Abstract

PIP: It is suggested that Israel's high fertility can be explained by a collective national conscience rather than the traditional interpretation of Jewish religiosity. It is suggested that religiosity is a proxy for a national consciousness and daily living standards. It is argued that normative orientations or cultural explanations of the value of children are intervening variables according to the framework established by Davis and Blake. The collective conscience reflects Israel's special position in the Middle East and within the world economy. The nationalist feelings reflect a range in political views. The author disputes the ethnic and religious explanations for high fertility. Fertility increased since the 1960s even among low fertility European-American born women. During the early 1980s fertility was 2.75, which was high compared to European levels at the same standard of living. Reference is made to the literature on the association between high fertility and survival strategies in insecure or discriminatory settings. This study's analysis is based on a macro- rather than individual-level approach to understanding behavior. The theoretical framework is based on the theories of Durkheim and Gane. The analysis uses data from the 1983 census on Jewish fertility in urban statistical areas and Jewish voting patterns in national elections in 1984. Correspondence analysis is used to identify voting patterns by area. The four political postures are identified as religious and conciliatory (71 areas), religious and nationalist (142 areas), nonreligious and nationalist, and nonreligious and conciliatory. Women in nationalist areas had 35% more children than women in conciliatory areas. Although both religiosity and nationalism were positively correlated with high fertility, nationalist commitment was a better predictor. The model including religiosity, nationalism, and income showed no independent effect of religiosity on fertility.