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We know we have many customers
who want to express their feelings of
pride, patriotism and peace this coming
holiday season both for personal and
corporate use. We have added many
things to our collection, and some say-
ing it in red, white and blue. Please stop
in for any special requests. We want to
spread the spirit any way we can.
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In addition, the Reform movement
— which once rejected many custom-
ary Jewish practices — is increasingly
embracing traditional ritual and obser-
vance.
Rabbi David Ellenson, president of
the Reform movement's Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion, said the findings of the sur-
vey do not contradict other evidence.
Modern American life, Rabbi
Ellenson said, has had a dual effect on
Jewish identity. On the one hand,
acceptance has triggered high rates of
assimilation and intermarriage, but it
also has "caused other Jews to seek
identity and community.
"On the one hand is a return to tra-
dition, but against a backdrop of
American religiosity, where individuals
construct their own sense of meaning
and look to tradition not as com-
mandino- but for resources to seek
meaning in their own lives," Rabbi
Ellenson said.
Jonathan Woocher, president of the
Jewish Education Service of North
America and the chief professional of
the Jewish federation system's
Renaissance and Renewal Pillar, agreed
with Ellenson that there is "nothing
surprising" in the new study.
"This is what one would have
expected, given everything else we've
seen in what's happening in Jewish
life," Woocher said. "There's nothing
here that says, 'Whoa, we're really on
the wrong track,'" he said.
Instead, he said, the findings point
to a "diverse population" and illustrate
the need for a variety of approaches to
engage Jews in Jewish life.
Rabbi Nina Cardin, director of
Jewish life at the Jewish Community
Center of Greater Baltimore and
author of two guides to Jewish obser-
vance and rituals, said the findings —
particularly the low rates of organiza-
tional affiliation and religious views —
show the need to broaden outreach
efforts beyond day schools and syna-
gogues.
While education and synagogues
remain important, Rabbi Cardin said,
the organized Jewish community
needs to step up support for Jewish
social action, environmental and cul-
tural activities.
These arenas are "begging for our
increased attention," and attract "a lot
of Jews who will not walk into a syna-
gogue or Torah study class," Rabbi
Cardin said.
Rabbi Norman Lamm, the president
of Yeshiva University, called the find-
ings "tragic," saying they show the
need for more Jewish education.
Rabbi Lamm called for strengthen-
ing the commitment of Jews already
involved in Jewish life by spending
more money on Jewish day schools, so
the schools can accommodate more
students and pay better salaries.
Bethamie Horowitz, a social psy-
chologist who serves on the technical
advisory committee for NJPS 2000,
called the findings "provocative." The
study shows that "the audience for
religious Judaism" appears to be
((smaller than we thought," Horowitz
said.
But, it corroborates her findings
from a recent study of New York Jews,
called "Connections and Journeys."
That study found that Jewish identity
is fluid and that people report very
individual ways of and reasons for
being Jewish, many of them not tradi-
tional or religious.
"Religious Judaism is one way of
being Jewish, but not the only way,"
she said.
"Is it the best way? Does it have the
longest shelf life? Those are questions
that this study raises, but doesn't
address," she said. "But some will say
that those who have religious identifi-
cations are going to have stronger pos-
sibility of transmitting that to the
next generation."
The study's finder, Felix Posen, said
it suggests that secular Jews and those
not affiliated with synagogues are a sig-
nificant segment of the community,
and cannot "be dismissed as if their
number were insignificant or vestigial."
However, not all are convinced that
findings of a low level of Jewish reli-
giosity are so significant.
Jack Wertheimer, provost of the
Conservative movement's Jewish
Theological Seminary of America, said
members of other faiths may have dif-
ferent definitions of what it means to be
religious, and that Jews may say they are
secular or have a secular outlook simply
because they are not Orthodox.
Often, people will say they are secu-
lar, but "if you press further and ask,
`Do you attend synagogue, do you
pray,' some of these secular people will
answer, 'Yes,'" Wertheimer said.
"I don't know of anybody who has
written off secular Jews. That's not the
issue," Wertheimer said in response to
Posen's comments. "What came out of
the 1990 population study was very
powerful evidence that secular Jews
who do not participate in organized
religious life of the Jews are the least
likely to successfully transmit strong
Jewish identity to their children." ❑
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