The paradoxical effects of Jewish community size on Jewish communal behavior: Intermarriage, synagogue membership and giving to local Jewish Federations

Abstract

This research note will report on insights gained into Jewish communal behavior by measuring the effects of community size on three aspects of Jewish communal life: rates of 1) intermarriage, 2) synagogue membership, and 3) giving to the Jewish federation. All Jewish communities that have this data available within the past 10 years have been included (See Table 1 for a list of studies included). Size is believed to be an important structural variable affecting communal behavior. This study is an attempt to apply a macrostructural theory of intergroup relations as developed by Blau and Schwartz (1984). Contemporary studies of Jewish intermarriage have shied away from social structure as a possible explanation of current Jewish intermarriage. Mayer (1985), for example, after noting that individual behavior can be affected by population composition and concomitant opportunities for mate selection, discounts this "familiar demographic explanation" of contemporary intermar riage. He notes intermarriage since the 1960s has not only existed in small towns, but also in cities with large Jewish populations, where Jews could more easily find a mate (p. 102). The few studies of Jewish philanthropic behavior have tended to focus on the reasons that individual Jews gave money to Jewish