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There are many reasons why Jews have a low population. Depending on your point of view, different reasons will be "more true" than the others. It says in the Torah that the Jewish people, will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands by the sea. However, it also says that we will be a minority amongst the nations. So while we may be ...

Considering Monica's point about year distributions, here's a refinement of Gershon's data (using the frequency table on Remy Landau's Hebrew Calendar page, here): Tzom Gedaliah falls on Monday or Thursday in the year types גכה, זחא, זשג, גכז, זחג, זשה. This is 40.08% of all years. Asarah B'Teves can't occur on Monday, but it can be on Thursday, only in ...

An Google spreadsheet with all that information (and more!) is available here. A screenshot of the more relevant part is clipped below:

I used the data from hebcal.com/hebcal and the linux command line to see how many times the various fasts actually fell on Monday or Thursday. First, I downloaded the Event Lists for the years 5514 through 5572. I started from 5514 because, according to the website, results for year 1752 C.E. and before may not be accurate. "Hebcal does not take into ...

No, and it would be nearly impossible to determine. Every modern survey and census of Jews in America has been performed with the widest possible definition of Jew, in order to obtain the fullest and least-controversial numbers. This usually translates to counting someone as a Jew if they identify themselves as Jewish. (Source) For example, the most ...

Answer: Levites: 4%, Priests: 4%. A scientific article which deals with the genetics of priests and Levites quotes a book from 1999 (not available for reading online) which estimates Levites and priests each at 4% of the general Jewish population. Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000292970763626X#bbib6 Referenced book: "The genetic ...

To the best of my knowledge no such study has been done within Chabad chassidim... and even though in general we say 'Ein lo ra-inu ra-aya' (Zevachim 12:4, "'We have not seen' is not a proof"), controversial studies/statistics the likes of this would surely have spread very quickly with very loud responses.

TofeeqAhmad, I appreciate your changes to the question. The answer, however, remains that mass murder and an aversion to proselytizing has prevented much growth. At our very founding, according our tradition and the text of the Torah, 70 people went down to Egypt as a family/tribe and developed into a small nation within a nation. We grew by leaps and ...

No! It just feels that way. - Analyzing from 5761-5772 35 times not on Monday or Thursday and 25 times on a Monday or Thursday. Tisha B'Av & Shiva Asar B'Tamuz can only come out on either Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbos and then it is observed on Sunday - so for these two fasts it is impossible to fall out on Monday and more likely to fall out on ...

If you go to this website and choose the schedule of one mishnah a day for a certain masechta, and count the days in the schedule, you'll have the number of mishnayos in that masechta (choose the option for the number of days and not dates). You can do the same thing for a perek.

Syrian Jews have been under "the takkanah", forbidding them to marry converts, since the early part of the 20th century. Though the takkanah was promulgated by the rabbis of the American Syrian community, it seems to be applicable to Syrian communities elsewhere in North and South America as well. (I don't know about Israel.) They boast an intermarriage ...

While, no exact number can be known, estimates are possible. In a survey done with Conservative and Reform rabbis, 33% of Conservative rabbis said they would not conduct an interfaith marriage, while 66% of Reform rabbis said they would refer the couple to another Rabbi. In a population survey, 33% of American Jewish Families were "interfaith families", ...