Panel to Study Troubled Survey of U.S. Jews

The president of McGill University in Montreal will head a task force that is designed to answer questions about problems with a long-awaited national study of American Jews, a national Jewish organization said this week.

The National Jewish Population Survey was scheduled to be released at this week’s annual meeting of the United Jewish Communities in Philadelphia.

The release was postponed because the outside research firm that conducted the survey apparently lost some data relating to the survey.

Bernard J. Shapiro, the principal and vice chancellor of McGill University, will head the task force.

The group will convene in the coming weeks to ensure that the data, which are often controversial, can eventually be released under circumstances that are statistically sound.