TRUE DEMOGRAPHICS

Brenda Katten wrote a good article – “Are we a people who look a gift horse in the mouth?” (February 22) – but picked on Jews, saying that we only were 22% of the tourists, compared to 61% Christians. She has it backwards. More than 10% of all Jews visited Israel last year! Less than onetenth of 1% of Christians visited Israel in the same time period.

To me, it looks like we are doing a great job! JOE OFFENBACHER Hashmonaim

Writer Brenda Katten responds: Mr. Offenbacher is correct in stating that there are many more Christians in the world than Jews. However, Israel is a Jewish and not a Christian state. After we waited 2,000 years to return to our homeland, a percentage of 10% of Diaspora Jewry (constituting 50% of world Jewry) who visit Israel is simply not good enough. What we are witnessing today, reflected in these figures, is a distancing from Israel by Diaspora Jewry, particularly by American Jewry, whose numbers are almost identical to that of the Jewish population of Israel.

As I stated in my article, a good start would be to reach out to, rather than alienate, the vast majority of Jews in the United States who belong to the Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism.

Surely there are so many like myself who shook and shivered at Rav Benny Lau’s comments for the very reason Stewart Weiss mentioned