Survey Says?
Nation's top communal group
delays population study to ensure
input from new leaders.
JULIA GOLDMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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New York
.
ust as the next major study of
American Jewry was about to
take' off, the organization spon-
soring the National Jewish
Population Survey has put on the brakes.
Phones were set to start ringing in
January to find 5,000 households where
Jews would be queried on subjects such
as religious affiliation, spirituality, dat-
ing patterns, volunteerism, summer
camp experience and political orienta-
tion. But the heads of the United
Jewish Communities decided to post-
pone the implementation of the
National Jewish Population Survey
2000, the first major survey of American
Jews in 10 years, "in order to ensure full
consideration by its recently appointed
top leadership," said the group's Dec. 7
statement.
Last month, the group of leaders
recently appointed to help set the
UJC's programmatic agenda "expressed
interest in examining the questionnaire
to ensure that survey results provide
the data needed to develop their strate-
gies," UJC President Stephen Solender
said in the statement. -
The root of the problem, it seems,
is whether the 2000 survey will accu-
rately count American Jews and
whether it will sufficiently explore
areas that the organized community
has set as its priorities.
UJC officials told JTA they were
not prepared to discuss the costs asso-
ciated with delaying the survey, and
said a new timetable for the work has
yet to be determined. A UJC
spokesperson noted that it is "still
NJPS 2000," suggesting the survey
would go on next year.
The multi-million-dollar survey is
intended to flesh out the portrait of
U.S. Jewry beyond the results of the
last survey in 1990. That one is
known primarily because of its finding
that 52 percent of Jews being married
in recent years were marrying non-
Jews. The accuracy of that figure and
the 1990 survey's methods have been
criticized by some demographers of
the American Jewish community, five
of whom wrote a letter in July express-
ing their concerns to some of the peo-
ple overseeing the study for UJC.
Last month, some of the chairs of
the UJC's pillar committees began to
discuss the issues raised by the demog-
raphers and their own requirements
that the survey help them understand
the composition, needs and interests
of the country's Jewish population. An
accurate counting could also affect
federal funding for social services
through Jewish organizations.
The costs of the survey — over $4
million — are being covered by pri-
vate donations of between $2.5 mil-
lion and $3 million, and by the feder-
ations, which are footing $1.7 million
of the bill.
UJC officials said that during the
survey's development, consultation
and input came from local federation
leaders and Jewish communal profes-
sionals. The voice of the national
umbrella organization was absent,
however. The Council of Jewish
Federations, which previously spon-
sored the survey, went out of existence
in the formation of the UJC.
Dr. Conrad Giles of Bloomfield
Hills, CJF immediate past president, is
chairman of the UJC's task force on
service delivery and federation rela-
tions and former chair of the CJF's
research committee responsible for the
survey.
"We are trying to bring a system
that has been out of step" because of
the timing of the UJC's formation
"into synchronicity" with plans for the
survey, Dr. Giles said.E
Corrections
Three names were inadvertently
misspelled in captions last week:
The Rosenzveig family on page
14, Gary Rimar on page 40 and
Lisa Soble Siegmann on page 126.
On page 17 of the Dec. 10 issue,
volunteers from Jewish Family
Service should have been named
as the first to work in the Food
Bank of Oakland County's
repack room.