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Study: Jewish identity formed by education
DEBRA N. COHEN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - Jewish identity among young people "can be formed by intensive Jewish education" in any form, a recent study shows.
The study released last week was conducted by sociologist Steven Cohen for Young Judaea, the Zionist youth movement of Hadassah - the Women's Zionist Organization of America. In his survey of Young Judaea alumni, Cohen compared their responses to those in a similar study of several age groups, which he conducted for the Jewish Community Centers Association.
Young Judaea alumni are inherently more likely to be highly engaged with Jewish life than are the statistically average Jews who responded to the JCCA survey. They generally come from Conservative movement-affiliated homes in which a strong Zionist bent prompts them to seek an ideologically based youth group.
These are among the findings of the telephone survey of 603 alumni of Young Judaea programs - youth clubs, summer camps and trips to Israel for high school and college students:
Sixty-one percent regularly engage in Jewish learning, compared to just 27 percent of those in the general Jewish population.
Fifty-nine percent light Shabbat candles, as opposed to 24 percent in the general Jewish population.
Seventy-nine percent of the alumni belong to a synagogue, compared with less than half of those in the general Jewish population.
The JCCA analysis focuses more intensively on measures of ethnic identification. When asked if they feel a special responsibility to take care of Jews in need around the world, 39 percent said no and 47 percent said yes in the JCCA study. Only 9 percent agreed strongly that they have that responsibility.
In contrast, the Young Judaea alumni evinced a much stronger sense of Jewishness. Almost all - 93 percent - said they felt a special responsibility to take care of Jews in need. They also demonstrated higher levels of community involvement and Jewish philanthropy, greater commitment to Jewish education for their children and a tendency to have close Jewish friends, as well as a stronger connection to Israel.
When it comes to marriage, Young Judaea alumni are much more likely to marry other Jews - in this study, 95 percent of married alumni did - than are Jews in general, as reflected in the JCCA study, in which just 77 percent of respondents married Jews.
JTA staff writer Julia Goldman contributed to this report.
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