Stopping Our Decline
Before It's Too Late

BBI DANIEL F. POLISH SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

The saga of Su-
perman, that
touchstone of
American popu-
lar culture, be-
gins on a planet
on a collision
course of cata-
strophe. Though the volcanic
center of Krypton shows
every sign of exploding, the
eaders of that society refuse
to talk about what is going on
and decline the pleas to make
appropriate preparation.
As Jews, there is a partic-
ularly chilling resonance in
,this story for us when we re-
' call that this epic was in-
vented by two Jewish boys
from Cleveland at the very
moment when the "planet" of
Jewish life in Europe was be-
ing confronted with its own
destruction, and, many have
charged, its leaders were im-
mobilized — standing by
helpless and paralyzed, un-
able to prevent the debacle
and unwilling to help their
people prepare for it.
This scenario has certain
iertinence for the American
,Jewish community of today.
'We find ourselves in the dis-
turbing situation of being a
community confronted by a
crisis with significant impli-
cations for us, yet unable to
'discuss it.
) I know that we are used to
regular predictions of our
demise. Like the townspeo-
ple of the boy who cried wolf,
we are inured to the warn-
'Ings. Yes, we may be, as the
historian Simon Rawidowicz
has called us, an "ever dying
people." And yes, rare has
been the generation of Jews
who have not imagined them-
selves to be the last. I, myself,
'have not been beyond noting
) that Look magazine once fea-
tured a cover story about the
end of the Jewish people —
while we are still here; and
Look magazine has ceased to
>publish — not once but twice.
Nonetheless, an objective
assessment tells us that we
are at a critical juncture. The
American Jewish communi-
ty today truly does find itself
\ in peril. The story is made
/'starkly clear by an analysis
of the statistics from a num-
ber of different studies. A re-
cent survey conducted at

(

Rabbi Daniel Polish is spiritual
leader of Temple Beth El.

Brandeis University of phil-
anthropists who have donat-
ed $100,000 or more to
Jewish causes, found that no
single issue concerned these
donors as much as the fear
that their grandchildren
would not be Jewish. This
fact is especially pertinent in
light of the recently published
Jewish population study com-
missioned by the Council of
Jewish Federations which as-
serts a 52 percent rate of in-
termarriage for Jews
marrying after 1985. This fig-
ure has become well known
to all of us involved in the life
of the Jewish community.
There was a time when the
intermarriage rate was in-
terpreted in "common knowl-
edge" and by some
sociologists in a positive light.
It was as-
sumed that
in the vast
majority of
intermar-
riages, the
non-Jewish
partner
would con-
vert to Ju-
daism or,
at the very
least, that
the chil-
dren would
be raised
as Jews.
This would
result in a
net in-
crease in
the num-
bers of
American
Jews .
Some went
so far as to
say that
this pat-
tern of
intermar-
r i age
would en-
hance the
quality of
Jewish life by bringing the
vigor and the commitment of
the "new recruits" into the
community, enlivening and
enriching it. In many won-
derful instances this has
proved to be the case. But
sadly, this is not the norm.
A new wave of data and
studies seriously challenges
this more optimistic inter-
pretation. The final word
seems to have been provided

by a recent study conducted
for the American Jewish
Committee. Its results should
prove profoundly disturbing
to all of us who are concerned
about the vitality and viabil-
ity of Jewish life in the Unit-
ed States. Intermarriage
turns out not to be a cause for
rejoicing, but for concern.
This study makes a distinc-
tion between two kinds of in-
termarriages. In one, called
the conversionary marriage,
the non-Jewish partner
chooses to convert to Ju-
daism. The other is called, in
this study, mixed marriage,
in which no conversion takes
place. According to this study,
the rate of mixed marriage
has risen dramatically in the
last few years and is likely to
continue to do so.

partners are Jewish by birth).
The study indicates, as well,
that 57 percent of mixed mar-
ried couples will contribute
to a Jewish cause (as com-
pared to 81 percent of con-
version marriages and 87
percent where both partners
are Jewish by birth). Most
disturbing of all, in mixed
married households, 47 per-
cent of the children will re-
ceive a Jewish education
(compared to 84 percent in
conversionary marriages and
95 percent where both par-
ents are Jewish by birth).
These findings have been
reinforced by a study of the
Jewish community of Los An-
geles, the second largest Jew-
ish community in the United
States and one frequently
seen as a bellwether for fu-

Artwork from the Los Angeles Tunes by Catherine Kanner Copyright* 1992, Catherine Kanner. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate

Today 21 percent of Jews
who marry, marry someone
who has not and will not con-
vert to Judaism — as op-
posed to five percent who
marry someone who does
convert to Judaism. Of these
mixed marriages, 15 percent
affiliate with a synagogue (as
opposed to 56 percent of Jews
who marry someone who has
converted to Judaism, and 60
percent of couples where both

ture trends in Jewish life.
This study, conducted by Neil
Sandberg, found that mixed
marriages in that communi-
ty now outnumber conver-
sionary marriages among all
Jewish intermarriages by a
rate of three to one. The rate
of mixed marriage increases
by generation from 11.6 per-
cent among first generation
American Jews to 43.5 per-
cent among those in the

fourth generation.
This pattern is repeated in
a number of communities. A
recent study in Denver shows
that the percentage of inter-
married households rises
from 53 percent among those
between the ages of 30 and
39 to 72 percent among those
between 18 and 29 — and the
percentage of such marriages
in which conversion takes
place falls from 25 percent
among those between ages 30
and 39 to just nine percent
among those between the
ages of 18 and 29.
In its starkest terms, what
this means is that an in-
creasing number of our sons
and daughters will find them-
selves in the category which
is least likely to live a Jewish
life by any indicator of Jew-
ish identifi-
cation.
Where
once a rela-
tively high
number of
non-Jews in
intermar-
riage situa-
tions chose
to convert to
Judaism, to-
day a
sharply de-
creasing
number of
intermar-
rieds make
this choice.
These result
in mixed
married
households,
where there
is a signifi-
cantly lower
rate of affili-
ation with
synagogues,
or Jewish
organiza-
tions, a low-
er rate of
contribution
to Jewish
causes; and a sharply re-
duced likelihood that the chil-
dren of such marriages will
be educated as Jews.
As if this news were not
disturbing enough, we find
the following statement in
the April 5 issue of Time: In
a recent survey of religious
patterns among baby
boomers, "seventy percent of
those raised as Jews have

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