It is important to keep in mind that historically, the great majority of those raised Orthodox have ended up identifying as Conservative and Reform Jews in adulthood.

Percent Remaining in Denomination in Which Raised
Orthodox	Conservative	Reform
22.0	58.0	73.0

Whether claims might be made for the strengths of Orthodoxy, this movement has been the highest exporter of Jews to other movements. When the paired answers of each individual respondent in the 1990 NJPS were examined, comparing their answers to the question of how they were raised with the question of what they considered themselves currently, it was found that only approximately 22% of married adults raised as Orthodox, currently identified as Orthodox.

Percent Intermarried
Affiliation	"Raised"	"Currently"
Orthodox	11%	6%
Conservative	22%	13%
Reform	35%	27%

The percentage of those intermarrying by their denomination of upbringing and current identification is shown to the right. Generally speaking, those Jews who currently identify with any denominational movement have a lower rate of intermarriage than those who have no such identification. Of course, it remains an open question as to which comes first: identification or intermarriage. It may well be that those who intermarry are more likely to relinquish movement identification, rather than the absence of movement identification somehow increases the probability of an intermarriage.

The percentage of households that are exclusively Jewish (as opposed to those consisting of both Jews and non-Jews) varies greatly by the year of marriage in addition to the denominational background of the respondent as shown in the graph below.

The statistical association between higher rates of intermarriage and absence of Jewish movement identification suggests that all branches of Judaism have a stake in reaching out to those who are most marginal to organized Jewish communal life.

At present, about 40 percent of the children of the intermarried are being brought up with no clear religious identity and 28% are being brought up with a defined Jewish identity. Only about a third of the children are being give a distinct religious identity hat is not Jewish.

At JOI we believe that we have an obligation as well as an opportunity to the largely undefined 40 percent -- all the more so when they are "halachically" Jewish--to try to bring them into the Jewish fold.