r

ill11111

I NEWS I

INTERNATIONAL MOTORS

1991 300E 2.6
MERCEDES BENZ

4 Yrs. or 50,000 Miles
Factory warranty
Additional INTERNATIONAL MOTORS
1 Yr, or 10,000 Miles
warranty

FREE Maintenance for 1 Year!**

963.9474

961.6429

840 Wyandotte Windsor Ontario

*U.S. Funds, plus Mich. sales tax **Serviced only at International Motors

Out of tunnel, Turn Right onto Park, to Goyeau, Turn Right to Wyandotte,
Turn Left onto Wyandotte (6-8 blocks on Leff Side).

PONTIAC GMC TRUCK

&tab 353.9000

ON N TELEGRAPH JUST NORTH OF 12 MILE
O

LEASE

FOR ONLY

$ 1 9 9

•
•
•
•
•

Automatic
Air
AM/FM Stereo
Alum. Wheels
Much more

NEW 1991 GRAND AM 2 DOOR

(Based on MSRP of S13,483, 48 equal payments of S198.83
totaling $9543.84. Tax, license, title fees and insurance ex-
tra. S448.83 due at lease signing (includes S250 refun-
dable security deposit). Option to purchase at lease end
for S5121.20. Mileage charge of 10' per mile over 60,000.
Lessee responsible for excessive wear and tear. Subject to
approval by GMAC. Stock #60100

Stk. #15240

• 4.3 liter EFI V-6
• 4 Speed
• ETR AM/FM stereo
• Power windows
• Air
• Cruise & more

4.4

Lease for $349.97 per ma

1991 S•15 JIMMY 4 WHEEL DRIVE

44

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1991

'48 month closed end lease for qualified customers. Lease payment based on
48 months with 60,000 mile limitation. 10' o mile for excessive mileage. Lessee
has option to purchase rehicle at lease end for price determined at inception.
Lessee is responsible for excessive wear and tear. Subject to approval by GMAC.
Tax, title fees and insurance extra. First payment in advance and refundable
security deposit.

Study Says Idealized
Jewish Family Vanishing

TOM TUGEND

Special to The Jewish News

T

he idealized Jewish
family — father and
mother, both born
Jews and married for the
first time, plus kids — is an
endangered species in the
United States, and its
number is likely to further
diminish in the future.
Currently, only 14 percent
of American Jewish
households fit the tradi-
tional picture, according to
the 1990 National Jewish
Population Study, and even
by adding 15 percent for all-
Jewish couples but without
children under 18, the total
still represents less than
one-third of all households.
Intermarriage is one major
cause, and again, the
statistical trend offers little
comfort to traditionalists.
While statistics before
1965 showed that some 95
percent of all American Jews
married other Jews, in
subsequent years the
percentage has been exactly
cut in half.
Between 1965 and 1974,
only 74 percent embarked on
Jewish in-marriages; bet-
ween 1974 and 1985, the
figure dropped to 54 percent;
and for marriages since
1985, it's down to 47 or 48
percent.
The figures from the
population study were cited
at the recent San Francisco
General Assembly of the
Council of Jewish Federa-
tions, in a session titled
"The Non-Normative Jewish
Family Is Now The Norm."
Abstract statistics are
lifeless, but personal family
experiences draw blood,
noted one of the panelists,
Dr. Egon Mayer, a sociology
professor at the City Univer-
sity of New York.
To get at the living reality,
Dr. Mayer and his col-
leagues conducted in-depth
interviews with two groups,
namely leaders of Jewish
organizations and members
of B'nai B'rith Women.
Among these "pillars of
the Jewish community,"
more than half reported one
child or more married to
someone not born Jewish.
The results of his inter-
views, said Dr. Mayer,
showed "that there are very
few Jews in this country who
would advise their thir-

Tom Tugend is a California
correspondent for the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency.

tysomething daughter not to
marry when the choice is
between non-marriage and
intermarriage."
"We Jews are foremost a
family group rather than a
religious group, and we're
not going to give up on our
families," said the CUNY
sociologist.
"I don't want to imply that
these respondents were
happy about intermar-
riage," he added. "Some 70
percent of them conveyed
their sense of personal and
communal failure in not op-
posing intermarriage," he
noted.
The more than two-thirds
of Jewish households that
deviate from the old idyllic
picture are "non-normative"
in different ways, said an-
other panelist, Dr. Barry
Kosmin, director of the
Council of Jewish Federa-
tions' research department
and of the North American
Jewish Data Bank.
Besides the intermarried,
there are divorced and other
single-parent households,
and also families that are
blended (father and mother
were married before and
each brings along their own
children), or sandwiched
(supporting both young chil-
dren and elderly parents).
That's only the beginning.
"One reason we don't have
normative families is that
we don't have any norms
that are generally ac-
cepted," said Dr. Kosmin.
"We live in an individualiz-
ed, secular, consumer-
oriented society. The con-
sensus has broken down.
Everyone does his or her
own thing."
What drives statisticians
and sociologists up the wall
is that the same Jewish
household can contain a
number of different
lifestyles, observed Dr.
Kosmin.
"You may have two people
davening downstairs, and
upstairs there is someone
with a Buddhist idol. And
they all say they are Jews."
"This guy says he's a Hin-
du, but he has a Presby-
terian girlfriend, and next
week he may be Jewish
again," said Dr. Kosmin. As
for intermarriages, there are
strong differences based on
both geography and gender.
In states with few Jews, such
as Kentucky, Tennessee,
Alabama and Mississippi,
the intermarriage rate is
double that of New York and
New Jersey, with large Jew-
ish concentrations. ❑

