Remember When Lack Of Identity From the pages of the Jewish News for this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago. Study says most children of intermarriage enter college without a Jewish connection. JOE BERKOFSKY Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York City he majority of Jewish col- lege freshmen whose parents are intermarried do not consider themselves Jews. This is one of the more dramatic find- ings of a new study that examines reli- gious, political and social trends of teens transitioning from high school to college. Among the other findings of the study, "America's Jewish Freshmen," believed to be the largest survey ever undertaken of young Jews in America entering college: • The children of divorced intermar- ried couples whose mother is Jewish largely consider themselves to be Jews. • Jewish college freshmen attend fewer religious services and feel less spiritual than their non-Jewish peers. • Jewish students are more political- ly liberal and sexually permissive than their non-Jewish peers. The study was conducted by Professor Linda Sax at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute for Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life and funded with a $60,000 grant from North Carolina philanthropists Leonard and Tobee Kaplan. Since 1971, The UCLA-Hillel project has been tracking trends among 235,000 Jewish freshmen from more than 5 million of their non-Jewish class- mates at 1,200 colleges and universities. In 1999, the study split respondents into three main groups, including non- Jews, Jews and those with no religious preference but at least one Jewish par- ent. Of that latter group, 79 percent were the children of intermarriage. Among the study's most dramatic findings were those involving religious identity and activity. Of students with two Jewish par- ents, 93 percent identified themselves as Jews. But 38 percent of the teens identified as Jews if only their mother was Jewish and 15 percent if only their father was Jewish. Jewish identification strengthened among young people, however, if their mother was Jewish but divorced from a non-Jewish father. Of students from intermarriages whose mother was Jewish, 37 percent called themselves Jews, while 41 percent of those with Jewish mothers who had divorced from non Jews considered themselves Jews. "If you want to know in what inter- • married families students will identify as Jewish, it's most likely to be when the mother is Jewish and the parents are divorced," said Sax, the study's author. Rubin, Hillel's executive vice president. Yet the study's findings showing a dis- tinct lack of Jewish experience among young Jews means Hillel may find it challenging to drag them into the tent. In addition to religious identity and involvement, the study queried incoming freshmen about family back- ground, high school achievement and activities, personal values and self- image, education, career plans and social and political attitudes. The Religious Factor Jews More Liberal The biggest gap between those labeling themselves as Jews and those who did not list any religious preference in the study's survey centered on the extent and nature of their religious lives. Among the key findings: • Seventy percent of freshmen who identify as Jewish said they attended religious services occasionally, 13 per- cent said they frequently attended reli- gious services and 17 percent said they never went. • Of those who claim no religious preference but have at least one Jewish parent, 62 percent said they never attended religious services; 37 percent said they did occasionally and 1.5 per- cent said they did so frequently. • Non-Jews said they were far more religiously active. In the non-Jewish group, 47 percent frequently attended religious services, 37 percent occasion- ally did and Only 16 percent never did. • Among students who identified as Jews, 57.5 percent said they never prayed - or meditated and 27 percent said they spent less than one hour per week pray- ing or meditating. Of those who did not align themselves with any religion, but who had at least one Jewish parent, 79 percent said they never prayed or medi- tated, and 13 percent said they spent less than one hour per week doing so. For Hillel, the study reaffirms its stat- ed goal of "maximizing the number of Jews doing Jewish with other Jews." Hillel's 110 campus "foundations" are designed to be "big tents" offering activ- ities with many Jewish themes meant to attract a plurality of Jews, said Jay On the political and social attitudes, the study found: • Jewish students remain more liberal overall than their non-Jewish counterparts. Slightly more than half of Jewish students called themselves "far-left" or "liberal," compared with 25 percent of non Jews: Forty percent of Jews called them- selves "middle of the road," while 9.5 percent considered themselves "conser- vative" or "far-right." • Forty-four percent of Jewish stu- dents said it was "essential" or "very important" to keep up with political affairs, compared with 28 percent of non-Jewish students. • Jewish and non-Jewish students today feel that being wealthy is more important than "developing a meaning- ful philosophy of life." Seventy-three percent of Jewish students said being financially well-off was their top goal. • Jewish students were more support- ive of individual rights than non-Jewish students. Eighty-nine percent of Jews felt abortion should be legal, compared with 52 percent of non-Jews; 82 per- cent of Jews supported same-sex mar- -riages, compared with 53 percent of non-Jews; 49 percent of Jews backed marijuana legalization, compared with 32 percent of non-Jews. 'Sixty percent of Jews approved of couples having premarital sex if "they really like each other" even if they have dated a short time, compared with 38 percent of non-Jews who agreed with that notion. ❑ Related editorial: page 27 eS11111.111111111111111111111M A new Chabad House opens in Kinshasa, Zaire, which is home to 200 Jewish families. Sharon Alterman will chair the planning committee for a tribute dinner honoring Rabbi David Nelson on his 20th anniversary at Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park. Detroiter Marvin Goldman is among members of a United Jewish Appeal mission that visits wounded soldiers at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv. 1111111111111111111111M111 Borman Hall in northwest Detroit and Meyer L. Prentis Manor in Southfield, facilities of the Jewish Home for the Aged, are accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. The Ann Arbor Hillel Foundation and Soviet Jewry Committee of Ann Arbor will commemorate "The Night of the Murdered Poets," in memory of 24 Jewish poets and writers who were executed in the basement of a Moscow prison in 1952. -,..wm.ltiameaummm No.& Hungary has 80,000 Jewish resi- dents, according to the Annual Conference of the Social-Cultural Union of Hungarian Jews. An Israeli art exhibit opens in the Munich (West Germany) Museum. ,NiAii*::*1,.vmm.www%gumsw,4Pt All of the major Jewish organiza- tions issue a statement expressing sorrow over the death of Eva Peron, wife of the president of the Argentine Republic. T.V.M1111111111111111110101111 Lawrence H. Jones Post 190 of the Jewish War Veterans presents Fresh Air Camp with an American flag. — Compiled by Holly Teasdle, archivist, the Leo M. Franklin Archives, Temple Beth El 8/ 2 2002 25