargon II]], and were replaced by other deported populations and sent into permanent exile by Assyria, initially to the Upper Mesopotamian provinces of the Assyrian Empire.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qjkz_8EMoaUC|title=Biblical History and Israel S Past|isbn=9780802862600 |last1=Moore |first1=Megan Bishop |last2=Kelle |first2=Brad E. |date=17 May 2011 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPoQkBwjnVcC|title=Mixing Metaphors|isbn=9780826469694 |last1=Dille |first1=Sarah J. |date=July 2004 |publisher=A&C Black }}</ref> Between 10,000 and 80,000 people from the [[Kingdom of Judah]] were similarly exiled by [[Babylon]]ia,<ref name="Smith-Christopher">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1YhMAwAAQBAJ|title=The Religion of the Landless|isbn=9781608994786 |last1=Smith-Christopher |first1=Daniel L. |date=14 January 2015 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers }}</ref> but these people were then returned to [[Judea]] by [[Cyrus the Great]] of the Persian [[Achaemenid Empire]].<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 85–86.</ref> Many Jews were exiled again by the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 147.</ref> The 2,000 year dispersion of the [[Jewish diaspora]] beginning under the [[Roman Empire]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 May 2005 |title=The Post-Second Temple Period |url=https://archive.jewishagency.org/israel-diaspora-relations/content/23757 |access-date=10 December 2023 |website=The Jewish Agency |language=en}}</ref> as Jews were spread throughout the Roman world and, driven from land to land,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh9w1wk |title=Next Year in Jerusalem: Exile and Return in Jewish History |date=2019 |publisher=Purdue University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctvh9w1wk |jstor=j.ctvh9w1wk |isbn=978-1-55753-875-8|s2cid=263234025 }}</ref> settled wherever they could live freely enough to practice their religion. Over the course of the diaspora the center of Jewish life moved from [[History of the Jews in Iraq|Babylonia]]<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 163.</ref> to the [[Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula|Iberian Peninsula]]<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 177.</ref> to [[History of the Jews in Poland|Poland]]<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 231.</ref> to the [[Jewish American|United States]]<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 460.</ref> and, as a result of [[Zionism]], back to [[Israel]].<ref name="Gartner431">Gartner (2001), p. 431.</ref> There were also many expulsions of Jews during the Middle Ages and Enlightenment in Europe, including: 1290, 16,000 Jews were expelled from England, see the ''([[Statute of Jewry]])''; in 1396, 100,000 from France; in 1421, thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of these Jews settled in [[East-Central Europe]], especially Poland.<ref name="Gartner 11-12">Gartner (2001), pp. 11–12.</ref> Following the [[Spanish Inquisition]] in 1492, the Spanish population of around 200,000 [[Sephardi]]c Jews were expelled by the Spanish crown and [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic church]], followed by expulsions in 1493 in Sicily (37,000 Jews) and Portugal in 1496. The expelled Jews fled mainly to the [[Ottoman Empire]], the Netherlands, and [[North Africa]], others migrating to [[Southern Europe]] and the Middle East.<ref name="Johnson229-231">Johnson (1987), pp. 229–31.</ref> During the 19th century, France's policies of equal citizenship regardless of religion led to the immigration of Jews (especially from Eastern and Central Europe).<ref name="Johnson 1987, p. 306">Johnson (1987), p. 306.</ref> This contributed to the arrival of millions of Jews in the [[New World]]. Over two million Eastern European Jews arrived in the United States from 1880 to 1925.<ref>Johnson (1987), p. 370.</ref> In summary, the [[pogrom]]s in Eastern Europe,<ref name="Johnson 1987, pp. 364–365"/> the rise of modern [[antisemitism]],<ref name="Gartner 2001, pp. 213–5">Gartner (2001), pp. 213–15.</ref> the Holocaust,<ref>Gartner (2001), pp. 357–70.</ref> as well as the rise of [[Arab nationalism]],<ref>Johnson (1987), pp. 529–30.</ref> all served to fuel the movements and migrations of huge segments of Jewry from land to land and continent to continent until they arrived back in large numbers at their original historical homeland in Israel.<ref name="Gartner431" /> In the latest phase of migrations, the [[Iranian Revolution|Islamic Revolution of Iran]] caused many [[Iranian Jews]] to flee Iran. Most found refuge in the US (particularly [[Los Angeles, California]], and [[Long Island, New York]]) and Israel. Smaller communities of Persian Jews exist in Canada and Western Europe.<ref>{{cite EJ|last=Netzer|first=Amnon|title=Iran|volume=10|page=13}}</ref> Similarly, when the [[History of the Soviet Union (1985–1991)#Dissolution of the USSR|Soviet Union collapsed]], many of the Jews in the affected territory (who had been [[refusenik]]s) were suddenly allowed to leave. This produced a wave of migration to Israel in the early 1990s.<ref name="Dosick 2007, p. 340" /> ==== Growth ==== [[File:Western Wall, Jerusalem, (16037897867).jpg|thumb|Praying at the [[Western Wall]]]] Israel is the only country with a Jewish population that is consistently growing through [[natural population growth]], although the Jewish populations of other countries, in Europe and North America, have recently increased through immigration. In the Diaspora, in almost every country the Jewish population in general is either declining or steady, but [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] and [[Haredi]] Jewish communities, whose members often shun [[birth control]] for religious reasons, have experienced rapid population growth.<ref>Gartner (2001), pp. 400–01.</ref> Orthodox and [[Conservative Judaism]] discourage [[proselytism]] to non-Jews, but many Jewish groups have tried to reach out to the assimilated Jewish communities of the Diaspora in order for them to reconnect to their Jewish roots. Additionally, while in principle [[Reform Judaism]] favors seeking new members for the faith, this position has not translated into active proselytism, instead taking the form of an effort to reach out to non-Jewish spouses of intermarried couples.<ref>Kaplan (2003), p. 301.</ref> There is also a trend of Orthodox movements reaching out to secular Jews in order to give them a stronger [[Jewish identity]] so there is less chance of intermarriage. As a result of the efforts by these and other Jewish groups over the past 25 years, there has been a trend (known as the [[Baal teshuva movement]]) for secular Jews to become more religiously observant, though the demographic implications of the trend are unknown.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1002/9780470758014.ch27 |chapter=The 'Return' to Traditional Judaism at the End of the Twentieth Century: Cross-Cultural Comparisons |title=The Blackwell Companion to Judaism |year=2008 |last1=Danzger |first1=M. Herbert |pages=495–511 |isbn=978-0-470-75801-4 }}</ref> Additionally, there is also a growing rate of conversion to [[Jews by Choice]] of [[gentiles]] who make the decision to head in the direction of becoming Jews.<ref>de Lange (2002), p. 220.</ref> {{Clear}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page