The Arizona post., 1957-06-21


adolescents indicated they would not like to be mar
red to person of another faith and A percent of
them disapproved of intermarriage outright
OF THE REMAINING 30 percent many were
uncertain; some of them said they would not feel
right about intermarriage because their families
would disapprove AS for the Jewish parents inter-
viewed, most of them thought it unlikely that their
children would marry non-Jews, but about a third
of them were not prepared to affirm this with absO
lutte certainty.
Almost all would be unhappy about an intermar-
riage and would try to prevent it. Still faced with
an accomplished fact the large majority would make
their peace with their children. Fifty-seven percent
of the parents thought intermarrage would work
out badly AZ percent of the teen-agers agreed with
this estimate.
ASKED WHETHER they would pick non-JeW
they were in love WITH or Jew they not in love
with, IS percent Of the young people chose love-
Faced with a similar choice 40 percent of the par
ents decided in favor of love- rather than JeWshness
for their children
THE AMERICAN Jewish Committee survey
of which only part has been made public at this
time-is known as "The RVerton Study. 1t took sew
era years to prepare and deals with all aspects OF
Jewish life in the United States 1t aims at estab-
fishing how observant are Jews in America, what is
their attitude toward Jewish culture and jewish
philanthropy.
It also seeks to establish whether Jews in this
country have the will to survive as Jews, what is
their conception of Jewishness and how do they feel
among non-Jews Riverton is pseudonym for the
town in which the survey conducted 1t is an in
dustrial town of about 100000 people among whom
the Jews are percent. The Jewish population there
is like the Jewish population in SO many American
cities, engaged in the professions and trade.
TWO-THIRDS of the parents interviewed, and
almost all adolescents were Americana born-and
this too is roughly the proportion one can find in
other Jewish communities in the Middle Atlantic
states Of the remainder, more than one-half had
come to this country when they were less than Is
years old All in all the RivertOn Jewish community
is not very different from scores of Others Eighty
two percent of the Jews belong to at least of the
40 Jewish organizations in town. and many are mem
bers of non-sectarian organizations as we'll.
HOW DO JEWS in Riverton view themselves,
and how do their attitudes toward themselves Jews
affect their relations with their fellow Americans?
The "Riverton Study" established that of the
adult group, the older people proved more apt to
think that Gentiles hold unfavorable views of Jews
In the adolescent group, only 81 thought so.
About 33 percent of the adult group-the
Younger peope-thought that "it depends on the IN
dvid,1al" and that "some Gentiles think good and
some think bad" of Jews.
SEVENTY-FIVE percent of all adults inter-
viewed said they had experienced anti-Semitism, as
did sc percent of the adolescents. About one-half
of the adults found their explanation for anSemit-
ism in Jealousy" while 81 percent of them attributed
ant-Semitism to reigiously- ly-motivated bigotry.
Among the teen-agers, however, only 8 percent
mentioned the Christ story and the church, and only
13 percent spoke of Jealousy" The emphasis among
the Young people was on the contemporary view that