Changing Perceptions of Divorce

Publication Date: January 1994

Publisher: Conference of Jewish Communal Service (U.S.)

Author(s): Steven Bayme

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: American Jews; Marriage; Family

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Contemporary culture has moved the stigma from divorce, but has failed to replace it with a bias in favor of marriage. Public policy and the media should be reoriented to strengthen marriage; programs should be created to train young people for marriage and to convey realistic expectations of what makes marriage work. The Jewish community must participate in the broader societal debate on marriage and family, communicating its preference for the two-parent form and upholding the family as the antidote to unbrilled individualism.