Teen-agers in Small Communities Want to Maintain Jewish Identity

Jewish teen-agers in a typical urban American community overwhelmingly desire to maintain and intensify their Jewish identification, and have no intention of denying their Jewish heritage. This was among the findings reported today in a study made public by the American Jewish Committee.

The study, a survey of attitudes and values as expressed by 225 teen-agers of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., was sponsored by the Wilkes-Barre chapter of the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Community Center of Wilkes-Barre. It was conducted by Dr. Irving Jacks, assistant professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University.

A large majority of the teen-agers participating in the Wilkes-Barre study in a community of 350, 000 with a Jewish population of 5, 400, expressed a desire “to know more about Judaism and Jewish matters,” though they were generally satisfied with the quality of the Jewish schooling which they had received.

The findings further indicated that synagogue attendance in Wilkes-Barre, both among the teen-agers and their parents, is limited in large measure to the High Holy Days. if the synagogue is to have a more meaningful role in the everyday life of the teen-agers, the report suggests, parents will need to attend weekly services more regularly. Dr. Jacks added that a de-emphasis of the Bar Mitzvah ceremony was advisable “in order to counter the tendency for it to be seen as a terminal point” of weekly synagogue attendance.

INDICATE FEELING OF SECURITY; FREE OF FEAR OF ANTI-SEMITISM

The teen-agers indicated a feeling of security in relation to non-Jewish teen-agers, and expressed themselves as free of the fear of anti-Semitism. However, their close friendship patterns are largely limited to Jewish teen-agers, the study revealed.

The survey revealed virtually unanimous agreement that belief in God was essential to being a good Jew — a finding contrary to the popularly-held view that American youth, Jewish included, is rampantly embracing atheism. However, only a minority of those surveyed felt that observance of traditional Jewish dietary laws, attendance at weekly synagogue services, support of Israel, or contributing to Jewish philanthropies was essential to being a good Jew.

This decline of interest in traditional Jewish patterns, the survey warned, may “presage a massive turn toward assimilation.” Dr. Jacks suggested that this was a “plausible reading of the signs, particularly so if Jewish communal life fails to provide the Jewish teenager with positive models and positive values to under gird their Jewish identity, in order that it may be seen by the Jewish teenager as having relevance to his life in contemporary America.”

In the area of interdating and intermarriage, 84 percent of the teen-agers in the study were unopposed to dating non-Jewish teen-agers, and two-thirds of them said they had dated non-Jews. Somewhat over one-half, however, rejected the possibility of intermarriage.

Dr. Jacks suggested, in summarizing the study, that “the focus of community efforts to enrich the Jewish identity of the teen-agers should be centered on meeting this need. Thus, we have recommended programming of post-Bar Mitzvah Jewish schooling for teen-agers, emphasizing the social-scientific aspects of Judaism — history and philosophy of Judaism, modern Jewish life –as distinguished from a theological or ritualistic aspect.”

This recommendation is being implemented in Wilkes-Barre, where a trained social worker with specialized experience in Jewish life has been added to the staff of the Jewish Community Center to help organize such a program. It will consist of post-Bar Mitzvah Jewish education with and for teen-agers. The plan, one of the first efforts of its kind in this country, was worked out by Jewish community leaders, parents and rabbis in Wilkes-Barre, in cooperation with the Center and the American Jewish Committee chapter.