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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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