Good News From Israel: "Who is Like Your Nation Israel - One Nation in the Land"

Continuing the theme of my last post, I am going to make a concerted effort to regularly post positive occurrences relating to life here in Israel. It is unfortunate if the only things we find time to write about are the challenges and difficulties involved in the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel after a 2,000 year exile, while neglecting all of the amazing and wondrous events that happen here on a regular basis.

So, on that note...

According to the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, Israel's Jewish population to outstrip U.S. by 2006 (as reported by Ha'aretz). The key fact in this article is the following point:

"Israel is the only country in the world expected to see significant growth in the size of its Jewish population, while all other communities in the world are expected to shrink or remain stable."

What this basically means, is that in spite of all of the challenges facing the Jewish people in the State of Israel, Israel is the only country in the world where the Jewish community is flourishing. Neither Jewish communities of the U.S., Europe, or even Australia can make the same claim. (For an analysis of some of the Halachic ramifications of having a majority of the Jewish People living in the Land of Israel, see "BI'AT KULCHEM: A Majority of Jews in the Land of Israel".

In addition to Israel's Jewish community flourishing in a demographic sense, the State of Israel has also become the epicenter of Torah study in the Jewish world, fulfilling the vision of: "From Zion will come forth Torah and the word of G-d from Jerusalem". (Not to mention world leaders in the fields of technology, security, medicine, agriculture...).