Survey Finds That Religious Education is Important to Interfaith Families...

The vast majority of interfaith parents surveyed want their children to receive a religious education, according to a new survey released today. Despite a lingering perception that interfaith families are disinterested in religion, the Interfaith Families and Religious Schools Survey found that for many the opposite is true. Conducted by InterfaithFamily.com (www.interfaithfamily.com), an independent non-profit publisher and advocacy membership association, the survey found that 96 percent of parents surveyed feel it important or very important that their children receive a religious education.

The Interfaith Families and Religious Schools Survey was designed to shed light on the choices interfaith families make with respect to the religious education of their children, the reasons for their choices, and their experiences. Of the survey participants, 84 percent said they are raising their children as Jews, in comparison to the 33 percent reported in the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001. While the self-selected survey, conducted between Aug. and Sept. 2005, is not representative of all interfaith families, the findings provide new insight into interfaith families who are raising their children as Jews 8211; a very important demographic for Jewish continuity.

More than two-thirds (68 percent) report they send their children to Jewish Sunday and/or after-school programs. Surprisingly, however, 30 percent send their children to Jewish day schools, where they receive an intensive education of religious and secular studies. The most important reason they do so (88 percent), according to interfaith parents responding to the survey, is for their children to get a religious education, followed by the academic quality of the education (58 percent). Seventy-one percent of the participants said sending their children to Jewish day schools is important to them, and 25 percent said it is important to their partner.

"Over the past two decades, enrollment at day schools has nearly doubled, with most of that growth thought to be coming from traditional Jewish families. But it's interesting to learn that significant numbers of interfaith families are sending their children to day schools, which serve, they tell us, as a partner in the Jewish education of their children," says Edmund Case, publisher, InterfaithFamily.com. "Just as important is the growing number of non-orthodox Jewish day schools that welcome interfaith families. In a number of cases, these schools have told us that as many as a third of their students come from families in which one parent is not Jewish."

In fact the Interfaith Families and Religious Schools Survey found that 78 percent of the participants reported that the reactions of other parents at their child's religious school to interfaith families is warm and positive (compared with just eight percent who say other parents are cold and negative).

Of non-Jewish parents whose children attend Jewish religious school, 66 percent feel very comfortable at school events while only 10 percent reported being uncomfortable. The survey also found that in terms of involvement in school activities, 58 percent are very active. (Some non-Jewish parents are so active that at the Greensboro, NC-based B nai Shalom Day School, the head of the PTA is Protestant, according to "Room for Everyone: One Jewish Day School in North Carolina Has Found Strength in Its High Rate of Interfaith Families," an article published on the InterfaithFamily.com website.)

New Directory of Jewish Day Schools Welcoming Children of Interfaith Families

To help interfaith families from around the country, InterfaithFamily.com has developed the free "Directory of Jewish Day Schools Welcoming Children of Interfaith Families." In its first edition, the directory contains listings for more than 10 percent of the non-Orthodox day schools that welcome children from interfaith families in the U.S. and Canada, from Alabama to Texas, and includes a short description of each school along with a brief statement about the school s attitudes/policies regarding children from interfaith families. The directory is intended for interfaith families who are considering sending their children to Jewish day schools, and is available at the InterfaithFamily.com website at http://www.interfaithfamily.com/dayschooldirectory.

"Many interfaith families are more committed to the Jewish community than is commonly believed. By providing a Jewish education for their children, whether at a Sunday and after-school program or at a Jewish day school, our members demonstrate that commitment," Case says. "The InterfaithFamily.com directory will make it easier for interfaith parents who are considering day school education for their children to find welcoming schools."

About InterfaithFamily.com

InterfaithFamily.com (www.interfaithfamily.com) is an independent non-profit publisher and advocacy membership association that works to encourage Jewish choices by interfaith families and increase acceptance of interfaith families by the Jewish community. InterfaithFamily.com publishes a bi-weekly Web magazine that reaches out directly to interfaith families, delivering helpful, non-judgmental information about how to handle various situations that arise for interfaith families. InterfaithFamily.com also produced the first-of-its-kind anthology, The Guide to Jewish Interfaith Family Life: An InterfaithFamily.com Handbook (Jewish Lights Publishing), to offer much-needed support for interfaith families seeking to explore Jewish life. InterfaithFamily.com is the only national organization that focuses exclusively on reaching out to and helping interfaith families themselves, and advocating on a grass-roots level as their "voice."

InterfaithFamily.com has developed the first-ever "Directory of Jewish Day Schools Welcoming Children of Interfaith Families."

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