Monday, December 29, 2014

The Ever-Renewing People

Jewish life in America is actually flourishing, thanks in part to the energy of children of intermarriage.


By Chip Edelsberg and Jason Edelstein for Mosaic Magazine

Jack Wertheimer and Steven M. Cohen’s “The Pew Survey Reanalyzed,” an examination of data omitted from the Pew Research Center’s 2013 “Portrait of Jewish Americans,” is a welcome addition
to the body of commentary on what that study says—and does not say—about American Jewish life today. Their essay, however, even as it raises a number of valid points of interest and concern, is puzzling. To us, Wertheimer and Cohen seem stuck—too heavily reliant on anachronistic frameworks of analysis and on sources of scholarship that are neither apt nor helpful. Conspicuous among the latter is the late Milton Himmelfarb’s quip chiding Jewish grandparents of children born to interfaith couples that these new family members should be understood as “Christian.” In addition, the two authors posit assumptions and postulate fables that are likely exaggerated or erroneous.

Perhaps most striking in Wertheimer and Cohen’s essay is the absence of relevant statistics, especially in areas where they themselves see hope for potential growth in rates of Jewish engagement. Thus, they recommend communal and philanthropic investment in Jewish overnight camping, but fail to mention that over the last eight years, the number of young Jews enjoying the benefits of residential Jewish camps has already increased from 48,000 to 75,000—many of them, not incidentally, those whom the authors would label “Christian” grandchildren. The Foundation for Jewish Camp anticipates further growth, to as many as 93,000 campers, in the next six to seven years. Similarly, while urging investment in youth groups, the authors neglect to cite the already burgeoning numbers of Jewish teens engaged in Jewish life and learning through such programs as the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO), Moving Traditions, Jewish Student Connection, and Teen Philanthropy.

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