CO-STAR Blog - Sharing insights about synagogue life

Karen Sobel, Call Synagogue Home Project Consultant, spent time this week reviewing the findings of the extensive Pew Study on Religion. Here are some of her thoughts.

Jewish demographers and all those committed to a vibrant future for the American Jewish community in the twenty-first century will need to pay close attention to the findings released this week in the Landscape Survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The findings confirm “the extent to which Americans are on the move religiously… (in) an incredibly dynamic religious market place,” said Luis Lugo, Pew Forum, Director.

As I cull the report through my Jewish lens, I find a mandate to continue to advocate an agenda of welcome and inclusiveness for the Jewish community. Notable to me is a picture of an unaffiliated population who by and large are not atheists. We must actively reach out to this group, regardless of marital status or the spouse’s religious affiliation if we are to stem the tide of declining Jewish affiliation.

Most fascinating is the finding that more than half (54%) of those who were not affiliated with any particular religion as a child now identify themselves as members of a religion. What this says to me is that a majority of people who were raised in a non-religious/unaffiliated setting will seek out a religion in the future. The opportunity for us today is to create a welcoming environment so they will choose or return to Judaism.

I offer a few notable statistics from the report and encourage you to view the full report at http://religions.pewforum.org.
• The percentage of those born Jewish is 1.9% of the total U.S. population. However, only 1.7% of adults identify as Jews, a net loss to our people of .2%.
• 28% of U.S. adults have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion or no religion at all.
• Among those ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion; the statistic is 16.1% among all adults. Thus, the unaffiliated comprise the fourth largest “religious” tradition in the United States.
• Within the unaffiliated population one-quarter identify as atheists. The remaining three-quarters describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” And yet, a full half of this group says that religion is somewhat or very important in their lives.
• Those movements that are growing are simply gaining new members at a faster rate than they are losing. Those that are declining in number because of religious change simply are not attracting enough new members to offset the number of adherents who are leaving.
• Jews tend to be older than other religious groups, with 51% aged 50 and older. The study found that 72% of Jewish homes have no children under age 18 living at home.

I look forward to hearing how you interpret the data and plan to respond to the suggested trends.

Karen Sobel
Call Synagogue Home