THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Boris Smolar's 'Between You • • and Me' Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc.) INTERMARRIAGES AND DIVORCES: Much is being written about the growing number of mixed marriages which now represent some 50 percent of all the marriages in a number of cities. But few American Jews —even American Jewish leaders — are aware of the fact that there are already today 1,400,000 Jews involved in mixed marriage. The entire Jewish population is now given as being 5,845,000. If one deducts from this total the number of Jews in mixed marriages, the Jewish population is reduced to 4.445,000 souls. This is quite a distance from the years when Jews in this country constituted four percent of the entire population. Today. even with the mixed marriages, they comprise only 2.7 percent of the total population. Non-Jewish members of intermarried couples are now ceasing to seek conversion to Judaism, as was the case only a few years ago when Reform rabbis were busy teaching the basic Jewish traditions to young non-Jewish women who married into Jewish families. With every year. inter- marriage is accepted more and more by Jewish parents as a normal development in American life. The largest proportion of intermarried couples, can now be found in families of Reform Jews. However. mixed mar- riages are also growing in number among Conservative Jewish families. There was a time when the great majority of the 1,000 rabbis in the Conservative movement refused to perform mixed marriage ceremonies. This is no longer the case today. A questionnaire sent out by the Rabbinical Assembly of America — the organization of the Conserva- tive rabbis—elicited replies showing that more than 90 per- cent of the rabbis who responded took a positive stand on mixed marriages. accepting them as a way of life under American social circumstances. They conduct classes teaching Judaism to those who want to be converted to the Jewish religion. The problem of mixed marriages does. of course. not exist among Orthodox Jews. In the Orthodox camp. the major problem today is the growing number of divorces among younger people. And the .Jewish religion has always been very liberal in'granting divorces. OPEN QUESTIONS: Quite a number of studies have been made on the subject of intermarriage. including the very substantial study conducted by the Council of Jewish Feder- ations and Wellare Funds. However. none of these studies touches upon the following basic questions: • How large is the percentage of mixed marraiges that end in divorce? The number of divorces among young couples is now growing among Jews with every year. They. undoubtedly. take place also among couples of mixed mar- riages. What is the proportion of divorces among mixed marriages? How long do mixed marriages last before a divorce occurs? • What happens to divorced couples of mixed marriages? Are they, when remarrying. more eager to marry into their own faith? What is the proportion of Jews who remarry non-Jews and what is the proportion that prefers to look for a Jewish partner in the light of experience in a marriage that was mixed? • What happened to the children in divorced mixed mar- riage families? Do they go with the Jewish parent or with the non-Jewish? The name of -a child can be Goldberg because the father's name is Goldberg. But is he remaining Goldberg when he goes with the non-Jewish divorced mother? Without answers to these questions. I consider the Jewish surveys on intermarriage incomplete. because they dot't present an all-sided picture. Most of the intermarriages are taking place among the academic youth among whom divorCes are rising. Establishing the proportion of divorce in mixed marriages is therefore a basic ingredient in the intermarriage problem. RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: Notwithstanding the ever-grow- ing number of mixed marriages. a total of 82 percent of Jewish household heads identify with a specific religious "ideology" —Orthodox. Conservative and Reform. How- ever. household heads in these groups who have affiliations with congregations number less than half. according to a study by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. The study reports identification with Conservative .Judaism at about 40 percent: Reform Judaism at 30 per- cent: Orthodox Judaism at over 11 percent. The remainder identify themselves as "just Jews." with one-third of them as either "Atheists 'Agnostic" or "other." Only 25 percent, of household headi under the age of 30 belong to a congre 2 gation. Somewhat more than one-half of all Jewish house- hold heads don't attend religious services. or attend less than four times a year -- Roqi Hashana. Yom Kippur. Passover and Hanuka. Israel Entry Into Red Cross Body Urged by Congressmen WASHINGTON (JTA )— Fifty-three members of the House of Representatives have asked the State Department to work "actively" for approval of Israel's long-standing appli- cation for membership in the International Red Cross. The request was con- tained in a letter to Patricia Derian, the department's coordinator for human rights who will head the American delegation to the 23rd conference of the Inter- national Red Cross com- mittee that convenes in Bucharest Saturday. The letter, authored by Rep. Robert F. Drinan (D- Mass.), noted that the con- ference will be the last such meeting until 1981 and therefore it is "imperative that we act now to end this inexcusable discrimination against the Jewish state." The Magen David Adorn Society, Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross, has been denied membership ever since Israel attained state- hood in 1949. "The only basis for this exclusion," the Congress- men's letter said, "is the refusal of the International Red Cross to permit the Magen David Adorn Society to use the red Star of David rather than the ,Red Cross as its emblem." "No other nation's medi- cal service organization is forced to accept the symbol of a religion not its own." the letter added. "The International Red Cross permits all Moslem nations to use the Red Cres- cent as their symbol and permits Iran to use the Red Lion and Sun, emblem of the Persian empire. Only Israel is singled out for rejection." Meanwhile, Rabbi Rubin R. Dobin, international chairman of Operation Rec- ognition, and U. Col. Irwin R. Ziff, USAF (Ret), execu- tive director of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, met in Washington recently to review the plans to urge . the recognition of the Israeli Magen David Adorn Society by the inter- national Red Cross organization. Special efforts are being made to enlist the support of the Paris-based World Veterans Federation in urg- ing recognition of the Magen David Adorn. " Sens. Jacob Javits and Abraham Ribicoff serve as national co-chairmen of a Radomer Aid Sets Regular Meeting Radomer Aid Society will hold a regular meeting 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Zionist. Cultural Center. There Will be a Simhat Torah celebra- tion and a social hour. Plans for the Nov. 6 annual banquet to be held at Cong. Bnai Moshe are being finalized. Sol Ager is chair- man of the banquet. Sam Lederman is co-chairman. group of world leaders and statesmen who are active in the recognition movement. A new Operation Recogni- tion information kit has been prepared for free dis- tribution. For kits write Rabbi Dobin, International Headquarters, Operation Recognition, 124 Richmond Pl., Lawrence, 11559. N.Y. Friday, October 14, 1977 15 The Most Profitable Way to Sell Your Household and Personal Possessions is through K & B ASSOCIATES HOUSEHOLD SALES— ESTATE LIQUIDATIONS — APPRAISALS 569-0237 No obligation of course DO THEY KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON'T KNOW? They know about Entrepreneur, the new store that understands the way they want to look. Elegant but relaxed. Contemporary but masculine. At Entrepreneur we feature the finest men's clothing from around the world. Handsome suits. Crisp sportscoats. Unusual sweaters, and lots more. Classic, quality clothes for men of every size: physical and fiscal. Entrepreneur. We're the new store in town worth getting to know. Come see for yourself. To know us is to love us. INTRODUCTORY SALE: ALL. 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