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The B'nai Khaim in America
Chapter 6 - Kashroth
Wherever and whenever Jewish leaders meet to consider the
state of Judaism in America, the concern is voiced that
American Jews are increasingly abandoning traditional Jewish
rites, rituals and observances, from kashroth to intra-faith marriage.
As Professor Nathan Glazer, ten years ago, summed up
the conditions underlying this concern: (See note #1)
There are American Jews who have been given a good
traditional education and who, following the pattern of the
twenties and the thirties, have broken with all religious
observances. They do not attend the synagogue, they do not
observe the dietary laws, they do not mark the Jewish holidays,
and they do not believe in the existence of God.
In the fall of 1965, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations
of America established a special commission to "cope"
with the "alarming proportion" of intermarriage of Jewish with
non-Jewish college students. "If the trend is not reversed," the,
President of the Union declared, "the whole fabric of the
Jewish communal structure in the United States will suffer
irreparable harm and damage." The problem, he said, "constitutes
a grave challenge to the continuity of the Jewish community
and a serious menace to the very survival a traditional Judaism." (See note #2)
In this and the following chapters we trace some of these
tendencies as they have manifested themselves in the past 60
years within one group of Jewish families, the B'nai Khaim. We
obtained relevant data by means of a questionnaire which we
addressed to 251 persons over age 16:
47 immigrant B'nai Khaim, male and female, 50 per
cent of the original 93 still living and willing to
participate in the study.
63 native-born married B'nai Khaim-the second generation
39 native-born unmarried B'nai Khaim, age 16+ the
third generation; and
102 spouse of both foreign- and native-born B'nai
Khaim
---
Total 251
The data we gathered make possible an evaluation of the
changes in the religious, social and cultural patterns of the B'nai
Khaim and of the nature of their acculturation to the American
way of life.
In the matter of the changing religious patterns we must bear
in mind that Jews are enjoined to observe 613 commandments
365 "don'ts" and 248 "do's." Here we consider the
most common and distinctive of them, beginning with the
observance of the dietary laws. Next to the rite of circumcision,
observing kashroth is probably the most sacred tenet of Jewish
orthodoxy. We asked, first, these two overall questions:
1. To what extent do you observe the Jewish dietary laws?
(a) strictly; (b) in part; (c) not at all.
2. To what extent did your mother observe them?
(a); (b); or (c).
Here are the responses of B'nai Khaim males:
Observed
-----------------------------
In Not
Respondents Strictly Part At All Total
----------- -------- ---- ------ -----
Foreign-born married B'nai Khaim males 5 7 8 20
Their mothers* 9 3 0 12
Native-born married B'nai Khaim males 2 6 21 29
Their mothers* 7 8 8 23
Unmarried B'nai Khaim males, age 16+ 2 8 12 22
* As reported by their offspring. The number of mothers is less than the number of
offspring, since in many cases more than one offspring reported the same mother.
To count a "mother" for each of several siblings would involve a duplication error.
Only five of the 20 foreign-born married B'nai Khaim males
still observed the dietary laws strictly in 1964, while nine out of
the 12 mothers were strict observers. At the same time eight of
the 20, or 40 per cent, observed these laws no longer, while
none of their mothers observed "not at all." The five strict
observers were married to foreign-born women, two of them
gentiles, while four of the eight non-observers were married to
native-born women. Six of the eight non-observers were in
professional occupations. Two of these six, both university
graduates abroad, came from Rumania after World War II where, as in
Russia and in all other communist countries, Jews, with the rest
of the population, were abandoning all aspects of religion.
The trend away from the observance of kashroth becomes
pronounced with the returns for the native-born married B'nai
Khaim males. Here, out of a total of 29, only two were found
to be strict observers, and one of the two is a grandson of Rabbi
Avrom Kaprov. At the same time, 21 of the 29, or 72 per cent
of the total, no longer observed at all. Three of these 21 were
married to gentiles, two were of mixed parentage. None of the
mothers of the foreign-born did not observe at all, while eight
of the mothers of the native-born were non-observers.
B'nai Khaim females appear to be less "radical" than their
male relatives. Here are their responses to the questions on kashroth.
Observed
-----------------------------
In Not
Respondents Strictly Part At All Total
----------- -------- ---- ------ -----
Foreign-born married B'nai Khaim females 10 11 6 27*
Their mothers 13 5 0 18
Native-born married B'nai Khaim females 0 16 18 34
Their mothers 12 9 5 26
Unmarried B'nai Khaim males, age 16+ 2 6 9 17
* Includes one who died unmarried in 1965 at age 80.
Thirty-seven per cent of the foreign-born married B'nai
Khaim females were strict observers of the dietary laws,
compared with 25 per cent for their male counterparts, and only 22
per cent were non-observers, against 40 per cent for the
foreign-born males. On the other hand, while none of the 34
native-born females observed strictly, 18, a little over 50 per
cent observed not at all, and two of these were married to
gentiles. Among the native-born married males, 72 per cent
were non-observers.
In sum:
25 per cent of the foreign born-married B'nai Khaim males
observed the dietary laws strictly;
40 per cent observed not at all.
75 per cent of their mothers had observed the laws strictly;
none of them had been non-observers.
7 per cent of the native-born married B'nai Khaim males
observed these laws strictly;
72 per cent did not observe at all.
30 per cent of their mothers observed strictly;
35 per cent did not observe at all.
37 per cent of the foreign-born married B'nai Khaim females
observed the dietary laws strictly;
22 per cent did not observe at all.
72 per cent of their mothers had observed strictly; none of
their mothers had been non-observers.
No native-born married B'nai Khaim females observed the
dietary laws strictly;
53 per cent observed not at all.
46 per cent of their mothers observed strictly;
20 per cent observed not at all.
Our B'nai Khaim women, both foreign- and native-born, were
found to be more conservative than the men.
For B'nai Khaim spouses, we have the following data:
Observed
-----------------------------
In Not
Respondents Strictly Part At All Total*
----------- -------- ---- ------ -----
Wives of foreign-born B'nai Khaim males 3 9 10 22
Wives of native-born B'nai Khaim males 0 11 17 28
Husbands of foreign-born B'nai Khaim females 6 12 3 21
Husbands of native-born B'nai Khaim females 1 12 18 31
*The number of spouses in the table is not always the same as the number of their B'nai
Khaim mates because of the different number of widows and widowers in each group.
In one case, a gentile spouse submitted no return.
The wives of the native-born B'nai Khaim males, of whom
two were gentiles and one of mixed parentage, were all nativeborn
and were less observing of kashroth than were the wives of
the foreign-born males. None of the 28 wives of the native-born
males observed this commandment strictly, and 17 out of the
28, or 60 per cent, observed not at all. Of the 22 wives of
foreign-born B'nai Khaim, of whom two were gentiles, three
observed strictly, and ten of the 22, or 45 per cent, did not
observe at all.
In general, this was true also of the husbands of B'nai Khaim
females. Only one of the husbands of the 31 native-born B'nai Khaim
females was a strict observer, against six of the 21 husbands
of the foreign-born females. Nearly 60 per cent of the 31
did not observe at all, but only a little over 14 per cent of the
21 did not observe at all. The one gentile husband among them
made no return.
It is reasonable to expect that husbands and wives would
tend to give the same answers to the same questions relating to
their religious observances. However, enough differences were
found in their responses to the questions on kashroth to reflect
a considerable degree of independent attitudes. B'nai Khaim
and their spouses were furthest apart in the matter of strict
observance and were closest to one another in homes where
kashroth was observed least. This held true for both the
foreign-born and the native-born groups. Thus:
25 per cent of the foreign-born B'nai Khaim males observed
kashroth strictly;
14 per cent of their wives observed kashroth strictly. On the
other hand,
40 per cent of these B'nai Khaim did not observe at all, and
45 per cent of their wives did not observe at all.
For the native-born B'nai Khaim males and their wives we
have these figures:
7 per cent of the B'nai Khaim observed strictly;
none of their wives observed strictly. But:
72 per cent of the B'nai Khaim observed not at all, and
60 per cent of their wives observed not at all.
In all cases, female B'nai Khaim observance of kashroth was
closer to that of their husbands than was male B'nai Khaim
observance to that of their wives.
For the foreign-born B'nai Khaim females and their husbands
we have the following figures:
37 per cent of the B'nai Khaim females observed strictly;
30 per cent of their husbands observed strictly.
22 per cent of the B'nai Khaim females did not observe at all;
30 per cent of their husbands did not observe at all.
Of the native-born B'nai Khaim females and their spouses:
None of the B'nai Khaim females observed strictly, and only
3 per cent of their husbands observed strictly.
53 per cent of the B'nai Khaim females did not observe at all;
58 per cent of their husbands did not observe at all.
Mothers of B'nai Khaim spouses were more "advanced" than
B'nai Khaim mothers. Twenty-three per cent of mothers of
spouses did not observe at all, while only 16 per cent of B'nai
Khaim mothers did not observe at all. The suprising thing in
these figures is the extent to which mothers, that is, the older
generation in both groups, were abandoning observance of the
dietary laws. Still, this too, might have been expected. The drift
away from ritualistic Judaism is not entirely an American phenomenon.
We are accustomed to think of the "older" generation
as shtetl Jews, vintage 1900. But already at the turn of the
century secular enlightenment and socialist thought had begun
to penetrate the shtetl. Most Socialists rejected all religion, and
socialist influence began to affect Russian youth of all persuasion.
The Revolution of 1905 broke through the crust of
shtetl isolation. The images which Jews now saw of themselves
in the mirrors held up to them by Perez and Sholem Aleichem
and the Bundists shook many of them out of their centuries-old
habits of thought and religious behavior. Their growing
selfawareness as a stagnant people was brought to a climax in the
Bolshevik Revolution. If some B'nai Khaim who came here
before World War I still wore untrimmed beards, others already
had their beards trimmed, and those who came after the
October Revolution, especially from the cities, had pretty well
abandoned those outer symbols of Jewishness as well as more
intimate family practices, such as the dietary laws. In America
this process would be accelerated. The exigencies of having to
earn a living among goyim were new compelling factors. The
remarkable thing about our findings is not that so many of the
B'nai Khaim and their spouses had abandoned strict observance
of kashroth, but that so many still adhered to much of it as late
as 1964, some of them after living in America for 60 years.
It should be added that among the immigrants who came
here before age 18 a larger proportion dropped kashroth
altogether than among those who came after age 18. Also, among
both the foreign-born and the native-born those in professional
occupations were the least observing. The degree of observance
seems to bear no relation to the descent along the patriarchal lines
A1, A2, A7 (except for the branch A2 B8, the Rabbi's
family), nor to the neighborhood in which our people live. In
1964, most B'nai Khaim lived in "mixed" neighborhoods. Of
the 111 B'nai Khaim homes, 73 were located in "mixed" areas,
16 in areas "mostly Jewish," and 22 in areas "mostly gentile."
Of the 13 homes in which there was strict observance, two were
in Jewish, two were in gentile, and nine were in "mixed" areas.
Of the 41 non-observing families, nine were in Jewish, 11 in
gentile, and 21 in "mixed" neighborhoods.
So far, we calculated the drift of the B'nai Khaim away from
kashroth in the general terms of departure from the "dietary
laws." We now tested our findings in terms of observance of
specific commandments. We asked these specific questions of all
married B'nai Khaim and their spouses:
1. Do you eat kosher meat only?
2. Do you eat (a) pork, (b) ham, (c) bacon ?
3. Do you eat shellfish?
The responses confirm our earlier findings as well as supply
evidence for the "in part" observance of the dietary laws in
general. They also throw light on the degree of independence of
B'nai Khaim and their spouses in their respective responses to
our questions.
Here are the answers to these three questions: (See Table #1)
The first thing that strikes the eye in this table is the
relatively small number of respondents that said yes to the question
"do you eat kosher meat only" - 34 against the 177 who said
no. (Bottom totals.) The one exception was the foreign-born
females of B'nai Khaim who split about 50-50 between yes and
no.
The second thing to note is that so far as the native-born,
both male and female, and their spouses are concerned, the
traditional "kosher butcher" may just as well close up shop.
Together, these numbered 122, but only three of them still ate
kosher meat only.
Our questions about eating pork, ham, bacon and shellfish
brought answers which are not only discriminating, but also
throw light on the "in part" observance of the dietary laws in
general. Fewer of our people (50 per cent) eat pork than eat
ham (60 per cent) or bacon (72 per cent), or even shellfish (62
per cent). Our B'nai Khaim seem to have a more definite builtin
aversion to eating pork than to eating any of those other
trefe foods. Proportionately, between two and one-half and
three times as many native-born as foreign-born eat pork, ham
and shellfish. The difference is not so great in the case of eating
bacon; here the percentages are 88 and 62, respectively. Bacon
is becoming a staple in the B'nai Khaim kitchen.
As an overall check on the discriminating practices within the
Jewish dietary laws, we asked this question:
Do you ever eat non-kosher food?:
(a) at home
(b) in restaurants
(c) when traveling
(d) at homes of non-observing Jews
(e) at homes of gentile friends
The answers show that two-thirds eat non-kosher food at
home, evidently our bacon-eaters. But not much more than 43
per cent of the foreign-born do so. The percentage for the
native-born was nearly twice as high. A greater proportion, as
would be expected, ate non-kosher food away from home than
at home; again, the native-born in larger proportions than the
foreign-born. And all of them indulged about equally in restaurants,
when traveling, at homes of non-observing Jews, and
at homes of gentile friends.
Unaccountably, a greater proportion of the wives of our
foreign-born B'nai Khaim males eat non-kosher food away from
home than their husbands do. One would expect the opposite
to be the case, as men presumably have more occasion to eat
non-kosher food in restaurants when at work or when traveling.
"Do you eat khometz on Passover?" we asked next. Sixty per
cent said yes-50 per cent of the foreign-born and their spouses;
70 per cent of the native-born and their spouses. Again, the
remarkable thing is not that 70 per cent of the native-born and
their spouses ate khometz on Passover, but that fully one-half
of the foreign-born and their spouses did. One native-born male
and one native-born female answered, "No, whatever that is"!
Next we asked two questions specifically addressed to men
and two specifically to women. The questions to the women
were:
1. Do you use separate sets of dishes for meat and dairy
products?
2. Do you use separate sets of dishes for khometz and
Passover?
The answers are the same for both questions: 76, "no"; 35,
"yes". The B'nai Khaim who do not keep separate sets of milk
and meat dishes do not keep separate sets of khometz and
Passover dishes either. The degree of this practice, however,
differs as between the foreign-born and the native-born. For the
foreign-born the ratio is 3 "no" to 2 "yes." For the
native-born the ratio is 3 "no" to 1 "yes".
The two questions for the men were:
1. Do you say hamotze lekhem?
2. Do you cover your head when eating?
Here, too, the answers are practically the same to both
questions: 93 "no" to 8 "yes" for the first, and 95 "no" to
6 "yes" for the second. And here, too, the degree of
observance differs as between the foreign-born and the
nativeborn. For the foreign-born the ratio is 7 "no" to 1 "yes".
For the native-born the ratio is 59 "no" to 1 "yes". For the
native-born, saying hamotze lekhem and covering the head
when eating have almost completely vanished as an exercise of
Jewishness. It is dying out rapidly among the foreign-born.
Notes to Chapter 6:
(1) American Judaism, Chicago University Press, 1957, pp. 140-41.
(2) As reported in the New York Times, October 28,1965.
(3) We did not define these terms. We thought that a prescribed definition
might inhibit a free response. Instead, we followed up with several
supporting questions of a specific nature.
CandleMaker Kaprov
E-Mail:
CandleMaker_Kaprov@Yahoo.com
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