Upon the expulsion of Spanish Jewry in 1492, many magnificent houses of worship were abandoned, ultimately to be repurposed or built over. In recent years, Orge Castellano explains, local governments and nonprofits across Europe have successfully uncovered a number of these long-forgotten synagogues, along with thousands of ritual objects, and are intent on finding many more:

“In terms of cultural heritage, Spain has undergone an enormous transformation since the end of the 1980s, with an upsurge in archaeological interventions associated with the booming construction industry,” said Jorge A. Eiroa, professor of medieval history at the University of Murcia. He explained that synagogues often appear when grounds are excavated during construction.

Over several centuries, Jewish communities in Spain left a striking medieval architectural legacy. Their former synagogues are jewels of artistic and cultural heritage that illustrate the splendor and prosperity of Spain’s medieval Jewish communities. . . . Some of the few prominent ones left intact today were repurposed into Roman Catholic churches, such as El Tránsito and Santa Maria la Blanca in Toledo [and] the Córdoba synagogue and Corpus Christi in Segovia. Many Jewish sites of worship scattered throughout the Spanish peninsula, however, are hidden underground with no documented evidence of their existence.

In the ancient city of Úbeda stands a formerly unknown synagogue with a medieval mikveh, or ritual bath, which gives it a nickname: the Synagogue of Water. Buried under the bedrock of the city’s surrounding houses, the synagogue lay undisturbed until it was accidentally unearthed in 2007. Its discovery astonished the property’s owners, who were developing apartments for tourists and a parking lot.

Yasir Arafat was often quoted as saying that his “strongest weapon is the womb of an Arab woman.” That is, he believed the high birthrates of both Palestinians and Arab Israelis ensured that Jews would eventually be a minority in the Land of Israel, at which point Arabs could call for a binational state and get an Arab one. Using similar logic, both Israelis and their self-styled sympathizers have made the case for territorial concessions to prevent such an eventuality. Yet, Yoram Ettinger argues, the statistics have year after year told a different story:

Contrary to the projections of the demographic establishment at the end of the 19th century and during the 1940s, Israel’s Jewish fertility rate is higher than those of all Muslim countries other than Iraq and the sub-Saharan Muslim countries. Based on the latest data, the Jewish fertility rate of 3.13 births per woman is higher than the 2.85 Arab rate (since 2016) and the 3.01 Arab-Muslim fertility rate (since 2020).

The Westernization of Arab demography is a product of ongoing urbanization and modernization, with an increase in the number of women enrolling in higher education and increased use of contraceptives. Far from facing a “demographic time bomb” in Judea and Samaria, the Jewish state enjoys a robust demographic tailwind, aided by immigration.

However, the demographic and policy-making establishment persists in echoing official Palestinian figures without auditing them, ignoring a 100-percent artificial inflation of those population numbers. This inflation is accomplished via the inclusion of overseas residents, double-counting Jerusalem Arabs and Israeli Arabs married to Arabs living in Judea and Samaria, an inflated birth rate, and deflated death rate.

The U.S. should derive much satisfaction from Israel’s demographic viability and therefore, Israel’s enhanced posture of deterrence, which is America’s top force- and dollar-multiplier in the Middle East and beyond.