As you read this, you’ve probably received your 2010 census questionnaire.  If you are especially conscientious, you may have already returned it.  The decennial census is required by the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3) for the sole purpose of reapportioning the U. S. House of Representatives.  Censuses are not a new concept; we recently read in the Torah how the Israelites were counted in the desert.  In the Torah, each person was taxed half a shekel.  The U.S. census could merely count heads to satisfy the Constitution, but to avoid counting anyone twice the names are recorded.  One of the more deplorable aspects of American history had slaves counted as three fifths of a person, so – the race and status had to be recorded.

The first three censuses (1790, 1800 and 1810) just listed people by sex, race, and status (free, slave).  Beginning in 1820, additional questions were asked: questions about marital status, number of children born and alive, occupation, citizenship, and literacy.  In the twentieth century, additional questions about home ownership were included.  In 1930, a question about radio ownership was added.

In our politically correct environment, the questions asked in previous censuses were embarrassing: “Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane or idiotic;” “whether a pauper or convict.”

As long as every resident of the United States was going to be personally visited by a census taker, government bureaucrats felt that gathering additional statistics would be helpful in delivering services.  Today the census statistics are still used for apportioning aid and services.

Many of you know that I’m an avid amateur genealogist.  The censuses provide important information for tracing our family histories.  I found my family in the U.S. census starting in 1900, after they emigrated from Russia.  I also found family in a Russian census from 1854.  I learned that the census takers were not supposed to embarrass people by asking them to spell their names (they might not be able to read or write).  As a result, there are often inconsistencies in the way names are spelled from census to census.  Also, the information is not checked for accuracy.  If someone doesn’t remember the year they immigrated, they just invented a date.  My great uncle Zalman was Sam in 1900, his brother was David.  By 1930, David was Sam and Sam was Zalman.  Why they changed identities is a family mystery.

Now – you are probably asking, why I’m writing this in the Center News.  One reason is that I just enjoy talking about my genealogy hobby.  Another reason is something that I received about seven or eight years ago.  The Census Bureau tests their questionnaires by sending test questions to random people.  I was one of those random people.  They asked about my ethnicity.  The sample answers were countries of origin.  I could specify multiple countries.  But even though my mother was born in Poland and my father’s parents in Russia, I don’t consider myself to be Russian or Polish; I entered “Jewish.”  That is not a permissible answer since Jewish is a religion, not a nationality (Is it an ethnicity?).  The census cannot ask about religion.  That question is not in the 2010 questionnaire.  This year multiple races can be specified.  It made me think about the age old debate, Who is a Jew?  One can be a Jew if their mother is a Jew, or they undergo a conversion.  Natural born Jews don’t have to undergo any affirmative step to be counted. That identity question has bothered me.  I don’t have an answer and I’m sure I’m not the only person bothered by it.  That could the subject of another essay.  Stay tuned.

Michael Levine
President