PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENT What have you done for your vehicle lately? Come in and meet our FRIENDLY SERVICE TEAM Let us advise you on all your maintenance needs. Debate Continues IWO .1•01 . .1•No, MN IN. MN =III WM IMO 11.111 NMI FREE Multi-Point Inspection Scholars to examine population study's value. JOE BERKOFSKY Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York purred by fierce debate in the press, Jewish social scientists are rganizing a conference on the controversial National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) so they can study it for themselves. Beginning Monday, dozens of scholars will gather in Boston with officials of the NJPS 2000-01, Jewish federations and community policy makers to scrutinize the $6 million study. "The discussions that have been in the newspapers have been less than satisfy- ing," said Leonard Saxe, director of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University, which is co-sponsoring the meeting. "The hope is to get everybody togeth- er to see if we can come to some kind of agreement" about what the NJPS means, he said. The answer to that question has been the focus of intense debate since NJPS' release last month. The debate was highlighted by an op- ed column in the New York Times by J.J. Goldberg, editor of the Forward who accused the study's sponsors of spinning a statistical "myth" of population decline. In his own paper, Goldberg called the NJPS a "fraud" for allegedly skewing both the population and intermarriage rates, thereby needlessly alarming the Jewish community over an allegedly inflated intermarriage crisis and a nonex- istent population decline. His broadsides spawned dueling com- mentaries in American Jewish newspa- pers and in Israeli media outlets such as Hdaretz and the Jerusalem Post. Stephen Hoffman, CEO and presi- dent of the UJC federation umbrella organization, denied that his group had manufactured fears of a population decline. Goldberg's criticism "stuck in my throat," Hoffman told JTA. The Times op-ed was akin to "slander" against the UJC, he said. "We had one of the leading demogra- phers in the world respond in a letter published in the New York Times," said Mandell "Bill" Berman of Franklin, chairman of the NJPS committee, speaking at Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park on Oct. 19. "You need to under- stand the Forward The Forward looks I Your inspection includes: A thorough check-up of your Hyundai engine, t. brakes, drivetrain, suspension and steering onents, A'det led reportour fin in of for headlines." How Jews count themselves and what conclusions they draw from those num- bers has been a matter of debate since Biblical times. The last NJPS, in 1990, made headlines with its finding that 52 percent of Jews who had married in the previous five years had married out of the faith. I I I I ... OPEN FOR SERVICE Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Surveys Prompt Analysis That survey sparked more than 200 studies and at least 11 books, and steered a decade's worth of communal spending on efforts to promote "conti- nuity" among committed Jews and "out- reach" to uninvolved Jews. Billed as a "colloquium," the confer- ence on the current NJPS is set for Oct. 26-27 at Hebrew College in Boston and Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass. But some who plan to attend said it still is too early for serious discussion about NJPS because few have pored over the details. The NJPS is no stranger to controver- sy. After suddenly pulling the survey last fall because of lost data, the UJC launched an internal probe and an inde- pendent audit, both of which found methodological flaws and potential sta- tistical problems. However, both reviews largely upheld the study's value. Since NJPS came out last month, dis- cussions among Jewish social scientists and demographers have focused on the charges and countercharges surrounding the survey. Much of the debate has been conduct- ed via scholarly online listservs, and Geffen said some academics suggested a professional gathering was in order. One of those who plan to attend is Sieven Cohen, a professor of sociology at Hebrew University and chief consult- ant to the NJPS. Cohen sparked intense debate of the 1990 NJPS over intermar- riage statistics he considered inflated. "I think it's good for there to be dis- cussions," said Cohen, who disagreed with Goldberg's accusation that NJPS organizers purposely inflated intermar- riage numbers and depressed population counts. Lorraine Blass, NJPS' project director, said UJC officials would attend this month's conference in the hope of avoid- ing yet more fireworks. 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