)2i I; Friday, March 12, 1976
THE. DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Urgent Need for Demographic Study to Establish
Status of Jewish Population Now Reported in the
Reverse...Research on Academicians, Youth
By Philip
Slomovitz
World Jewish Population Figures
Show Trend in Reverse . . . Indicate
Need for Demographic Studies
Admission is now developing to the reality of exaggera-
Vital Need for Research
tions. Talk about six million Jews in the United States is
on
Education and Academics
seriously questioned. Now it is believed there are less than
in the United States
5,500,000, and some even suggest that there are not more
than some 5,000,000 Jews in this country.
A future laden with many problems confronts world
While pursuing demographic studies it would be help-
Some 10 years ago Dr. Arthur T. Jacobs, then director
ful to ascertain the status of Jewish academics and the atti-
Jewry from changes that have taken place in the last four of the Bureau of Manpower Utilization of the War Man-
decades due to the Holocaust and to assimilationist trends. power Commission, an acknowledged authority on the sub- tudes of youth in colleges on Jewish issues.
The age of the ghetto and the shtetl, in both of which, Jew- ject of population trends, made a study of the subject and
Studies also must be conducted to establish the proper
ish communities, in spite of or because of oppressions, were presented these figures on Jewish versus United States pop-
figures relating to the status of Jewish education, the actual
governments unto themselves, has vanished. When Jews ulation trends:
number of enrollees as contrasted with the totally unaffi-
were isolated in their own spheres the religious spirit pre-
liated and those who reduce their studies to the Sunday
dominated, the kehilla, the community council, ruled in ac-
JEWISH
UNITED STATES % JEWISH schools and the availability of proper teachers. The training
cordance with Jewish traditional practices. The enlighten-
of teachers is as much an obligation on a community as the
1907
1,776,885
87,000,000
2.2%
instruction given the youth. Without qualified teachers the
ment that has set in introduced assimilatory trends,
1917
3,388,951
103,266,000
3.3%
schools
may as well close up.
marked by increases in mixed marriages, and affected by
1927
4,228,029
119,038,000
3.5%
The academicians problem is a vital one.
other factors, such as low birth rates.
1937
4,770,647
128,961,000
3.7%
For survivalism there is need for many studies, for edu-
Despite the fact that America's Jews account
1947
5,000,000
144,698,000
3.5%
cational emphases, for demographic research.
for
only
three percent of the total population, they
1957
5,500,000
171,984,000
3.2%
Jewry population growth is now, admittedly, in the
constitute nine percent of university faculties —
1963
5,500,000
188,000,000
2.9%
reverse. The Jewish birth rate in the United States is the
60,000 — according to a survey made by Prof.
lowest of all religious elements. Jewish population figures
Mazur of Syracuse University. The research rev
ESTIMATED
are, at best, speculative.
that Jews make up 22 percent of all medical facul-
5,500,000
209,000,000
2.6%
1970
A feature article released by the Jewish Telegraphic
ties. In the case of law schools the figure is 25 per-
5,500,000
260,000,000
2.1%
1980
Agency from its London correspondent, Mark Segal, con-
cent. In physics and economics Jews are 20 percent
2000
5,500,000
350,000,000
1.5%
of the faculties.
tained this introductory statement:
The numerical decline of the Anglo-Jewish
The figures for 1980 and the year 2000 are now dis-
Most of the professors have no interest in reli-
gious matters, are fuzzy about their Jewish identity
community was one of the prime concerns of the puted in supplementary demographic studies. The new
and have very little interest in specifically Jewish
community's leadership as 1976 began. A statisti- speculated figure of some five million Jews in the U.S. of-
cal report has indicated that the number of Jews in fers additional cause for renewed research in respect to fu-
problems, Prof. Mazur 'found. All efforts on the part
Great Britain in 1975 was about 410,000, a decline ture communal planning. A new status is developing for
of the established Jewish communities to draw their
compared to 450,000 just after World War II. Lord world Jewry, with the United States a chief subject for
professors near to the Jewish scene have been fruit-
less, the survey indicated.
Fisher of Camden, president of the Board of Depu- concern.
ties of British Jews, says this kind of numerical
The above data referred to by Prof. Mazur is from an
Even in Israel there is the problem of fertility and pop-
decline is not new in Anglo-Jewish history. The ulation decline due to the lowering of birth rates, with the article by Everett Ladd and Seymour M. Lipsett which ap-
difference now is that there is no longer a sizeable Arab rate far in excess of the Jewish.
peared in the 1971 American Jewish Yearbook. A new study
Jewish immigration into Britain to reinforce the
of theirs on the religious affiliations of faculty appeared in
Much needs to be tackled in confronting the future. The the Sept. 22 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.
community. This is confirmed by figures prepared
for the Jewish Historical Society of England. For religious community is affected, the schools are involved,
The many thousands of academicians identified are not
example, in 1882 there were 46,000 Jews in Britain. the lowering of classroom populations pose the problem of responsive to Jewish needs. Perhaps their indifference is re-
Immigration from Eastern Europe brought the fig- teaching staffs who need to be trained for an elevation of flected in the similar attitude of students, thus accounting
ures up to 300,000 by 1914. Large-scale immigra- the standards of Jewish teaching, study and research.
for the unresponsiveness of youth and their limited identifi-
Demography assumes a new role in Jewish life under cations with Jewish movements, their parents and the
tion was halted by the Aliens Act which Parlia-
ment enacted just before the first World War. such circumstances. Since a people without vision must fal- community.
Taking into account the many decades that elapsed ter, a view into the future demands proper demographic as-
These suggested studies, if properly conducted by ex-
since then the numerical growh was not so great. sertion. The tasks ahead are serious. They will be less bur- perts, could contribute immensely to the strengthening of
_ British Jewry is not an exception to the rule. It equates densome with proper planning based on realistic facts, the Jewish position in this country and the relationship of
with the American facts, and in the other lands the drop in especially in relation to the population growth which is now American Jewry with Israel as well as the collective Dias-
,admittedly in the reverse.
pora.
Jewish population may be much greater.
1,000 Consider Themselves `Israelitas'
The Jewish Community of Ecuador Struggling With
the Same Top Problem of World Jewry— Assimilation
BY JIM REIBEL
(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)
QUITO — For those Jew-
ish families who fled from
Europe in the face of Hit-
ler's rise to power and for
those who survived the Hol-
ocaust, Ecuador, pursuing
an open-door policy, offered
a safe refuge.
Taking advantage of the
opportunities offered by a
highly undeveloped society.
the community has thrived
economically over the past
40 years. Today it's faced
with a dichotomy, caught
between the desire to inte-
grate fully into the main-
stream of Ecuadorian so-
ciety and a sense of dismay
at the possibility of losing
its cultural identity.
Of
the
estimated
800-1,000 people who con-
sider themselves, and/or are
identifiable as "Israelitas"
(the preferred term) the
predominant number of the
first generation immigrants
came from Central and
3 000-Year-Old Vessel Found-'
r-
11
Shown is the 3,000-year-old pottery cult vessel dating to the period
of the settlement of the Israelite tribes, which has been found in a dig
at Kibutz Sasa..
„.
Eastern Europe, mostly
Germany-Austria, Czecho-
slovakia, Poland, Romania
and Hungary. A feW others
came from Italy, Peru, Ar-
gentina, the United States
andmost recently 15-20
families from Chile, both
prior to and following the
overthrow of the Allende
government.
The second generation
has moved in two distinct
directions. A small group
has gone to work in their
fathers' businesses, being
groomed for eventual con-
trol. The second, and
much larger number have
left the country to study in
the U.S. or Europe; gener-
ally, they don't return.
This appears to be happen-
ing for several reasons, the
first of which is that inter-
marriage is a very real and
tangible threat.
On the average, out of the
last 10 marriages in Quito
where one member was a
Jew, six to seven of them
were with persons of an-
other faith. Additionally
there is not a large number
of Jewish people of marriag-
able age to be found. For ex-
ample, there are only 25
young people between the
ages of 16 and 20 in Quito,
the capital and area of ma-
jor Jewish concentration in
Ecuador.
- The pulse center of Jew-.
ish life in the country ema-
nates from the Asociacion
Israelita de Quito, known lo-
cally as the Beneficiencia
(social welfare organiza-
tion). The Beneficiencia,
started in 1936 by 30 fami-
lies, houses Bene Berith
(Bnai Brith) with 37 mem-
bers, WIZO with 200, an Or-
thodox synagogue and a
kosher restaurant. The tem-
ple has been without a rabbi
for some time now; services
are,conducted by Joshua Er-
lische, a teacher at the Cole-
gio Alberto Einstein and
two-time delegate from Ar-
gentina to the Jewish Latin
American Congress.
The Colegio Alberto Ein-
stein was established by the
community three years ago
and today teaches 240 stu-
dents, 100 of which are Jew-
ish.
The Jewish Ecuadorian
communities of Quito,
Cuenca and Guayaquil are
beginning to awaken to the
quandary they find them-
selves in. Equador offered a
haven to Jewish refugees at
a time when most of the rest
of the world's doors were
firmly barred. Life has been
peaceful and prosperous.
ious. Nevertheless, assimila-
tion and youthful emigra-
tion in search of better
opportunity have taken
their toll.
Statue Honors
Nazi Victims
This memorial statue
located in Dachau, known
for its death camp opera-
tions during the Nazi era,
stands as a memorial to
those who died in the
camps and serves as a re-
minder
to the living.
_____