Thread by @GREENESJ333

Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "Why Jewish Survival?

A lot of literature has been developed asking this question. Both Jews and Gentiles have expressed amazement that after all the massacres, genocidal efforts, forced conversions, assimilation,
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Jews have survived as Jews, under some of the worst conditions mankind has created. No other people subject to these kinds of pressure has survived as a recognizable people with a unique culture, laws, tradition, and feeling of nationhood.
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But that is not the only surprise. In every era, in spite of the horrors Jews have been subjected to, Jews were able to maintain a quality of life, and a life expectancy, higher than that of those they lived among.

So, what are the reasons for this mystery?
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Well, some attributed it to antisemitism, claiming that antisemitism forced Jews to isolate themselves and isolation meant survival. But, antisemitism also meant pogroms, massacres, and conversions to avoid violence and exclusion.
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In fact before the Holocaust, in Poland, because of exclusion and prejudice 30,000 Jews a year converted to Christianity. So, that reason is not sufficient.
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Some wrote that it was because of Shabbat. Others claimed it was HaShem manipulating history, though I have my doubts because then one would have to blame HaShem for the Holocaust, too.
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I think it may be something very simple. The “Shema,” the statement itself, and the paragraphs traditionally recited after it. The effect of the Shema on Jewish culture and Jewish survival is almost magic. Think about it.
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But when you next read the Shema and the following paragraphs, think about this:

Civilization is built and healthy and having a future when it (1) is child-oriented, (2) protective of the nuclear family as the basic child-rearing environment,
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(3) emphasizes the value of deferred gratification for a later goal (also a basic aspect of a child-centered society), (4) based on personal responsibility, and (5) regulated by trust in something greater than people.
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Conversely, societies that do not follow and even celebrate the above values generally deteriorate and fall. When a society becomes one of immediate gratification, narcissism, emphasis on what one can get rather than what one can contribute, those societies fall.
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Now take a look again at the Shema and attachments. The Shema establishes the higher reality. Then, it tells us to teach your children, not only by words, but by example, when you wake, when you live, in every aspect of your behavior—
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directing one to be responsible, not just for oneself, but for children, for community, for the future.

The Shema starts with a statement of both faith and the totality of existence and states that they are one.
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Then it tells the people to teach the children, by lessons and by example, a child-centered society that looks to making a better future, exhibiting hope.
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Then it states what, in general, is to be taught to create that civilization, and then it says clearly what the goal is. The goal being to build a humane, moral, holy culture and way of life in the land promised by G-d to the Jewish nation—in short, Zionism.
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I do not want to tell anyone how to behave. I’ll leave that to each of you—to read the Shema, like many of us do daily, and think of the concepts about belief and behavior it directs you to. Then, tell me what you think.
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Because the real choice is whether a people have a future that is positive and unique—or whether that people disappears."
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