By Vlasta Kovac
ZAGREB, Croatia, July 14 (JTA) -- Croatia's
recently issued census for 2001 appeared to indicate that some of the nation's
Jews are unwilling to admit their background.
The census indicated that
576 people described themselves as Jews "by ethnicity," but only 475 described
their religion as Judaism.
Given that there are 2,000 registered members
of Croatia's nine organized Jewish communities, the results showed there were
many people who sought another self-description.
The issue of how many
Jews there are among Croatia's population of 4,437,460 is more than academic.
As an official minority group, Jews are eligible for aid from the state,
including money for a kindergarten, retirement home, newspaper and a variety of
Jewish cultural projects.
Jewish leaders have long been worried that
their status with the government could be lost as fewer declare themselves as
Jews.
Before the census was held, Ognjen Kraus, president of the Zagreb
Jewish community, wrote a letter appealing to Jews to mark "Jewish" on their
census questionnaires.
Just the same, he was not surprised by the
results.
"One should take into account that more than 90 percent of the
members of the Jewish community have been born in mixed marriages and have
married a non-Jew," two factors that would lead them to define themselves
non-Jewishly.
Since 1945, most Jews in Croatia declared themselves as
Yugoslavs. But after Croatia broke away from Yugoslavia, they preferred to
remain ethnically uncommitted rather than officially declare themselves as
Jews.
In the country's 1991 census -- like this time around -- only about
600 people defined themselves as Jews.
Kraus considered this a hopeful
development, noting that since at least 200 or 300 aged members of the community
died between the two censuses, "it means that young people are now declaring
themselves as Jews."
During the 1950s and 1960s, many Jews who were in
the Communist Party, in the army or had high social positions never declared
themselves as Jews.
Now, many of their children and grandchildren are
doing so, Kraus said.
According to unofficial estimates, there may be as
many as 10,000 people in Croatia who have Jewish roots, but who describe
themselves as Croats or Catholics.
Whether young people decided to
declare themselves as Jews on the census form depended for the most part on
their upbringing.
Jewish self-identification increases if their parents
sent them for religious training or if they spent their holidays in Jewish
summer camps, according to Croatian Jewish leaders.
The absence of
religious training in some cases might account for the fact that some people
identified themselves as Jewish "by ethnicity'' but did not describe their
religion as Judaism, they said.
http://www.juf.org/news_public_affairs/article.asp?key=3372
Title: Message
Croatia census reflects Jewish
realities
