Falling Birthrates In America Analysis

Cohen and Wertheimer claim that the main issues contributing to the challenges of Jewish continuity are intermarriage, falling birthrates, and the differences between the Jewish denominations. According to the Pew survey, around 2,100,000 American people who are of a Jewish parent who has intermarried do not identify as Jewish. Another issue is the falling birthrates. A major component of this is the fact that any people are “coupling off” during or after prime childbearing years. For non-Orthodox Jews, the fertility rate is about 1.7 children, while the replacement rate is 2.1. It has also been found that Jewish engagement relies heavily on denomination. It is no surprise that children raised Orthodox are the most engaged, followed by Conservative, …show more content…
Sasson suggested that maybe intermarriage can lead to a higher number of Jews in America. He based this idea on the startling statistic stating that there is a high number of children of intermarried parents who identify as Jewish. Cohen says that while logistically it works. When two Jews get married, two Jews are “used up”. When one Jew marries a non-Jew, that’s only one Jew. If half or more of the intermarried couples raise their children to be Jewish, then mathematically there will be more Jews. Cohen goes on to say that while the math is right, in a deeper sense, it is very wrong. Many children of intermarried parents do not consider themselves to be Jewish outside of the religion aspect. As Jews in a Jewish school, we know that Judaism goes much deeper than religiosity. There are texts, customs, traditions, holidays, etc. Cohen finishes by saying that while Sasson’s math is correct, that the actual number of American Jews will even out or even grow in the near future, that number of Jews who consider themselves to be Jewish and follow Jewish tradition is dwindling and intermarriage is no aid to its