Johnny and Pete Ginopolis
and the employees of
OA Ss Ogg
27815 Middlebelt at 12 Mile • Farmington Hills
851-8222
Diaspora Jewry:
Is It Dying?
GIL FREUND SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Heartily Wish
Their Customers, Friends
And The. Entire Community
A
A VERY HEALTHY
AND HAPPY
NEW YEAR
Ra.,_
116 FamilyResturant
Iforn.. Farmington Hills
Wishes It's Customers &
Friends A Very Healthy
And Happy New Year
YOU'RE
LOOKING
ATA
LETHAL
WE N.
Agelo g- Covue
28990 Orchard Lake Rd. 855-8882
ti • As% %link Liik %.‘
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Iss:24 4°P4tmer s tie ts Ara
May the New Year Bring
To All Our Friends
and Family
Health,
Joy, Prosperity
and Everything
Good in Life
FUNG LIM'S RESTAURANT, INC.
8410 W. NINE MILE RD.
OAK PARK
544-1021
Fact is, more Americans
may die by the fork than by
any other weapon. That's
because so many of them
use it irresponsibly. Like
to fill up on high-fat, high-
cholesterol foods. Foods
that can load the blood with
cholesterol, which can build
up plaque in their arteries,
increasing their risk of
heart attacks and threaten-
ing their lives. So next time
you pick up a fork, remem-
ber to handle it as you
would any other weapon.
For self-defense, not
self-destruction.
American Heart
Association
WE'RE FIGHTING FOR
YOUR LIFE
This space provided as a public service.
s we approach the end o f E
the millennium, we can
look back on an honorable
parade of Jewish demog-
raphy and identity surveys. The
present debate was kindled with
the publication in the United
States of the 1990 National Jew-
ish Population Survey of the
Council of Jewish Federations.
Though each survey has its Canadians experience a Roman feast.
critics and most surveyors admit
hefty margins of error, the trends thousands of young, unaffiliated
are, nevertheless, implacable and Jewish souls issues a silent chal-
inescapable.
lenge to the Jewish establish-
By the end of the century, ment.
America's Jewish population,
Israel, by contrast, though be-
now estimated at 5.5 million, is leaguered by security problems
conservatively expected to de- and the absorption of immi-
crease by a half-million. This is grants, is not plagued by these
despite the influx of immigrants same demography and identity
and additions through intermar- devils. There are now 4.34 mil-
riage.
lion Jews in Israel, out of a total
It was estimated at the Inter- population of 5.3 million. Some
national Conference on Jewish half a million immigrants have
Community Services, held in arrived since 1989 and the pop-
Jerusalem, that by the beginning ulation is increasing steadily. By
of the next century there will be the beginning of the next centu-
2 million fewer Jews in the world. ry, the majority of world Jewry
Within a hundred years, no more will undoubtedly be concentrat-
than a million Jewish souls are ed in Israel, the first time in mod-
expected to remain in America. ern history this will have been
Similarly, by the year 2,000 true.
there will be only 150,000 Jews
What is more, according to the
left in the former Soviet Union Guttman Institute of Applied So-
with two Jewish parents. Com- cial Research, 79 percent of Is-
bine that with an estimated 50 rael's Jewish citizens describe
percent intermarriage rate for themselves as somewhat, great-
American Jews (70 percent for ly or strictly observant (41 per-
some European countries), and cent, 24 percent and 14 percent
it is clear why alarm bells are respectively). This has exploded
ringing all over the Jewish world.
The explanations proposed for
these harrowing statistics are
varied and interconnected. The
current average number of chil-
dren per Jewish woman in the
United States is now a low 1.6
and is ascribed to, among other
sociological and economic factors,
the prohibitively high cost of rais-
ing and educating a Jewish child. the myth of a largely secular Is-
Sociologist Uzi Rebhun of the raeli society (only 21 percent call
Hebrew University's Harman In- themselves totally non-observant)
stitute of Contemporary Jewry, and led the surveyors to conclude:
sees this low fertility rate as more "Israeli Jews are strongly com-
statistically important than in- mitted to the continuing Jewish
termarriage in the waning U.S. character of their society, even
population (he says a minimum while they are selective in their
of 2.1 children per woman is nec- observance."
essary to maintain the current
Critics of the Gutl airan report
population).
have complained that what the
But intermarriage does seem surveyors call religious obser-
to take a heavy toll on how Jews vance is, in many cases, simply
identify themselves and their folk or social custom. In other
children. According to Mr. Reb- words, a family that lights can-
hun, only a quarter of the chil- dles and sits down regularly to a
dren of mixed marriages consider traditional Friday night meal
their parents Jews.
might be doing so for other than
But this is hardly an either/or strictly religious reasons.
proposition. Intermarriage has a
But if the same statistics,
proven negative effect on Jewish whatever their form or origin,
identity, but the reality of thou-
LU
The low fertility rate
is statistically more
important than
intermarriage.