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CHAPTER 8 Mortality and Causes of Death High mortality and high fertility was a reproduction mix that held population growth close to zero in the past. Most children did not survive into adulthood due to a lack of adequate care or harsh external conditions. Thus turned the wheel of high fertility and mortality regime for many centuries. There is little reliable evidence of what Jewish mortality patterns were like before the end of the eighteenth century. In 1787, Giuseppe Toaldo, a professor at the University of Padua, published a series of life tables comparing urban, rural, and mountain populations, and friars, nuns, and Jews in the Venetian state. He discovered that whereas “only” onefifth of Jewish newborns died in the first year of life, among gentiles in mountain parishes the figure was more than two-fifths. He also found that the life expectancy of adult Jews was higher than that of friars and nuns (Toaldo’s findings are cited from Derosas 2003, 111). Other studies revealed that mortality crises caused by such epidemics as plague and cholera were more prevalent among Catholics than Jews. Derosas (2003, 110) cites studies stating that “in the disastrous plague of 1630–31, around onethird of the inhabitants of the city of Venice died, whereas the proportion of Venetian Jews was about 1 out of 7, although one would expect that the population density of the Ghetto surely should have increased exposure to contagion.” Similar observations were found in connection with the cholera epidemics of the mid-nineteenth century in Venice. There is a large body of evidence of lower infant mortality among the Jews than the majority populations dating back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. A study by Schmelz (1971) gathered evidence from all continents for the years between 1819 and the 1960s and found that Jewish infant and childhood mortality was in every period and context lower than that of the majority population. Derosas (2003) compared the mortality conditions of inhabitants of two poor Catholic parishes in Venice with the equally poor 98 Demographic Avant-Garde inhabitants of the Venetian Ghetto between 1850 and 1869. In conformity with previous studies he found that Jews had much lower infant mortality than Christians. In this particular case, the share of newborns that died before their first birthday was 32% in the poor Christian parishes, but 14% in the equally poor Jewish Ghetto. After further analysis of possible explanatory factors, Derosas (2003) came to the conclusion that the Jewish advantage “does not result from favourable social conditions or from better coping with climatic harshness or from better management of intense fertility” (122). Jewish mortality conditions were better despite Jews being exposed to similar external factors as Christians, so there had to be some cultural, religious, and behavioral factors that determined the Jewish mortality advantage. So what were they? Based on evidence provided by various scholars (Derosas 2003, Schmelz 1971, DellaPergola 1997a, and 1997b), the following four factors can be identified as significant for the lower Jewish mortality: Religious dictums led to a behavior that had positive health repercussions , and included rules about personal hygiene, such as washing hands before and after meals, ritual baths, and forbidding sexual intercourse on “impure days.” Strict dietary laws required food being handled in a special way, forbidding the consumption of rotten food, shellfish and pork. Lifestyle refers to traditional Jewish behavior that was only indirectly related to Judaism; this included the near nonexistence of alcoholism and the lower prevalence of venereal diseases among Jews (Schmelz 1971), and strong Jewish domestic values and duties, such as the fair use of the man’s income for the needs of his family instead of spending much of it on drinking or other private habits (Derosas 2003). Childcare seemed to be more intensive among Jews than among Christians . In general Jewish women breastfed longer, and this was a very important factor for improving the chances of a child’s survival during the first six months of life. Some studies have also pointed out that Jewish mothers were more concerned about the health and wellbeing of their children—for example, seeking out a doctor if their children were ill and following the doctor’s advice (Goldstein et al. 1994). Welfare institutions had been well established and widespread in Jewish communities in Europe ever since the Middle Ages. They provided financial and other forms of assistance, clothing, food, education, work, and medical care to the poorest members of the community. In Prague, one of...

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