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Steven M. Cohen, is Research Professor ofJewish Social Policy Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, New York.This study was published in the fall of 2006by the Jewish Life Network / SteinhardtFoundation.Reprinted with author’s permission.Extract from:A TALE OF TWO JEWRIES: “THE INCONVENIENTSteven M. Cohen TRUTH” FOR AMERICAN JEWSA P U B L I C A T I O N O F Y I T Z H A K R A B I N H I G H S C H O O LJEWISH EDUCATION WORKSThe results are in: Jewish education works. Studies of specificexperiences (e.g., camps, or day schools, or Israel experiences) aswell as studies of combinations of experiences document the impactof Jewish education in almost all its varieties. The same may be saidfor studies of short-term impact, as measured by subjective assertionsof change, as well as studies of impact over time, stretchingfrom education in childhood to engagement in Jewish life in adulthood20, 30, 40, or even more years later. Evidence of impact rangesover a wide variety of outcomes, embracing ritual observance, communalaffiliation, beliefs and attitudes, social networks, and, ofcourse, intermarriage — the most important single predictor of allother forms of adult Jewish engagement.Using data sets collected in different places at different points intime with different sampling techniques, numerous studies arriveat quite similar conclusions. They all control for the correlative impactof Jewish upbringing and parental Jewish engagement, takinginto account observance, the Jewishness of one’s childhood friendshipcircles, and in-marriage/mixed marriage of one’s parents. Andthey all find that almost all forms of Jewish education diminish thefrequency of intermarriage and elevate adult Jewish engagement,albeit with significant variations in magnitude of impact, with dayschools uniformly leading the list.Most recently, in a study of Jews born in America after 1945, a subsetextracted from the 2000-01 NJPS, I estimated the impact of severalJewish educational experiences in childhood upon the chancesof intermarriage some 20 to 40 years hence (see table). This studyestimated that net of all other forms of Jewish education and ofparental observance, day school attendance reduces intermarriageby 14 percentage points. The impact of attendance at supplementaryschool more than once a week is 2 points if continued for more than6 years; each informal education experience (camping, youthgroups, or Israel travel in one’s youth) reduces intermarriage by 4percentage points. All of these estimates refer to cumulative impact;the more Jewish educational experiences, the lower one’schances of intermarriage. For example, someone who went to asupplementary school that met twice a week into adolescence, wentto Israel, and attended a Jewish camp can be compared with someonewith the same background with no such experiences. Thechances that the former would marry a Jewish spouse would increaseby 14 percentage points (comparable to reducing the intermarriagerate from 47% to 33%).Only one form of Jewish education actually generates more intermarriage:Sunday school (or, in general, one-day-a-week supplementaryschool, generally associated with Reform congregations). All otherthings being equal, those who report going to a Jewish school onlyonce a week (e.g., “Sunday School”) for 1-6 years experienced anincreased likelihood of marrying non-Jews by 8 percentage points, ascontrasted with those who never went to a Jewish school.One might attribute the effect to bad teaching or bad curriculum.But, the differences in the impact on intermarriage between oneday-a-weekand two/three-day-a-week supplementary school inquality of instruction are too large to be explained by the small (ifany) differences in instructional quality and curriculum. Pedagogicdifferences alone simply cannot be at the root of Sunday school’scounterintuitive and counter-productive results. Rather, we need tolook not at the experience of Sunday school per se, but at its students,or more appropriately, their families. Those who attend Sundayschools come disproportionately from intermarried homes.“ A L i f e t i m e o f L e a r n i n g ” • P A G E 19