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diamonds and precious gems Appraisers available
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Sidney Krandall & Sons
CONG. BETH ABRAHAM HILLEL
MOSES: Services 7 p.m. today and 8:45
JEWELERS • TROY, MI (313)362-4500
a.m. Saturday. Jeffrey Norber and Daniel
Singer, b'nai mitzvah.
CONG. B'NAI DAVID: Services 7 p.m. to-
day and 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Monte
Schloss will chant the Haftorah.
CONG. B'NAI MOSHE: Services 7 p.m. to-
day and 8:45 a.m. Saturday. Jason Kohn,
bar mitzvah.
DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE: Services 9
a.m. Saturday. Rabbi Gamze will speak
on "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Hap-
piness After Two Centuries."
TEMPLE ISRAEL: Services 8 p.m. today.
Rabbi Loss will speak on "The Drama
Concludes: Our • Quest For In-
dependence." Lisa Goren and Sherry
Goren, mother-daughter b'not mitzvah.
Torah study 9:30 a.m. Saturday; services
10:30 a.m.
Regular services will be held at: Adat
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Jewish Notional Fund 42 East 69th St.. New York. N.Y. 10021
New. Study Probes Factors
Influencing Converts to Judaism
SHERWOOD D. KOHN
Special to The Jewish News
AMY GOLDFADEN, M.D.
GENISE EILENDER KERNER, M.D.
AND
SETH M. MINDELL, M.D.
ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE
THEIR ASSOCIATION
AND OPENING OF THEIR
INTERNAL MEDICINE PRACTICE
AT THE
SINAI HOSPITAL
GOLDIN HEALTH CARE CENTER
6450 FARMINGTON ROAD
SUITE 120
WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI
(313) 661-9490
AS OF JULY 6, 1987
32
FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Shalom Synagogue, Cong. Bais Chabad of
Farmington Hills, Cong. Bais Chabad of West
Bloomfield, Cong. Beth Achim, Temple Beth
El, Cong. Beth Isaac of Trenton, Temple Beth
Jacob, Cong. Beth Jacob Mogain Abraham,
Cong. Beth Tefilo Emanuel Tikvah, Cong.
Beth Tephilath Moses of Mt. Clemens, Cong.
B'nai Israel-Beth Yehudah, Cong. B'nai
Jacob, Cong. B'nai Israel of West Bloomfield,
Cong. B'nai Zion, Cong. Dovid Ben Nuchim,
Temple Emanu El, Temple Kol Ami, Livonia
Jewish Congregation, Cong. Mishkan Israel
Nusach H'Ari, Sephardic Community of
Greater Detroit, Cong. Shaarey Shomayim
(Jewish Center — Jimmy Prentis Morris
Branch), Cong. Shaarey Zedek, Cong.
Shomrey Emunah, Cong. Shomrey Israel
(18995 Schaefer), 12 Mile and Pierce (Bais
Yoseph), Cong. T'chiyah, Troy Jewish Con-
gregation, Young Israel of Greenfield, Young
Israel of Oak-Woods and Young Israel of
Southfield.
A
mong intermarried
couples, the attitudes
of the Jewish spouse
and his or her family play a
crucial role in determining
whether or not the non-Jewish
spouse, who is usually a
woman, converts to Judaism.
That, said Egon Mayer, pro-
fessor of sociology at Brooklyn
College, was the most impor-
tant finding of a study that he
co-authored recently with Amy
Avgar, assistant director of the
William Petschek National
Jewish Family Center of the
American Jewish Committee.
The study, third in a series of
statistical inquiries into the
subject of conversion among the
intermarried, was sponsored by
the American Jewish Commit-
tee. It was titled, "Choosing To
Become Jewish," and aimed at
gaining "a better understan-
ding of the characteristics of
converts as a group and of the
dynamics underlying the con-
version process."
The survey was conducted in
1985 using a sample of 309 peo-
ple in "15 areas of major Jewish
settlement,"
The sample consisted of
109 converts to Judaism and
200 nonconverts. Seventy-four
percent of the respondents were
women. The average age of the
couples contacted was 39, and
three quarters of them were
Jewish men married to non-
Jewish wives.
Researchers asked converts
about their decision to become
Jewish, about the conversion
process and about their accept-
ance by the Jewish community.
"Those who had not con-
verted were asked about the
factors that deterred them,"
said the study report. "
organizations
Jewish
estimate that about 10,000
adults convert to Judaism each
year in the United States, or
about twice the number who
converted annually 20 years
ago. Approximately a third of
all Jewish marriages now in-
volve a non-Jewish spouse.
Among factors prompting the
survey were the U.S. Jewish
community's concerns about:
• The rising incidence of in-
termarriage, and a consequent
increase in assimilation, that
might seriously deplete the
Jewish population in America
by the 21st century;
• The neutrality, and
sometimes even hostility of
American Jews toward the idea
of proselytizing;
• The effects of intermarriage
on the Jewishness of a couple's
children.
Two important findings of the
survey were that rabbis appear
to play a negligible role in en-
couraging non-Jewish spouses
to convert, and that "most
couples are virtually ignorant
of Jewish communal outreach
to the intermarried."
The results of the survey
make it clear, said Mayer, that
the first step in coping with in-
termarriage is the Jewish fami-
ly's concern about it. "It gives
us a clue about outreach," he
said, "who should reach out
and where. It's not a matter of
becoming Jewish by conversion.
It's about support and
stimulus?'
Only 42 percent of the con-
verts surveyed and 21 percent
of the non-converts "had been
exposed to some kind of out-
reach effort?' while "the rest
reported that they had not been
approached by any repre-
sentative of the Jewish com-
munity."
One of the study's indications
was that the Jewish communi-
ty needs a greater commitment
to outreach. "I think it shows?'
said Mayer, "that Jews must
stop being so skittish about
suggesting conversion?'
Eighty-six percent of the
respondents who converted to
Judaism were women. Avgar
said she thought that the
reason is that women still
behave in highly traditional
ways, despite the influences of
feminism, and are "still more
obliging and sympathetic," as
well as more spiritual.
Converts questioned in the
survey criticized the conversion
process and the attitudes of
Jews toward a convert. They
complained that their courses
of study had been heavily
weighted toward theology and
said they would have preferred
an ethnic and cultural heritage.
"The survey shows," Mayer
said, "how infrequently rabbis
seem to play a role in stimu-
lating conversion.
Torah Reception
Rabbi Avrohom Ch. Levin
will address the annual recep-
tion for the Chinuck Atzmai-
Torah Schools network in
Israel 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at
the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Marvin Berlin, 18251 Onyx,
Southfield.
Rabbi Levin, son of Rabbi
Leizer Levin of Cong. Beth
Tefilo Emanuel Tikvah, is
dean of Telshe Yeshiva of
Chicago.
For information, please call
Rabbi Shaiall Zachariash,
557-9666.