The Jewish Community Study of Greater Milwaukee 2011 continues to provide a trove of information to the Milwaukee Jewish community.
Its data will enhance allocation decisions and programming choices, and suggest many ideas for agencies, synagogues, schools, and even individuals to pursue.
Lead researcher Dr. Stephen Percy, now at the University of Baltimore, recently provided some fascinating figures about marriage and intermarriage in our community. Close analysis of these numbers, especially in the context of a recent report on the Jewish Data Bank website, which compares intermarriage figures throughout the country, is revealing.
We initially released figures that indicated that 66 percent of the individuals in our population of just over 30,000 were married or partnered. The Pew Foundation recently reported that the national figure (Jews and non-Jews) is 51 percent.
Our Jewish marriage rate is comparable to other cities of our size, somewhat lower than New Haven and Cincinnati, about the same as Pittsburgh and Minneapolis-St. Paul, but higher than Tucson and Seattle.
We were able to look more closely at the marriage rate of individuals by age. In Milwaukee’s Jewish community, among 30-49 year-olds, more than 78 percent are married or partnered, as are 85 percent in the 50-69 age categories. The percentage drops predictably as the community ages: 65 percent of those 70 and over are married.
Younger respondents, ages 18-29 only account for 7.2 percent of the Jewish couples in our area. That’s a rather startling contrast. Consider, however, that most individuals in that age group are completing their educations; and according the U.S. Census, adults are marrying for the first time at the average ages of 28 (women) and 29 (men).
Respondents were asked if any adult family members were gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered. Survey results indicated that 1.7 percent responded affirmatively.
This may be an undercount, as people are still reluctant to disclose LGBT status or may be unaware of family member status. The national rate is said to be approximately 4 percent, according to a 2012 study by the Williams Institute of the University of California School of Law.
It is also possible that Milwaukee may be less attractive to the LGBT community than other metropolitan areas, and that our results are accurate. Very few Jewish population studies, to my knowledge, have asked this question at all.
In related articles about the community study, we noted that the number of young adults (30-39) and children (0-18) was disproportionally low in Greater Milwaukee compared to other communities.
For the future health of the community, encouraging young adults to find satisfying employment and fulfilling personal relationships must be a priority in order to balance these numbers.
Intermarriage and its effect on Jewish continuity have long been concerns as population studies have measured the growth of this trend over the years. This is a controversial subject, with many unclear points.
What is an intermarriage rate? Are we discussing intermarried individuals or intermarried couples? It is crucial to know how the numbers are measured.
In the Milwaukee telephone survey, 57 percent of our households (meaning two people living at the number called) are currently married or partnered. Of those, 23 percent said that in their individual households, one spouse or partner is not Jewish.
Not counted in these figures are those widowed or divorced who may or may not have been married to non-Jews.
Just over 60 percent of the intermarried couples live on the North Shore, with more than 20 percent in the Milwaukee County Ring, 10.1 percent in the City of Milwaukee and almost 9 percent in Waukesha.
(The national rates found in the 2001 National Jewish Population Study were that 48 percent of married couples involving a Jewish person were intermarried, while 31 percent of married Jewish individuals are intermarried.)
The intermarried respondents in the telephone survey were compared with respondents in marriages where both partners are Jewish through questions about both Jewish practices (e.g., synagogue attendance, membership, mezuzah, lighting Chanukah candles, keeping kosher) and feelings about being Jewish (e.g., importance, having Jewish friends, importance of Israel, feeling included in the local community).
Not surprisingly, those in intermarried relationships have lower percentages when it comes to practices, connection, and inclusion. (Specific numbers are available on the Milwaukee Jewish Federation website at http://www.milwaukeejewish.org/local_includes/downloads/57443.pdf.)
In our survey, we asked intermarried respondents if there were children in the household, and if there were, in what religion was the child being raised. Four choices were offered: Jewish; Jewish and another religion; another religion; and no religion.
Some 60 percent of those with children said that their children were being raised exclusively Jewish, which is a very high number compared to other cities. In fact, when Boston had similar numbers in 2006, that community credited its outreach programs, but social scientists subsequently questioned the survey methodology because it didn’t offer a sufficient array of options to respondents on how children were being raised.
Our survey does offer clear choices, and with 60 percent choosing Judaism for their children, and another 21 percent saying that they are raising their children using elements of both parents’ religious traditions, it would seem that our community has both challenges and opportunities regarding the children of intermarried couples.
This brings us to the essential question: Who is a Jew? Jews were defined by matrilineal descent until the last half of the 20th century, when the Reform and Reconstructionist movements ruled that patrilineal descent was also acceptable. Orthodox and Conservative Jews maintain the traditional definition.
Intermarried couples and their offspring may not be accepted in the synagogues and schools of their childhoods for that reason. This may lead to the feelings of exclusion noted in our survey. Our community has a high number of people identifying as Jewish, raising their children Jewish, yet not feeling connected or included.
The majority of intermarried couples live in the core population area, where our community has synagogue outreach efforts, preschools, and educational institutions, all sensitive to this issue. There are also individual counselors and rabbis.
As we usher in 5774, there are resources in place to enrich our Jewish community by including those who would like to be included.
Jane A. Avner, Ph.D., is the community study consultant for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
Loading ...