SPECIAL COMMENTARY

Surprise! American Jews Are Thriving

recent years. They are printed along-
New York
side numbers from the 1990 National
ncreasingly, scholars of Jewish
Jewish Population Survey.
identity are concluding that much
It turns out the national survey is
of what they thought they knew
completely out of whack with the local
about the hearts and minds of
ones. The national average is nearly
American Jews is simply wrong.
always lower than the lowest local num-
After years of gloomy_reports about
ber, which makes no sense at all.
declining observance and galloping
For example, Jews who say
intermarriage, evidence is pil-
they usually or always attend
ing up to suggest American
a Passover seder range from a
Judaism is stronger than any-
high of 86 percent in Balti-
one realized. A great many
more to a low of 62 percent
Jews seem, like Jerry Seinfeld
in Denver. The national sur-
who finally found his Jewish
vey
shows a figure of 60 per-
soulmate, to care more than
cent. Similarly, lighting
anyone suspected. And a great
Chanuka candles ranges
many children presumed lost
from 95 percent in Boston to
turn out, like actor Michael
59 percent in Sarasota. The
Douglas (half-Jewish), not to
J.J. GO LDBERG national figure: 57 percent.
be.
Spe cial to
At the other end, the
Of course, social scientists
the
Jew ish News
percentage who have visited
don't base their research on
Israel ranges from 61 per-
People magazine. They prefer
cent
in
South
Palm Beach to a low 27
weighted samples and focus groups.
percent
in
Hartford.
The national fig-
Lately, though, their picture isn't
ure: 26 percent.
much clearer than ours. They keep
Then there's that 52 percent inter-
bumping into the statistical equiva-
marriage statistic, the most famous fig-
- lents of Messrs. Seinfeld and Douglas.
ure in the 1990 national survey. Accord-
And they can't account for them.
ing to the Miami study, it was all a mis-
Take a recent study of Jewish popu-
understanding. It counted non-Jews
lation surveys just completed at the
with Jewish ancestry as intermarried
University of Miami. It compares local
Jews. Counting only actual Jews, the
Jewish surveys in 40 different cities in
1990 survey found a 43 percent inter-
J.J. Goldberg is a national columnist
marriage rate. But that's clearly still too
and author on Jewish issues. His column
high. If every other measure of assimila-
appears monthly in the Jewish News.
tion in the national survey is inflated,
He can be reached via e-mail at
intermarriage must be inflated, too. The
jjg@compuserve.com
true intermarriage rate is probably

I

with the others on the wall
listing the names of people
such as my dad.

Ethel Kutnick Wasser
Southfield

•

•

Jewish Activists
Are Treasures

I have read with great interest
the articles about the Jewish
Hospice and Chaplaincy Net-
work CA Gift To Israel: A
Nate Shapero, Max Osnos, Rabbi Hershman
and Sam Rubiner at the 1951 Sinai Hospital Mission Of Love," Jan. 7) and
groundbreaking. Sam and Ida Kutnick are in the Milton and Lois Shiffman
Home Hospice of the Valleys
the rear between the rabbi and Mr. Rubiner.
in the central Galilee ("Com-
passion At Life's End," Dec.
tous occasion.
31). It comes as no surprise to me that
I am hoping that his name,
these projects involve Rabbi E.B.
Samuel Kutnick, will be included
"Bunny" Freedman and David Techner.

between 33 and 38 percent.
All in all, the Miami study badly
undercuts the 1990 national survey.
That's trouble for the survey's sponsor,
the United Jewish Communities.
They're planning a $4 million follow-
up survey this year, and all its methods
are suddenly suspect. The survey was
put on hold last month while UJC
leaders figure out what to do. Then

The 52 percent
intermarriage statistic
might be in error.

they have to explain how they man-
aged to ignite a worldwide intermar-
riage hysteria with a statistical error.
The really interesting part, though,
is what happens when that's all settled.
The mystery remains: What, exactly,
makes American Jews Jewish?
We know from surveys — the accu-
rate ones — that about four-fifths light
Chanuka candles and attend a seder.
Close to that number observe Yom Kip-
pur. About 40 percent have visited
Israel. Just 20 to 30 percent follow other
Jewish practices, like attending syna-
gogue regularly, lighting Sabbath candles
or joining organizations.
How do the majority — the 50 or
60 percent who only nominally do
some Jewish things — relate to being

Israel is most fortunate, indeed, to
have the benefit of two of the Detroit
Jewish community's greatest treasures.
I speak from personal experience.
When my husband Allen Weiss was
diagnosed with a terminal illness four
years ago, our twin daughters Jenny
and Becca were 8 years old. Rabbi
Freedman of the Hospice of Michigan
provided spiritual guidance for the
entire family. He paved the way for us
to receive incredible hospice services,
which included every aspect of help
for all of us. The nurse, Jacque Cohen,
and social worker, Barbara Haddad,
were Jewish and wonderful. Every per-
son who entered our home was sensi-
tive, knowledgeable and caring.
When my husband passed away, it
was crucial to me that my children
talk with David Techner of the Ira
Kaufman Chapel. His wonderful rep-

Jewish? Do they think about it only
three times a year? Or is something
else going on that surveys don't detect?
Increasingly, scholars think the latter.
Today's Jewish identity is fluid, idiosyn-
cratic and reinvents itself constantly
throughout adulthood, says Brandeis
University sociologist Bethamie
Horowitz. The focus might be tradition-
al observance, Holocaust literature,
klezmer music or pro-Israel activism.
"It's like a salad bar, and everybody
these days is putting a different collec-
tion of items on their plates," says
Horowitz, whose 1999 Connections
and Journeys is becoming a bible of the
new Jewish identity studies.
Reworking the questionnaire is the
other reason, besides the 1990 survey's
flaw, that the year 2000 national sur-
vey was put on hold. The researchers
need to figure out how to measure a
host of subjectively changing attitudes,
from spiritual searching to pluralism-
related anger at Israel.
"We need to widen the way we
define Jewish identification to include
the idiosyncratic things people relate
to Jewishly," Horowitz says.
They need to tell us why, despite low
levels of traditional practice, so many
Jews actually end up marrying Jews.
They also need to tell us what the Jew-
ish community will look like as growing
numbers of half-Jews opt in, bringing
their mixed heritage with them.
Until we clear up these mysteries
we will never be, as Seinfeld once said,
masters of our own domain. ❑

utation with children and grief is
much deserved. He provided all of us
with a clear understanding of Jewish
traditions. Most importantly, he made
it clear that all our questions would be
answered honestly and directly.
Due in large part to the social work
and other services provided by the Jew-
ish Hospice and the truthful and caring
services of David Techner, my children
and I are doing well. We were honored
to be in the recent Sue Marx/David
Techner film Generation to Generation

— Jewish Families Talk About Death.
Our ability to share our experiences with
others in this film stems directly from
the services we received from Rabbi
Freedman and from David Techner.
These two men are truly jewels in the
Jewish community.
Cheryl Katz Weiss
Farmington Hills- 4' 14

1/21

2000

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