Synagogue Attendees Live Longer

R. Yehoshua ben Levi said to his children: "Go early and stay late in synagogue in order that you should live a long life"

-Talmud Berachot 8a

Here is yet another of the many studies showing the positive lifestyle effects of religion:

Adults who attend synagogue regularly live longer than their peers who do not attend synagogue, according to a recently published study carried out by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The research, conducted by Professor Howard Litwin of the university's Israel Gerontological Data Center (IGDC), was published in The European Journal of Aging....

The study was based on a Bureau of Statistics survey conducted in 1997, for which 5,000 Israeli men and women aged 60 and above were interviewed about their way of life.

In 2004, the number of participants still living was monitored. In a focus group of 1,811, some 38 percent had passed away....

Data showed that the death rate was 75 percent higher among the group that did not attend synagogue than it was among the group that attended synagogue regularly.

Litwin said that there is no clear-cut explanation for the synagogue attendance effect, but outlined two main possibilities.

"One explanation is spiritual, that is, the individual faith factor," he said. "A series of studies that have been conducted in recent years, especially in the United States, argue that faith helps people deal with psychological pressure. People who believe and pray apparently survive longer," said Litwin.

"Another explanation is the connection between attending synagogue and belonging to a supportive community," he added.

Litwin said that in late old age decreased social activity is a common problem.

"A person who goes to synagogue has a function: He is called to the Torah, and he has a network of social ties in the community."

Litwin also noted that since religious Jews do not drive on Shabbat, a person who goes to synagogue regularly must be able to walk, and hence is healthier.

Of course, the researcher is quite close-minded to the possibility that billions of people might be religious because there may be some truth in it. It is a conceivable possibility that all that prayer for health might actually work.

There is also a reasonable chance that the effect is understated because many synagogue-goers are not terribly religious. In particular, formerly non-religious elderly often attend synagogues because of their fear of death. Also some people who are insufferable to others attend synagogue because they have a captive audience for their dysfunction.