Excerpts from “Jewish Civilization between Rise, Thriving and Decline”

I find it the article “Jewish Civilization between Rise, Thriving and Decline” interesting. So some excerpts are offered here, which may provide valuable "enlightment".
The article can be found here - http://www.jpppi.org.il/JPPPI/SendFile.asp?TID=68&FID=2490.

P4 (Page 4): Although there is a certain ideological component in the definition of “rise” and “decline”, there notions do describe objective realities.
P5: No single mono-causal reason can explain the decline and fall of a wide-spread and multi-faceted civilization. The Jewish people were saved more than once by its global spread and fragmentation.
In addition to geographic dispersion, the thriving of the Jewish people will for a long time require military strength.
Jewish history knows at least three periods of major transformation that are responses to severe external challenges. ……the destruction of the First and Second Temples, and that began with the Enlightment, cultimated in the Shoah and led to the creation of Israel.
P6: The stagnation of Jewish population numbers is a sign of weakness. But there is no absolute number for the “critical mass” that would be necessary for the thriving of the Jewish or any other people.
Jews created important international networks of exchange based on Jewish connections and knowledge of foreign languages and customs.
P7: Civilization can be in danger because they do not notice internal decay or external threats that are geographically too remote.
With a few exceptions, Jews never had a forward-looking geo-political vision of the world and their place in it.
Decline of the West or the end of civilization
Jews have watched and survived the end of many civilizations, but a real decline of the West, particularly the United States, can have dramatic consequences for the Jewish people. Jews can do little to affect the mega-trends of Western civilization, but they should strength cultural links with non-Western civilizations, particularly China and India.
P8: Religion dominates the history of the Jewish people and remains the key issue in all discussions about the future. Demands are increasing to make conversion to Judaism easier.
Jews were often passive victims of war, but large numbers of them also fought and died in the wars of their respective host countries. They fought for themselves only in ancient and modern Israel. A comprehensible assessment of the impacts of war on Jewish thriving and decline would be a difficult task.
P9: The Babylonian Talmud discusses the question of whether the Jews are subject to the same immutable laws of history as non-Jews. One opinion says yes, they are. But the majority opinion, quoting among others the Prophet Jeremiah, strongly rejects the antique belief in predetermination as far as the Jewish people is concerned. ……the laws of the stars do not apply to Israel.
Few nations commemorated both rise and decline, and particularly the catastrophes that struck them, with equal fervours as the Jews.
P10: The two thousand year old history of the Jewish people in Europe was virtually terminated in little more than two years, between early 1942 and late 1944. But then the post-war years saw an almost equally fast rise of the Jewish people, with the establishment of Israel and the emergence of a powerful American Jewish community.
P29: If one looks for historic, not metaphysical reasons for the long-term survival of the Jews, it is clear that they were saved more than once by their global spread and their fragmentation into different branches. No single danger or cause of decline could touch all of them simultaneously.
If Spain and Portugal had in the 16th and 17th centuries dominated most of the world like they dominated parts of the Europe and America, it is doubtful that Judaism and the Jewish people would have survived the inevitable persecutions and forced conversions across the world.
P30: If the Nazis had conquered the world, there would be no Jewish people today.
Unless one assumes that the world is about to enter an era of eternal peace, history teaches us that a monolithic Judaism concentrated in one place will have a smaller chance of long-term survival than a multifaceted Judaism present in different parts of the world.
Getting all Jews into the same shape and country, even if it is Israel as recently advocated by an Israel poet, is not the best survival strategy.
The Roman Empire wiped out scores of civilizations: the Estruscans, Cartago, the Gaul’s. These are just the best remembered. The Jews were luckier than all of these – or more resourceful.
P31: Hannah Ahrendt explained the virulence of Nazi anti-Semitism by the discrepancy between the enormous cultural and economic influence of the Jews and their inability to back it up with the real political and military power. In other words, to have seemingly exorbitant “soft power” but no “hard power” to defend it is a provocation that can expose the “power-holder” to great danger. Israel’s military power today may have subtle indirect impacts on much more than the country’s strategic position in the Middle East.
Jewish history knows at least three periods of major transformation that are responses to severe, external challenges.
P32: All three transformations show a remarkable Jewish capability to adapt to new conditions and survive catastrophes that would have been fatal to other civilizations.
It was observed that it is uncommon for two or three successive, major challenges to elicit creative responses from one and the same leader or leading minority. Also ruling dynasties often remain creative only for three or four generations after which they begin to decay. This could even apply to political “dynasties” in republican regimes or democratic parties.
P34: Is there a minimum critical mass for the Jewish people as a whole, or for individual Jewish communities, to allow Jews to defend their interests?
P35: Jews seem to be hopelessly inferior to their enemies in using cyberspace to defend their cause, while the latter are skilled in its use to defame the Jewish people.
Defense against anti-Semitism, a permanent institute with professional staff and a comprehensive cyberspace information and anti-defamation agenda seems to be increasingly necessary.
P36: He (Freud) wrote that he was Jewish “in its very essence”, although he had abandoned Jewish religion and nationhood. He added that he could not now express “that essence” in clear words.
It is amazing e.g. that it ( the “magic consensus” of the Jews) survived in so many Jews in Soviet Union in spite of the suppression of all Jewish religious, educational and other activities during seventy years.
P37: Jewish history evolved in many different countries and centuries, and under very different economic conditions. Many Jews lived in great poverty until the 20th century, and many others found that discrimination had closed many professions to them.
P40: A civilization can decline but take no note of it. The Aztec, Maya and Inca empires were vast, rich and densely populated, but fell victim to a minuscule band of Spaniards in the shortest time span because the Indians never quite understood what was happening to them. The historic examples are legion.
P41: Many historians of civilization warn that our civilization will come to an end too, and some are already detecting a decline of the Occident. ……Should one dismiss all these authors as crypto-religious, doomsday-preachers? After the horrors of the 20th century, more people are probably ready to take such predictions seriously than at any time since the Enlightment.
A serious decline or collapse of Western civilization would dramatically affect the Jews because the overwhelming majority of them are an integral part of this civilization. The prospect may seem far-fetched, and in any event, Jewish policy could do very little to directly affect the mega-trends of Western civilization. A critical part of this question is the future of the United States, the only super-power and the dominant civilization of the world. The future of the Jewish people is inextricably linked to that of the United States and will remain so for many decades to come.
P42: Thoughts about the future of Western civilization or the United States should accelerate Jewish policy initiative to seek more links with non-Western civilizations, particularly the new emerging powers of Asia, China and India.