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September 19, 2003 - Image 35

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2003-09-19

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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Editorials are posted and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewislinews.com

Greenberg's View

Numbers That Talk

S

ometimes, you have to spend money to fig-
ure out how to spend it effectively. In that
spirit, a strong case can be made for updat-
ing Detfoit Jewry's demographic data.
A new professional sampling would tell us a lot
about who we are now We'd discover just how sig-
nificantly we've changed since the last major study
of the Detroit Jewish community in 1989. New
numbers would help us measure the prudence of
our communal spending habits and projections.
Demographics are crucial to limiting assimilation's
effects. There's little benefit to guessing how to navi-
gate the tides of intermarriage, non-affiliation, igno-
rance about our heritage and apathy toward religion.
The last local population study 14 years ago cost
more than $150,000. Given the budget shortfall of
our top fund-raising and planning agency, the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, private
funding via a grant, subsidy or gift would be best.
The newly released and insight-packed National
Jewish Population Study — commissioned by the
federated umbrella for North America, the United
Jewish Communities (UJC) — is an incentive for
doing a companion local survey. Detroit philanthro-
pist Mandell "Bill” Berman largely paid for the $6
million national report; he would be invaluable as a
consultant on a local version.

The Local Value

Are Detroit Jews still on a northwesterly march from
their Hastings Street roots? Is our median age falling- or
rising? Are projections by our communal agencies in
line with today's demographics? How many of us are
low income, marginally observant, involved in Jewish
learning, in a leadership capacity or intermarried?
In our search for answers, the National Jewish
Population Study is a good baseline. But it doesn't tell
us about Jewish Detroit. Only local data will do that.
When UJC began its new national study three years
ago, the Jewish News floated the idea of doing a scaled-
back local study if the cost to duplicate the one done
in 1989 was too high. A smaller study might target
newer or smaller Jewish areas like Walled
Lake, Grosse Pointe, Canton, Troy and
Commerce to pinpoint the special needs of
Jews outside south Oakland County.
Another option is to use the national report as a
springboard to a useful, but limited and less costly
demographic profile of Detroit Jewry.
A complete new local study is still the best option,
however.
For starters, it would allow us to take a hard look at
Southfield — a vital bridge between the Jewish com-
munity bases in Oak Park and West Bloomfield. We
could better estimate how many Jews live in Southfield
and the depth of their cultural and service needs.
At the same time, we could more closely determine
how many neighbors we have of Russian descent. That
would. help assure sufficient outreach for new immi-
grants and for their children who are raised here.
Beyond that, a metropolitan study would reveal the
number of Jews who call the Detroit area home today.
Is the 1989 estimate of 96,000 Jews too high or too

low in 2003? Is our household estimate of 43,000
accurate? Is synagogue affiliation still just under 50
percent?
Many of Federation's partner agencies rely on demo-
graphics. New numbers would provide a demographic
picture with greater clarity, purpose and context.

Building Cash Flow

Most importantly, fresh demographics would help
Federation raise money in a weak economy. They
would help identify potential givers, especially small
ones to help make up for fewer big givers. They also
would let Federation tailor its pitch to ardent Zionists,
those who prefer' local causes and others.
In the process of replenishing and
expanding its donor base, Federation
would gain new leads for boosting the
Annual Campaign, Legacy Fund and various
endowments.
If we had a clearer big picture, we also might have
the wherewithal to reverse the flight of so many
young Jews from our future leadership pool to
Chicago and other points west, south and east.
With so much at stake in dividing the gifts to
Federation's Annual Campaign, Detroit Jewry should
examine the merit of a population study that would
complement the National Jewish Population Study.
At the very least, Federation faces having to be
innovative in how it collects data, interprets infor-
mation, brings in money and identifies Jews who
are at risk or otherwise vulnerable.
More than ever, we need accurate, current data to
get the payback we want and we need as an organ-
ized Jewish community.

EDIT ORIAL

Enviable Record

IV

hat's in a name? In the case of JARC,
a four-decade record of evolving into
one of the finest human service agen-
cies in the _state, if not the nation.
The agency started out with one home purchased
in northwest Detroit for six persons with disabilities.
With a few staff members and the support of a few
Jewish community members, this was the Jewish
Association for Retarded Citizens in the late 1960s.
It wasn't just political correctness that influenced
the changing of the agency's name as it grew from
Jewish Association for Retarded
Citizens to Jewish Association
for Residential Care to JARC.
The name changed as the
nature of the Jewish agency changed. Not only does
JARC now have 20 homes for 140 persons with dis-
abilities, it has non-residential assistance programs
for 300 more people and has broadened its scope
beyond the Jewish community.
General outreach has enabled JARC to maximize
funding through government grants and contracts,
not just fund-raising within the Jewish community.
JARC, under the quarter-century leadership of ,
Executive Director Joyce Keller, has been a key
provider of services to people with disabilities with-
out becoming a recipient agency of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. That independ-
ence is a tribute to Keller and her staff that JARC
has remained true to its vision, the dreams of its
founders and its Jewish character. ❑

EDITORIAL

9/19

2003

35

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