Good News: Israel IS Stronger Than They Think

This just came over YNET (emphases added):

Survey Shows 63 Percent Think Large Families are a Joy

Sixty-three percent of overall respondents said ideal number of children was four and above; 56 percent said respecting parents was the most important Jewish value

Kobi Nachshoni

Ynet's weekly Yahadut-Gesher survey has revealed that some 63 percent of the public believes that the ideal family is comprised of a man, a woman and at least four children.

The survey was conducted by The Brands Institute among a sampling of 500 respondents from the adult Jewish population in Israel.

While recent data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 2.2 children was the average number of children per Jewish family in Israel, the new survey shows a significant discrepancy.

Sixty-three percent of overall respondents said the ideal number of children was four and above, and 29 percent preferred only two children. One percent of the population believes that the preferred situation is a single parent with two children, and another percentage said they would like to see same sex parents with two children.

As expected, the figures were higher among the more religious respondents. The secular community (47 percent), traditional (69 percent), orthodox and ultra-orthodox (87 percent) – said the ideal number of children per family was four and above.

A further surprising finding showed that two percent of the ultra-orthodox public prefers single parent families. Even the low figures pertaining to same sex couples were not obvious in face of the estimates by Open House, according to which 3-10 percent of the population in Israel are homosexuals and lesbians.

Education among traditional families deserves to be noted, said 36 percents of respondents. Ultra-orthodox (76 percent), religious (50 percent) and traditional (56 percent) chose their own form of education as the best, and only the secular community said that traditional education is more highly esteemed than their own (35 percent and 29 percent respectively).

In total 36 percent responded that the traditional community has better education, and 21 percent said they valued the religious education more, 17 percent preferred secular education and 12 percent preferred the ultra-orthodox form of education. An additional 10 percent refused to give in to stigmas, and said that the information differs from one family to another.

Leading value – respecting parents

In answer to the question what is the most important Jewish value, 56 percent said that respecting parents was the most important, there was a consensus on this among traditional and secular respondents (65 percent). The Shabbat was the second most important value with a significant gap - only 18 percent view this as a leading Jewish value , followed by holidays, charity and Torah study.

Among the ultra-orthodox community, 42 percent said the Shabbat was the most important value, followed by Torah study (18 percent). Even 38 percent of orthodox respondents noted that the Shabbat was the most important value, before respecting parents (22 percent) and Torah study (13 percent).

Another surprising, and perhaps worrying finding showed that despite the difficult socioeconomic situation, the religious implication of charity are not well known. Only six percent of the public views charity as the most important Jewish value.