President Joe Biden and His Delaware Connection With Israel By Demographic Comparison

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

Delaware, named after Thomas West, Lord De la Warr, colonial governor of Virginia, was discovered in 1609 by Henry Hudson in Dutch employ. After an initial unsuccessful settlement by the Dutch West India Company at present Lewes (1632), a permanent establishment was made (1638) by the Swedes at Christianaham, the present Wilmington. The colony was named New Sweden. In 1655 the Dutch regained control of their colony, calling it New Netherlands, and established themselves at New Amstel, present New Castle. 

Today, Delaware state capital is Dover and Wilmington is the largest city of the state. Delaware population in 2021 is estimated to be 994,735 residents, it is second smallest state with 96 miles long and 39 miles at its widest mostly Atlantic coastal plain and the area is 2044 square miles.                                                     

               

 

In contrast, Israel's population is 8,730,331 million as of 2021. The area of Israel totals 8,522 square miles (22,070 square kilometers), which ranks #152 in the world in terms of sheer size.  Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in developed world and has an estimated population of 8.7 million in 2017, which ranks #101 in the world population. Calculating with these figures, the population density of Israel is 1022 people per square mile (395 people per square kilometer), which ranks #30 worldwide. According to The World Factbook, much of Israel's population is concentrated in and around Tel-Aviv, as well as around the Sea of Galilee; while the southern area remains sparsely populated except for the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba.

Notice in the Israel-New Jersey comparison, above, the size of Israel is included with the West Bank (Judea-Samaria).  As of July 2017 Judea-Samaria has an estimated population of 2,747,943 Palestinians, and approximately 391,000 Israeli settlers, and approximately another 201,200 Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem.

Catholics in Delaware were not tolerated under the Swedes or the Dutch. After it became an English colony, they were theoretically under the same legal and civil disabilities as their coreligionists in England; but, as part of Penn's grant they benefited by his de facto toleration. (Jews had been expulsed from England in 1290 and not allowed back in until 1655)   

In 1808 Delaware became part of the newly established Catholic diocese of Philadelphia. Kenny had laid the cornerstone for a church in New Castle the previous year, and in 1816 he laid the cornerstone for the first Catholic church in Wilmington that was to become a transept of the Cathedral of St. Peter.

The people of Delaware are predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Celtic in origin, together with considerable numbers of Germans, Italians, Poles, and African-Americans. In 2000 the population of Delaware was 783,600 of which 18% (205,000) was Catholic. Most of those who identify themselves as Protestants are Methodists, Episcopalians and Presbyterians. There are also many Lutherans, Baptists, Friends, and some Jews, with Greek and Russian Orthodox in fewer numbers. Wilmington was once called a Quaker town.

An encounter with Jews in Delaware, USA wasn't likely to happen unless one lived in Wilmington.  The first Jewish religious services were held in 1881 in Wilmington.  Going back as far as about 1650,  until the beginning of immigration from Eastern Europe in the 1880s, there had been only a few individual Jews entering this state which were Jewish fur traders.   Jacob Fiana, Abraham Judah, and Jacob and Daniel Solis settled in the area before the middle of the 19^th century when Jewish retailers from families in Philadelphia and Baltimore began opening stores in Wilmington.   The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. By 1990, Delaware had 9,500 Jews living, with most living in Wilmington.  Wilmington's population by 2019 was 701,166.  It is the biggest city in Delaware.  Dover is the capitol.  

Although during the American Revolutionary War of 1776,  only one small battle was fought in Delaware, British troops occupied Wilmington shortly after the nearby Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777. The British remained in the town until they vacated Philadelphia in 1778.

The Wilmington riot of 1968, a few days after the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., became national news. On April 9, Governor Charles L. Terry, Jr. deployed the National Guard and the Delaware State Police to the city at the request of Mayor John Babiarz. Babiarz asked Terry to withdraw the National Guard the following week, but the governor kept them in the city until his term ended in January 1969. This is reportedly the longest occupation of an American city by state forces in the nation's history.

                                            

                          Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.46th President

Joe Biden lived in Claymont, Delaware in 1953.  He had been born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on November 20, 1942.   Biden studied at the University of Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University in New York in 1968. He was elected a New Castle County Councillor in 1970 and became the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972, at the age of 29. Biden was a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and eventually became its chairman. He also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995, dealing with drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties issues; led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act; and oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and again in 2008.  This 3rd time was the charm, and he won in a contentious vote that was unacceptable to Donald Trump.  

Jews have become an integral part of life in all parts of the state. They have contributed to the arts, science, business, medicine, journalism, law, and public service. Irving *Shapiro became CEO of the Dupont Company in 1973 and chair of the Business Roundtable in 1976, Roxana Arsht became Delaware's first female judge in 1971, Daniel Herrmann became chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court in 1973, and Jack Markell was Delaware's state treasurer in 2005.

Henry Heimlich, a Jewish surgeon born in Wilmington in 1920, invented the heimlich maneuver.

The oldest Synagogue in the state is Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth, located in Wilmington.

As of 2017, Delaware's Jewish population was approximately 15,100. Thus, statewide, Jewish households account for 2.5% of all households and Jewish persons represent 1.9% of the total population.  This seems to be the average throughout all states with us Jews being 2% of the population in the USA.  World-wide, we make up 0.2% of the population.  

Dec 31, 2020 — There are currently 6.870 million Jews in Israel, accounting for 74% of the population, while the 1.956 million Arabs in Israel make up 21% of the population. Another 456,000 people defined as “others” make the remaining 5%. Israel was created as a Jewish State, and is the only Jewish state in the world.  There are 48 Muslim majority states in the world; the rest being mostly Christian with India being Hindu with 79.8%, but it has no state religion per se.   

I compare Delaware with Israel because President Biden's heart is very close to this state that made him a Senator  since 1973-2009 and where he was educated.  I ask, will he be good for the Jews of Israel?  Does he see how populated Israel is already compared to the size of their tiny country?  It's not like Delaware in this way at all.  

Resource:

http://www.populationu.com/us/delaware-population#:~:text=Delaware%20state%20capital%20is%20Dover,area%20is%202044%20square%20miles.

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington,_Delaware

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/delaware-jewish-history

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/delaware-catholic-church

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/israel-population/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-it-welcomes-in-2021-israels-population-numbers-9291000/

https://www.jewishdatabank.org/databank/search-results/study/332

http://www.globalreligiousfutures.org/religions/jews

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_India#:~:text=India%20does%20not%20have%20an,imparted%20in%20government%2Dsupported%20schools.