H EADLINES
Pew Continued from Page 1
data,” he said.

Th at “aha!” moment came
to Cooperman, he said,
through the data showing the
“religious divergence” of the
Jewish population, particularly
among young Jewish adults.

Th e 2020 survey found that
younger Jews contain among
their ranks “both a higher share
who are Orthodox and a higher
share who are at the very low
end of the religiosity spectrum,”
Cooperman said. “If you are
familiar with the American-
Jewish community, you’ve seen
the growth in Orthodox neigh-
borhoods, communities across
the country. It’s not surprising,
but the survey does capture that.”
In fact, 17% of Jews 18-29
self-identify as Orthodox. At
the other end of the spectrum,
four in 10 Jewish adults under
30 describe themselves as
atheist, agnostic or “nothing in
particular,” but still identify as
Jewish for ethnic, cultural or
family reasons.

Overall, 27% of Jewish adults
who have a Jewish parent or were
raised Jewish do not identify
with Judaism as a religion, the
survey found; and younger Jews
identify with the religion at a
lesser rate than older Jews. While
60% of Jewish adults under 30
identifi ed as “Jewish by religion,”
that fi gure jumped to 84% for
Jews 65 and older. Likewise,
37% of Jews under 30 say they
are Conservative or Reform,
compared to 60% of those 65 and
older. Th ose numbers have not
changed signifi cantly since 2013.

Of the three most promi-
nent Jewish denominations,
the Conservative movement is
experiencing the most attrition.

While 67% of people raised
Orthodox are still Orthodox,
and 66% of those raised
Reform are still Reform, just 41
% of those raised Conservative
by religion still identify with
the Conservative movement as
adults. Most of those raised
Conservative (93%), however,
continue to identify as Jewish.

In general, Jews are less
religious than American adults
as a whole, Pew found. While
21% of Jews say religion is “very
important,” 41% of all U.S.

adults say the same. And only
12% of Jews attend services at
least once a week, compared to
27% of the general population.

Still, regardless of formal
affiliation or religiosity,
three-quarters of U.S. Jews say
that “being Jewish” is either
very or somewhat important to
them. Most Jews — 85% — say
they feel either “a great deal”
or “some” sense of belonging to
the Jewish people.

For Jews who rarely, or
never, attend synagogue
services, Pew asked what was
keeping them away. While
conventional wisdom has
suggested that many Jews do
not attend synagogue because
they don’t feel welcome or
because they cannot aff ord
the dues, the most common
reason — given by two-thirds
of the Jews surveyed — was
“I’m not religious,” and more
than half said they are “just
not interested” or they have
alternate ways to express their
Jewishness. “Part of what Pew is helping us
as a community to see is that the
problem is apathy,” said Michelle
Shain, assistant director of the
Center for Communal Research
at the Orthodox Union in a call
with media. “It’s not that people
see a closed door. Th ey see an
open door and they aren’t inter-
ested in walking through it.”
The lack of synagogue
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Jews by denominational entity
attendance may indicate
“religion is not central to the
lives of most U.S. Jews,” but
Jewish Americans are not, on
the whole, apathetic, countered
Arielle Levites, managing
director of the Collaborative
for Applied Studies in
Jewish Education at George
Washington University and a
Philadelphia resident.

“Being Jewish is important
to American Jews,” Levites said.

“Th ree-quarters of American
Jews are telling us that being
Jewish is important, but religion
is not important for them.”
Levites, who was on the Pew
study’s advisory panel, said
one number not in the report
was important: Only 2% of
Jews never participated in any
religious or cultural activities.

“Th at refl ects the durability
of the American Jewish story,”
she said.

Levites also noted that while
various numbers catch the eye,
they don’t tell the whole story.

And a big chunk of that story is
that Jews more than the popula-
tion at large are happy with their
families, health and social lives.

“We would see American Jews
as a whole are generally satisfi ed
with the contours of their lives,
and that’s not to be taken for
granted,” she said, noting that the
data was largely collected before
the pandemic, so it represents a
snapshot of early 2020 more so
than spring 2021.

Lindsay Weicher, manager
of data analytics for the
Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia, has worked on
Courtesy of Pew Research Center
the organization’s “Community
Portrait: A 2019 Jewish
Population Study” from its
inception – and continues to
analyze the data. She saw a lot of
similarities in the reports.

“Overall, a lot of the trends
we saw nationally are what we’re
seeing local,” she said. “Th at
was validating for us to hear.”
Intermarriage rates in 2020
are similar to those in 2013,
Cooperman said, showing
“some stability there that some
people may not have expected.”
While it appears that over the
long-term intermarriage rates
have risen, there is no evidence
in the survey “of any additional
rise between 2013 and 2020,” he
said. But, “absence of evidence
is not necessarily the same
thing as evidence of absence.

So these are estimates.”
Th ere is almost no inter-
marriage in the Orthodox
community, according to
the survey, which found only
2% of Orthodox Jews had a
non-Jewish spouse.

Among all Jewish respon-
dents married in the last 10
years, 60% said they have a
non-Jewish spouse, while just
18% of Jews married before
1980 have a non-Jewish spouse.

Weicher said the interfaith
marriage rates are a bit higher
locally than nationally.

Although intermarriage
rates have risen dramatically
since 1980, Jews under 50 with
just one Jewish parent are more
likely to describe themselves as
See Pew, Page 24
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Aliyah Continued from Page 1
with her husband and five
children, has her two oldest
children enrolled in boarding
schools to the south. They were
forced into bomb shelters the
first day of fighting, May 11, so
the family arranged rides for
them to return home the next
day. It’s uncertain when they’ll
be sent back.

That same day, Ben Shalom,
who owns a dating and relation-
ship coaching business, was in
Netanya for a work meeting
held on the beach, leaving only
a couple hours before the sirens
sounded. For Nemoff, who lives in
Candice Nemoff out on a date
Photos courtesy of Candice Nemoff
From left: Leah Cheirif, Aleeza Ben Shalom and Aviva Miller. All three
women are from Philadelphia originally and all made aliyah. Ben Shalom
started a dating coaching business called Marriage Minded Mentor, Cheirif
is a dating coach and Miller is the office manager. On May 11, the team held
its first in-person business meeting on the beach in Netanya — hours before
the sirens sounded.
Courtesy of Aleeza Ben Shalom
“It’s been a tremendous transition. It’s been one of the hardest things
I’ve had to do. Child birth may be easier than this — and I have five
children.” the United States.

That was part of Nemoff’s
recruiting pitch for other U.S.

residents to join her, and interest
in making aliyah apparently
remains high.

Nefesh B’Nefesh,
an organization that facilitates
immigration to Israel by North
Americans in conjunction with
The Jewish Agency for Israel,
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and
Candice Nemoff and her sister
Allison — who made aliyah in
December 2018 and is in the Israel
Defense Forces Lone Soldier
program —- at the Haifa beach
JNF-USA, said that Israel could
expect 90,000 olim by the
end of 2021, compared to just
35,463 in 2019, JTA reported
in June.

“I’m really happy with
making aliyah,” Nemoff. “I
hope everyone who wants to
do so is able.” l
agotlieb@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0797
ALEEZA BEN SHALOM
Netanya, the sirens have only
sounded three times. While
she had visited Israel many
times before, she had never
heard the sirens.

“It sounds like a tornado
siren — but Israel doesn’t have
tornadoes,” she said.

Both Nemoff and Ben
Shalom said the Israelis take
the uncertainty in stride.

“The way the Israelis work,
when things are quiet, there’s
normal life,” Ben Shalom said,
noting that public sentiment
seems to be that a cease-
fire is likely soon. “When
something’s going on, they
adapt. ... In America, people
would probably be freaking
out.” “Everyone just gathers in the
bottom of the staircase” when
the sirens sound, Nemoff said.

“For the most part, everyone
was calm and chatty.”
While neither woman regrets
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM the decision to make aliyah, they
noted that things aren’t always
easy, in part because of pandem-
ic-mandated requirements.

“It’s been a tremendous
transition,” Ben Shalom said.

“It’s been one of the hardest
things I’ve had to do. Child birth
may be easier than this — and I
have five children.”
Aside from a mandatory
two weeks of quarantining, the
Ben Shalom family had to find
a new rental house when their
initial plans fell through.

Nemoff, who’s been in Israel
for eight months, noted that
it’s taken a while to get used to
nearly everything being closed
on Shabbat. With buses not
running, it can be hard to get
around. Still, both said they’re
adapting and feel welcomed by
Israelis. “Everyone celebrates all
the holidays together,” Nemoff
said, detailing a May 16
Shavuot barbecue she attended
with her boyfriend’s family.

“That’s the community I was
searching for.”
Nemoff is working remotely
for a company that teaches
English and makes worksheets
used in teaching the language.

She hopes to be teaching
English herself soon, all while
she’s taking Hebrew instruc-
tion part time.

That fact that Israeli society
is opening up since the country
has vaccinated so many
residents helps. Both are fully
vaccinated and have “green
passports” that allow them to
sit inside at restaurants, among
other privileges.

“Corona’s been hard, but
it’s been hard everywhere,”
Nemoff said.

Technology also is valuable,
making it easy to stay in
touch with loved ones back in
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