Studies: Who is a Jew?

Jewish Demographic Studies
with Dr Bruce Phillips

One thing that became evident early in our discussion with Dr. Phillips is the high level of political influence there is in Jewish demographic studies and how this impacts the resulting report. A question that has repercussions for every study is how the study’s authors define “who is a Jew?”

If you define a Jew as an individual who is the child of a Jewish parent, raised Jewish, still identifying as Jewish, you fail to learn about assimilation. Studies that question those individuals who identify as half-Jewish, of Jewish heritage, Christian Jews, etc., allow us to understand who is leaving Judaism and at what rate.

We learned that when this data is perceived of as too depressing or negative it has been entirely dropped by the funders of studies.

While this information may indeed be disturbing we need to be aware of it.