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Jewish Teen-agers in 80 Cities Polled on Inter-dating, Kashruth, Israel

March 10, 1961
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The majority of Jewish boys and girls in Conservative congregations in the United States and Canada are opposed to inter-dating, plan to keep kosher homes when they marry and do not approve of active attempts to convert non-Jews to Judaism.

These were some of the results in the first student opinion poll conducted by Our Age, the teen-age magazine of the United Synagogue of America Commission on Jewish Education. Over 2, 800 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 16, in 80 American cities and Canada, were questioned. While 70 percent expressed a desire to visit Israel, few planned to settle there permanently.

Although the majority of those sampled opposed inter-dating, boys had more liberal views on the subject than girls, 43 percent of the boys believing it proper for Jewish boys to date non-Jewish girls. On the question of kashruth, however, boys and girls joined in favor of keeping kosher homes after marriage.

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