As a result of 18 months of deliberation on family policy issues pertaining to young children, the American Jewish Committee's Task Force on Family Policy put together this booklet. After an introductory foreword by E. Robert Goodkind, a paper by Steven Bayme, called "Current Debates and Challenges," outlines the range of issues underlying family policy and provides the relevant arguments for and against particular policy options and directions. Topics discussed include: current trends in the American family, the family policy debate, policy options, and the Jewish community. A second paper, "Classical Teachings and Historic Experience," by David Biale with the assistance of Rachel Biale, surveys Jewish teachings on public and private responsibilities to the family and synthesizes Jewish tradition and modern cultural values. The Biales' paper deals with the following topics: (1) marriage in Jewish tradition; (2) reasons for marriage; (3) extramarital and premarital sex; (4) intermarriage; (5) the social realities of marriage; (6) age at marriage; (7) the structure of the family; (8) divorce; (9) parent-child relations; (10) care of infants; (11) women and work; and (12) the Jewish tradition and the contemporary crisis of the family. The final section contains a statement on parents and children by the American Jewish Committee on Family Policy, and a list of American Jewish Committee Family Policy Task Force members. (SKC)