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18 Friday, February 12, 1982

HAPPY

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•

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

50th ANNIVERSARY

FANNIE & ZEIDEL
1101/IN

We Love You
Your Children
& Grandchildren

De Cuellar to Visit Israel

UNITED NATIONS
(JTA) — Prime Minister
Menahem Begin has invited
newly-elected Secretary
General Javier Perez de
Cuellar to visit Israel and
the Secretary General ac-
cepted in principle, a UN
spokesman announced.
According to the spokes-
man, Begin conveyed the
invitation during his meet-
ing last week in Jerusalem
with UN Under-Secretary
General Brian Urquhart.
The spokesman said that

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Boris Smolar's

the date for the trip would
be discussed with the Israeli
UN Mission in New York
and it was understood that a
final date for the vis'it would
be decided when Ambas-
sador Yehuda Blum returns
to the UN from his current
10-day visit to Israel.
Blum left for consulta-
tions in Israel in the wake of
the harsh anti-Israel reso-
lution adopted last Friday
by the General Assembly
calling for the isolation of
the Jewish state for its an-
nexation of the Golan
Heights.
According to the UN
spokesman, De Cuellar vis-
ited Israel in the past. His
predecessor, Secretary
General Kurt Waldheim,
visited Israel while in office.

• Chicano-Jewish
• Talks in Denver

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DENVER — The Ameri-
can Jewish Committee's
Denver chapter has con-
cluded a year-long series of
dialogues with Chicano
leaders from the Denver
metropolitan area, result-
ing in "a marked increase in
mutual understanding and
goodwill between the
Jewish and Chicano
groups."

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Mon . Tues . Wed . Sat 10 a in b p m

Thur...Fri 10 am

Sun. 12-5

9pm

`Between You
. . . and Me'

Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA

(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)

•
THE "JEWISH FAMILY WEEK": A number of
cities-are conducting a "Jewish Family Week" this month
as part of their cultural program to strengthen Jewish
family life, which is now in a state of erosion. This follows
the setting up by the American Jewish Committee of a
special task force to examine the various factors that affect
the Jewish family; also to identify the major changes that
have occurred in American families in recent years,}?' -'
lighting those which are most characteristic of Je
families.
The erosion in Jewish family life is coming more and
more to the surface in practically all Jewish communities
throughout the country. It is no longer the Jewish college
youths who become estranged from the parents; it is the
growing chaos in adult family life that is causing grave
concern; the decrease in Jewish marriages; the increase in
divorces; the growing number of "one-parent families,"
with children not seeing their parents together; the ten-
dency of young women to become "career women" rather
than to marry and raise a family; the tendency of young
men not to marry, or to wait till a later age; the splitting up
of families by geographic mobility for the sake of a better
job or better opportunities; the rise in the number of young
men and women who live together unmarried.
In introducing a "Jewish Family Week," local Jewish
leaders aim to reach all elements in their community —
young and middle-aged, men and women, "singles" and
marrieds. Their program includes -lectures, discussions,
workshops, entertainment, art exhibitions and other
means of educating local Jews to the importance of a solid
Jewish family life for the well being of American Jewry and
its continuity.
THE MISSING CENSUS DATA: There is no na-
tional data on Jewish families comparable to overall statis-
tics of the characterization of the U.S. households and
families. However, it would be a mistake to think that the
erosion in Jewish family life is a purely Jewish problem. It
is a national malaise. Significant changes are taking place
in families of many million Americans as well.
The absence of data on the characteristics of the Jewish
family is due to the fact that Jews are not classified as Jews
in the government census of the population. Jews are the
only ethnic group among close to 60 national minorities in
the country who are not listed in the census according to
ethnic origin. The Census Bureau would like to identify
Jews by ethnicity, but is under pressure from leading
Jewish organizations not to do it. American Jewry — the
largest Jewish community in the world — is thus non-
existent as far as the census is concerned. The approx-
imately six million Jews in the United States are anonym-
ous within the entire American population; they are
Americans but not Jews.
From census data a clear picture emerges showing that
birthrate is declining among the entire population in the
country; there are today two-thirds more "singles" among
women between 25 and -29 years of age as compared with
1970, and they can be found mostly among the educated;
the number of divorces has doubled during the last decade,
especially among couples under 30 years of age; 22 percent
of all families in the country are "one-parent families";
there are more than 1,000,000 households where unmar-
ried young men and women — primarily under 35 years of
age — live together.
THE INTERMARRIAGE TRENDS: Related to the
trends affecting the Jewish family is the rise of intermar-
riage among young third-generation Jews. No strategy for
reducing this trend has so far been developed.
At a session of the task force of the American Jewish
Committee, Dr. Sheila Kamerman, a Columbia University
professor of social work, touched upon the special concern
which the increase in intermarriages provokes. At the
same time she stated that there is an apparent rise in
conversion rates of non-Jewish spouses and in Jewish iden-
tification of many of their children.
Her suggestion that the conversion rate to Judaism is
higher than most would anticipate was, however, disputed
by another professor, Dr. Chaim Waxman, chairman of the
Sociology Department of the University College of Rutgers
University. He said that to the best ,of his knowledge the
conversion rate is about 20-25 percent and that the vast
majority of non-Jewish spouses do not convert. As for the
children of those who do not convert, he said that there is
available evidence indicating a level of Jewish socializa-
tion which ranges "from negligible to nil." He was also
pessimistic about the evidence of some of those who do
convert.

Those things that are not
practicable are not desira-
ble. There is nothing in the
world really beneficial that

does not lie within the reach
of an informed understand-
ing and a well-protected
pursuit.

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