Survey Says? Nation's top communal group delays population study to ensure input from new leaders. JULIA GOLDMAN Jewish Telegraphic Agency j GREAT LAKES CROSSING EARLY BIRD SPECIAL Saturday and Sunday, December 18 and 19 Save an additional 20% For two days only, Saturday and Sunday, December 18 and 19, from 8 am to 10 am, we'll give you a coupon that entitles you to 20% off all Last Call store regularly priced merchandise purchased before noon on the days of the sale. Choose from a fabulous assortment of men's and women's designer apparel and shoes, gifts for the home, and more'. Savings are 50% to 70% off the original prices. Store Hours: Saturday 8 am -10 pm Sunday 8 am - 9 pm 248.745.6868 a alcva Off 11•1 -t Ificzait4o 0 Savings Certificate 0 3 IFF ---.411111 ■ 12/17 1999 22 0 400 Any single item now through December 24 11 11■ A z)rzlie I 30a/c) Off One coupon per customer. May not be combined with any other sales promotion. Excludes special orders. 6885 Orchard Lake Rd. o West Bloomfield 248.539.3309 C•artrifi=ault4a Off Certificate Excludes merchandise previously marked down. Excludes CK Calvin Klein Jeans. No adjustments on prior purchases: Purchase must be completed by 12 pm. 0 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.