THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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MR. and MRS. HYMAN GREENBAUM, Miami Beach
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy. happy and prosperous
New Year
MR. and MRS. ALAN NATHAN
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MR. & MRS. GEDALE ELBAUM
& FAMILY
would like to wish all our family
and friends a healthy and happy
New` Year
MR. & MRS. JEFFREY LEVITIN
& Family
Wish Their Family and Friends
A Happy & Healthy
New Year
MORRIS & BERNICE DICKSTEIN
wish all their family and
friends a year filled with
health, happiness, joy
and peace
TO ALL OUR DEAR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS,
WE WISH TO THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR
GOOD WISHES, PRAYERS, CONTRIBUTIONS
AND GIFTS DURING JERRY'S RECENT ILL-
NESS. YOU HELPED SO MUCH TO MAKE A
VERY DIFFICULT TIME EASIER.
MAY THE NEW YEAR BRING ALL OF YOU AN
ABUNDANCE OF "GOOD HEALTH," HAPPI-
NESS AND PROSPERITY.
JOAN AND JERRY PENFIL
ES1041 Tova
Wishing all our friends and
relatives a year of health
and -happiness
THE WETSTEIN'S
GARY, ROCHELLE & ERIC
Boris Smolar's
Between You
. . . and Me'
0 "'"75""
Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1981, JTA, Inc.)
JEWISH DECLINE: There would have been about
eight million Jews in the United States today instead of the
estimated less than six million had Jewish women given
birth at the -same rate as women in other groups in
America.
There are at present about 250,000 less Jews than a
generation ago. This, despite the fact that tens of thousands
of Jews arrived here from the Soviet Union, and the esti-
mated 500,000 Israelis who chose during the last years to
move from Israel to the United States. The decline is at-
tributed to the fact that birth control is very high among
Jews.
Sociologists assert that birth control among Jews is
more harmful to Jewish continuity than intermarriage.
The rate of intermarriage had never climbed higher than
13 percent prior to 1960. Now, about 20 years later, it
reaches about 35 percent; in some communities it has
reached about 50 percent. Indeed, it has been suggested
that at this time there is hardly a Jewish family network
which does not include a non-Jew.
The precipitously declining Jewish birthrate is consid-
ered a greater danger to the Jewish community. It is
pointed out that while among some of the intermarried
Jewish couples the non-Jewish spouse accepts Judaism,
birth control reduces the Jewish population and thus
strongly affects the Jewish family life-style and presents
the Jewish community with unique problems.
THE CAREER WOMAN: The Jewish woman of
today is not interested in being a "Woman of Valor" in the
biblical sense. She is a product of th4rapid social changes
that have taken place in/American life in recent years. She
prefers to be a "career woman" rather than to take care of a
home and children.
Most yoUng Jewish women of today — not all — follow
the "women's liberation" line. They are ambitious to be
"free," not "enslaved," to family obligations carried by their
mothers with pride and satisfaction. They are not reproduc-
ing the number of American Jews whose proportion, now
under three percent of U.S. population, is shrinking.
Many of those who have children leave them to the care
of hired help or institutions. They look forward to the time
when their children will grow up and not need parental
supervision, thus making it possible for them to be "eman-
cipated" and equal with the husband. They want to have
their own income, not because the husband does not earn
enough to maintain the family, but to satisfy their ambi-
tion of showing that they are as able as men.
Some of them develop second thoughts when they grow
older. They begin to realize that in their race for a career,
they have estranged themselves from their children, and
even from their husbands. The result of their career is
actually the evaporation of the Jewish family spirit, in-
crease in separations and divorces, the growth os "single
parent" households, and other developments which weaken
Jewish continuity.
COMMUNAL POLICY SOUGHT: Despite the con-
cern over the weakening of family ties in the American
Jewish community, there is hardly any reliable data which
can serve as a basis to arrive at a communal policy and
program. All that is known is that about 30,000 Jewish
households in New York City are headed by one parent, and
that a similar situation exists in other communities.
The American Jewish Committee is presently engaged
in an intensive program of collecting data on Jewish family
life, developing policy recommendations and launching an
educational and advocacy program with regard to
strengthening the Jewish family. The dual career family is
predicted to become the base of the Jewish community
within the 1980s, together with singles under 35 and the
elderly whose number will definitely grow as the decade
unfolds.
A Task Force on the Family, to evaluate the impact of
social policies on the American Jewish family, has been
established by the American Jewish Committee. It is com-
posed of scholars, sociologists and religious leaders.
Yehuda Rosenman, the director of the AJC's Jewish Com-
munal Affairs Department, is of the opinion that Jewish
survival is bound by the continuity of the family. His re-
search established that the family is about three times
more important a factor in Jewish identity formation than
formal schooling.
The threat to Jewish identity and survival inherent in
the low birthrate and sharply increased rate of intermar-
riage will be a major topic of discussion at the three-day
meeting (Oct. 22-25) in Houston, Tex., of the National
Executive Council of the American Jewish Committee.
- An increase is expected in in Uruguay. Officials also
the number - of full - time day - expect a rise in students
students at the ORT school studying in the evening.
Friday, October 2, 1981 51
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy. happy and prosperous
New Year
MR. & MRS. DAVID BERKOWITZ & FAMILY
We wish our family and friends a
very healthy, happy and prosperous
New Year
MR. & MRS. AL BETZ & FAMILY
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ROCHELLE & EDDIE CHINSKY
6200 Olivewood Circle, Lake Worth, Florida
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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CANTOR & MRS. NICHOLAS FENAKEL
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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MR. & MRS. MARK L. GANTZ, AMY & ERIKA
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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IZZY GOLD & FAMILY
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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ANN, IRV, DEBBIE & MICHAEL GOLDSTEIN
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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MR. & MRS. BEN GURVITZ
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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MR. & MRS. LEON HALPERN
wish at their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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MR. & MRS. RAYMOND H. JONAS
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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NATE LACHMAN &•FAMILY
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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DAVID & PHYLLIS MADISON & FAMILY
wish all their friends and relatives
a happy and healthy New Year
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ALICE and HANK
KLEGON & FAMILY
would like to wish all our family
and friends a healthy and happy
New Year