Treasure

Mrs. Cohen's lecture was really terrific. I liked the addition of a hat to set the mood. One of the things I took away from the class was that maybe there is no way to ensure Jewish continuity. Seventy percent is a large number, but when you look at each of her children individually, whether they had Jewish babies is pretty random. It looks like a combination of personal inclination and circumstance. Treasure Cohen's mother had the type of personality that embraced Judaism and she happened to meet and marry someone who wanted to raise a Jewish family with her. Of course, parenting must contribute something to how a child turns out, so it's not surprising that many of the younger children did not end up having Jewish children. I was surprised, however, that none of the children of the inter-married couples, even when the mother was Jewish, considered themselves Jewish. I think the time that her children were coming of age was a particularly hard one to maintain a Jewish identity in. It's hard to pay temple dues when there's a depression. Coupled with the xenophobia and political movements of the day that weren't Judaism-friendly, a lot of Jews probably renounced their religion.

It was also really interesting to see how different the observance of a Conservative Jew was then compared to the average observance level of a Conservative Jew today.