May 8, 2017: Generation to generation – some issues are perennial

By Michael Regenstreif

A story and a column in this edition of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin got me thinking about how some issues of concern to the community are perennial – even if every new generation that comes along thinks that certain concerns are unique to them.

The story is Louise Rachlis’ report about a presentation delivered by Linda Kislowicz, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA, on the results of a national survey of Jewish baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964). That is the demographic group to which I belong, so the survey’s questions and answers are of personal interest.

The column is Stephanie Shefrin’s “Modern Mishpocha” on page 22.

I was specifically taken with this observation of Stephanie’s: “We think that what our community is going through is unique to now, that it’s our fault, that we need to strike a new committee or devise a new program or do better outreach. All those things are probably true to some extent, but the underlying challenges and fears have been there for decades.”

Stephanie made that observation by looking at issues of the Bulletin published about once every 10 years beginning in 1945, and noticing that many of the concerns faced by Jewish mothers of young children over the generations are the same or similar to many issues faced by Jewish mothers of young children – such as herself – now.

I had a similar observation six years ago after attending one of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s openOttawa events.

The openOttawa process was a series of meetings and reports aimed at engaging young Jewish adults in the community. It was the beginning of what is now the Federation’s well-established Emerging Generation division.

In my May 30, 2011 Bulletin column, I noted that “while the openOttawa discussion was fascinating, I couldn’t help but be reminded of how similar the discussion was – minus, perhaps, the Facebook, Twitter and website references – to discussions I was party to in Montreal during the 1970s and ‘80s when I was in that age group. And mine was hardly the first generation to have that discussion.”

My generation, of course, is the baby boomers who are the subjects of the survey, the results of which Linda Kislowicz discussed in her presentation.

There were no big surprises for me in the results of the survey. We want to be engaged in the community in ways we find interesting; we care about making a difference; and, like the generations that came before us, and like the generations that have followed us, we have changing understandings of how we define ourselves as Jews.

I suspect that, if the millennials are surveyed when they reach the ages we boomers are now, the results will be similar.

As I mentioned, some issues of concern are perennial. One of the major issues we’ve continuously covered over the years I’ve edited the Bulletin is Jewish education in Ottawa – and one of the most pressing concerns in recent years has been the fluctuating levels of enrolment in both day schools and supplementary schools. Although there have been some encouraging signs recently, enrolment levels have generally declined over the past couple of decades.

But, as I discovered when I was perusing archived issues of the Bulletin, this is not a new concern.

The February 7, 1941 issue featured an editorial entitled “Educating The Next Man’s Children” in which the author (the editorial was unsigned, but I believe it was written by Rabbi Oscar Z. Fasman, Ottawa’s community rabbi at the time) lamented that most parents in the Ottawa Jewish community of 76 years ago were opting to send their children to public rather than Jewish schools. Now doesn’t that sound familiar?

October 6, 2014: Survey shows Ottawa’s Jewish community is aging

By Michael Regenstreif

Linda Kislowicz, CEO of Jewish Federations of Canada – UIA (JFC-UIA), was in Ottawa, September 17, to address a members meeting of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa at which she presented an initial demographic analysis of the 2011 National Household Survey as it pertains to Ottawa’s Jewish community.

The voluntary National Household Survey replaced the obligatory long-form Canadian Census that was conducted every 10 years, most recently in 2001. Because the 2011 survey used a different methodology – which many social scientists believe is less reliable – the data may not be as accurate as what we used to get from the long-form census.

Still, Kislowicz noted, the data from the survey is reliable enough that it can be interpreted with relative confidence and the results paint a fascinating picture that help us to understand some of the problems we face as a community and challenges we’ll have to meet in years to come.

Some results were surprising. After decades of double-digit percentage growth that far outstripped the overall growth of Canada’s national Jewish community, Ottawa’s Jewish community grew by just 2.8 per cent from 2001 to 2011 (compared to national growth of 4.7 per cent). As of 2011, the Jewish population of Ottawa was estimated to be 14,005 people, up from 13,630 in 2001.

And, while the size of the community grew, one of the most important demographic groups declined as the number of children aged 14 and younger fell to 2,255 in 2011 from 2,725 in 2001. There were almost 500 fewer children in the community in 2011 than a decade earlier.

In part, this helps to explain the trend of declining enrolment at Ottawa’s Jewish day and supplementary schools in recent years. While our schools and the community have already taken many innovative steps to ensure the long-term viability and educational enhancement of our Jewish schools, we will need to continue to be innovative and creative to bring ever greater proportions of our children to Jewish day and supplementary schools.

The real growth in Ottawa’s Jewish community – and it was as significant as the decline in the number of children – was among the middle-aged, those between 45 and 64, and among seniors, aged 65 and over.

The good news in those numbers is that middle-aged adults – the baby-boom generation – are at the peak of their earning years and, for many, their children are grown and independent. Therefore, many in this age group are well-positioned to help the community through increased charitable giving and by having more time to devote to volunteerism.

And that trend continues into the senior age group. With more and more of us remaining vigorous and healthy as we get older, the volunteer corps – upon which the community relies – becomes stronger and even more vital.

But, clearly, ours is an aging community and that trend is likely to continue. This indicates a need to focus greater attention in programming and services on older members of the community as we move forward.

One of the most interesting areas of the survey pertains to intermarriage. Ottawa’s intermarriage rate was at 39.9 per cent in 2011, up from 32 per cent in 2001. More strikingly, the intermarriage rate for couples under age 30 was 53.8 per cent. The survey also indicates that, while 28.6 per cent of young children in intermarried families are being raised Jewishly, 52.5 per cent are being raised with no religious affiliation.

This shows there is much potential for outreach to ensure the unaffiliated feel welcome in the Jewish community – and that there will be potential for enrolment growth in our Jewish schools as the unaffiliated begin to feel there is a place for them in the community.

It should also be noted that, as of 2011, Jews made up only 1.2 per cent of Ottawa’s overall population. Ethnically, this compares to the city’s growing Arab community, which comprised 4.4 per cent of the city’s population.

Finally, while any rate of poverty is unacceptable and needs to be addressed, there is a relatively low rate of poverty in Ottawa’s Jewish community at just 8.9 per cent. This is the lowest rate of poverty for all Canadian Jewish communities and compares favourably to the 13.5 per cent poverty rate overall in Ottawa.

Kislowicz’s presentation was based on the first findings of the 2011 National Household Survey. There will be more to come.

August 16, 2010: We depend on the long-form census data

By Michael Regenstreif

On September 22 last year, Linda Kislowicz, CEO of UIA Federations Canada, and Andrea Freedman, its national director of planning and development, came to Ottawa and presented the Ottawa-oriented findings of the UIA National Task Force on Jewish Demographics to a gathering of lay leaders and senior staff of Ottawa’s various Jewish agencies and organizations.

The task force based its findings on detailed analysis of Canadian census results – going back to the 1981 census – along with estimates of results, based on identified trends, that it expected to see in data from the censuses due in 2011 and 2021.

Major community organizations – be they Jewish, other faith groups or secular – as well as governments of all levels, school boards, universities, hospitals, social service agencies, transportation boards like OC Transpo, and so many other bodies, rely on census data in the formulation of the long-term plans they need to make in order to serve their communities and clientele. As Federation Chair Donna Dolansky explained in the Federation Report (Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, November 2, 2009), much of the long-term strategic planning by the Federation is based on this information.

As almost every organization in the country involved in long-term planning will tell you, it is vital that the data they work with be as accurate and reliable as possible.

The Canadian census has long had a reputation for the reliability of its data. However, thanks to a surprising order handed down this summer from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative cabinet, the reliability of the census records to be gathered in May 2011 may be in doubt.

Until now, 80 per cent of Canadian homes received the short-form census questionnaire with just a few basic questions that can be completed in about five minutes or so. The other 20 per cent of households received the long-form questionnaire, which takes about a half-hour to 45 minutes.

Filling out the census form – whether long or short – has always been mandatory, under penalty of law.

Now, all of a sudden, the Tories have decided to make the long-form census voluntary. According to Industry Minister Tony Clement, the mandatory long-form was scrapped because no one should have to face prison for not completing it.

Until the Harper Government took this action, there was no issue surrounding the long-form census. It was never an election issue, an anti-census mob had never gathered on Parliament Hill and, if it was ever even mentioned in Question Period, it didn’t make the news.

And no one has ever gone to jail for failing to fill out their long-form questionnaire.

Social scientists and statisticians have uniformly condemned the Government’s action and have raised serious doubts about the reliability of the data, if answering the long-form questions becomes optional. Munir Sheikh, now the former head of Statistics Canada, resigned in protest.

It makes no sense whatsoever to scrap the mandatory long-form. The Harper Government should act now to reverse the decision.

Rotem bill

There’s been much debate in the Jewish world about a bill, introduced in Israel’s Knesset by Israel Beiteinu MK David Rotem, which would change how conversion to Judaism is administered and recognized. The Israel Beiteinu party, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.

The issue has proven to be extremely divisive in Israel – Netanyahu himself has come out against the bill – and has sparked rare intervention from the established leadership of Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora. On July 20, Federation Chair Donna Dolansky and President and CEO Mitchell Bellman wrote to Netanyahu expressing the Federation’s concerns about the negative impact passage of the bill would have on Israel-Diaspora relations.

On July 22, a deal was brokered to delay further debate and votes on the bill for six months.