7
L__,
.7 with a statistic, he also disavows any pre-
tense of objectivity:
"My agenda [in doing these studies] is
to be an agent of change. I do not consid-
er myself to be objective. I am not a dis-
passionate observer of the Jewish scene.
'-'-- In the last few years, I've been pushing
hard for the studies I do to ask questions
about fund-raising. This comes from my
)_ belief that federations need to raise mon-
ey for human service needs. From 1985 to
—J991, my studies were a lot more about
"which services people needed. Now they
are more about how to pay for them."
–Th Changes Mr. Tobin seeks include
greater cooperation between Jewish in-
' stitutions: a "reaffirmation of the Jewish
part of the enterprise in which we're in-
,. volved"; and guaranteeing that the Jew-
ish community addresses all Jews, "even
the least involved, because the fringe is
now getting larger than the core."
While sociologist Steven Cohen has
worked on a fair number of community
studies, he has done more national sur-
veys that assess attitudes. Some of these
° advance his avowedly liberal politics, such
as the survey he did last fall that claimed
that 88 percent of the top leaders of the
> Council of Jewish Federations and of the
largest federations around the country fa-
vored a land-for-peace solution to the Arab-
'L Israeli conflict.
I / ' The timing of the poll's release – the day
before Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Sha-
mir spoke at the Cal's General Assembly
in Baltimore in November – was deemed
"an ambush" by Malcolm Hoenlein, ex-
! ecutive director of the Conference of Pres-
idents of Major Jewish Organizations.
But Mr. Cohen said he separates his
personal agenda from his population stud-
ies: "They do not confirm... [a federation's]
agenda, but advance it and help build it
around social services or whether Jewish
neighborhoods will survive. They may fo-
cus attention on problems to which not
,_, much attention had been paid, such as
I single Jewish mothers who need help."
Yet, as a purveyor of numbers, Mr. Co-
hen was concerned about how federations
-I use them.
"They put too much attention," he said,
"on the number of Jews and on intermar-
Population study
consultants have
the power of
knowledge.
riage, and not on Jewish vitality, which
can be measured by attitudes toward Jew-
ish tradition and God. This way, we can
distinguish between styles of being Jew-
ish, between different issues of what it
means to be Jewish." \
A New Credibility
ust what agenda is advanced by a
population study is debatable. Prof.
Goldscheider implied that the stud-
ies merely confirm federations'
agendas, not change them.
"Federations," he said, "will never allo-
cate funds on the basis of a study, but on
the basis of interests."
This claim may not be far-fetched. One
West Coast Jewish communal leader re-
called lay leaders " 'deep-sixing' a study
they disagreed with." HUC's Prof. Bubis
said many lay leaders – "the sons and
daughters of the wealthy" – are reluctant
to acknowledge these studies' "empirical
evidence" about the existence of the Jew-
ish poor.
And a 1970 CJF population study of the
national Jewish community which con-
chided that the intermarriage rate had
soared from 12 percent to 33 percent was
dismissed as an aberration.
"Would intermarriage have turned into
this massive problem if we had started
working on it in 1970?" asked Wayne Fe-
instein, executive vice-president of the
Jewish Community Federation of San
Francisco. "I don't know. But I am relieved
that lay leaders finally recognize that these
studies have credence."
J
With this new credibility, a study occa-
sionally contradicts conventional wisdom.
A 1981 study in New York concluded that
1.1 million Jews lived in the city. This was
300,000 more than then-Mayor Edward
Koch's estimate, and gave Jews addition-
al political clout in Gotham.
And a $250,000 study in 1990 that con-
cluded that the Detroit area's Jewish pop-
ulation had increased over the past 17
years stunned local leaders who had as-
sumed that the number of local Jews had
plummeted by almost 26,000.
"The numbers that came out of the re-
port were important because they meant
there were many Jews that the Jewish
community didn't know about and that
weren't connected to the community," said
Jack Ukeles, president of a New York firm
that supervised the Detroit study.
But while Mr. Ukeles said population
studies can be essential for making key
policy decisions – "Put together a lot of
data and they tell you a story" – he not-
ed that some blunders have been based on
them.
`Tye heard that some communities have
established outreach programs based on
numbers like we had in Detroit," he said,
"and when they got out there, they couldn't
find anyone."
Two reasons have been offered for why
the Jewish community constantly takes
its pulse with these studies:
• To allay its worst fears that the "ever-
dying people" are finally fading away.
"We are convinced that the numbers of
Jews and the quality of Jewish life is wors-
ening," noted Steven Bayme, director of
the American Jewish Committee's com-
munal affairs department.
• To get statistics for proper planning.
The U.S. Census inquires about ethnici-
ty, age, country of origin, place of birth, in-
come, the availability of telephones or
indoor plumbing or VCRs. It does not ask
about religion.
Yet, a national census that does ask
about religion is not necessarily a panacea.
Although the Canadian census inquires
about religion,the Jewish Federation of
Greater Toronto is now midway through
a three-year, $100,000 study of Canadian
Jewry.
Barry Kosmin: Alternately acerbic and
thoughtful. The in-house defender
of the National Jewish Population Survey.
Some mistake his Englishman's
hyper-erudition for arrogance.
Steve Cohen: Outspoken. Stubborn.
Determined. Critical of his colleagues and of
how federations use population studies.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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