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29 Kislev 5764 - December 24, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Half of US Jews in College Have Only One Jewish Parent
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Nearly half of all US college students who identify as Jews have only one Jewish parent and, thanks to intermarriage, assimilation and low birth rates, the number of college-age Jews will shrink by four percent over the next five years, according to new statistics. The figures apply to those in college and not to all those of college age, such as those learning in yeshiva.

The latest calculations of the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), released at Hillel's annual staff conference in Princeton, New Jersey, found lower levels of religious affiliation among college students compared to the general US Jewish population, decreased levels of involvement in Jewish organizations, and a lower likelihood of having visited Israel.

In the first major study to show the effects of intermarriage on today's Jewish youth, the survey found that just 48 percent of Jewish college students have two Jewish parents, compared to 45 percent with one Jewish parent and 7 percent with no Jewish parents.

Among students with one Jewish parent, 46 percent defined themselves as Reform, 16 percent Conservative, 1 percent Orthodox, and the remaining 48 percent said they were secular, "just Jewish," or other.

The NJPS found a 47 percent intermarriage rate for the general Jewish population, up from 43 percent a decade earlier, and the new statistics reveal a continuing trend in intermarriage.

 

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