Beyond Our Immediate Jewish Circle

from page 38
a wide range of left-wing groups rally
under a banner that also includes
nutty anarchists and aggressive pro-
Palestinian forces.
Collectively, they depict Israel as the
last colonial power" andthe ultimate
example of institutional human rights
abuses, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
and Iraq's/Saddam Hussein as misun-
derstood freedom fighters, Zionism as
inherently racist.
That same process is at work in the
nascent anti-war movement focused on
the expected U.S. strike against Iraq.
Many Jews probably share the aversion
to a unilateral, preemptive U.S. strike,
but don't expect to see lots of Jews join-
ing anti-war demonstrations; the move-
ment is already linkedto the same pro-
Palestinian, anti-Israeli forces that pro-
duced so much overt anti-Semitism at
the United Nations racism conference.
Even Tikkun Magazine editor
Michael Lerner, in a letter to support-
ers, expressed concern about "vulgarity
and anti-Semitism" in the new anti-
war movement. The left just can't say
"no" to groups, however extreme and
however intolerant, as long as their
intolerance is wrapped in the proper
Third World, anti-colonialist argot.
Another example: the divestment
campaign on American college cam-
puses, which reached amabsurdist
crescendo with the recent divestment
conference at the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Many Israelis agree that their coun-
try has a human rights problem. But
to say that Israel is in the same league
as Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Syria or an end-
less list of others reflects a breathtak-
ing lack of balance that looks more
like political correctness run amok
and a pathological hatred of Israel
than compassion for victims.
Overwhelmingly, the left chooses to
ignore genocide by Third World
countries, while relentlessly criticizing
Israel for an occupation most recent
governments have tried to end.
The result: Jews who remain liberal,
which means a majority, are becoming
politically isolated.
Their views on a host of domestic
issues remain progressive and they
continue to be turned off not only by
the Republican party's positions on
those issues but by the iron grip of
the religious right on the GOP
Increasingly, [liberal Jews] feel
uncomfortable in coalitions with groups
that tolerate or even encourage viscerally
anti-Israel, Third World rhetoric and
also misguidedly accept anti-Semitism
in the name of human rights. ❑

BESSER

nce upon a time, we
the so-called "high cost of
didn't need popula-
Jewish living."
tion surveys.
We are aging. Nine. percent
There were only a
of us are over 75. Is elder care a
handful of us, and we all
communal concern? Of course.
knew each other's business.
Is it a strictly local issue? Or
We all danced at each
will the impact of migration, of
other's weddings, celebrated
retirees moving south, require
every baby's birth, attended
MAN DELL
national action? The survey
each funeral.
BE RMAN
promises the facts we need to
But, the Torah tells us, by the
undertake the discussion.
Comm unity
time the Jews left Egypt, we
We're getting more profes-
Vie ws
needed a census to count us.
sional education and postpon-
Each of us knows the Jewish
ing having children. We have
life of those in our immediate circle,
to ask ourselves: Are our communities
our family, our friends, the members
open to families with two high-pres-
of our synagogues, those withArhom
sure careers? Are we addressing child-
we share our Jewish lives.
care issues?
Our responsibility as Jews, however,
That's the way research works. Every
is to look beyond that immediate cir-
piece of information leads to more
cle. We need to help Jews everywhere.
questions. The demographic facts in
To do that, we need to know who
our hands are opening the door to
they are and where they are. That's as
new policy questions, as well as to new
true for the Jews of Indiana and
research questions.
Albuquerque as it is for the Jews of
Israel and Argentina.
More Data Coming
The United Jewish Communities is
where the North American Jewish
Next week, we will present the next
community comes together to help
set of data: Information about the
Jews around the world.
Jewish lives of our Jews. And then the
That's why it's our responsibility —
floodgates will open as researchers
and our privilege — to sponsor the
begin to mine the data in detail, to
National Jewish Population Survey
tabulate the correlations and zoom in
every decade.
on subgroups of the population.
We need to know who the American
As was the case in 1990, some of
Jewish community is.
the top demographers and sociologists
We need to know what our national
in the American Jewish community
needs are.
will be publishing papers based on our
With the results of the 2000 survey
data.
coming in, we're preparing to respond
But more immediately, we at the
better than ever.
United Jewish Communities will be
The release of the initial population
preparing a series of reports for the
figure this month is a milestone in a
use of our direct constituents — the
multi-year process.
local federations — as well as the reli-
We spent years formulating the
gious movements and national Jewish
questions. Our research firm spent a
organizations.
year making more than five million
What does the survey say about
phone calls and conducting more than Jewish college students? About the
9,000 interviews.
users of Jewish Community Centers?
Now, with a year of post-interview
About the role of women in philan-
processing completed, we're beginning
thropy?
to look at what all the data mean.
These are just a sample of the ques-
Already, initial details of our demo-
tions we will be addressing in a series
graphic self-portrait challenge us to
of reports, presentations and a
rethink our community, which now .
planned policy conference. We're mak-
numbers 5.2 million. .
ing sure to present the data, explain
We have a median income of
the data and help those who need the
$50,000, with 19 percent of our
data to interpret it — even as we
households earning only half of that.
maintain our policy of open access to
These numbers will renew attention to academic researchers.
Our goal is not, and should never
Mandell (Bill) Berman of Franklin - is be, to count as many Jews as possible
chair of the United Jewish Communities' in order to present feel-good data.
National Jewish Population Survey Our mission is to provide an honest
2000. He also chaired the 1990 study as and accurate accounting of the
president of the formerfideration umbrel- American Jewish community, so that
la, the Council of Jewish Federations.
we have good, solid data to guide our

0

decisions in the coming decade.
There will always be critics of popu-
lation surveys.
Some reflect the honest disagree-
ments of professionals, of valid
approaches rejected in the sometimes-
fractious process of creating the sur-
vey.
Others bring an agenda, and add
more heat than light to the discussion.
Underlying all such complaints is
the mistaken notion that surveys pro-
duce either good news or bad, and
that somehow what we've come up
with falls in the latter category.
It's as if the American . Jewish com-
munity, hav'i'ng had its pulse taken by
the NJPS, will be pronounced dead if
the numbers are too low. But that's
not how medicine works, and that's
not what the survey is about.
The American Jewish community is
clearly no more dead than it was 10
years ago — but the pulse has
changed. That's to be expected. The
question is, what do we do next? If
some numbers aren't what some of us
might want, that's no cause for panic.
One of the hallmarks of the
American Jewish community is the
ability to appreciate problems as
opportunities to help.
After decades of working to free
Soviet Jews, we had to confront the
actual price tag of resettling a million
people. We rose to the challenge.
Today, I believe the numbers flow-
ing from the NJPS are challenging all
of us to change our mental images of
the American Jewish community.
I'm sure I'm not the only person
whose view of the world was formed
in my younger years, whose mental
image of "the Jewish community"
reflects the reality of my growing up.
We all tend to generalize from our
own experience, whether it was grow-
ing up in the Bronx in the 1940s or
Shaker Heights in the 1970s.
My challenge, and the challerige of
all of us who want to make wise deci-
sions concerning the Jewish commu-
nity, is to discount my decades-old
preconceptions.
With this latest survey, we have the
tools to adjust our preconceptions.
When we sit around conference
tables, planning programs and alloca-
tions in the coming decade, we need
to remember the people who aren't in
the room. We need to remember the
people we don't see around us,
whether because of their age; their
income or their profession.
And we need to do this sooner,
rather than later. After all, none of us
is getting any younger. ❑

3N

11/8
2002

39