Jewish Marriage Tied to Israel Trip

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Aleks sends along this amusing news article by Jennifer Levitz:

A new study found that rates of marriage outside the faith were sharply curbed among young Jews who have taken “birthright” trips to Israel . . . Over the past decade, Taglit-Birthright Israel, a U.S. nonprofit founded by Jewish businessmen, has sponsored nearly 225,000 young Jewish adults for free 10-day educational tours of Israel as a way to foster Jewish identity. . . .

A study [by Brandeis University researcher Leonard Saxe and partly funded by Taglit-Birthright] showed that 72% of those who went on the trip married within the faith, compared with 46% of people who applied for the trip but weren’t selected in a lottery. . . . The Brandeis study looked at 1,500 non-Orthodox Jewish adults who took Taglit trips or applied for one between 2001 and 2004. . . . The Brandeis study looked at 1,500 non-Orthodox Jewish adults who took Taglit trips or applied for one between 2001 and 2004.

The article also said that 10,000 people participated in these trips last summer, which suggests that the 1,500 people in the research study represent a very small fraction of the participants from 2001-2004. I have no idea if this is a random sample, or what. Also I wonder about the people who participated in the lottery, were selected, but didn’t go on the trip. Excluding these people (if there are many of them) could bias the results. The news article unfortunately doesn’t link to any research report.

.P.S. The article also says:

Most estimates of America’s Jewish population place it a little higher than six million, although some demographers have argued it is higher. The U.S. census doesn’t track people by faith.

I’ve seen estimates that are closer to 5 million. More to the point, I don’t think that “tracking people by faith” is the right way to think about it. For this sort of counting exercise, Judaism is as much of an ethnicity or a nationality than a “faith.” For example:

Taglit’s founders and funders include Charles Bronfman, heir to the Seagram liquor empire, and Michael Steinhardt, a former hedge-fund manager. . . . Mr. Steinhardt, who describes himself as an atheist, has said he supports Taglit because he wants to pass along Judaism’s humanistic values.

5 thoughts on “Jewish Marriage Tied to Israel Trip”

  1. I am quite surprised to read your implied criticism of an article based on a brief news story. In fact, a 10 second search on Google yielded the 47 page article and 147 page technical (statistical) appendix:

    Saxe Jewish Marriage Study

    A brief scan of the executive summary will convince you that the factors you suggest might be missing are, in fact, central to the methodology and conclusions of the article.

    I think the authors deserve a fair review, after you have read this.

  2. Pbleic: I'm glad the article is there on Google. I meant no implied criticism of the study; I merely had questions.

  3. Thanks, then. I look forward to your comments about the study after you take a look at the paper. FYI, I am not involved in the program or study in any way, but I am aware of the quality of the authors and their institutional affiliation, as is evident from the carefully constructed report.

    Incidentally, the definition of "Jewish" is different depending upon whether you are speaking of those who are religiously observant (regardless of where on the Reform to Orthodox spectrum they lie, about 5.4 M in the US), or those who self-identify (about 7.1 M). The most recent population survey (the 2006 American Jewish Yearbook population survey) estimates that it is 6.4 million, or approximately 2.1% of the total population.

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