Increase in Intermarriage, Conformity Concern
Jews of U.S.; Year Book Notes World Population
An estimated current intermar-
riage rate between Jews and non-
Jews of from 10 to 15 per cent is
likely to increase in the coming
years, states Arnold Schwartz, re-
search analyst of the American
Jewish Committee, in a leading
article in the 1970 edition of the
American Jewish Year Book. The
Year Book is co-published by the
AJCommittee and the Jewish Pub-
lication Society of America.
About 85 per cent of Jewish
youth attend college, where they
meet many non-Jews and often
view religion and ethnic boundaries
as "confining parochialisms,"
Schwartz writes in his article. He
reports that Jews are leaving the
traditional Jewish independent oc-
cupations, "with their strong Jew-
ish and family and social associa-
tions," in favor of salaried profes-
sions where they meet more non-
Jews.
Schwartz arrived at an esti-
mated intermarriage rate of 10
to 15 per cent by analyzing the
rates given in the limited avail-
able studies of the subject.
"These figures are higher than in
earlier decades, when the Jew-
ish commitment to endogamy
was stronger (or when the wel-
come from gentile quarters was
less warm)," he writes. "But the
rates are not yet high enough to
warrant fear of an imminent
dissolution of the American Jew-
ish community by intermar-
riage."
Studies have been taken of the
intermarriage rate in Indiana and
Iowa, the only states that record
a couple's religion, the author re-
ports.
The Jewish proscription against
intermarriage still remains in
force, Schwartz maintains, but
notes that disapproval of intermar-
riage "is tempered by the Amer -
ican ethos . .. which places prim,
ary emphasis on the individual-
his will, his choices, his personal
well-being." One's potential hap-
piness with a mate, therefore,
overrides Judaism's concern with
whether or not that mate is Jew-
ish.
Rabbi Gerald Engel, Hillel Foun-
dation director at Purdue Univer-
sity, states in an article on "North
American Settlers in Israel," that
concern about conformity, mate-
rialism, assimilation a n d anti-
Semitism in the United States.
coupled with a strong desire "to
live a Jewish life among Jews,"
have been the main factors influen-
cing Jews from the U.S. and Can-
ada to emigrate to Israel,
Rabbi Engel sent question-
naires to native Americans and
Canadians who went to Israel
from 1955 through 1966 and be-
came permanent r eside n t s
("olim") during 1962.1966. Ninety
per cent of them were from the
United States. "They left be-
cause they felt a growing anxiety
about being part of a society in
which materialism and conform.
ity threatened the realization of
their hum an potential," he
writes, basing his observations
on their returned questionnaires.
The author foresees assimilation,
and dissatisfaction with the "emo-
tional unbalance of society," as the
major concern of those Americans
who will immigrate to Israel in
the 1970s.
There are an estimated /3,875,-
000 Jews in the world, 5,870,000
of them in the United States, ac-
cording to the Year Bock.
Leon Shapiro, writer on Russian
Jewish affairs and lecturer on
Russian-Jewish history at Rutgers
University, prepared the Year
Book tables by sending question
"mires to major Jewish bodies in
.elected countries. He cautions
that the estimates he presents are
of "varying degrees of accuracy."
After the United States, countries
with the largest Jewish population
are the Soviet Union, 2,620,000;
Israel, 2,497,000; France, 535,000;
Argentina, 500,000; Great Britain,
410,000; and Canada, 280,000. The
United States, Soviet Union and
Israel together have 79 per cent of
the world's Jewish population, Sha-
piro notes.
European Jewry numbers 4,030,-
300 persons, of whom 2,800,000 are
in Communist countries. Some of
tae nations Shapiro reports on
include: Austria, 8,200; Czecho-
slovakia, 14,000; Denmark, 6,000;
Finland, 1,450; Germany, 30,000;
Ireland, 5,400; Italy, 30,000; the
Netherlands, 30,000; Poland, 15,-
000; Romania, 100,000; Spain, 7,-
000; Sweden, 15,000; Switzerland,
20,000; Turkey, 39,000 including
Asian regions); and Yugoslavia,
7,500. Central and South America
have 780,000 Jews. Estimated fig-
ures for Latin America and the
West Indies include: Mexico, 36-
000; Cuba, 1,700; Guatemala, 1,500;
Jamaica, 600; Panama, 2,000; Ar-
gentina, 500,000; Brazil, 150,000;
Colombia, 10,000; Ecuador, 2,000;
Peru, 4,000; Uruguay, 54,000; and
Venezuela, 12,000.
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Afghanistan, 800; Burma, 200; In-
donesia, 100; Iraq, 2,500; Japan,
600; Lebanon, 3,000; Pakistan, 250;
Philippines, 500; Singapore, 800;
Syria, 4,000. Shapiro also cites
figures for Australia and New
Zealand of 72,000 and 5,000, respec
tively.
Among the Jewish population fig-
ures for cities reported by Shapiro
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Of the 2,600,000 Jews in Asia,
Shapiro reports, besides the
2,997,000 in Israel, 80,000 are in
Iran, and 15,000 in India. Ex-
cept for Turkey and Asian USSR,
no other Asian country has as
many as 5,000 Jews, and China
has virtually none.
Data for other Asian nations are:
TEL AVIV (JTA)-An Israeli la-
bor official has asked West Germ-
an Foreign Minister Walter Scheel,
to reconsider the appointment of
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Freidrich Karl Vialon as his chief
political adviser.
12-Friday, November 13, 1970
Hillel Seidel, a member of the
Histradrut executive, claimed in a
letter to Scheel that he has docu-
Verrzco ELECTRONIC mentary evidence that Vialon was
engaged in building extermination
OPENER
camps in Lithuania and Estonia
GARAGE DOOR
during World War II.
According to Seidel, he was
shown the documents during a
visit to Tallin, Estonia in 1967, and
obtained photostatic copies of
them. Vision's Nazi past was pre-
viously investigated by the war
crimes prosecutor in Koblenz and
he was subsequently barred from
any official post, Seidel said.
.....:
The American Jewish Year Book
are: Amsterdam, 12,000; Brussels,
24,000; Buenos Aires, 360,000; editors are Morris Fine and Mil-
Glasgow, 13,400; Haifa, 207,500; ton Himmelfarb, with Mrs. Martha
Jerusalem, 195,000; Johannesburg, Jelenko as associate editor.
57,800; Kiev, 220,000; Leningrad,
165,000; London (greater), 280,000;
Melbourne, 35,000; Montreal, 110,-
000; Moscow, 285,000; Paris, 300,-
000; Rio de Janeiro, 50,000; Rome,
15,000; Sao Paulo, 65,000; Stock-
holm, 7,500; Sydney, 28,000; Tel
Single or Double Breasted
Aviv-Jaffa, 394,000; Tokyo, 400;
Toronto, 88,000; Vienna, 8,200;
Warsaw, 5,000; and Zurich, 6,150.
Suits
According to a lead article in the
Year Book, "Reconstructionism in
American Life," by Dr. Charles E.
reg. to 95.00
Liebman, while Reconstructionism,
a movement in American Judaism
seeking to take its place as a
recognized denomination along
with Orthodox, Conservative, and
Reform Judaism, "virtually em-
bodies the major values and atti-
tudes of American Jews," most
American Jews have never heard
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of it.
To
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