A top sociologist warned Jewish communal professionals gathered Jan. 12 in Scotch Plains that despite deep involvement by the most committed Jews, key indicators of broader Jewish involvement were in decline.

Steven M. Cohen, keynote speaker at the 2006 Winter Program of the New Jersey Association of Jewish Communal Service, said reduced communal giving was one indication of the decline.

Research professor of Jewish Social Policy at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cohen set the stage for the future by outlining a series of current conditions, some heartening, some very worrying. Citing figures that show that involved Jews are more deeply connected and more Jewishly educated than their parents, he challenged the Jewish communal professionals present “to link the silos” of involvement to ensure that children who start out in Jewish day schools go to Jewish college campuses and on to affiliated adult lives. Between 1999 and 2000, there was no decline in synagogue membership, he said, but in that time membership in the Conservative movement had dropped sharply, threatening the “biodiversity” of the Jewish people.

He warned that donations to Jewish federations were falling among younger Jews. Cohen was less concerned with the financial consequences than what that decline represents about belief in tzedaka, or Jewish philanthropy, and membership in “the larger Jewish family.” In 1970, 39 percent of Jews gave to federations, he said; in 2000 that was down to 26 percent.

“Federations should be broadcasting this news rather than saying that numbers are getting better and better,” said Cohen. “There really is a philanthropic cooling, and federation has a responsibility to call our attention to this critical issue.”

Cohen urged his audience to heed a younger generation who pick and choose among traditions and lifestyles to build a Jewish life. He stressed the need for community leaders to follow that lead and to find a “third way,” a creative approach somewhere between shutting out the modern world and totally accommodating it.

Cohen spoke to the gathering of around 90 people at the Wilf Jewish Community Campus in Scotch Plains. Those present included social workers, fund-raisers, educators, and administrators from federations, synagogues, and agencies from central and northern New Jersey, from Monmouth County to Bergen County, including local agencies.

The theme of the event was A Look into the Crystal Ball: The Future of Jewish Communal Service and the Jewish Community. Throughout the day, one statistic struck a resounding chord: the high level of job satisfaction among those in this field. Margy-Ruth Davis, presenter of one of the two workshops, gave the figure as 63 percent.

Judy Beck presented the Saul Schwarz Distinguished Service Award to the event’s honoree, her friend and colleague Joy Kurland, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of UJA Federation of Northern NJ.

Beck, director of the Synagogue Leadership Initiative of UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey, was last year’s recipient of the Saul Schwarz Award and chair of the award committee. Schwarz, who died in August 2001 at the age of 87, was cofounder of the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest and spent 50 years working for the Jewish community. In his last professional role, he was associate executive vice president of the organization that became United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. He was also cofounder of NJAJCS and received its first distinguished service award, which was later named in his honor.

The Schwarz Award is presented each year to a Jewish communal worker who has “demonstrated strong commitment to Jewish communal service and to the advancement of the status of Jewish communal workers.” Past winners have included Ron I. Coun, Helen Gottlieb, Martin S. Rakitt, the late Mildred Hamilton, Abraham D. Davis, Rabbi Jeshaia Schnitzer, Lawrence Gelfand, Irene Stolzenberg, Dr. Bernard Ducoff, David Zeff, Jack Boeko, Dr. Ron Meier, Barbara London, Roberta Sutker, Passi Rosen-Bayewitz, Richard Corman, Dolores Greenfield, Joan Bronspiegel Dickman, and — of course — Judy Beck.

Beck set the tone for the event in her description of Schwarz: “He was known as a curmudgeon, but he pushed you beyond what you thought you could achieve. Joy Kurland lives up to the expectations and standards that Saul Schwarz set for us.”

Beck called Kurland “our Miriam and our heroine, the face and the soul of our Jewish community” and said she was constantly pushing into new areas, seeking justice for the victims of the genocide in Darfur, crossing denominational and religious lines to do tikun olam, repairing the world. “Like Saul Schwarz, she pushes us to excellence,” Beck said.

Kurland, looking back at her 37 years in Jewish communal service, said meeting Schwarz at a MetroWest meeting on Jewish student services in the mid-1970s was one of the turning points in her life. “He was a visionary and a mentor. You could never say no to Saul, and in getting the task done you became a better person.”

No crystal ball predictions emerged, though one participant, Arje Shaw, executive director of the YM-YWHA of Raritan Valley in Highland Park, said that looking around the room, it was clear that a new generation of Jewish professionals would be needed within the next decade.

Shaw suggested that at future events more time be scheduled for discussion. But Chris Morton, assistant vice president of endowments for UJA NNJ, who cochaired the event with Amy Cooper, director of financial resource development of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, pointed out that given how busy these people are, securing more time for this kind of get-together would be difficult.