They survived within different communities from those you recognize as Jewish. There is a huge number of them. Could you say they also "survived as people"? I am sure they call themselves people.

Don't forget that Muslims and Druze (Druze are the old Esenes) are also circumcised

They could not come into "gentile" societies , were not accepted as "in laws" . So they HAD to stay in their communities . So , even not believing Jews could not assimilate , Look at Heine , who , after his conversion , said : this is my passport to the cultural world .

Perhaps you are correct, but, I think there are other factors involved. First there are others who practice circumcision and family purity. I think our survival is based on the need to say together to help put up with all the various forms of ant-Semitism practiced through the ages. Jews have been also segregated in many lands and as a result hardly mixed with the indigenous populations. This forced isolation limiting our assimilation into other societies is a big factor in our survival. Look at America where being Jewish is on the wane and there is a lot of intermarriage as Jews are fully assimilated into the American culture. I therefore believe that being kept isolated is the real reason for our survival.

Physical survival is paramount and for that it is better to assimilate, as Jews in America have done. As to ethnic survival, you'll do better in isolation and be miserable. I predict Israelis will not opt for isolation as a long-term perspective.

I agree that the Mitzvot have preserved the Jewish People. However, the claim that Israelis can continue to be Jewish without Judaism is false. Being a secular Jew does not guarentee Jewish continuity

On CBN.com is an article called 'Biblical Roots run deep into West Bank". Evangelical Christians support the Jews .and Israel. While I feel for the arabs, the kids especially who are used as pawns by their leaders, they have no claim to land whatsoever.

Not one national medical association on earth (not even Israel's) endorses routine circumcision of infants. In 2009 WHO researchers Wawer/Gray reported that the Ugandan men they circumcised were 50% MORE likely to infect their female partners with deadly HIV than the men they left intact were. But that's hardly relevant to a non-sexual infant. He can decide for himself at a rational age how to thwart STIs.

could come in gentile society if they converted [except under Hitler s regime] Jews with a Jewish soul did NOT really want to assimilate,that is why they circumcised their sons. Circumcision is a Tora law kept also by secular Jews.

factor in ou survival".Perhaps.But than Jews have to keep Tora laws,which will keep them isolated.

Professor Konner makes a good cheerleader but he has many of his facts wrong. Male circumcision increases child morbidity and mortality because of hemorrhage and infection. A child died last week in Pittsburgh from hemorrhage. Instead of causing infection as Konner alleges, the foreskin with its protective immunological functions prevents infection. He misstates the alleged protection against HIV infection. It is not 60 percent as he alleges. It actually is about one percent, which is not statistically significant. The African RCTs miscalculated the percentages. If circumcision conferred any real advantage, by the principle of "natural selection", the circumcised population group would have driven out the non-circumcised and taken over the world. That has not happened, although many thousands of years have elapsed, since circumcision started somewhere in East Africa. The task force that produced the 1999 AAP statement had six members. Three were Jewish and three were gentiles. The Jews were in favor of circumcision and the gentiles were against circumcision. This resulted in a compromise statement. That AAP statement is the product of the clash of cultures, not medical science.