Contemporary Jewish Demography

Publication Date: January 1992

Publisher: B'nai B'rith International

Author(s): Sidney Goldstein

Research Area: Culture and religion; Population and demographics

Keywords: American Jews; Demography

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

In combination, the current patterns of low fertility, high levels of intermarriage, lowered residential density, and changing composition can potentially weaken the demographic base of the American Jewish population. This need not be so. To the extent that Jews retain a comparable close-knit, ethnic-religious identification within the total society, the potential for continued vitality remains. Stability of numbers or even declining numbers need not constitute a fundamental threat to the maintenance of a strong Jewish community and to high levels of individual Jewish identity, providing appropriate and successful institutional changes are introduced.