Haredim aren't as poor as you think

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-haredim-arent-as-poor-as-you-think-1001265187

Ultra-Orthodox Jews are smarter consumers, have interest-free loan funds, and are satisfied even if they are poor, the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs has found.

Over half of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) community lives below the poverty line, the figures say. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 53% of haredim are below the poverty line, the same proportion as in the Arab sector and much higher than the 9% poverty rate among non-haredi Jews. Average monthly per capita income in haredi society is NIS 3,500, half of the average for non-haredi Jews and only a little higher than in Arab society.

Despite these stark figures, a paradox exists. Haredim do not consider themselves as poor, nor do they behave that way. A new book of figures and research by the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, reported here for the first time, shows that no less than 71% of the haredim are satisfied with their economic situation, compared with less than two thirds of the non-haredi Jews and 53% of the Israeli Arabs.

Furthermore, less than 8% of the haredim feel that they are poor, almost the same figure as for non-haredi Jews. On an index of general satisfaction with life, the figures show that an incredible more than 98% of the haredim report satisfaction with their lives.

It is not just a question of feeling. Less than 10% of the haredim had to go hungry occasionally because of a lack of money, compared with 5.6% of the non-haredi Jews and over 14% of the Arabs. The level of health in the haredi sector is one of the best in Israel. For example, the life expectancy among residents of Bnei Brak, a mostly haredi city, is almost the same as in Givatayim, even though Bnei Brak is one of the poorest cities in Israel.

Another important economic figure is the proportion of those under bailiff's orders, meaning people almost incapable of paying their debts. In the haredi communities, this proportion is only 5%, the same as in the top two income brackets. The figure is 15% in the Jewish sector as a whole and 22% in the Arab sector. In other words, not only do haredim not feel or regard themselves as poor; their behavior is not that of a sector that is incapable of supplying its own needs.

The haredi solutions for escaping poverty

Nitsa (Kaliner) Kasir, who conducted the new study with Dimitri Romanov, claims that there are several explanations for this paradox. The most prominent one is that the real poverty rate in haredi society is significantly lower than the official figures if specific indices concerning the haredi way of life and a comparison within haredi society are taken into account. Such a calculation reveals that the poverty rate varies between 8% and 14%, about one fifth of the official figure.

Kasir uses both the existing figures, including the Food Security Survey results, which are fairly similar in the haredi sector to the Jewish sector as a whole, and a precise research assessment that takes into account the character of haredi society, its rules of behavior, consumption baskets, family spending, etc. An important basic figure for the real poverty rate in the sector is the rates of social assistance for the needy in the haredi cities, which are identical to the poverty rates used by Kasir.

She states that the character of haredi society in effect constitutes an almost closed economy. As a result of these features, a haredi family manages to supply its needs despite significantly lower income. One of the indices cited in Kasir's study, which generated far lower poverty rates, considers the level of income in comparison with average income in the haredi sector, instead of in comparison with the general Israeli public.

One important factor is smart consumer behavior, which differs substantially from the consumer character of modern Western society. The average spending per haredi household, even though the number of people in the household is greater, is 12% less than the average spending per non-haredi Jewish household. If per capita spending is used, the different is much greater - at least 48%: NIS 3,350 per capita per month for haredim, compared with NIS 6,450 per capita per month for the general Jewish public.

This phenomenon is also reflected from the perspective of the haredi service provider, who charges less and accepts a lower profit. Accountant Avigail Shakovitzky, who owns an office with 60 employees, recently won a job tender for a large public agency. One of her competitors petitioned the court, claiming that she could not possibly offer such a low price. Her explanation was her readiness to accept a minimal profit for the service, instead of the profit margin that prevails in the secular firms.

Another reason is the community support system. The relatively closed haredi society maintains within itself an especially high level of community activity, including high rates of volunteerism and donations, mutual aid, concern for the needy, diverse economic support frameworks, etc. A comparison with the general public in the volume of donations tells the story. Despite a low average general income, three quarters of haredi households make regular donations amounting to NIS 500 annually, compared with one quarter of the other Jewish households and less than 10% of the Arab households.

The average annual donation among non-haredi Jews is NIS 200. The system of loans and financing in the haredi sector is especially diverse. It includes the various interest-free loan frameworks and volunteer organizations and other groups granting interest free loans with flexibly spaced repayments. The figures for satisfaction among haredim can be attributed to the haredi/religious way of life, which does not sanctify money and economic status, in the spirit of the Mishnah: "Who is rich? Someone who is satisfied with his lot."

Haredim may be satisfied, but the state pays for it

There are three main reasons for low income in the haredi sector, of which social or economic failure, the usual cause of poverty in other groups, is not one. These reasons involve the intentional character of the sector. First of all, the employment rate in the haredi sector is low. A majority of the men spend their time learning Torah (Jewish religious studies), and many of those in the sector who do work have low-paid part-time jobs. Secondly, the educational system is geared to religious studies, with few lessons of practical assistance in finding employment. Finally, haredim marry young and have larger families than the Israeli average.

The haredi way of life dictates the economic conditions, and typical haredim are aware of this and accept it. They therefore do not complain about their bitter fate, in contrast to those whose poverty probably results from external reasons, not their own choice.

This low income even if it is not real poverty, is treated as such according to the prevailing international indices. This is one of the main reasons why Israel, together with the US, is at the bottom of the OECD in incidence of poverty, with almost 18% of the population classified as poor.

According to Kasir, the economic consequences of this situation are failure to realize the country's growth potential, due to the absence of half of haredi men from the labor force. As a result of deliberate unemployment in this sector, the state has fewer tax revenues and far more transfer payments, such as allowances. The social cohesion of the country is affected, and there is also a negative impact on the ratio of debt to GDP. This situation also generates negative feelings towards haredim among society as a whole. They are perceived as not bearing the economic burden, not paying taxes, and constituting a burden on taxpayers.

For these reasons, the state cannot allow the status quo to continue; action to change the situation is needed, even if the real poverty rate is lower than the one calculated in the prevailing indices. According to the current policy, the main solution is adapting the labor market to the haredi way of life in order to achieve a target unemployment rate of 60%-70% among men in the coming years.

This way of life cannot be ignored, even if it requires initial investments and social and other concessions in this adaption process, such as kosher food, studies and training programs for men only with exclusively male teachers and lecturers, which arouses opposition among part of the public. The same is also true of military service, which greatly contributes to integration of haredim in the labor market, but leads to political disputes and requires many adjustments from the army in order to absorb haredim.

The changes that threaten to eliminate the paradox

This haredi economic concept, based on built-in satisfaction with the existing situation, regardless of what it is, has been challenged in the past decade by the changes taking place in the sector.

The past decade has seen the phenomenon of the "new haredim" - haredim who are more integrated in Israeli life and are adopting a slightly more open way of life. They have smartphones, go on vacations, buy expensive clothes, and work at jobs in the private sector in accounting, law, commerce, etc. Exposure to the Internet and new fields of knowledge through haredi websites is one of the main reasons for this.

What effect will this process of change have on the haredi concept of "satisfied with his lot"? It is hard to say, both because the process of change is only beginning and because it is difficult to quantify and explain its social and community effects.

Haredim cope with the cost of living by buying only when they have to and in large quantities

Economic behavior in haredi society is different than in secular society. This behavior includes repeated use of clothing (hand-me-downs between children in a family, for example) and any other non-perishable product, and buying something only when it is really necessary, very little spending on luxuries, etc. Spending on communications, i.e. mobile phones, Internet, and computers, is much smaller in the haredi spending basket. Televisions are also usually absent.

In transportation, one of the biggest expenses for an average Israeli family, the saving is evident. The number of vehicles per 1,000 people in the haredi sector is only 85, compared with 345 among non-haredi Jews and 190 in the Arab sector. Most yeshivas (institutions of Jewish religious learning) forbid their students to obtain a driving license before they are married. According to figures from the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, 50% of haredim use public transportation, compared with 27% of non-haredi Jews and only one fifth of the Arab population.

Prices of many products for the haredi sector are lower, for various reasons. The discount supermarket chains - Osher Ad, Zol Po, and others - focus on the haredi sector, as do national chains such as Rami Levy Chain Stores Hashikma Marketing 2006 Ltd. (TASE:RMLI), which has a special supermarket chain, and Yenot Bitan (Bitan Wines). These chains have alternative products designed for the haredi sector, many of them in larger packages and bearing lower prices.

Another method of lowering prices is group/collective buying that takes advantage of group purchasing power. Where clothes are concerned, the conservative and uniform style also lowers costs. Wardrobes, certainly men's, are quite limited, as is the spending on them.

The commercial method typical of the sector is special miniature home commerce, with thousands of merchants in mainly temporary stores, especially in fashion. In addition, haredi families go on vacation in Israel in most cases, with a growing pattern of trading apartments during vacation times.

Interest-free loan societies - A combination of a bank with no charges, Yad Sarah (an institution that lends medical equipment free of charge), and Yad 2 for Free (which gives away secondhand items for free)

Gemachim (interest free loan societies) are a social, moral, and economic cornerstone of the haredi community. They originated in the Jewish Diaspora with synagogue charity boxes and the deep social obligation assumed by the Jewish community. They are based on the religious commandment binding on every Jew to give charity, and have taken deeper root in closed haredi communities than in the general society. When these communities moved to Israel, they took their gemachim with them.

Although gemachim are quintessentially haredi, non-haredim also receive assistance from gemachim that grant loans. An important foundation of what gemachim do is the reliability and commitment of those borrowing money and products to return what they took, and themselves to donate when they are able.

Haredi strategist Shlomo Weiser divides gemachim into three categories:

1. Gemachim that lend goods - Gemachim lend goods spanning the entire range of possible products: pacifiers for babies, baby carriages, heaters, and armchairs. Most haredi families supplement their essential furniture, clothing, and other needs from a relevant gemach. There are also gemachim in the sector for perishable products, such as diapers, food, and milk substitutes. The source for these products is repeated use of equipment, donations by families whose children have grown up, inheritances, and monetary donations.

2. Charity fund gemachim - a variety of charity and welfare agencies, the largest of which are the "municipal funds" in haredi cities, "the rabbis' committee," and others. They give living grants, holiday grants, donations for aims such as marriage, and food coupons at the large supermarkets operating in the haredi sector. Their sources of financing are mostly haredi philanthropists, some of whom are from overseas.

3. Loan gemachim - haredi social banks. These institutions grant loans without interest, which Jewish law forbids one Jew to take from another. They are available to everyone and are extraordinarily flexible in the number and amount of payments. The most important source of financing for these gemachim is the haredim themselves, but as repeated long-term deposits, not as donations. The low interest rate given by commercial banks encourages giving surplus money as deposit in the nearest community gemach. The profit on the deposit is the fulfilling the commandment to aid the needy.

Shakovitzky says that well-off haredi families prefer depositing their money in a gemach, thereby contributing to the community. According to this model, a family that contributed when its children were small will need help from a gemach when their children get married. According to Weiser, almost every young haredi man needs a loan from a gemach, the main purpose of which is paying for heavy one-time expenses, such as marriage, buying an apartment and furniture, etc.

Here, due to international tax requirements, the state finds it necessary to regulate activity of gemachim. Shakovitzky, who is involved in the negotiations on legislation for regulating gemachim, says that only when the law goes into effect will it be possible to know the true extent of the gemachim.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 17, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

Evidence of Sodom? Meteor blast cause of biblical destruction, say scientists

https://www.timesofisrael.com/evidence-of-sodom-meteor-blast-cause-of-biblical-destruction-say-scientists/

DEATH BY DEAD SEA

THEN THE LORD RAINED DOWN BURNING SULFUR OUT OF THE HEAVENS

Multi-disciplinary team of scientists uses 3,700-year-old archaeological evidence from Jordan’s Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project to understand end to civilization near Dead Sea

By AMANDA BORSCHEL-DAN 22 November 2018, 4:08 pm20

·          

John Martin's 'Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,' 1852. (public domain, via Wikipedia)

·          

A meteor streaks across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains in February 2013, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring hundreds of people, including many hurt by broken glass. (AP Photo/Nasha gazeta, www.ng.kz)

·          

Disaster shown in an undated photo of the mile-wide meteor crater near Winslow, Arizona. The crater was made 500 centuries ago when a 10,000,000-ton meteor impact dislodged 300,000,000 tons of rock. The 600 foot deep crater is three miles in circumference. (AP photo/ho)

·          

A Perseid meteor streaking across the California sky in 2010 (photo credit: CC-BY-SA Ian Alexander Norman, Flickr)

A multi-disciplinary team of scientists has a new theory for why all human civilization abruptly ended on the banks of the Dead Sea some 3,700 years ago. According to analyzed archaeological evidence, the disaster of biblical proportions can be explained by a massive explosion, similar to one recorded over 100 years ago in Russia.

In 1908, a massive blast near Siberia’s Stony Tunguska River flattened some 2,000 square kilometers of uninhabited taiga forestry. Curiously, no crater was discovered and scientists explain the strange phenomena through a meteor explosion some 5-10 km above land.

Now an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and scientists are using the Tunguska explosion as a model to explain the equally curious end to a thriving civilization that lived for thousands of years in a plain near the Dead Sea.

As reported in Science News, at the recently concluded Denver-based ASOR Annual Meeting, director of scientific analysis at Jordan’s Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project Phillip J. Silvia presented a paper, “The 3.7kaBP Middle Ghor Event: Catastrophic Termination of a Bronze Age Civilization” during a session on Environmental Archaeology of the Ancient Near East.

Disaster shown in an undated photo of the mile-wide meteor crater near Winslow, Arizona. The crater was made 500 centuries ago when a 10,000,000-ton meteor impact dislodged 300,000,000 tons of rock. The 600 foot deep crater is three miles in circumference. (AP photo/ho)

According to the paper’s abstract, the scientists discovered evidence of a “high-heat” explosive event north of the Dead Sea that instantaneously “devastated approximately 500 km2.” The explosion would have wiped out all civilization in the affected area, including Middle Bronze Age cities and towns. Silvia told Science News that the blast would have instantly killed the estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people who inhabited Middle Ghor, a 25-kilometer-wide circular plain in Jordan.

Likewise, the fertile soil would have been stripped of nutrients by the high heat, and waves of the Dead Sea’s briny anhydride salts would have — tsunami-like — washed over the surrounding area. At the same time, the explosion’s fallout caused blisteringly hot, strong winds, which deposited a rain of mineral grains, which have been found on pottery at Tall el-Hammam.

Five large sites in the region which have also been excavated offered additional evidence of an immediate end to settlement at the same time of the proposed Tall el-Hammam disaster. According to Science News, radiocarbon dating of organic archaeological evidence has shown that structures’ mud-brick walls “suddenly disappeared around 3,700 years ago, leaving only stone foundations.”

Contemporary potsherds’s glazes apparently experienced temperatures high enough to transform them to glass, “perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun,” Silvia told the news source.

Unraveling a mystery

The study was born of a historical riddle: “That the most productive agricultural land in the region, which had supported flourishing civilizations continuously for at least 3,000 years, should suddenly relinquish, then resist, human habitation for such a long period of time has begged investigation,” states the excavation’s website.

Archaeologist Philip Silvia (via LinkedIn)

As listed in the published abstract, Trinity Southwest University’s Silvia was joined by a roster of multi-disciplinary scientists.

The team of scientists from New Mexico Tech, Northern Arizona University, NC State University, Elizabeth City (NC) State University, DePaul University, Trinity Southwest University, the Comet Research Group, and Los Alamos National Laboratories analyzed samples from 12 seasons of Tall el-Hammam excavations to conclude that the most logical explanation for the settlement’s demise was a meteor explosion.

“This paper surveys the multiple lines of evidence that collectively suggest a Tunguskalike, cosmic airburst event that obliterated civilization — including the Middle Bronze Age city-state anchored by Tall el-Hammam — in the Middle Ghor (the 25 km diameter circular plain immediately north of the Dead Sea) ca. 1700 BCE, or 3,700 years before present (3.7kaBP),” write the authors.

“Based upon the archaeological evidence, it took at least 600 years to recover sufficiently from the soil destruction and contamination before civilization could again become established in the eastern Middle Ghor,” they write.

A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains in February 2013, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring hundreds of people, including many hurt by broken glass. (AP Photo/Nasha gazeta, www.ng.kz)

A biblical explanation

Could this massive disaster offer an explanation for the biblical story of Sodom?

According to a 2013 Biblical Archaeology Review article by TeHEP co-director Dr. Steven Collins, the Tall el-Hammam site is a strong candidate for the biblical city of Sodom due to a multitude of factors. The discovered disaster, and its precise location, which he ties to biblical references of “ha-kikkar” (or idiomatically, the plain).

John Martin’s ‘Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,’ 1852. (public domain, via Wikipedia)

In the article, among other biblical citations, Collins quotes from Genesis 19:24–25: “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus He overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities — and also the vegetation in the land.”

On the ground at the site, Collins witnessed such destruction first-hand. In a vivid description he writes, “The violent conflagration that ended occupation at Tall el-Hammam produced melted pottery, scorched foundation stones and several feet of ash and destruction debris churned into a dark gray matrix as if in a Cuisinart.”

Could it really be that this destruction, hypothetically caused by the proposed meteor explosion and its catastrophic fallout, are the natural causes of the divine wholesale razing of the city recorded in the Bible?

In a jointly authored paper between Silvia and Collins, “The Civilization-Ending 3.7KYrBP Event: Archaeological Data, Sample Analyses, and Biblical Implications,” the authors write, “The physical evidence from Tall el-Hammam and neighboring sites exhibit signs of a highly destructive concussive and thermal event that one might expect from what is described in Genesis 19.”

Further based on studies by atomic energy researcher Samuel Gladstone, the authors write that, “an airburst yield of 10 megatons over the northeast corner of the Dead Sea would be sufficient to produce the physical damage observed 10 km away at Tall el-Hammam. Note that this is only one-half the yield of the Tunguska airburst event (in Siberia), well within ‘recent’ human experience for meteoritic airbursts!” they write.

“The destruction not only of Tall el-Hammam (Sodom), but also its neighbors (Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain) was most likely caused by a meteoritic airburst event,” the authors conclude.

In his Biblical Archaeology Review article, Collins writes that the massive disaster was seared ito collective cultural memory and preserved in the biblical tradition.

“The memory of the destruction of ha-kikkar, with its large population and extensive agricultural lands, was preserved in the Book of Genesis and ultimately incorporated into a traditional tale that, drawing on the layer of ash that covered the destruction of one of its major cities, remembered a place consumed by a fiery catastrophe from ‘out of the heavens’ (Genesis 19:24),” he writes. “The Bible gives the city’s name: Sodom.”

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/exploding-meteor-may-have-wiped-out-ancient-dead-sea-communities

DENVER — A superheated blast from the skies obliterated cities and farming settlements north of the Dead Sea around 3,700 years ago, preliminary findings suggest.

Radiocarbon dating and unearthed minerals that instantly crystallized at high temperatures indicate that a massive airburst caused by a meteor that exploded in the atmosphere instantaneously destroyed civilization in a 25-kilometer-wide circular plain called Middle Ghor, said archaeologist Phillip Silvia. The event also pushed a bubbling brine of Dead Sea salts over once-fertile farm land, Silvia and his colleagues suspect.

People did not return to the region for 600 to 700 years, said Silvia, of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque. He reported these findings at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research on November 17.

Excavations at five large Middle Ghor sites, in what’s now Jordan, indicate that all were continuously occupied for at least 2,500 years until a sudden, collective collapse toward the end of the Bronze Age. Ground surveys have located 120 additional, smaller settlements in the region that the researchers suspect were also exposed to extreme, collapse-inducing heat and wind. An estimated 40,000 to 65,000 people inhabited Middle Ghor when the cosmic calamity hit, Silvia said.

The most comprehensive evidence of destruction caused by a low-altitude meteor explosion comes from the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam, where a team that includes Silvia has been excavating for the last 13 years. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the mud-brick walls of nearly all structures suddenly disappeared around 3,700 years ago, leaving only stone foundations.

What’s more, the outer layers of many pieces of pottery from same time period show signs of having melted into glass. Zircon crystals in those glassy coats formed within one second at extremely high temperatures, perhaps as hot as the surface of the sun, Silvia said.

High-force winds created tiny, spherical mineral grains that apparently rained down on Tall el-Hammam, he said. The research team has identified these minuscule bits of rock on pottery fragments at the site.

Examples exist of exploding space rocks that have wreaked havoc on Earth (SN: 5/13/17, p. 12). An apparent meteor blast over a sparsely populated Siberian region in 1908, known as the Tunguska event, killed no one but flattened 2,000 square kilometers of forest. And a meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 injured more than 1,600 people, mainly due to broken glass from windows that were blown out.

The inconvenient truth about the environmental impact of organic farming

https://newatlas.com/organic-farming-impact-climate-change-environment/57665/

 PICTURES

New research suggests organic farming has a greater impact on carbon emissions and the climate than conventional farming methods(Credit: ccaetano/Depositphotos)

VIEW GALLERY - 3 IMAGES

A new international study into the impact of agricultural land use on climate change has found organic food production is worse for the climate than conventional farming, due to the fact that it needs greater areas of land to grow produce.

The new research developed a novel metric for calculating the carbon footprint of specific land use. Called a "carbon benefits index," this calculation measures the agricultural output of a given hectare of land in terms of volume of product and carbon dioxide emissions. Homing in on the differences between organic food production and conventional food production, the study concludes that due to organic farming's inefficient yields, it generally results in a greater environmental impact than conventional farming methods.

"The greater land-use in organic farming leads indirectly to higher carbon dioxide emissions, thanks to deforestation," explains Stefan Wirsenius, a Swedish researcher working on the study. "Our study shows that organic peas, farmed in Sweden, have around a 50 percent bigger climate impact than conventionally farmed peas. For some foodstuffs, there is an even bigger difference – for example, with organic Swedish winter wheat the difference is closer to 70 percent," says Wirsenius.

This isn't the first study to raise questions over the greater environmental cost of organic farming recently. As the world's population rapidly grows many scientists are trying to balance the increasing demand for food with better agricultural production methods. A large study published earlier this year called for more efficient "high-yield" farming to better make use of land already cleared for the purpose.

"Our results suggest that high-yield farming could be harnessed to meet the growing demand for food without destroying more of the natural world," says Andrew Balmford, lead author on this earlier study. "However, if we are to avert mass extinction it is vital that land-efficient agriculture is linked to more wilderness being spared the plough."

Of course trying to calculate the environmental impact of a person's individual diet is a little more complicated than simply suggesting they don't eat organic food. The biggest impact one can individually make is perhaps leaning towards a more plant-based diet.

"The type of food is often much more important. For example, eating organic beans or organic chicken is much better for the climate than to eat conventionally produced beef," says Wirsenius.

And organic meat production presents even more complicated considerations. It may be reasonable to assume organic grass-fed beef is better from an animal welfare perspective, but a 2017 study calculated grass-fed beef requires more land than grain-fed beef, while offering no decreases in comparable greenhouse gas emissions. All this means is that from a carbon emission perspective, conventional animal farming may be better for the environment than organic.

So where does this leave a person who is trying to live the most ethical, environmentally sensitive life possible? It is hard to say, but it is becoming increasingly clear that due to inefficient yields the world's food production could not sustain organic farming on a mass scale without clearing more land.

"Organic food does have several advantages compared with food produced by conventional methods," Wirsenius notes. "For example, it is better for farm animal welfare. But when it comes to the climate impact, our study shows that organic food is a much worse alternative, in general."

The new study was published in the journal Nature.

Source: Chalmers University of Technology

Update (Dec. 18, 2018): After receiving numerous comments questioning the funding of the research, we reached out to Stefan Wirsenius, one of the researchers responsible for the study, for clarification. He reiterated that the research "had no financial support or links to industries and economic interests linked to conventional farming."

VIEW GALLERY

If Gender Isn’t Fixed, Why Is Age? By Dennis Prager Emile Ratelband, a 69-year-old motivational speaker in the Netherlands, has petitioned a Dutch court for permission to change his legal age; he wishes to alter his birth certificate to show he was born 20 years later than he really was – to legally make him 49 rather 69. Ratelband told the Washington Post: “We can make our own decisions if we want to change our name, or if we want to change our gender. So I want to change my age. My feeling about my body and about my mind is that I’m about 40 or 45.” The Telegraph reported: “Mr Ratelband was born on 11th March 1949, but says he feels at least 20 years younger and wants to change his birth date to 11th March 1969. “Mr Ratelband said: ‘I have done a check-up and what does it show? My biological age is 45 years. When I’m 69, I am limited. If I’m 49, then I can buy a new house, drive a different car. I can take up more work. When I’m on Tinder and it says I’m 69, I don’t get an answer. When I’m 49, with the face I have, I will be in a luxurious position.’” The transgender movement inspired Ratelband. “Transgenders can now have their gender changed on their birth certificate,” he argues, “and in the same spirit there should be room for an age change.” Now, what exactly is wrong with Ratelband’s argument? If gender doesn’t objectively exist, why does age? If feelings determine gender, why don’t feelings determine age? If we are to regard gender as “assigned” at birth, why don’t we regard age as “assigned” at birth? Of course, the left would argue that age is fixed while “gender is fluid.” But “gender is fluid” is a meaningless statement. Few deny that some people have gender dysphoria – i.e., they don’t identify with their biological sex. These people deserve our care, sympathy and the respect due every person as the child of God. But sympathy for the minuscule percentage of people who do not identify with their gender doesn’t mean gender doesn’t objectively exist. It just means some people don’t identify with the facts of their existence. We are living in a time of intellectual and moral chaos. The political movement known as leftism or progressivism (not liberalism) is first and foremost a chaotic force. And nowhere is that chaos more evident than in the left’s attempt to end the reality that the human being is created either male or female. That is “binary” nonsense, according to the left. Thus, a New York Times headline last month read “Anatomy Does Not Determine Gender, Experts Say.” Just 10 years ago, not to mention at any time in recorded history, that headline would have been regarded as so absurd only a satirist or an opponent of science would have written it. The article cited Dr. Joshua D. Safer, an endocrinologist and executive director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, as saying, “The idea that a person’s sex is determined by their anatomy at birth is not true, and we’ve known that it’s not true for decades.” When medical doctors argue that a person who has two X chromosomes and every feature of female anatomy might be a man, your society is in deep trouble. So, why is Emile Ratelband wrong? The judges in the Netherlands will likely rule against him. But if they believe gender has no objective reality, that the gender on one’s birth certificate can be changed, on what grounds can they rule that the date of birth cannot be changed? The answer is there are no such grounds. But only for the time being – because on the day The New York Times publishes an article titled “The Idea That a Person’s Age Is Determined by Their Date of Birth Is Not True,” age, too, will become subjective.