Madam, – I read your article, "Young, Jewish Irish" (Weekend Review, December 11th) with great interest as I am a second generation American-Irish Jew. Our family has always been proud of our Irish heritage. When Ireland offered citizenship to anyone whose parent or grandparent was Irish we jumped at the opportunity to be officially Irish.
With the unique history Jews have in Ireland, the Irish with open arms electing, welcoming and accepting Jews as far back as the 14th century, it is sad to hear that this community is dwindling.
Unfortunately, the reasons the community in Ireland is dwindling is the same reason Jewish communities in the southern United States and around the world are dwindling. As Jews become a smaller and smaller percentage of the world’s population there will be changes in where Jews choose to live. With a worldwide population of some 13 million Jews in a global population of close to seven billion people (about 0.18 per cent of the world’s population), the Jewish communities are consolidating in larger (Jewish) population centres like New York, London and Israel.
There will always be small communities, but they will not be as vibrant and far-flung as they have been for the past millenniums or so. I hope Ireland manages to defy the trend and that both Ireland and the Jews benefit from our continued association. – Yours, etc,