Newton.
Custom-covered hand-crafted sofas.
Now at discount prices.
When Will We Deal With
What We Find Out?
GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
Right now, our custom sofas are
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The organized
Jewish commu-
nity does a far
better job sur-
veying Ameri-
can Jewry and
analyzing its
problems than it
does addressing those con-
cerns with solutions.
Several recent polls and
surveys brought that point
home to me. One was a major
study on correlations between
intermarriage and divorce.
One key finding was that
Jews who marry non-Jews are
twice as likely to divorce as
Jews who marry Jews.
Another was that the single
most important factor preven-
ting intermarriage is having
Jewish friends.
But_I was particularly in-
trigued by the finding on the
negligible effect of Jewish
education on the chances of
intermarrying: contrary to
popular opinion, Jewish
education does not "im-
munize" against intermar-
riage, noted writer Ruth
Mason. One significant
caveat is that the study did
not differentiate between day
school and afternoon or Sun-
day school, and the resear-
chers assume that when they
do a more detailed study next
year they will find that the
more intensive one's Jewish
education, the lower the
chance of one's
intermarrying.
But still, wouldn't you
think that providing a child
with a Jewish education,
albeit of only four or six hours
a week, would provide a buf-
fer against the perils of inter-
marriage? And yet a number
of Jewish educators were not
surprised by the findings
because they know that
Jewish values cannot be
taught in a vacuum. You can-
not send your child off to
Hebrew school for a few hours
a week and expect that to be
enough. What takes place, or
does not take place, in the
home is critical. Children
will, and do, ask of parents:
Why is it so important to you
that I marry a Jew if we have
never attended synagogue
regularly, kept the Sabbath
or the laws of kashrut, or em-
braced the most basic beliefs
of our religion?
And how do parents res-
pond? Marrying a Jew and
perpetuating the faith is im-
portant in and of itself.
Even if we don't believe in
God or observing the Com-
mandments? they may be
asked.
The answer would still be
yes, but parents are hard-
pressed to articulate why
they put such great stock in
their children marrying Jews
when they have done little
along the way to infuse their
children with solid Jewish
knowledge or values.
Afternoon and Sunday
Hebrew schools could be suc-
cessful only if their teachings
were reinforced at home.
Other studies have shown
that these schools provide our
youngsters with the most
negative Jewish experience of
their lives. The vast majority
of young adults interviewed
in one poll said that Hebrew
school was the low point in
their lives, Jewishly. It was
forced on them against their
will or they were bribed into
going, with bar or bat mitz-
vah parties, a trip to Israel or
Europe, or a car of their own
as the payoff for tolerating
Hebrew school above and
beyond the pressures of "real"
school.
You'd hate it, too. And most
of you probably did. So why
foster another generation of
under-educated, over-
resentful Jewish students? Is
Hebrew school an educational
cod liver oil — something to
be swallowed, no matter how
bad it tastes, because "it's
good for you?"
What we're finding now is
that as distasteful as it is, it
may not even be an effective
antidote to the illness of
assimilation and intermar-
riage. So why swallow it?
Other studies have shown
that Jewish day schools, com-
bining a curriculum of
secular and Jewish-content
courses, produce young adults
who remain active Jews. Of
course many of these students
come from traditional, obser-
vant homes to start with, but
the fact that they continue
along the path of practicing
Judaism is significant.
Still, as a community, while
we bemoan the rising inter-
marriage and assimilation
rates and the decreasing
number of Jews who join
synagogues or Jewish
organizations, we continue to
pour tens of millions of
dollars into an afternoon
Hebrew school system that
has proven to be ineffective.
I hasten to underscore that
the fault is not with the ad-
ministrators and educators in
that system; indeed, they are
among the most caring and
dedicated and least ap-