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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu |
2001.11.11 – 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+%; obviously Christians, an ID the survey preferred not to report – PY] 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% whom surveys identify as Jews are actually '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' – Christian Jews – though aggressively concealed in these surveys, already predominate Conservatives and perhaps 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.
The complete report is accessible at www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/studies-index.htm
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