Marin County study finds low Jewish activity

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 12 — Jews in Marin County are snubbing organized religious institutions and practices with a vengeance, according to a new study of religious beliefs in the Bay Area suburbs north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The recently released survey found Marin’s Jews – compared with Protestants and Catholics – have the lowest rate of attendance at services and are less likely to pray or give their children a religious education. Nonetheless, more than half of the Jewish respondents consider themselves “spiritual but not religious.” And this isn’t simply a matter of the unconventional attitudes of a place known for hot tubs, spiritual quests and being the home of ex-Taliban foot soldier John Walker Lindh, according to Gary Tobin, one of the authors of the report. “This is not quirky, unusual, strange Marin,” said Tobin, president of the S.F.-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research, which conducted the study funded by the Marin Community Foundation. The report is titled “Religious & Spiritual Change in America: The Experience of Marin County, California.” The findings concerning the Jewish population drew both criticism and nods of concurrence from local Jewish leaders. The study questioned 604 residents of all faiths in the spring of 2000 on a wide range of religious beliefs. Calling Marin “a great laboratory for religious change and diversity,” Tobin said: “It’s our belief that what you see in Marin are religious trends that you’ll see increasingly throughout the country. I think Marin is leading the way of the Bay Area, which is leading the way of the country.” But Rabbi Michael Barenbaum, spiritual leader of Reform Congregation Rodef Sholom, said, “Obviously, it’s not my experience.” The San Rafael congregation has been growing steadily to its current membership of 1,150 households and, he added, “I’m very proud of what we do.” At Tiburon’s Conservative Congregation Kol Shofar, however, Rabbi Lavey Derby thought the results rang somewhat true of the attitudes held by unaffiliated Jews. “I find it painful,” he said. Tobin, who hopes this spring to conduct a similar survey of beliefs of Jews nationwide, considers the latest findings a call to action for the organized Jewish community to reach out to its members in new ways. “When people vote with their feet, it has as much to do with institutional structure as the people themselves,” he said. As for the people themselves, Tobin noted that “Jews have a long tradition of questioning, doubting and struggling with their beliefs.” Maybe so, but Barenbaum doesn’t consider the findings alarming or evidence of mass rebellion by local Jews. “Marin is really a spiritual-seeking place and has a lot of ‘oh wow’ people in it,” said the rabbi. “I don’t think it’s a failure at all. “When I first got here, there were a lot of Jewish Rajneeshes” ‹ followers of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh . Rabbi Stephen Pearce of Reform Congregation Emanu-El, whose San Francisco synagogue is expanding services into Marin, wasn’t phased by the results either. “It doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “It’s always been that way. Jews are highly individual in their worship practices and spiritual practices.” His 1,950-member congregation, which has 250 Marin households, is weighing the idea of purchasing a site there. The Marin survey found that 13 percent of the respondents identified as Jews ‹ more than six times the national figure of 2 percent. As a rough estimate, Tobin said that translates into about 28,000 Jews living in Marin, which had an overall population in 2001 of 247,000. Nonetheless, Jews were among the least likely to engage in organized practice of their religion ‹ a finding, the report notes, that is consistent with previous evidence that “Jews in America have traditionally attended services at significantly lower rates than Protestants and Catholics.” While 7 percent of Marin’s Protestants and Catholics reported that they never attended services, the figure among Jews was double. The only other groups with a higher non-attendance rate were adherents to what the survey listed as “other” religions, which had a 27 percent non-attendance rate, and people with no religious preference, 53 percent of whom never attend services. The survey also found that 19 percent of the Jews questioned attended services once a month or more. That compares with 38 percent for all respondents and 60 percent nationally among all religious groups. One reason for low attendance may be reflected in a response to a question dealing with satisfaction with one’s religion. Marin County as a whole matched the nation in dissatisfaction, with 39 percent of respondents concurring with the statement: “There are many things in my religion that I do not agree with.” Broken down, the Marin County response was 34 percent from Protestants, 45 percent from Catholics, 24 percent from adherents of other religions and a whopping 61 percent from Jewish respondents. “There may be, especially for ethnic Jews, too many rules and maybe they didn’t like their religious education too much,” said Tobin. “This is questioning authority, questioning institutional structure.” Emanu-El’s Pearce, when told of the level of dissatisfaction, was philosophical. “Jews are very highly opinionated people. They have something to say about everything.” When it came to prayer, half of all Marin respondents said they prayed frequently, compared with just 26 percent of Jews. Jews were roughly three times as likely as Protestants and Catholics to use meditative or reflective methods of prayer, the study found. This probably reflects a large number of Marin Jews who “identify themselves ‘Jew-Bu’s,’” the study notes, referring to Jews with an affinity for Buddhist philosophy. As for education, Jewish parents in Marin are giving their children a religious education at lower rates than Protestants or Catholics. While 79 percent of Jews said they received some kind of religious education themselves, just 54 percent said they were providing religious training to their children. Those figures match Marin County’s overall totals but are lower than the rates among Protestant and Catholic parents, 72 percent of whom are giving religious education to their youngsters. Summarizing the findings, Tobin said: “Jews were right down there at the bottom with people who had no religion in saying how important religion is in their life. “There’s some missing piece to this puzzle.” Barenbaum agreed that “we’re certainly not reaching everybody. There are always ways to improve and innovate and to make the synagogue more important in people’s lives.” He and fellow rabbis said they are already working to reach out to the broader community. Barenbaum cited a local Mitzvah Day project that draws about 1,000 people annually. At Kol Shofar, Derby stressed that the survey doesn’t describe the “vibrant Jewish life” celebrated by hundreds of Marin families actively involved at his synagogue and other Jewish institutions. But Derby, who said he is working with Tobin on an unrelated project, agreed that “the vast majority [of Jews] are not connected.” He noted that Marin’s meditation centers are spiritual magnets to many members of the local Jewish community. The survey, in fact, reported that 54 percent of Marin’s Jews consider themselves “spiritual but not religious.” In response, Derby said that many Jews “don’t understand that Judaism is one of the most sophisticated spiritual paths available to any human being. Judaism is not my father’s Oldsmobile.” On another question, 100 percent of Jewish respondents agreed that “A person can be good and ethical without believing in God.” That compares with a 74 percent figure nationwide and a 96 percent agreement rate in Marin County as a whole. Tobin maintains that many of the findings should encourage Jewish leaders, because even though many do not attend services regularly, they do identify as Jewish and consider themselves spiritual. “All of those point to tremendous opportunity for the Jewish community and it would be wrong to call these people bad Jews.” For instance, while half of all Jews reported that they never read religious Scripture, the survey notes that 86 percent of Jews attend services at least once a year, mostly on the High Holy Days, when they would be exposed to the chanting of the Torah. Jews are also tolerant of other religions, with 85 percent of Jewish respondents believing that “other religions provide equally good paths to reaching God.” That was, by a small margin, the highest figure of any group studied. Marin Jews also led other groups in their 96 percent rate of charitable giving. Tobin drew critical attention in October, when he released a national survey maintaining that America has 1.5 million more Jews than a broader National Jewish Population Survey that estimated the number at 5.2 million. Of his latest survey, he suggested, “It may be that there are just not appropriate vehicles and venues to express” their Judaism. Given the response to Tobin’s national survey, Maxine Epstein, the Marin director of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, said, “I would question always Gary’s methodology.” Though she hadn’t read the Marin study, she added, “In terms of people not wanting to belong [to Jewish institutions], I would question that.” Meanwhile, Tobin encourages Jewish leaders to seek different approaches, such as emphasizing Jewish culture and social action, to attract Jews whose “affiliation and participation are a mile wide and an inch deep.”