Study Shows Jewish Identity Still Strong Among Children of Interfaith Families

July 12, 2005

Source: Haaretz

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/598766.html

On July 12, 2005 Haaretz reported, "Advocates of outreach to interfaith couples are touting a new survey, which they say upends previous arguments against efforts to reach out to the children of mixed marriages. The survey, released recently by the Jewish Outreach Institute, found that young adult children of intermarried couples maintained strong cultural ties to the Jewish community, despite low levels of religious identification. The poll, titled 'A Flame Still Burns: The Dimensions and Determinants of Jewish Identity Among Young Adult Children of the Intermarried,' was based on 90 in-depth interviews with young adults, ages 22 to 30, living in Boston, Chicago or San Francisco. Although only 30 percent of the respondents considered themselves 'Jewish' by religion, almost 70 percent affirmed that 'being Jewish' is either 'somewhat' or 'very' important to them, and 78 percent expressed a desire to 'transmit a Jewish ethnic identity to their children.'"