Photo by Krista Husa

Beyond School Spirit

Bar-Ilan student shares- experiences on Detroit visit.

SHELLI DORFMAN
Staff Writer

hen the international fund-raising staff
of Bar-Ilan University met at the
Israeli school earlier this year, they lis-
IIIIT tened as a young man stood up to talk
about his life and his education.
Leslie Goldstein, Bar-Ilan University Midwest
executive director, remembers the articulate student
with the ponytail, speaking of his background and
the scholarship that helped him enter the university.
He also remembers him stating, "I love this place."
Impressed with Haggai Kfir's academic and army
life, Goldstein invited him to tell his story in the
United States. Goldstein heads the Detroit Friends
of Bar-Ilan University office housed in the Max M.
Fisher Federation Building in Bloomfield Township.
Kfir was in Detroit this week as part of a speaking
tour that included Cleveland and New York.
At 29, the third-year physics student is a bit on the
old side for college, even in Israel, where the vast major-
ity of Israelis spends three years in the armed services
prior to enrolling in university. Kfir, however, stretched
his service career as a helicopter pilot to eight years.

Accepted to the university in Ramat Gan on acad-
emic merit, Kfir is also the recipient of a scholarship
offered to those who have participated in combat ser-
vice and have chosen a field of study in low demand.
Growing up in a secular home, he finds his
enrollment in "the mixed secular and religious
school not a natural choice." Remaining secular in
his Judaism, Kfir says the compulsory Jewish studies
curriculum at Bar-Ilan has "been an enriching expe-
rience, narrowing the gap between secular and reli-
gious, who learn to live together."
With a minor in computer programming, Kfir
also is working part time in a software company
developing computer programs.
Being "ambassador of the student body, of the
university and of the State of Israel," says Goldstein,
is a family tradition for Kfir, whose parents were
Israeli shalichim (messengers) to the United States
for two years when was a child.
Enjoying his visit, he says he is happy "to get to
be with people and not just visit national parks."
One tourist-type item on his agenda, however, is a
request from his wife to make a stop at Baby Gap,
to shop for their first child, a boy due at the end of
November. Fl

Haggai Kfir speaking at the Max M Fisher
Federation Building.

How Jewish?

Poll finding Jews less religious than others elicits mixed reaction.

JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

A

recent Gallup Poll finding
that Jews are half as likely
as other Americans to say
that religion is "very impor-
tant in their daily lives" is eliciting
mixed reaction in the Jewish world.
Jewish demographers note that
polling techniques and a tendency of
Jews to define religion differently than
Christians make the contrast seem
more dramatic than it really is.
However, some Jewish religious
leaders — many of whom report a
renaissance of Jewish religious interest
— find the data troubling.
The Gallup analysis, based on tele-
phone interviews with a randomly
selected national sample of 20,000
adults between 1992 and 1999, found
that 60 percent of Americans say that
religion is very important in their
daily lives, with Mormons, Southern

Baptists and Pentecostals topping the
list in self-reported religiosity.
By contrast, the analysis describes
Jews as one of "the least religious
If
groups, noting that only 30 percent
of Jewish respondents say their reli-
gion is very important.
The only group with a lower per-
centage, the poll found, were "those
who declare no formal religious affilia-
tion." In that group, only 22 percent
say religion is very important to them.
In addition to religious affiliation,
the analysis found significant differ-
ences among various socioeconomic
groups, with low-income people,
political conservatives and Southerners
— demographic groups in which Jews
are fewer in number — identifying
religion as important far more than
those who are affluent, liberal and
from other regions of the country.
Sociologist Gary Tobin, president
of the Institute for Jewish and
Community Research, said he was not
concerned by the new analysis, noting

that in national polls over the years
Jews have consistently identified as less
religious than those of other faiths.
"It's somewhat misleading," said
Tobin, who is part of the research
team for the 2000 National Jewish
Population Study, which will amass its
own findings about the American
Jewish community.
"Jews tend to say 'I'm not very reli-
gious,' which means 'I'm not very
observant.' It doesn't mean they don't
care about being Jewish," he said.
"If you ask the question in another
way: 'How important is it that your
children or grandchildren are Jewish,'
they rank very high. We've got apples
and oranges here."
Jack Wertheimer, provost at the
Conservative movement's Jewish
Theological Seminary and the editor
of a 1997 demographic study of
Conservative Jews, agreed with Tobin,
but said there was a cause for concern
by the Gallup findings.
"We know that when it comes to

religious participation, Jews do partici-
pate at lower rates than non-Jews," he
said. "When similar questions are asked
about attendance at religious services
the previous weekend, the Jewish
response tends to be half that of the
general population, and that does point
to significant problems of allegiance and
of commitment to Judaism."
However, Wertheimer noted, the
situation is not completely bleak.
"Anecdotal information suggests
that there has been an upsurge of
interest in Jewish study and religion,"
he said, citing a boom in adult educa-
tion programs and Jewish book pub-
lishing.
The president of the Orthodox
Union, Dr. Mandell Ganchrow,
expressed skepticism that the poll
included a representative sampling of
Orthodox Jews, noting that pollsters
often call people on Saturdays, a time
when observant Jews do not answer
the phone.
How JEWISH? on page 29

10/29
1999

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