quently meet this Jewish educational criterion during their high school years. In fact, two-thirds of Conservative Jewish high school students drop out of formal Jewish education by their junior year. Indeed day school drop-outs after 8th grade often enroll in Hebrew high schools or private studies to meet this study requirement for Ramah. Clearly, however, the myth that day school students dominate Camp Ramah beyond b’nai mitzvah age is exposed as inaccurate. They appear to be outnumbered three to one by Hebrew high school attendees.
B. Religious Observance Since the Bar/Bat Mitzvah When asked to self-describe any change in their pattern of religious observance over the last four years, 31% of students who attend Camp Ramah claimed they are more religiously observant at age 17-18 than they were in their Bar/Bat Mitzvah year (see Table 3). This figure is twice the rate for the 16% of the students who never attended any Jewish summer camp and higher than the 25% of those attending other Jewish summer camps. In all three groups about 40% of students, regardless of whether they attend Jewish summer camp or where, feel that their religious observance has not changed four years after the Bar/ Bat Mitzvah. Clearly the larger proportion of students who say that during high school they feel less religiously observant than they were in their Bar/Bat Mitzvah year are found among those who never attended any Jewish summer camp.
Table 3: Religious Observance During High School Compared to Bar/Bat Mitzvah Year (in percentages) Much More
More
Same
Less
Attended Camp Ramah
7
24
41
20
7
100
Attended other J. summer camp
5
20
40
26
9
100
Never attended J. summer camp
2
14
42
29
13
100
4
18
40
27
11
100
Total (n=1,295) p<0.0005
Much Less
Total
13