The American Jewish Family Today

The purpose of this paper is to present the many varieties of contemporary American Jewish families and the challenges and implications deriving from them. In addition to an extensive literature review of contemporary research on Jewish families, the paper presents original analysis of the Pew 2013 survey of American Jews, Jewish community study data since 2000, and the 2006-2008 ORANJBOWL survey of NJ seniors. Topics covered include family and household structure, marital status (including, for example, cohabitation and divorce), number of children (including fertility and adoption), couples’ sexual orientation, socio-economic status, multicultural and immigration diversity, geographical variation, health status and disability. Analysis of how these various families “do Jewish” is presented, including denominational variations and intermarriage. Implications and challenges of contemporary family patterns are discussed in terms of Jewish continuity, Jewish engagement, and the need for family services. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research.