NEW STUDY: INTERMARRIAGE LEADS TO FEWER KIDS RAISED AS JEWS

Latest salvo in intermarriage debate suggests a split in Jewish community
By Sue Fishkoff
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6 (JTA) -- Steven M. Cohen, a prominent Jewish sociologist, has fired the latest salvo in what is becoming an increasingly vituperative debate about outreach to the intermarried.

In his newest paper, "A Tale of Two Jewries: The `Inconvenient Truth' for American Jews," Cohen uses his own research and data from the 2001 National Jewish Population Study to argue that inmarried and intermarried Jews form two distinct halves of the Jewish community. And the Jewish future, he argues, rests with the inmarried, who are more Jewishly engaged and much more likely to raise their children as Jews.

Jewish leaders better face up to this, even if it's unpleasant, Cohen told JTA.