Belhavian Jews

Belhavian Jews

Total population
~118.21 million
Regions with significant populations
Belhavia	~93.60 million
Template:Country data Tippercommon UTR	~9.8 million (Largely in Ayton and Sussex)
Languages
Belhavian English Yiddish Hebrew
Religion
Judaism

Belhavian Jews are Belhavian citizens who are Jews, either by religion, ancestry, or both. Belhavian Jews constitute the largest core of the uninterrupted continuity of the Jewish nation in the world, and compose approximately 68.35% of the worldwide Jewish population, estimated to be 172.95 million as of 2015. Minority Jewish ethnic divisions are also represented, including Canaanite Jews, Mizrahi Jews of Akkadiya, and a smaller percentage of converts to Judaism. The Belhavian Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions, as well as encompassing the full spectrum of Jewish religious observance.

The ethnoreligious society and culture of Belhavian Jews, by virtue of establishing Belhavia as a nation-state and composing over 75% of its population, constitute the dominant and official culture in Belhavia and its territories.

Significant expatriate Belhavian Jewish populations exist in the URE, Eagleland, the former Western States such as South Lake and Torchland, Temuair, Tule, and Arthurista.

Demographics

Significant population centers

Distribution

Belhavian Jews, because of their supermajority composition of the population and universal distribution, form the majority population of every province except Westland, which has a plurality majority of Westerners, most of whom are Western Jews. They form an absolute majority (50%+1) in 18 provinces, most of whom average in excess of 80% of the provincial populations.

In 6 provinces, they form plurality majorities: North Dakos (44.1%), Provisa (47.7%), the Weissland Islands (47.6%), Freeport (48.3%), West Dakos (49.4%), and East Dakos (49.7%).

In every major city over 50,000 residents, Belhavian Jews form an absolute or plurality majority; however, in cities and towns under 50,000 residents, 4.5% have absolute or plurality majorities of another ethnic group.

Religion

Observances and engagement

Jewish religious practice in Belhavia is monolithic and consistent in the mainstream practice, but quite varied among smaller and more radical subgroups and denominations. Among the 50.83% of Belhavian Jews described as "strongly connected" to Judaism, over 86% report some sort of active engagement with Judaism, ranging from attendance at daily prayer services on one end of the spectrum to as little as attendance Passover Seders or lighting Chanukkah candles on the other.

A 2013 Provisa Times poll found that 49.16% of Belhavian Jews go to shul at least once a week, and among these 76.4% go daily, while overall 41.5% go less frequently but at least twice a year, and 8% go less frequently than once a year.

The survey found that as of 2015, Belhavian Jews of Lusankyan descent denominationally break down along narrow lines: a thin plurality majority are Orthodox & Modern Orthodox (27.2%), followed by Conservadox (26.9%), Conservative (24.5%), Reform (14.1%), Charedi (an Orthodox subgroup) (7.2%), and other movements (<0.1%).

Traditionally, Canaanite Jews and Akkadiyan and Mizrahi Jews do not have different branches (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, etc.) but usually remain observant and religious. The survey discovered that Jews in the South and Middle of Belhavia are generally more observant than Jews in the Northeast or Far West near the Estovnian border. Reflecting a trend also observed among other (though minority) religious groups, Jews in Northwestern Belhavia are typically the least observant.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable trend of secular Belhavian Jews returning to a more observant Orthodox lifestyle. Such Jews are called baalei teshuva ("returners", see also Repentance in Judaism). In addition, the Charedi, considered the most fervently and consistently observant religious Jews, have doubled their population in the last twenty years, going from 3.6% of the Belhavian Jewish population in 1996 to 7.2% in 2015.

The 2010 Belhavian Religious Identification Survey found that around 61.3% of Belhavian Jews call themselves religious. The number of Jews who identify themselves as only "culturally Jewish" has risen from 14.5% in 1990 to 28.7% in 2010, according to the study. About a third of all Belhavian Jews – including those who consider themselves religiously observant – claim in the survey that they have a secular worldview and see no contradiction between that outlook and their faith, according to the study's authors. Researchers attribute the trends among Belhavian Jews to the low rate of intermarriage and high "affection for Judaism" in the Belhavia.

About 84% of Belhavian Jews maintain kosher dietary standards, while 87.4% observe Shabbos weekly.

Religious beliefs

Belhavian Jews overwhelmingly describe themselves as religious by 2-1 margins since the 1990s. However, since the 1970s, nonreligious Jewish identity has been on the rise, hitting nearly 29% in 2010.

Contemporary culture

Science, business, and academia

With to the Jewish penchant to be drawn to white collar professional jobs and having excelled at intellectual pursuits, many Jews have also become been remarkably successful as an entrepreneurial and professional majority in Belhavia. Belhavian Jewish culture also has a strong tradition, emphasis and respect for money, financial acumen, business, commerce, and entrepreneurship resulting many Jews to start their own businesses, especially family businesses that could be passed down from one generation to the next as well as serve as an asset, source of income and layering a strong financial groundwork for the family's overall socioeconomic prosperity.

Within the Jewish cultural sphere, Belhavian Jews (along with Western Jews in particular) have also developed a strong culture of entrepreneurship as excellence in entrepreneurship and engagement in business and commerce is highly prized in Jewish culture.

Belhavian Jews have also been drawn to various disciplines within academia such as sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy and linguistics (see secular Jewish culture for some of the causes), and have played a disproportionate role in numerous academic domains.

In the business world, while Belhavian Jews only constitute about 70.4 percent of the population, they occupied 89.1 percent of board seats at various Belhavian businesses in 2001.

Since many careers in science, business, and academia generally pay well, Belhavian Jews also tend to have a higher average income than most non-Jewish Belhavians.

Notable Belhavian Jews

See List of prominent Belhavians.

See also

• Rodarian Jews
• Basilerian Jews
• Western Jews
• Law of Return