ROUTE 60 BIBLICAL HIGHWAY

 Nadene Goldfoot                        

The Israel Guys, on YouTube is a Christian Zionist organization, not a Jewish group. It is tied to HaYovel, a Christian farming volunteer organization dedicated to supporting Jewish pioneers and farmers in the heartland of Israel (Judea and Samaria).  While the channel produces content from a Biblical worldview and is run by Christians, it partners directly with Orthodox Jewish rabbis and operates with a strict policy against proselytizing to Jewish people.

It comes to me on YOU TUBE, so I just heard this morning what happened yesterday in Jerusalem:  NOW THIS IS A BIG DEAL!!!!

Orthodox Jews pray on Mount Gerizim overlooking Joseph's Tomb, one of their holiest sites, in the city of Schechem, also known as Nablus on May 28, 2009.  (Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)  This is only one of the important places Rt 60  passes through.  

There is an important Route 60 Highway in Judea-Samaria which is the heartland of the Old Testament-(Tanakh).  It is the place of our Jewish beginnings.  The USA has its Route 66; and Israel has its Route 60.  They just added more to the number.  It is now:

Route 60  Biblical Highway.  

There will be no Palestine created on Jewish ground this way. This must be an old map:  See below a newer one...

Ancient Origins: The route largely follows the ancient "Way of the Patriarchs," a natural ridgeline route walked for thousands of years by figures like Abraham, Jacob, and Jesus.

Route 60, also known as the Biblical Highway or the Way of the Patriarchs, is a major 146-mile, north-south transnational route in Israel and the West Bank (Judea-Samaria) , stretching from Beersheba in the south to Nazareth in the north.  It has been called this in the past as seen in the present reference of (West Bank) in writings, anyway.  The highway roughly follows the ancient watershed ridge line of the Judaean and Samarian mountains. It cuts directly through the historical regions of Judea and Samaria (often referred to internationally as the West Bank).

Route 60 goes through all the important sites to both Christians and Jews:  Nazareth, Valley of Meggido, going through the Central Area of our Jewish history.  Israel is determined to keep Palestinians from taking away their homeland, the Center of their world, their history, their religion.  

The modern, paved Highway 60 running through Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) is primarily built, maintained, and heavily upgraded by Israel. However, the highway is not a single construction project; rather, it is a combination of ancient paths and modern engineering: 

• Modern Development: Segments of the road have been paved, widened, and modernized over several decades. For example, the sophisticated "Tunnels Highway" (the southern entrance to Jerusalem) was designed by a French engineering firm. 
• Recent Expansions: The Israeli government, alongside private contractors, frequently updates and bypasses various sections to accommodate both Israeli settler traffic and local Palestinian commuters. Because it passes through the Judea-Samaria,  it cuts through both Israeli settlements and Palestinian territories. 
  
  
  

In June 2026, the Israeli government officially designated the 146-mile route as "The Bible Road" (Derech HaTanakh) to promote tourism and historic heritage.  Yesterday, June 22, 2026, Netanyahu embraced it as BIBLICAL HIGHWAY !  

Speaking in Gush Etzion on June 18, 2026, Netanyahu stated: []

"This is not merely a road paved with asphalt – this is a road paved with memory, with faith, with promise... It leads from our patriarch Abraham to the soldiers of the IDF... Each of those places, without exception, is not merely a point on a map – it is a chapter of our identity."

Broader Significance: Advocates for the project view it as an effort to counter campaigns that attempt to erase the Jewish historical connection to the land. 

Tourism Integration: The Israel Ministry of Tourism is incorporating "The Biblical Highway" into international branding materials, complete with visitor centers, observation points, and multilingual signage. 

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_60_(Israel%E2%80%93Palestine)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtyMsPBKOfc

Jews:; The Smallest Religious Population In the World

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

                         Sephardi Jews make up roughly 16% to 25% of the global Jewish population of 0.02%. Exact numbers vary based on how strictly Sephardi ancestry is defined, but demographic estimates generally place the worldwide Sephardic population between 1.5 million and 3.5 million people.                    

               Canadian Ashkenazis in Synagogue 

                                               
                                   Ashkenazi Jews 

The remaining global Jewish population is predominantly Ashkenazi (originating from Central and Eastern Europe), alongside smaller demographic groups like Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East.

      Family of Jews from Iraq (so are Mizrahi Jews) 

Mizrahi Jews make up roughly 15% to 20% of the global Jewish population. Out of the estimated 16 million Jewish people worldwide, Mizrahim represent roughly 3 million individuals. The vast majority of Mizrahi Jews live in Israel, where they make up the largest Jewish ethnic group.

                                        ISRAEL

Israel's population stands at roughly 10.2 million people. The demographic makeup is primarily divided among Jewish (73.5%), Arab (21.1%), and other groups including non-Arab Christians and those without religious classification (5.4%). The country is characterized by a relatively high fertility rate and a young, growing population compared to most developed nations.

• Mizrahim: Often referred to as Eastern Jews, they trace their ancestry to communities across the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia (e.g., Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Yemen). They are the largest community in Israel today.
• Sephardic Jews: Originally from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), their descendants eventually settled across the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle East. In Israel, demographic records often group Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews together because of shared cultural and religious traditions.
• Ashkenazi Jews: Comprising about 31% to 32% of the population, they trace their roots to Central and Eastern Europe.
• Other Communities: This includes Ethiopian Jews (about 3%), immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and a growing population of mixed heritage.

Demographic studies by organizations like the Pew Research Center highlight that Jewish identity in Israel is increasingly shaped by intermixing between these backgrounds across subsequent generations.

Jewish people account for approximately 0.2% of the world's population. Globally, there are an estimated 15 to 16 million Jews, with nearly 85% of this population concentrated in just two countries: Israel and the United States.  

                                             USA

Ashkenazi Jews make up roughly 1.6% to 1.8% of the total U.S. population, representing about two-thirds of the ~7.5 million Jewish Americans. The remaining fraction is composed of Sephardic, Mizrahi, or multiracial Jewish backgrounds.

Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews make up about 10% of the American Jewish adult population (roughly 591,000 people). Because the American Jewish population comprises about 2.4% of the total U.S. population, Sephardic Jews represent roughly 0.24% of all Americans.

We're not even 1 % of the world.  We're a very small, very special group.  Somehow, we always rise to the top, like cream in a milk bottle.  

Pre-Holocaust Peak: In 1939, the Jewish population peaked at roughly 16.6 million, which accounted for about 0.7% of the global population at the time. 

Current Trends: While the overall population has risen by about 6% in recent years (largely driven by growth in Israel), it is still slightly below its pre-Holocaust numbers when we lost 6 million.

Another challenge in measuring Jewish populations is that Jews are minorities in countries outside Israel, and their populations are often too small to measure reliably with surveys. (Jews account for less than 0.01% of the population in most of the world’s countries and territories.) Furthermore, in some national censuses that measure religion, “Jewish” is not a response option.

I take it back being the smallest population;  Vatican City is the country with the smallest population in the world, home to roughly 800 to 900 permanent residents. Geographically and demographically, Israel is vastly larger, fitting firmly into the medium-sized global tier with a population exceeding 10 million people.  However, not all Israelis are Jewish!  But, we have our own state once again;  Israel.  

All this matters now during election time in the USA.  They are showing through Pew and others that practically no one is winning if they are seen as an Israel  connected person.  The example is New York. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten says latest polls show a significant drop in net favourability for Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu among Americans. Between 2022 and 2026, the net favourability of Israel amongst men under the age of 50 dropped by 22 points, going from -3 in 2022 to -47 in 2026  The research doesn't reflect the population sizes in giving the news of certain groups defending Israel or others not. We were shown how even Jews were not voting for Jews running in  the races, changing from several months ago. The war in Lebanon has affected attitudes changed by lack of knowledge, for one thing. I'm hoping  to see some knowledgeable Jews about the situation who still back Israel, and I'm not alone, but evidently Pew has ignored us.  

So what did we learn?  The makeup of Jewish people in Israel is more Middle Eastern and the makeup of Jewish people in the USA is more Ashkenazi (German-Jews) showing how one views conditions differently than the other.  Of course the Israelis are doing most of the fighting, too, for Israel which means they are the IDF.  

Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv. His mother, Tzila Segal, was born in Petah Tikva in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem—her family had migrated from Minneapolis in 1911, having relocated there from Lithuania in the 1870s—and studied law at Gray's Inn, London.    His father, Warsaw-born Benzion Netanyahu (né Mileikowsky), was a historian specializing in the Jewish Golden Age of Spain. His paternal grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky, was a rabbi and Zionist writer. When Netanyahu's father immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, he adopted a Hebrew surname of "Netanyahu", meaning "God has given." While his family is predominantly Ashkenazi, he has said that a DNA test revealed some Sephardic ancestry. He claims descent from the Vilna Gaon.  I personally connect DNA with his mother.  

Israel's 37th government, Thirty-seventh government of Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thirty-seventh government of Israel, reflects the country's diverse demographics, with a substantial portion of cabinet ministers and coalition members being of Mizrahi or Sephardi descent, though the highest office of Prime Minister has historically been held exclusively by Ashkenazi Jews. 

Location	Estimated Population	% of Global Total
Israel	~7.2 to 7.7 million	Jews make up approximately 73.2% of the population of Israel.  Israel created for Jews;  a Jewish nation.
United States	~6.3 million	Jewish people make up approximately 2.4% of the U.S. adult population (or roughly 2% of the total U.S. population). This amounts to about 7.5 million people,
France	~438,500	Jews make up 0.7% to 0.9% of the country's total population. This percentage represents between 480,000 and 561,000 individuals,
Canada	~350,000 to 400,000	Jews make up approximately 0.9% to 1.2% of Canada's population. According to Statistics Canada, approximately 335,295 people (0.9% of the population) reported their religion as Jewish in the 2021 census.
United   Kingdom	~300,000 to 313,000	The Jewish population in the United Kingdom makes up approximately 0.4% to 0.5% of the total national population. This translates to a "core" Jewish population of roughly 270,000 to 320,000 individuals, making the UK home to the fifth-largest Jewish community globally.