ABSTRACT
Despite many indications of increased vitality within the American Jewish Community, the attachment of many (if not most) of its members is so loose as to call into question their ability to transmit the fundamentals of Judaism from one generation to the next. According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS), outmarriage rates among Jewish-born Americans have been increasing steadily throughout the twentieth century and reached 55 percent for the 1985-90 marital cohort.2 Although most of these outmarrieds retain their Jewish identity, few are expected to raise children capable or even desirous of carrying on the Jewish tradition. Moreover, many of the inmarried Jews in this cohort are at best marginal participants in the Jewish community and are likely to be weak transmitters of Jewish culture.
