"…an intriguing new portrait of American [non-Orthodox; ybd] Jews that has emerged from a groundbreaking study of ethnic America. Conducted last winter by Zogby International in cooperation with the New Jersey Jewish News, the studies, the Zogby Culture Polls, attempt to shed new light on a variety of American ethnic groups by examining them side by side."

Thus, this study is groundbreaking both because it's not, like most earlier polls, a predominantly Jewish self-study or self-poll (subject to interpretational biases of American Jewish reform perspectives; though one must beware of Arabist biases in the Zogby poll) as well as because it is fixed within the setting of several minority American groups, anchoring a more meaningful comparision. "The result is perhaps the first fully rounded statistical snapshot of America's ethnic mosiac…" I will be excerpting primarily only those aspects illuminating American Jews. The surveys were all conducted between 99.12 to 2k.02.

While education and wealth among American Jews isn't all myth, the group more deserving of being singled out for education are the Asians. "Six out of 10 Jewish adults have a college degree, more than any group except Asians. More than 41% [of American Jews] report a household income of $75,000 or more, far above any other group surveyed."

"Nearly 60% [of Jews surveyed] report having experienced discrimination because of their ethnic heritage, more than any other group except blacks.

"Fully half of Jews report having a 'stong emotional tie' to their 'country of ethnic heritage' - less than Hispanics, at 62%, or Arab Americans, at 56%…

"What is particularly striking is that unlike the other groups, the country to which Jews are attached is not one their grandparents came from, but Israel, one which for the most part they have only read of in books or heard of in synagogue.

"The researchers pointed to the very distinctiveness of the Jews as an identifiable community, with its own patterns of behavior and values, as the most striking finding of the poll of Jews.

"'Jews have retained their own identity,' said John Zogby, president of Zogby International.

"'I'm not an expert in Judaism, and as an Arab American I wouldn't claim to be, but the findings suggest that there's plenty within the context of Judaism as a spiritual force that generates a commitment to community spirit and communal values.' Zogby, who is of Lebanese-Christian descent, is best known as a New York-based Republican pollster. He is the brother of Arab American lobbyist James Zogby…

"Both Zogby and [Belio Martinez Jr., Zogby's director of international marketing] cited … liberalism as the most important finding in the Jewish survey… Some 49% of Jews called themselves 'liberal' or 'very liberal,' compared to 42% of blacks and about 1/3 of every other group. By contrast, about 19% of Jews called themselves [politically conservative, not religiously "Conservative"; ybd] 'conservative' or 'very conservative…" [I'm center-right politically-conservative (not religiously "Conservative"); ybd] "About 2/3 of Jews are registered as Democrats…" [I'm a Republican-leaning independent; ybd]

"The lopsided liberalism of the Jews shows up in their responses to issues on the public agenda, particularly on abortion. Jews are overwhelmingly pro-choice, with 61% saying the decision should always be left to the mother…" [emphasis added; ybd]. "Similarly, fewer than 50% of Jews believe in notifying parents when a minor seeks an abortion, compared with nearly 80% in every other group." Needless to say, these Jews arent guided by Tôrâh.

"Jews are the most supportive of letting the federal government set education policy, the most supportive of campaign donation limits and the least supportive of increasing the military budget. In general, Jews showed a greater faith in the power of the federal government to do good than any other group.

"For Zogby, the specific characteristics marking American Jews - attachment to Israel, distinctive political values, mistrust of the United Nations - all point to the enduring influence of Judaism on the Jews' inner lives… But one thing is certain - wherever it comes from, they're not getting it in synagogue. [emphasis added; ybd]

"Jews attend worship services less regularly than any other group surveyed. That, in fact, was one of the most striking differences the survey found between [non-Orthodox] Jews and the other [minority group]s.

"Just under 1/4 of the Jews polled said they attend services at least once a week…" About 30% attend, on average, about once/month. "This matches other surveys that show 25-30% of American Jews maintain a deep, ongoing involvement in communal Jewish practice" (New Jersey Jewish News).

And 70% who don't!

"The numbers are in, and they don't look too good. Earlier this month, the results of the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001 were released and they confirmed everyone's worst fears. American Jewry, it seems, is shrinking faster and more profoundly than even the gloomiest of pessimists might have imagined.

In just a decade, the number of Jews in America has shrunk by 5.45 percent, from 5.5 million in the 1990 survey, to just 5.2 million now. To put it even more starkly: on average, American Jewry lost about 100 Jews per day, every day, over the past 10 years. And with the median age rising, and Jewish birthrates declining, that statistic seems almost certain to grow worse.

But despite the crisis, there is no atmosphere of crisis. Ironically, America's Jewish leadership continues to devote an inordinate amount of time and energy to fighting anti-Semitism, as if that were the community's No. I concern. But the real question they fail to address is: will there be any Jews left in America for the anti-Semites to hate? There are undoubtedly many reasons behind American Jewry's decline, but the primary factor is a plague of Jewish ignorance that has reached epidemic proportions." (Jerusalem Post, 2002.10.23, p. 7).

Ignorance of Judaism by Jews is blamed on the high cost of Jewish education. But what made it so expensive? Answer: no interest by 90+% of Jews in studying medieval superstitions that fail to relate logically and historically to the Tōrâh of Har Sinai and the Creator. Jews still continue to incorrigibly refuse to face up to this reality, adamantly refusing to adopt a logical, historical, archeological and scientific (hard-hitting objective) study of Tōrâh and Judaism. Until this happens the trends above will continue, because intelligent, sensible and educated Jews – like intelligent, sensible and educated non-Jews – opt to relate to the Creator logically, intelligently, sensibly and scientifically.

2003.09.17 – I've long suspected that Jewish surveys in the U.S. deliberately buried the true extent of assimilation. Now I can prove it.

Probably like most people, I always assumed that in the Jewish population surveys, "affiliated" referred to synagogue affiliation. Reading the newly released National Jewish Population Survey for 2000-01 (United Jewish Communities – ujc.org) shows shockingly differently.

"To examine affiliation-related differences in Jewish involvement, a measure of affiliation was constructed based on synagogues, JCCs and other Jewish organizations. Those with no such memberships total 44% of adult Jews and are called 'unaffiliated.'  The affiliated divide evenly into two groups: those with one membership (28%) are called 'moderately affiliated,' and those with two or more memberships (28%) are regarded as 'highly affiliated.' "

Thus, a born Jew who belongs to a local JCC (Jewish Communitiy Center, which welcomes anyone who sympathizes with Jews or Judaism of any persuasion) and GLBT Jews (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender Jews) would report membership in two 'Jewish' organizations and be listed in the new NJPS as "highly affiliated"!!!

Clearly, a better indicator of connection to the legitimate Jewish community is observance of kashrut – only 8% of unaffiliated, 25% of 'moderately affiliated' and 36% of 'highly affiliated' observe kashrut. An undetermined, but significant number, of these keep kâsheir only for relatives and aren't religious themselves. So, doing the math [(.44x.08) + (.28*.25) + (.28*.36) = 0.206], that works out to a maximum 20.6% of the American Jewish population who are legitimately Tōrâh-observant. This exposes the wildly inflated figures of the NJPS in concealing 80% of assimilation in the U.S. 'Jewish' community – no longer worthy of being called a community of Jews.

Even with an expanded definition – "anyone who considers him or herself Jewish" rather than born Jews as in past surveys – this 'Jewish' population has shrunk from 5.5 million born Jews to 5.2 million.whatevers "who considers him or herself Jewish." This means that the actual number of American Jews – i.e. Tōrâh-keeping American Jews – is a mere 1,071,200 (20.6% of 5.2 million).

Using the same criterion in both the 1990 and 2000 surveys, intermarriage increased. Using the 'born Jew' criterion, the 1990 survey showed a 52% rate of intermarriage compared to a 2000 rate of 54% (instead of 47% of the expanded criterion). Conversely, using the expanded criterion, the 1990 survey would have shown 43% (rather than 52%) compared with the 2000 rate of 47%.

As Jerusalem Post secular op-ed columnist, Yosef Goell, wrote (2003.09.15, p. 6), "A growing number of young Jews, successfully assimilated into America, are simply not buying what their elders have to offer in regard to the meaning of being Jewish, which means, by definition, different from mainstream America."

Goell then goes on to write his perspective. "The problem to my mind is that so much of the message the older generation is trying to transmit revolves around the more anient aspects of our history and heritage instead of instilling knowledge and pride in the more recent achievements of so many Jews worldwide. That and the insistence on defining Judaism by the more mumbo-jumbo aspects of religious ritual rather than on how to live ethically and successfully in a fast changing world."

However, Mr. Goell's perspective is contradicted by the grossly disproportionate of secular Jews who become estranged contrasted with the religious Jews.

The facts imply, rather, that modern educated and intelligent young secular Jews, having no access to religious Jews who have answers – and I have answers if no one else does, are turned off by their elders who demonstrate a complete failure to grasp of Judaism and ignorantly and blithely dismiss it as "mumbo-jumbo" and resort to well known logical fallacies in order to impose a false dilemma between "mumbo-jumbo aspects of religious ritual" and "how to live ethically and successfully in a fast changing world" – attempting to divorce Judaism from ethics and success in a fast changing world, in order to recast the latter as secular attributes. On the contrary, these are unalterably rooted in Tōrâh.

Typical of secularists, Mr. Goell sees the problem as sending young Jews to college where they may encounter questions rather than equipping young Jews with answers to those questions. Young Jews don't have to be Einsteins to recognize that Mr. Goell's "best solution" is a cop-out and conclude that the Jewish community has no worthwhile answers to offer.

Only when Jews become willing to overcome their laziness and fears to grapple with the difficult questions in life instead of hiding their heads in the sand will they become able to contribute to stemming the tide of assimilation among their offspring.

The American Jewish Identity Survey (AJIS) of 2001, conducted by the Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center of the City Univ. of New York (CUNY), yet again confirms the wildfire assimilation of American Jews. Assimilation was already runaway in 1990. Yet, the number of non-Jewish households who have assimilated a Jew into their family has increased from 3.2 million families in the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey to 3.7 million families in this 2001 CUNY poll, about 16% increase in assimilation since 1990.

Of the 5.5 million "adults who report themselves as either Jewish by religion or of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing," only 51% indicated their religion as Jewish.

"Perhaps the most striking finding in the current survey is that among adults of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing, nearly 1.4 million [25+%; Paqid Yirm^әyahu] self-identify with a non-Jewish religious group or profess a religion other than Judaism. That number is more than double the 625,000 persons reported by NJPS 1990." The number of Jews who identify themselves with Judaism ("Jewish by religion") is actually down from 1990.

Thus, around 25% are likely 'Messianics' – Christians. That compares with only 30% who were Reform, 24% who were Conservative, and 8% who were Orthodox. Note that we know of many Reform and some Conservatives who are actually "closet 'Messianics'." (The remainder listed Zionist, humanist, etc.) Thus, 'Messianics,' though actively ignored, are vying to predominate Conservatives and even Reform. They passed the Orthodox a long time ago.

AJIS 2001 found that the intermarriage rate is now 33%, up from 28% in NJPS 1990.

"'The findings of this survey suggest that the time is long overdue when those Jews who do not identify with the main religious streams of Judaism can be dismissed as if their numbers were insignificant or vestigial with the label 'just Jewish',' said Felix Posen of the Posen Foundation, which underwrote the survey."

The number of American Jews actually practicing Judaism is down to 440,000 (8% of 5.5 million).

No matter how you trim the figures to count viable American Jews, the American Jewish community is clearly no longer the largest Jewish community in the world. Israel is now the largest Jewish community in the world.

"Overall, the JPPPI said the future for Jewish growth looks bleak: 'Trends clearly move in the direction of decline.'"

But even this is a positive spin glossing over the harsh truth. "It's hard to escape the impression that we are people puffing out our chests and sucking in our guts in a vain and unsustainable attempt to hide our real state of health… we also happen to be disappearing as a people, which most would take as a sign of decay… look carefully in the JPPPI study and you'll find this: 'World Jewry faces a prolonged trend of stagnation and decline. Steady population growth in Israel is hampered by a decline in most Diaspora communities.'"

In fact, however, the decline, and gloss-over, is already discernible from as early as 1970. "The study's statistics show that in 1970 the number of American Jews stood at 5,686,000, while in 2003 there was a slight drop to 5,671,000." This is in contrast to the realization that "A growth rate of just one percent means a doubling every 72 years." In contrast to a growth rate, however, the Jewish community has suffered a decline rate that began way back in 1970 and has continued, unabated, since with no remedy in sight.

Except for the teachings of Ribi Yehoshua and the Netzarim, which reorients halakhah from dead-in-the-water medieval "tradition" to vibrant, dynamic and thriving halakhah harnessed to the historical truth of Torah interpreted according to logic and science.