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Who Is A Jew?

A new national Jewish population
study plans to wrestle with an old question.

JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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New York

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2/4
2000

30

248-557-3333

16240 West 12 Mile • Just West of Greenfield • Southfield

illiam Cohen's father was
Jewish, but his mother
was not. The young
Cohen attended Hebrew
school for years, but shortly before his
bar mitzvah, the rabbi informed him
he would have to undergo a conversion
since he was not Jewish according to
Halacha, or Jewish law.
Offended, Cohen walked out of the
synagogue, never to return. Now an
adult — and the U.S. secretary of
defense — Cohen is married to a
Christian woman.
Should William Cohen be counted
as Jewish? Should he be counted
among the intermarried?
Identity questions raised by peo-
ple far less prominent than
Cohen are challenging the plan-
ners of National Jewish
Population Study 2000, original-
ly scheduled to get under way
last month but postponed until
May.
In an effort to address these
challenges, those involved with
the study made one major deci-
sion last week: to take into
account the nuances of Jewish
identity, so that in analyzing things like
intermarriage statistics, the William
Cohens can be separated from Jews
whose Jewishness cannot be ques-
tioned.
The approximately $5 million study,
the first national census taken of
American Jews in 10 years, is charged
with providing data on everything from
intermarriage rates to level of Jewish
identity to philanthropic habits to
assessing whether the decade's prolifera-
tion of continuity initiatives have had
any impact.
It is expected to shape the priorities
of Jewish organizations and scholars for
the coming decade.
At its core, the debate over NJPS
2000 parallels the ongoing outreach vs.
inreach debate in the Jewish communi-
ty: To what extent should scarce
resources be invested in reaching, or at
least studying, those who have only
tenuous connections to the Jewish
community as opposed to focusing on

more committed Jews? In gathering
this data, the study's planners have the
sticky task of determining whom to
count — and what to ask.
NJPS 2000 has been postponed
ostensibly so that leaders of its spon-
sor organization — the newly formed
United Jewish Communities — have
time to review the process and add
input.
The survey has snagged its share of
controversy, mostly stemming from dis-
satisfaction with what happened in
1990. Several demographers — some of
whom were involved in the 1990 study
— have questioned the finding that 52
percent of Jews who married between
1985 and 1990 had married a non-Jew,
suggesting that a more accurate count is
10 to 20 percentage points lower.

"In addition to 'yes' or
`no,' we are going to let
people say 'maybe, I
suppose, half and half'

— Ira Sheskin, demographer

A number of Orthodox leaders
claim their community was under-
counted in 1990 due to methodology
that may have disproportionately
emphasized Jews living in areas where
Orthodox Jews are less likely to cluster.
Community studies, generally com-
missioned by federations to gauge what
programs are needed and which fund-
raising strategies might be effective,
tend not to interview those who are on
the margins of the community, says
University of Miami demographer Ira
Sheskin. Sheskin, who serves on the
NJPS technical advisory committee,
has conducted 20 such community
studies, which provided the data for the
critics of the 1990 study.
But the demographer says the differ-
ences can be attributed less to inaccura-
cy in the national study and more to
the fact that it casts a wide net. Also,
says Sheskin, Jews living outside the
large communities that commission the

