Outreach to the Marginally Affiliated: Evidence and Implications for Policymakers in Jewish Education

Publication Date: January 1985

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Steven M. Cohen

Research Area: Culture and religion; Politics

Keywords: American Jews; Jewish Identification; Jewish Outreach

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This article critiques the mindset that sees unaffiliated Jews as the main target for outreach, as well as contemporary modes of outreach that depend on fear to mobilize Jewish identity. The author argues that Jews as arrayed on a continuum ranging from high to low levels of involvement, better characterized as "highly involved," the "marginally affiliated" (or those whom some educators call the "semi-committed"), and the "unaffiliated."

The marginally affiliated comprise the vast majority of American Jews, and their numbers have been holding steady. Because they are affiliated, they are already located and rather economical to reach. Jewish activity associated with the calendar, the life cycle, and certain historical moments suggest these times as entry points for outreach and education. Additionally, the individualism and voluntary nature of American Jewish society suggest that presenting Jewish involvement as a moral imperative, in the context of a 'politics of fear' that refers to fears of anti-Semitism, Israel's destruction, the destruction of the Jewish community through intermarriage, etc, can be alienating rather than mobilizing.

No one, and, not least, extraordinarily successful American Jews, are eager to be associated with losing or impossible causes. Rather, a politics of hope offers a practical alternative to the politics of fear. Policymakers ought to see their task as elevating the Jewish identity of American Jews rather than trying to hold back the ostensibly advancing tide of assimilation.

In Journal of Jewish Communal Service, 1985, p.147-157.