Honor the Bibas’s Memory by Bringing More Life

The terrible reality that we suspected for so many months has been confirmed. Shiri Bibas, horrifically still not returned, and her two beautiful sons, Kfir and Ariel, have joined the long chain of holy martyrs–murdered for the crime of being Jews.

Here in Israel, flags are flying at half-mast, and the color orange, the hue of the slain children’s hair, is evident everywhere.

We are hurting. The lives of two young children were snuffed out through an act of unspeakable brutality, but what can we do with these emotions?

There is one answer–build.

The murder of the Bibas children is a clarion call to Jews throughout the world, especially here in the state of Israel, to bring more life into the world to honor the memory of the lives that were lost.

But aren’t we doing this already? Isn’t our high birthrate our superpower.

Well, yes and no.. While our average family size is 2.8 children per mother, comfortably above the 2.1 replacement rate and well in excess of the US’s 1.66 and the EU’s paltry 1.46, we are fast following the Western trend to smaller or no families.

Let’s look at the history. In 1950, Israeli mothers had an average of 3.9 children each–in that year, food was in short supply, and thousands of new immigrants lived in tents. By 1990 that number had shriveled to 3, and it continues to drop. Today’s rate of 2.8 reflects a .79 percent decrease from last year.

At the same time, Muslims are procreating like it’s no one’s business. Their average is three births per woman.

We can’t ignore this. In memory of the Bibas kids and everyone we’ve lost due to war or terror, we need to encourage more of our people to start or grow their families, and we need to make parenting affordable to all.

That means restoring substantial subsidies for families.

During his tenure as finance minister, Bibi Netanyahu slashed government aid to families, thinking that he had saved our economy by doing so. What he did was to push many families into poverty and fuel the trend to smaller families.

After Bibi’s hatchet job, the child allowance, which was once enough for frugal families to survive, became inconsequential. At present, parents receive 169 NIS per month for the first child, 214 NIS for the second, third, and fourth child, and 169 NIS for the fifth child on the funds deposited in the mother’s bank account. For a family with two kids, that is slightly more than $100 per month. Compare that to the average monthly food bill of roughly $600 for a family that size–it doesn’t make much of a dent.