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From the pages of the Jewish News for

Not All Had

this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

Experts find golden lining in Jewish population survey.

JULIE WIENER

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

A

new study reporting
decreased identification
with Judaism and rising
intermarriage rates is gener-
ating concern, but not shock, in the
Jewish community.
Instead, many leaders see the new
findings, released last week, as a con-
tinuation of trends reported in the
1990 National Jewish Population
Survey.
Rather than viewing the study as a
call to radically change course, most
see it as a signal to step up existing
efforts to strengthen Jewish continuity.
For some, that will come through
day school education and making syn-
agogues more spiritually meaningful
to people. For others, it means sup-
port for nonreligious forms of Jewish
expression — such as social action and
the arts — that will appeal to people
not interested in studying texts or
going to synagogue services.
The American Jewish Identity
Survey 2001 is an unofficial follow-up
to the 1990 survey, conducted by
three researchers who were involved in
the original study.
Preliminary findings were released
last week. The researchers — Egon
Mayer, Ariela Keysar and Barry
Kosmin — are still analyzing the data
and expect to offer more details in
coming months, particularly about
intermarriage and how children of
intermarriages are raised.
The study is part of a larger exami-
nation of religion in America.
A larger and more comprehensive
study of American Jews, National
Jewish Population Survey 2000, is
being conducted under the auspices of
the North American Jewish federation
system and will be released this sum-
mer.
As Jewish leaders analyze the new
study, many say its importance
depends on how one determines who
is Jewish. The study's estimate of 5.5

million American Jews — of whom
1.4 million identify as members of
another religion — includes people
who say they are Jewish or of Jewish
upbringing or parentage.
Some observers say it would be less
surprising for a person with one
Jewish parent and who was raised with
no religion — or even raised as a
Christian — to reject Judaism than
for a person who was raised Jewish.
Such distinctions are impossible to
make from the findings reported so
far.
But the study does report that even
among people who identify Judaism as
their religion, 42 percent (compared
to 15 percent of all Americans) profess
a secular outlook and 14 percent say
they do not believe in God.
It also finds that while only half of
American Jews are affiliated with a
synagogue or Jewish community
organization, most identify with a

New York/JTA
" ollowing are some of the
main points of a new study
of American Jewish identity:

I

• There are approximately 5.5 mil-
lion American adults who are either
Jewish by religion or of Jewish
parentage and/or upbringing, the
same number found in 1990 by the
National Jewish Population Survey.
However, 2.8 million, or 51 percent,
say their religion is Jewish, compared
with 58 percent in the 1990 survey.

• Among adults of Jewish parentage
and/or upbringing, nearly 1.4 million
say they are members of a non-Jewish
religion or profess a different religion.

• Thirty-three percent of Jews —
defined as people either raised
Jewish or who say Judaism is their
religion — are married to non-Jews,
compared with 28 percent in 1990.
• Forty-two percent of Jews who say

stream of Judaism. Thirty percent
identify with the Reform movement,
24 percent with the Conservative
movement, 8 percent with Orthodoxy,
1 percent with Reconstructionism and
1 percent with Secular Humanism.
Six percent used self-generated
labels like "liberal" or "atheist," and
20 percent declined to identify with
any label or branch of Judaism.
Yet the findings are contradicted by
other measures that would seem to
show that interest in Judaism is higher
than ever.
Enrollment at Jewish day schools is
up, and scores of new schools have
been founded in the past few years.
Sales of books on Judaism are up.
Adult Jewish education courses —
including structured text-study pro-
grams that require two-year commit-
ments — are proliferating. Jewish

NOT ALL BAD on page 34

Judaism is their religion, not simply
their ethnicity or heritage, describe
their outlook as secular, compared
to 15 percent of all adults national-
ly. Some 14 percent of Jews say they
do not believe in God, compared to
4 percent of adults nationally.

The new study was conducted by
Egon Mayer, director of the Center
for Jewish Studies at the Graduate
Center of the City University of New
York; Ariela Keysar, also of the Center
for Jewish Studies; and Barry Kosmin,
director of the Institute for Jewish
Policy Research in London. All three
were involved in the 1990 study.
Their study repeats methodology
that was used in the 1990 study,
including screening participants
through a marketing firm survey
that makes some of its calls on
Shabbat. That methodology has
been criticized for potentially under-
counting observant Jews.

The New York Sun stated that
among the newly discovered secrets
of the Dead Sea Scrolls was the
whereabouts of Elvis.
A group of Soviet immigrants
moved into an abandoned kibbutz
of the Golan Heights.
Photographer Marji Silk received
an award from the Detroit City
Council for her depictions of posi-
tive images of the city.

:44ikeis
rtti.3,'S,S03,54Ktp-M4i34*

,„:41A14%

Detroiter Sheldon P. Winkelman
was elected president of the Jewish
Federation Apartments.
Detroiter Sam Papo was elected
president of the Sephardic
Community of Greater Detroit.
Edward Rose of Detroit received the
Hall of Fame award from the Builders
Association of Southeastern Michigan.

MW-411,,
laira:Wad
al Zt"V&WPQ
Longtime Detroit cantor Rubin
Boyarsky settled in Israel.
Rabbi Bernard Mandlebaum was
selected chancellor of the Jewish
Theological Seminary in New York.
Reports from Amsterdam noted
that 6,200 war survivors were paid
compensation by the Dutch gov-
ernment for suffering at the hands
of the Nazis.

AtisMRwas*,
:14
Dr. Melvin Calvin, former Detroiter,
was one of the winners of the Nobel
Prize in chemistry and physics.
Detroiter Isadore Levin was elect-
ed president of Congregation
Shomrey Emunah.
Benjamin Stein of Hamtramck
was elected vice president of the
Michigan Podiatry Association.

colosuseivir
*WO'
Detroiter Louis Kwiker of Central

High School won the city track meet.
Mrs. Esther Levy of Detroit was
elected president of the Halevy
Singing Society.
Sander Levin of Detroit was elect-
ed president of the student govern-
ment at the University of Chicago.

— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant

11/9
2001

33

