This Week

Keeping The Faith

UNAFFILIATED JEWS ARE DEEPLY CONNECTED TO THEIR

Mark Kahn:

"Religion has played
an important role,
not always a good
role, in human
development.
It provides an
anchor and a view
of what morality
should be.

1/19

2001

6

s synagogue affiliation a prerequisite
for being Jewish?
Many Jews find nonreligious ways
of identifying with their heritage.
Others venture down alternative spiri-
tual paths.
"I've always regarded myself as
Jewish, but not affiliated," says Mark Kahn, labor
arbitrator and professor emeritus of economics at
Wayne State University.
Kahn is not unlike other unaffiliated Jews in our
community. Some have tried synagogue member-
ship — but couldn't find a spirituality that spoke
to them or were discouraged by the cost of dues.
Others consider themselves Jewish culturally —
but not religiously. Still others feel alienated when
their non-Jewish spouse is excluded.
Perhaps 20,000 Detroit-area Jews who don't par-
ticipate in synagogue life can be classified as "just
Jewish." According to the 1990 Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit Population Survey of the
96.000 Jews in the Detroit area, those who are
"just Jewish" accounted for 20-25 percent of Jews
in the then-core area of southeastern Oakland
County.
While the issue of whether synagogue affiliation
weakens one's Jewish identity is debated in the

