Stats on Conservative Jews

Here are a few highlights from the Conservative movement’s new study of its members’ attitudes and practices:

Intermarriage

Few Conservative synagogue members — 6 percent — are intermarried, which is twice the percentage of Orthodox synagogue members and about one-third of Reform synagogue members.

Among Conservative Jews who do not belong to a synagogue, 36 percent are intermarried, as are 17 percent of people who identify as Orthodox and 49 percent who identify as Reform.

Interfaith families account for less than 5 percent of membership in 77 percent of Conservative congregations. In 11 percent of the synagogues, more than 10 percent of members are interfaith families.

Twenty-one percent of Conservative synagogues offer programming designed for interfaith families.

Participation

Nearly half — 45 percent — of Conservative synagogue members are adults with children living at home. Just 6 percent are single people younger age 45.

Forty percent of Conservative Jews who do not belong to a synagogue also do not attend a Passover seder.

Conservative synagogue members are likely to be slightly higher in socioeconomic status than non-members who describe themselves as Conservative.

Nearly half a million people who identify as Conservative — 492,000 — were once Orthodox. They tend to be older people.

Almost as many people — 429,000 — who were once Conservative now identify themselves as Reform. They tend to be young families.

Nearly four times as many Conservative Jews have become “non-Jewish” — 107,000 — as the number of non-Jews who have become Conservative Jews — 28,000.

Attitudes of B’nai Mitzvah

Ninety-three percent of Conservative B’nai Mitzvah teens said they have never been ashamed of being Jewish.

One-third of current Conservative youth attending day school say that it is very important to keep a kosher home.

Three-quarters of B’nai Mitzvah teens would like to be able to speak conversational Hebrew.

A majority of Bat Mitzvah age girls — 57 percent — say they feel close to other Jews, while only 43 percent of Bar Mitzvah boys say the same thing.

Regional Differences

Nearly every Conservative synagogue in the West — 96 percent — count women in a minyan, while only 42 percent of Canadian congregations do.

Forty-two percent of congregations in the West use an organ or other musical instrument during Shabbat services, while just 15 percent of Conservative synagogues in the Northeast do.

Just over half — 52 percent — of Conservative synagogue members live in the Northeast.

Seven percent of Conservative synagogues are located in rural areas. More than half are located in a suburb of a large city, and 23 percent are in large cities.