(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
About 12,000 Jews in Vienna abandoned Judaism to be converted to other faiths, during the period 1911-1923, according to figures made known here today.
The figures were compiled by Dr. Goldhammer, a Viennese statistician. According to these figures, 9,550 Jews were converted to other faiths during that period. As this figure does not include children under seven years of age, it was estimated that the figure approaches 12,000. Forty-eight percent of the converts adopted Catholicism, and twenty-five percent Lutheranism. Seventy-five percent of the converts were of a marriageable age and belonged to the intellectual class. In recent years, the majority of those who left Judaism remained “confessionslos” (without religious affiliation).
During the same period, 2,239 persons entered Judaism, including many former Jews who had left Judaism to accept other faiths. Seventy-five percent of those who entered Judaism are proselytes, including many women.
Rabbi Harry Bloch of the Congregation Talmud Torah Beth Israel, died suddenly Wednesday morning of heart disease while conducting a service in the synagogue at 206 East 118th Street. Rabbi Bloch was 61 years old.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
