Jewish Survival: The Demographic Factors

Publication Date: January 1981

Publisher: American Jewish Committee

Author(s): Uziel O. Schmelz

Research Area: Culture and religion; Population and demographics

Keywords: Demography; Jewish Identification; Marriage Patterns; Jewish Continuity

Type: Report

Abstract:

The author reviews some features of the demographic situation of world Jewry - its recent evolution, present state, and future prospects. Emphasis is placed on the factors affecting Jewish population size. While the approach is demographic, the social and economic structure of the Jews is obviously very important in this context. Alienation, out-marriage, and low levels of fertility, are by their very nature closely linked to the study of the social psychology of modern Jews. The author finds that the demographic situation, trends, and prospects of Jews in the Diaspora and Israel differ markedly, as do the amount and quality of the data available for each. He therefore considers separately each of these major components of world Jewry.

In American Jewish Yearbook 1981, pp. 61-117.