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Concluding Reflections	-Download NJPS Report PDF -Download PowerPoint Summary
As this report amply demonstrates, American Jews are indeed a strong and diverse population that is also facing challenges.

The demographic findings point to several issues that are likely to occupy the attention of the Jewish communal system as it addresses the future of American Jewry. Most centrally, the Jewish population may have declined marginally in size since 1990.

Both the median age of the Jewish population and the proportion of the population that is elderly have increased. One possible implication of the aging of the population may be an increase in demand for initiatives to promote the social integration and productivity of the older population, and to maximize the many resources and talents older Jews bring to the community. We already know that the Jewish elderly are highly active members of Jewish institutions, frequently more active than their younger counterparts.

Relative to the total U.S. population, Jews marry at later ages and have fewer children. Current fertility rates among Jewish women are too low to replace the Jewish population. To date, the incidence of adoption is not sufficiently widespread to dramatically alter the number of children being raised Jewish in Jewish homes, and Jewish immigration to the U.S. is not a likely source of significant population growth.

Highly educated Jewish women report bearing about the same number of children as highly educated non-Jews. On the one hand, this observation lends confidence to NJPS findings, as demographers have repeatedly shown a strong correlation between education and lower fertility rates. On the other hand, it points to how firmly rooted Jewish demographic behavior is in the American social environment. Well-educated Jewish women behave like their well-educated counterparts in the U.S. population.

Migration and mobility also characterize the Jewish population. Over time, many native-born Jews have migrated from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West. In addition, more than one-third of adult Jews lived in a different residence five years ago than they do today. Migration and mobility have important implications for the communal system. Residential movement may disrupt established communal connections, and forging connections in new locations may take a sustained period of time. Family members who remain behind may also have increased need for support. In both cases, the Jewish community may face challenges of re-integrating those who have moved into communal frameworks and caring for those whose family members may no longer be locally available to them.

Other demographic news is quite encouraging. Jews continue to display extraordinary achievement in terms of educational attainment, occupational prestige and household income. These achievements underlie and promote cultural sophistication, communal involvement, and influence in the public square. They infuse Jewish communal institutions with significant resources -- intellectual talent, financial assets and civic influence -- for addressing local and global challenges to the Jewish people.

Three subgroups in the Jewish population -- the elderly, immigrants and those living below the poverty line -- draw particular attention from communal organizations. Each group serves as an important reminder of the diversity of the American Jewish population, maintaining significant ties to Jewish life, albeit in ways that sometimes vary from those of other American Jews. Communal leaders, activists and social service providers are also concerned about the potential vulnerability of these groups with respect to economic resources, social isolation and health problems.

Connections to Jewish life among the entire Jewish population are central to the concerns of communal policy makers and activists. Most Jews participate in the High Holidays, Passover and Chanukah, have strong social connections to other Jews, regard being Jewish as very important, and receive some form of Jewish education. Smaller proportions, ranging from about a quarter to a half, are engaged in other areas of Jewish life, including many ritual observances, institutional affiliations, charitable contributions, volunteering, and travel to Israel.

Of great significance are several trends that point to more extensive use of Jewish educational and cultural opportunities. The findings show a sharp rise in enrollment in Jewish day schools during childhood years and in Jewish studies courses during college. Some signs point to steady or even increasing use of Jewish cultural options, including adult Jewish education and use of the Internet for Jewish purposes. Travel to Israel may also be included here, despite overall drops in emotional attachment among younger adult Jews.

Coursing through all the findings on Jewish connections are variations by region, age and institutional affiliation. With few exceptions, Jews in the Northeast have stronger Jewish connections than Jews in other regions of the country. Differences in age are less straightforward. Younger adult Jews demonstrate considerable stability and strength in many areas of Jewish life, including religious observances, adult education, synagogue and JCC affiliations, some forms of cultural participation, and selected connections to Israel. Simultaneously, younger Jews show declines relative to older Jews with respect to philanthropy, social connections to other Jews, some institutional memberships, and emotional attachment to the Jewish state.

The most consistent and substantial differences in Jewish connections are between the unaffiliated and those who are in any way affiliated with Jewish institutions. While Jewish commitment begets affiliation and affiliation spurs commitment and engagement, there is no denying that the affiliated population differs vastly from the unaffiliated. The affiliated exhibit far higher rates of in-marriage, in-group friendship, ritual practice, cultural involvement, educational participation, ties to Israel, giving to Jewish causes and subjective commitment to being Jewish.

The rate of intermarriage continues to increase, though at a much slower pace than the very sharp rises in the 1970s and early 1980s. Intermarriage perpetuates itself: the adult children of intermarried parents marry non-Jews at more than three times the rate of adult children of in-married parents. Moreover, almost all current children with in-married parents are being raised Jewish, compared to only one-third of the children of intermarried parents. As important, in-married Jews report far higher levels of Jewish engagement than do intermarried Jews. The differences range over the entire spectrum of Jewish involvement and identity: ritual observance, association with other Jews, affiliation with Jewish institutions, and providing Jewish education to their children.

In sum, contrasting trends in Jewish involvement, the sharp differentiation between affiliated and unaffiliated Jews, and significant differences between the in-married and intermarried all suggest an increasing polarization in Jewish connections. Over time, some segments of the American Jewish population evince greater involvement in Jewish life, while other segments show signs of disengagement. Indeed, this apparent pattern encompasses strength, challenge, and diversity, the very themes of this report, and will likely serve as the basis of important policy discussions in the American Jewish community.