Thursday, January 30, 2014

Pew and Jew @ A Taste of Honey

The Recent Survey and What It Means: Abq Jew doesn't say this too often, but:

Let's get serious. 

Abq Jew has humorously covered The Pew Research Center's recently published A Portrait of Jewish Americans (see Laughing at Pew and Laughing at Pew 2). 

But the Portrait has serious implications for Jewish life - in all of North America, and certainly here in New Mexico.


The Pew Research Center tells us:
Jews tend to be less religious than the U.S. public as a whole, with fewer saying they attend religious services weekly, believe in God with absolute certainty, or that religion is very important in their lives. 
The Pew Research Center’s landmark new survey of American Jews found that overall, about six-in-ten (62%) say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and/or culture, while just 15% say it’s mainly a matter of religion. (The rest cited some combination of religion, ancestry and/or culture.)
Is that enough to keep the Jewish enterprise in business?

Sam Sokolove, Steve Barberio, Rabbi Min Kantrowitz, and Sara Koplik present their views of what what the Pew survey means for New Mexijews. These presenters say:
The Pew Research Center’s survey on U.S. Jews — the first comprehensive portrait of American Jewry in more than a decade – reveals: 
31 percent of Jewish adults affiliate with  a synagogue; one-third of Jews under age 32 don’t identify as Jewish by religion; U.S.  Jews are intermarrying at a rate of 60%; and that most intermarried Jews are not raising their kids as Jews. 
This conversation with “frontline” community leaders will examine the implications of these national trends in Jewish New Mexico, and what is being done locall  to address shifting issues of Jewish identity and affiliation. 


If this fascinating topic is simply not your cup of tea ....
A Taste of Honey has 19 more very interesting classes to choose from ....
Plus author Judith Fein!


See you at

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