Introduction - American Jewish Archives

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A Demographic Profile 241 males and females. Uruguay and Venezuela fall into the same longlived category as Argentina. Outside the modernized sectors of the continent, life expectancy drops sharply for the majority populations but remains high for Jews. For example, in 1968, 40 percent of Sio Paulo Jews were over age forty, 14 percent over age sixty. In the same year, only 25 percent of the general population of Sio Paulo were past forty, and just 6 percent were past sixty." Jews achieved their pattern of longevity independent of their immediate environment. Among the general population of the city, those over forty gained 5.5 percentage points between 19 50 and 1968, reflecting improved health conditions; but the Jewish age distribution showed no material change over this eighteen-year period. Within the Guatemalan community in 1965, some 130 individuals, or 10 percent of the Jewish population, were aged sixty and over. Comparable data do not exist for the Guatemalan population as a whole; but expectation of life at birth for the Guatemalan population was 49.5 in 1950, and had not changed significantly in 1973. It is thus most unlikely that 10 percent of Guatemaltecos live to age sixty-five.16 Since many of the health practices that eliminate infant mortality also work to prolong the life-span, it is not arbitrary to conclude that life expectancy among Jews in areas for which no data exist approximates the modernized model of Buenos Aires more closely than it does the traditional rate still prevalent in most of Latin America. Low fertility, low infant mortality, and extended life expectancy among the Jewish populations contrast with high fertility, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy among the non-Jewish populations (with the exception of Argentina). The result is a higher median age for Jewish than for non-Jewish populations (see Table 3). A longer life-span, in addition to being its own reward, enables individuals to develop their skills to the utmost. The blighting of promising careers through early death is far less frequent among Jews than in the general population. Furthermore, survival into the sixties ensures that most parents are able to nurture their children to maturity. The phenomenon of parentless children is comparatively rare. Family size. Small families are typical of Jewish populations. In countries that maintain traditionally high birth and death rates, the Jewish family stands out in sharp relief as having passed through a demographic transition: there are fewer wasted pregnancies, fewer chil-
242 American Jewish Archives dren per family, and more of these children reach maturity. In Latin American nations that have passed as an entity through the demographic transition from traditional to modern patterns of family life, Jewish populations are less clearly differentiated-except in the matter of infant mortality. The average family size of members of the Asociaci6n Mutual Israelita Argentina, the principal Ashkenazic organization of that country, diminished from 4.53 to 4.14 between 1920 and 1930. By that date, Jewish families were smaller in Argentina than in Central Europe. By 1960, Jewish families were smaller than non-Jewish families in Buenos Aires, with an average 2.2 children being born to Jewish married women, as compared with 2.7 for non-Jewish women.'' Jew- ish households averaged a fraction under four persons each. The downward trend shows up clearly in Quilmes (a district of Gran Buenos Aires) in a 1963 survey which found an average 3.45 persons in Ashkenazic families. Sephardic families tend to be somewhat larger (see Table 4). Mod- ernization was a distinctively European phenomenon. Jews originat- ing in Arabic or Balkan lands did not participate in it as directly as did Jews of Central, Western, or even Eastern Europe. There is thus a con- sistent difference in family size between Ashkenazic and Sephardic families in all communities for which we have data. Greater tradi- tionalism in Sephardic life results in higher fertility rates and larger families. The less-developed countries, as is well known, are presently experi- Table 3: Median Age of Population Area and Date Jewish General - - - - - - - Argentina, 1960' 34.7 27.0 Slo Paulo, 1969~ 33.78 27.2 Quilmes, 1963' 32.15 26.61 Guatemala, 1965~ 26-3 5 n.a.' a. Schmelz and Della Pergola, Hademografia she1 hayehudim, p. 66. b. Rattner, Tradiciio e mundan~a, p. 23. c. AMIA, Censo de la Comunidad Judia de Quilmes, p. 19. d. Jacob Shatzky, "Guatemala," p. 302. e. Not available. But with 46 percent under age IS, the median age could not lie in the 26-35 group.
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Volume XXXIV November, 1982 Number
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Contents I33 Introduction Judith La
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Introduction Exactly ten years ago,
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Introduction I3 5 The bizarre adven
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Introduction 137 and offering to ho
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Historiographical Problems I39 been
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Historiographical Problems 141 pear
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Historiographical Problems I43 judg
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Historiographical Problems 14 5 ica
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Historiographical Problems 147 the
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Historiographical Problems I49 and
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11. Ibid., pp. 42-47. 12. Liebman,
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Jose Diaz Pirnienta: Rogue Priest J
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Rogue Priest ISS ferred to a conven
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Rogue Priest IS7 graven images in t
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Rogue Priest I59 idea whether the p
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Rogue Priest I 61 When Pimienta app
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Rogue Priest I 63 thor of The Jews
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Search for Identity 165 contemporar
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Search for Identity 167 important,
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Search for Identity 169 viewed by t
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Search for Identity 171 Almost from
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Search for Identity 173 As portraye
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Search for Identity 175 questions h
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Search for Identity 177 Encyclopedi
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White Slavery Writings Albert Londr
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White Slavery Writings I 8 I agains
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White Slavery Writings 183 prostitu
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White Slavery Writings 185 their wo
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White Slavery Writings 187 microsco
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White Slavery Writings 30. Szichman
Page 64 and 65: Early Zionist Activities 191 number
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Page 80 and 81: Just Passing Through his exile spir
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Page 90 and 91: Aspects of Intermarriage 217 mous J
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Page 96 and 97: Aspects of intermarriage 223 Paulo
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Page 122 and 123: Book Reviews Murphy, Bruce Allen. T
Page 124 and 125: Book Reviews 251 But how can Murphy
Page 126 and 127: Book Reviews 25 3 Kalechofsky, Robe
Page 128 and 129: Book Reviews 25 5 as official separ
Page 130 and 131: Book Reviews 257 long, unbroken par
Page 132 and 133: Brief Notices Best, Gary Dean. To F
Page 134 and 135: Brief Notices 261 Rabbi Plaut's aut
Page 136 and 137: Abolitionism, 123 Abrahams, Lionel,
Page 138 and 139: Bene Kedem (Argentina), 191, 198, 1
Page 140 and 141: Congregation B'nai Israel (Davenpor
Page 142 and 143: Federal Theatre (WPA), 29 Federatio
Page 144 and 145: Hirsch, Maurice De, I 16 Hirsch, Sa
Page 146 and 147: Jewish identity, 160, 164-165, 17-1
Page 148 and 149: Luz, La (Buenos Aires), 197 Luzzatt
Page 150 and 151: Oral history, 132 Order of St. Greg
Page 152 and 153: Rodgers, Richard, 5, 7, 17, 21, 25,
Page 154 and 155: Syrian Jews, 193, 194, 196, 198, 19
Page 156: influence on popular music, 5, 7, 3
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