Marriage Dilemma

Love of Israel is not fading away.

Jacob Berkman

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

New York

F

lying in the face of two decades
of research that indicates that
American Jews are falling out
of love with Israel, a new report says
that American Jews love Israel as much
as they always have — and that in the
future, that sentiment may grow more
intense.
Conventional wisdom, based largely
on the work of sociologist Steven Cohen,
is that American Jews are becoming less
attached to Israel by the generation, as
younger Jews typically feel less close to
Israel and Israelis than older Jews, states
the paper.
The conventional argument is that as
young Jews become older Jews, they take
their Israel apathy with them, and then
successive younger generations feel even
less attached to Israel.
But that notion — and Cohen — are
plain wrong, states the Steinhardt
Social Research Institute's paper,
"American Jewish Attachment to Israel:
An Assessment of the 'Distancing'
Hypothesis!'
"It is our sense that a consensus has
been solidifying in Jewish intellectual
circles that American Jewry is growing
more distant from Israel:' said Theodore
Sasson, the paper's lead researcher.
"We didn't think there was any evi-
dence of that."
The trouble with the commonly held
notion, says the Steinhardt paper, is
that it is based on a variety of surveys
— such as Gallup polls, the National
Jewish Population Study and smaller
focus group studies — that do not ask
the same questions year after year and,
therefore, can not be compared.
The "distancing theory," said Sasson,
is based on the idea that older Jews saw
Israel in a much different phase in its
history than have younger Jews.
Older Jews saw Israel at its miracu-
lous birth, fighting a war for indepen-
dence, and achieving victory in its 1967
Six-Day War.
Many younger Jews, in contrast,
know the Israel of the intifada, or
Palestinian uprising, the more corn-

A18

March 20 0 2008

plicated entity that is viewed by much
of the world as the oppressor of the
Palestinian people.

at Brandeis — and in particular with
the director of the Steinhardt Center, Len
Saxe.

Change Not Extreme
Cohen Effect
But when one looks at questionnaires
The paper acknowledges Cohen in its
that consistently asked the same set of
foreword, but it then proceeds to cite
questions about Israel year after year,
him more than 25 times in refuting his
one finds that Jewish sentiment is not
research.
changing significantly for the worse, if at
"I am honored that they would take
all, argues the Steinhardt paper.
my research so seriously as to base their
It says the best such data exists in the
work on it," Cohen said.
American Jewish Committee's annual
In particular, Cohen and Saxe have
Survey of Jewish Public Opinion, which
squabbled publicly over intermarriage,
has been poling Jews since the early
with Cohen arguing vehemently that
1980s with roughly the same set of ques- intermarriage is a detriment to Judaism's
tions. And that survey shows that very
survival, and Saxe providing research
little has changed in terms of American
to the contrary — most notably a 2006
Jews' view on Israel over the past 13
survey of Boston-areas families that
years.
showed that 60 percent of intermarried
According to the
couples were rais-
AJC surveys, since
ing their children as
1994 the percentage of
Jewish.
Jews who agree with
And here too, the
the statement "Caring
debate seems to boil
about Israel is a very
down to intermar-
important part of my
riage, Cohen said.
being a Jew," has fallen
The annual AJC
from 75 percent to just
polls — which Cohen
less than 70 percent,
helped formulate back
a number that Sasson
in the early 1980s
calls insignificant.
— only questions
Over the same time,
Jews who identify as
the percentage of Jews
Jewish and excludes
— Steinhardt researcher Jews who say they
who said they feel
"very close" or "fairly
have no religion. This
close" to Israel actu-
gives a vastly different
ally rose from 66 to 70
portrait of Jews than
percent.
other surveys such as the NJPS, Cohen
What is really happening, says the
said.
Steinhardt report, is that Jews tend to
For instance, the 2000 National Jewish
become closer to Israel as they grow
Population Study showed that 38 percent
older. So, when one looks at age cohorts
of Jews belong to a synagogue, while the
year by year, there tends not to be a
2000 AJC survey showed that 59 percent
dropping off in affinity for Israel. Older
of Jews are affiliated.
Jews simply feel closer to Israel.
Though the Steinhardt survey does
When you add to that the success of
a good job of showing that Jews who
Birthright Israel, which has sent some
identify as Jewish are indeed staying
140,000 American Jews between the
close to Israel — a notion with which
ages of 18 and 26 on free trips to Israel
Cohen agrees — it is missing the point
since 2000, young Jews stand to become that intermarried Jews and their chil-
even closer to Israel, according to the
dren are falling away from Israel, Cohen
report.
said.
At first glance, the Steinhardt paper
"The intermarried and children of
looks like a stab at Cohen, who has
the intermarried are dragging down the
long been at intellectual odds with
Jewish people's commitment to Israel:'
Steinhardt researchers — who are based he said. "Commitment among the in-

Even among the
intermarried, the
sentiment toward
Israel has remained
the same.

married is as high as it ever was, but we
are moving to two populations."
He added, "Their data cannot refute
our contention that intermarriage
— among other factors — is bringing
about disengagement from Israel, both
by its impact on the Jewish spouses and
by its impact upon the growing number
of Jewish children who are the products
of intermarried couples!'
Sasson said his paper controlled with
certain variables to account for inter-
marriage. He added that in 2000, 15
percent of respondents to the AJC sur-
vey were intermarried and that in 2005,
22.5 percent were intermarried. Even
among the intermarried, the sentiment
toward Israel has remained the same,
he said.
But, he said, the intermarriage factor
is not so simple. Much of what will hap-
pen in the future regarding sentiment
toward Israel from the intermarried
community will depend on education
and trips to Israel, such as Birthright
Israel.
"Steven even told me Sasson said,
referring to Cohen, "it's Birthright
against intermarriage."

Answering
Israel's Critics

The Charge
A local Muslim cleric last week claimed
that Israelis call Palestinians "terror-
ists."

The Answer
The cleric's generalization only serves
his propagandistic purposes. In reality,
Israel negotiates with Palestinian lead-
ers, cooperates with them on tourism
and environmental issues, and provides
the Palestinian populace with food,
health services, utilities and water; and
even still employs some — despite the
threat of terrorism.

— Allan Gale,

Jewish Community Relations Council of

Metropolitan Detroit

(c) Jewish Renaissance Media, March 20, 2008