IWorld
Communal Ties Lacking
New Orleans/JTA
A
new survey shows that young-
er Jewish professionals are
less committed to the Jewish
collective than their elders.
The results of the survey of about
2,500 self-identified Jewish communi-
ty professionals were released in early
November at the General Assembly
of the Jewish Federations of North
America.
Most Jewish communal professionals
grew up with two Jewish parents, had
strong Jewish educational backgrounds
and spent time in Israel, noted sociolo-
gist Steven M. Cohen, who did the pro
bono research for the project. He called
those factors "strong predictors" of later
Jewish engagement.
Women make up two-thirds of all
Jewish communal professionals, their
median age is 48, and they are paid
on average $20,000 less per year than
men in comparable positions, accord-
ing to the survey commissioned by the
Jewish Communal Service Association
of America.
Among those younger than 34, the
survey showed 28 percent had been
on Birthright programs, a higher per-
centage than you would expect among
young Jews in general, Cohen said. That
indicates a correlation between par-
ticipation in Birthright and choosing a
career in the Jewish community.
But despite that Israel experience
and their strong Jewish backgrounds,
these young professionals, like their
peers not in communal work, have
lower levels of commitment than their
older colleagues to what he calls the
"Jewish collective including Jewish
peoplehood, Israel and a sense of
Jewish "community:'
The take-away from that, Cohen said,
is that the Jewish community cannot
count on this generation's continued
engagement on the basis of group loy-
alty. Their Jewish involvement has to be
earned; and Jewish professionals who
understand that their peers will serve
them better than older leaders.
"We're going through a transition
from peoplehood to purpose he pos-
ited."Younger Jewish professionals are
part of the purpose-driven generation"
The survey was conducted in the fall
of 2009 by the Berman Jewish Policy
Archive at New York University's Robert
E Wagner Graduate School of Public
Service.
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Nazis Got 'Safe Haven'
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30 November 25 . 2010
merican intelligence officials
created a "safe haven" for Nazis
in the United States after World
War II, a secret U.S. Justice Department
report said.
The 600-page report, which the Justice
Department has tried to keep secret for
four years, was obtained by the New York
Times, the newspaper reported Nov. 13.
The report examines the work of the
Justice Department's Office of Special
Investigations, which was created in
1979 to deport Nazis. More than 300
Nazis have been deported, stripped of
citizenship or blocked from entering the
United States since the creation of the
0.5.1., according to the report.
The report accuses the C.I.A. of
knowingly allowing Nazi war criminals
to enter the United States "for postwar
intelligence purposes."
"America, which prided itself on being
a safe haven for the persecuted, became
— in some small measure — a safe
haven for persecutors as well;' the report
said, according to the Times.
The report also said, however, that the
number of Nazis that entered the United
States after WWII was smaller than the
10,000 figure that is often cited.
The report was commissioned in 1999
by then-Attorney General Janet Reno,
and edited by Mark Richard, a senior
Justice Department lawyer, in 2006. The
department has kept the report under
wraps since 2006, only turning it over
to the private National Security Archive
last month under threat of a lawsuit.
Some legally and diplomatically sensi-
tive sections of the report were omitted
before it was turned over, the Times
reported, adding that it obtained a
complete version of the report.
Cases examined in the report
include: Otto Von Bolschwing, an
associate of Adolf Eichmann; Arthur
L. Rudolph, a Nazi scientist; John
Demjanjuk, a retired American auto-
worker who was tried and acquitted
in Israel of being Treblinka's Ivan the
Terrible; and Dr. Josef Mengele, known
as the Angel of Death.
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