ZGram - 11/30/2002 - "Controversy clouds study of American Jews"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Sat, 30 Nov 2002 18:39:12 -0800


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

November 30, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

As I was reading the article below, two thoughts came to mind:

1.  It must be tough to be a Jew these days!  One more self-inflicted 
disaster.  They must be coming apart at the seams!

2.  Much more importantly:  That there exists a North American Jewish 
Databank will be a welcome surprise to some and a very scary thought 
to others.  No wonder that certain data have been "lost" - or were 
never compiled to begin with.  It's also no surprise that there is 
now unwillingness to participate in such polls.

This is a story to be watched!

[START]

Friday, November 29, 2002

Controversy clouds study of American Jews

Survey was to reveal health of the religion, but results are being withheld
for reasons that no one will fully explain.

By RACHEL ZOLL  | The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - It was supposed to be an important moment in American Judaism.

Jewish leaders from around the country had booked themselves into a posh
hotel near Philadelphia's historic district for the week before Hanukkah,
expecting to hear results of a $6 million, years-long study of U.S. Jews.

The findings could be critical, shaping how tens of millions of dollars
will be spent to keep Judaism alive in the United States at a time when
many Jews are marrying outside the faith.

Then, just before its release, the report was withheld.

The survey's technical advisers now are in a bitter public fight with the
nonprofit agency directing the project, and critics are wondering if the
group is trying to bury bad news.

The agency, United Jewish Communities, insists its National Jewish
Population Survey is on track and will be made public - although, it won't
say when.

"There's no smoking gun here," said Stephen Hoffman, the agency president.
"Based upon what I've been told, the study is fundamentally sound."

But some say the delay has undermined the credibility of the report even
before it comes out.

"They've inflicted a major blow to themselves," said Egon Mayer, academic
director of the North American Jewish Data Bank and a technical adviser for
the study. "It boggles my mind."

The survey tracks key trends, including intermarriage, links to Israel and
observances of religious rituals. The report is perhaps best known for its
1990 finding that 52 percent of Jews marry non-Jews.

The 2000 study originally was supposed to have been released more than a
year ago, but researchers said it was hard to find people willing to
participate. The date was pushed back, and speculation continued to grow
that the survey was in trouble.

Some preliminary results were released last month, including a finding that
the U.S. Jewish population had dropped over the past decade, from 5.5
million to 5.2 million.

Then, a week before the United Jewish Communities General Assembly and
announcement of the remaining results, an angry Hoffman said he had learned
that "critical data" had been lost and he was postponing the release until
he could assess the damage.

He said the information apparently had gone missing two years ago in the
offices of Roper ASW, the firm that conducted the fieldwork, but Hoffman
had only just been told.

Vivian Klaff, one of the top technical advisers, accused Hoffman of
overreacting and insisted the data was not critical.

Klaff said the missing information was coded material that had been
collected to see if someone qualified to participate in the survey. Just a
portion of that data was gone, and adjustments could be made to compensate
for the loss, he said. The respondents' answers to questions remain intact.


Klaff said he sent Hoffman a letter saying "please, don't do this," and
asking him to release the report on schedule. But Hoffman said he had lost
confidence in the leadership of the technical team. He has appointed a task
force to investigate.

Roper ASW won't discuss the mishap, but the battle between Hoffman and his
advisers and the last-minute delay raised suspicions at the assembly last
week that the missing data was the least of the study's problems.

"I'm hearing people asking, 'What's really going on?' " said Eva
Goldfinger, as she worked a booth for the International Federation for
Secular Humanist Jews, which has criticized the survey for too narrowly
defining who is a Jew. "Why did they suddenly hold it back? Did they not
like the results?"

Hoffman denies that. But Barry Kosmin, who led the 1990 study, said United
Jewish Communities left itself vulnerable to such claims by not asking an
independent, academic institution to conduct the survey.

Hoffman's agency raises and distributes millions of dollars for Jewish
community work, and there are interest groups inside and outside the
nonprofit whose funding depends on the outcome of the study, Kosmin said.

That puts the agency in the middle of an intense debate among Jewish
leaders over whether money is better spent to reach out to Jews on the
fringes of religious life - or strengthen links with those already active.

"I'm not suggesting any conspiracies," said Kosmin, director of the
Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London. "I'm saying if you did it
at arms length, it would be less likely that anyone would say that the
leadership would use it to justify what they're doing."

Mayer said all doubts will be put to rest when the agency releases the data
so demographers can use the information to develop their own independent
reports.

Until then, speculation surrounding the survey will persist - something
Hoffman said he can live with because he's confident he did the right
thing.

"I felt there were questions that needed to be explained better that we
couldn't explain on short notice," Hoffman said. "In the world I live in,
these kinds of questions can undermine not just the survey, but the
credibility of management."

[END}