Background
1996-1997 Survey of Jewish Communal Professionals
The Jewish Outreach Institute [JOI], founded in 1987,
is the only national organization embracing all branches
of Judaism, which focuses upon encouraging interfaith
couples and their families to remain within the Jewish
community. JOI is a national information resource for
the intermarried and the Jewish professional community,
as well as an advocate for outreach programs to intermarried
families and their children. As part of its national outreach
efforts, JOI has:
- published several pamphlets on intermarriage;
- become the national central address for organizing
conferences on the impact of intermarriage on the
Jewish community and publishing the proceedings of
these conferences;
- published a quarterly Newsletter informing
professionals serving the intermarried of new programs
and ideas;
- developed an Internet Web Site to assist in the
dissemination of information
- recently begun to provide direct training in outreach
techniques and perspectives for the Jewish Federation
of New York; and,
- conducted five previous stuides on intermarriage.
In 1991 and 1992, JOI surveyed (a)lay and professional
leadership of synagogues, (b)lay and professional leadership
of Jewish community agencies, and (c) the readership
of major Jewish community newspapers in 1992. Surveys
with intermarried families and their children were conducted
on behalf of JOI by the prestigious National Family
Opinion Research Corporation in 1995 and 1996. The results
of thse previous studies demonstrated what David W.
Belin, Chairman of the Jewish Outreach Institute, has
called "remarkable consistency in opinion from survey
to survey about the overwhelming support among the lay
constituency of all branches of Judaism for reaching
out to interfaith families." Over 80% of Orthodox Jews
and over 90% of Conservative and Reform Jews were in
favor of programming for outreach to the intermarried.
Similarly, interfaith families with young children were
interested in programs to help them become better integrated
into Jewish life, and Jewish professional/lay leaders
of synagogues and community service agencies supported
outreach efforts.
During the early stages of JOI's new initiative in
direct training of Jewish professionals to provide outreach
services to the intermarried [and unaffiliated], it
became apparent that Jewish communal
professionals had not previously been surveyed on their
attitudes and experiences with interfaith families and
children of interfaith marriages -- depsite
the reality that these communal service professionals
represent the backbone of educational, cultural, recreational,
and social services provided by the organized Jewish
community. Only through these professionals can the
Jewish community effectively provide direct day-to-day
support for interfaith families and their children.
As such, their experiences and attitudes are critical
to the development of a systematic program of outreach.
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