Interm. Jewish Con Rates of intermarriage have increased since 1970, but the rate of increase has slowed since the 1980s. Most American Jews observe a number of important Jewish holidays and rituals. Jewish children today receive more full-time Jewish schooling than did Jewish adults. 39",o 72% 38% 29% 59% .24% 28% 12% 13<"/. :411111111111111. BEFORE 1970 1970-1979 1980-1984 1985 - 1990 YEAR MARRIED 1991 - 1995 1996-2001 HOLD/ATTEND PASSOVER SEDER LIGHT CHANUKAH CANDLES FAST ON YOM KIPPUR JEWISH DAY SCHOOU YESHIVAH • •' 411111111111111111 PART-TIME JEWISH SCHOOL MEETS MORE THAN ONCE PER WEEK ONE DAY PER WEEK JEWISH PROGRAM NO JEWISH EDUCATION A sample of the data released by the National ewish Population Survey 2000-01 made public this week. married say they have close Jewish friends, compared to 76 percent of those in all Jewish marriages. Jewish Connections Among all Jews, 52 percent have close Jewish friends, 77 percent attend or hold Passover seders, 72 percent light Chanukah candles, 35 percent have vis- ited Israel, 63 percent are "emotionally attached" to the Jewish state and 41 per- cent have contributed to a Jewish cause outside of the Jewish federation system. NJPS further identified 4.3 million Jews, or 80 percent of the total Jewish population, as more "Jewishly connect- ed" than others. These Jews replied to a more detailed NJPS survey by first say- ing they either had at least one Jewish parent; were raised as Jews; considered themselves Jewish culturally, ethnically or nationalistically; or practiced no other religion. Those who practiced a non-monothe- istic religion, such as Zen Buddhism, but still considered themselves Jews and prac- ticed some "residual" Jewish activity were also included, said Laurence Kotler- Berkowitz, the NJPS research director. Of the remaining Jews in the overall population, 800,000 met all those cri- teria but did not consider themselves to be Jews. The previous 1990 survey cast a wider net and counted these people as Jews in measuring rates such as intermarriage and other Jewish con- nections. Another 100,000 Jews were estimated to exist, living largely in sen- ior- citizen homes, prisons or as part of the U.S. military — the same num- ber used in the 1990 study. Of the more Jewishly active 4.3 million: • Forty-six percent said they belong to a synagogue, while 27 percent said they attend a Jewish religious service at least once per month. • Of those who said they were syna- gogue members, 39 percent identified as Reform Jews, 33 percent as Conservative, 21 percent as Orthodox, 3 percent as Reconstructionist and 4 percent as "other," such as Sephardic. • Fifty-nine percent said they fast on Yom Kippur — meaning four in 10 Jews do not. • Twenty-eight percent said they light Shabbat candles, while 21 percent said they keep kosher at home. • Twenty-one percent said they belong to a Jewish community center, while 28 percent said they belong to another Jewish organization. • A fifth of all Jews said they have visited Israel two or more times, and 45 percent said they have Israeli rela- tives or friends. • Fifty-two percent said being Jewish Fewer Jelin In JOE BERKOFSKY Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York he Jewish population is aging and shrinking, its birthrate is falling, intermarriage is rising and most Jews do not engage in com- munal or religious pursuits. Yet a majority attend a Passover seder and celebrate Chanukah, Jewish education is booming, and many Jews consider being Jewish important and feel strong ties to Israel. These are not dueling headlines, but parallel portraits contained in the long-awaited National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01. Federations and Jewish communal leaders use these studies every decade for policy and planning decisions. The T is very important. • Thirty percent of these Jews said they contributed to a Jewish federation. • Sixty-five percent said they read a Jewish newspaper or magazine; 55 per- cent read books on Jewish topics; 45 percent listen to Jewish tapes, compact disks or records; and 39 percent use the Internet for Jewish purposes. • Nearly one-quarter said they attend Jewish education classes. Education Secular and Jewish education plays a key role among American Jews: • Jews are highly educated compared to the population generally, with 55 percent having earned a college degree, compared to 29 percent of all Americans, and 25 percent of Jews holding graduate degrees, compared to 6 percent of the general population. • Seventy-three percent of the more "connected" Jews received some kind of formal Jewish education growing up, including 79 percent of those between age 6 and 17 at the time of the survey. • Twelve percent of the more "con- nected" subset attended a Jewish day school or yeshivah growing up, 25 per- cent had one day per week of Jewish education and 24 percent went to a Jewish school part time. • NJPS found a dramatic rise in Jewish day school and yeshivah educa- tion, with 29 percent of those between the ages of 6 and 17 — and 23 per- cent of 18- to 34-year-olds — saying they have attended day school or BY THE NUMBERS on page 35 Mites With Positive Trends United Jewish Communities, the fed- eration umbrella group, officially released the $6 million study this week, nearly a year after retracting ini- tial NJPS data and delaying the sur- vey's release amid controversy over its methodology and missing data. A subsequent internal audit and an independent review reinforced the data's validity. And, when NJPS was compared to other communal studies, "our numbers checked out very nice- ly," said Lorraine Blass, NJPS project director and senior planner at UJC. Those numbers add up to a complex Jewish continuum. On one end lies a small segment of the community experi- encing a Jewish renaissance; on the other a majority that continues to assimilate. In the vast middle remain most Jews who engage in few Jewish pursuits. "The big story is how the affiliated and the unaffiliatedsharply differ on all measures of Jewish life," said Steven M. Cohen, a senior NJPS consultant and Hebrew University professor. "As a group, American Jews may be moving in two different directions simultaneously: increasing Jewish intensification alongside decreasing Jewish intensity. It may well be the most and least involved are gaining at the expense of those with middling levels of Jewish involvement." The drop in the population of Jewish children, especially in the 0-4 age bracket, will mean "in the next few years, there will be fewer Jewish children to go into Jewish schools and to bring their parents into syna- gogues," Cohen said. El 9/12 2003 33