...[T]here are about 808,000 adults whose only Jewish parent is their mother and 780,000 adults whose only Jewish parent is their father. Among the former, 22% reported their religion as Jewish and another 29% indicated “no religion.” Among the latter only 11% reported their religion as Jewish or Judaism and 36% indicated “no religion.”

Being Jewish is expensive - One source estimates the total as high as $30,000:

* Synagogue Membership = $1,100
* Day School (two children) = $22,000
* Day Camp (two weeks, two children) = $1,200
* Resident Camp (one month, two children) = $5,000
* Jewish Community Center = $500
* Minimal Federation gift = $200
* Total (not including cost of kosher food) = $30,000

These costs are prohibitive for many families despite some income-dependent subsidies and sliding scales, and they explain why large numbers of nominal Jews exclude themselves from affiliation with the Synagogue and pass up Jewish education for their children. It is hard to convince someone who is not religious to spend $1,100 on a synagogue membership or to pay $10,000 or more a year to inflict on their child a Jewish education that he or she hated when they were a child. Community ties could be very important, if being a member of a community conferred special privileges. But such services as are offered by various Jewish charities (eg vocational counseling, marriage counseling, job placement...) are generally offered on a non-sectarian basis.

When we look at all aspects of the problem of the vanishing Jew, it becomes clear that many of the favorite solutions are not going to help. Intermarriage is a symptom, not a cause. Being accepting of intermarriage is the morally correct thing to do and the only thing to do in a liberal society, but it will not stop intermarriage and assimilate. Trips to Israel may help bring some Jews back to their people, but they have to want to go to Israel in the first place, and they have to be prepared to see Israel in a positive light. Jewish education is correlated with inmarriage and continuity, but we don't know if that is a cause or an effect. And what is to be taught in that Jewish education? Religious rituals and practices are meaningless to a largely secular people. Israel is a positive draw for only about half the Jews, and they are usually committed Jews in any case. What it all means, together, is that in the American Diaspora the "Jewish Community" has increasingly become a hypothetical construct, rather than a fact expressed in every day life. If we want to save the Jews, we must save the Jewish community.

More to come about that...

Ami Isseroff