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Friday November 20, 1998

Charting future of Jewish community: Demographer: Intermarriage a false crisis

LAUREL ROSEN
Bulletin Correspondent

The Jewish community has created the false "crisis" of intermarriage as a rallying point, in the absence of other external threats, said Gary Tobin, director of the new Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco.

The real problem, he told members of the Jewish Community Relations Council on Sunday, is not a shrinking Jewish population, but a loss of meaning in what it is to be Jewish.

"It's not that they marry non-Jews that's the issue, it's what they carry into the union. And what they carry into the union is largely ignorance, indifference, or preoccupation with something else."

Tobin, a demographer, sociologist and former Brandeis University professor, delivered the keynote address at the JCRC's first all-county conference, held Sunday at San Francisco State University. About 100 people attended.

In a speech titled "What Will Our Jewish Community Look Like in 20 Years and What Are the Implications for Our Work?" Tobin said Jews have essentially won their major 20th-century battles: constraining overt anti-Semitism, rescuing Jews in jeopardy, and creating a secure Israel.

As a result, "we are confused about who and what we want to be. And so, we did what comes naturally to us, we created a crisis -- the intermarriage crisis. We have turned the pinnacle of our success into the next crisis."

He also said that a low birth rate, a resistance to welcoming Jewish converts, and Judaism's lack of appeal in today's "marketplace of religion" are also major contributors to a shrinking Jewish population.

In order to reverse the decline, Tobin advocated investing money in adoption and conversion, as well as rethinking Jewish education, which he called "mediocre at best," building stronger cultural institutions, and a more candid examination of anti-Semitism among Jews.

He characterized two divergent paths the Jewish community has taken. On the one hand, he said, Jews are obsessed with the "doom and gloom" of a diminishing people, who are "moving beyond integration into assimilation oblivion...Jews are on the verge, through intermarriage, of assimilating out of existence."

Yet at the same time, Tobin sees a wave of "vibrancy at the grassroots" level, with meditation centers, a surge in cultural arts, and new directions in Jewish thought and worship.

"I believe that the organizational and institutional structure, for the most part, has not responded to the changes that are going on at the grassroots levels of American Jewish life. The reality is that most American Jews are primarily detached from most Jewish organizations and institutions," he said to an attentive, if disagreeing, audience.

Responding to Tobin's address, Rabbi Doug Kahn, the JCRC's executive director, examined the ironies and challenges he sees developing in the culture of American Judaism. "American Jews increasingly see the world more through the eyes of the majority than the minority," he said.

He also emphasized the importance of strengthening intragroup relations, "particularly around religious issues which [are] increasingly polarizing our community," as well as the need to re-examine cross-cultural relations.

While Asian and Hispanic populations explode in California, Jews, he said, continue to focus on their interaction with African-Americans.

Kahn also emphasized that Jewish summer camp is the "most positive Jewish experience" for young people. He noted that many current leaders of the Jewish community learned their skills and developed their devotion to Judaism at Jewish summer camps.

That comment, along with Tobin's suggestion of "investing" in adoption, conversion, education and culture, stimulated fiery response from the audience.

One member criticized the agenda, saying, "Why should we recruit new Jews when we can't take care of what we already have?" She mentioned that many families can't send their children to Jewish preschools, day schools and summer camps or place their parents in Jewish nursing homes because they cost more than other programs.

Tobin responded: "It's not that resources are keeping us from fulfilling our vision. Our lack of vision is keeping us from mustering the resources we need to create it."

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