May 11, 2021 9:00 am Ira Sheskin, a prominent Jewish demographer, conducted at least 43 Jewish federation population surveys between 1982 and 2014. (Uriel Heilman)
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(JTA) On Tuesday, the Pew Research Center will present the results of its latest major survey of Jewish Americans, its biggest since 2013. If history is any guide, the results will launch a thousand internal Jewish debates about who is a Jew, who gets to decide and what’s the future for a diverse, splintered, assimilated and persistent community of communities.
It may seem like an argument for insiders. But even for those with a casual connection to the Jewish community – through a synagogue, community center or reading Jewish media population surveys have an impact on their lives.
Campers at Camp Be’chol Lashon, a summer camp for young Jews of color. (Courtesy)
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(JTA) – An overwhelming majority of American Jews, about 83%, share the same basic demographic profile but there are signs that American Jewry is growing more diverse.
The 83% is made up of Jews who say they are white and do not identify with ethnic labels such as Hispanic, Sephardic or Mizrahi. They were all born in the same set of places the United States, Canada and Europe, plus countries of the former Soviet Union and so were both their parents.
The remainder, an estimated 17%, depart from this profile in at least one regard. These American Jews identify as Black, Asian, some other minority race or multiracial. Also grouped here are Jews of any race who identify as Hispanic, Mizrahi or Sephardic or anyone born in the rest of the world, including Israel.
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(Illustration by Grace Yagel)
JTA Meet America’s Jews: They’re older, more educated, richer and less religious, on average, than the rest of the country.
They’re overwhelmingly white, though Jews under 30 are more diverse. Most of them care about Israel, though one in 10 supports the movement to boycott it. Most of their young adults are marrying non-Jews, though the growing Orthodox community is not.
Those are some of the many findings of a study on Jewish Americans published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. It’s the second edition of a landmark 2013 study that changed the American Jewish conversation.
(JTA) On Tuesday, the Pew Research Center will present the results of its latest major survey of Jewish Americans, its biggest since 2013. If history is any guide, the results will launch a thousand internal Jewish debates about who is a Jew, who gets to decide and what’s the future for a diverse, splintered, assimilated and persistent community of communities.
It may seem like an argument for insiders. But even for those with a casual connection to the Jewish community – through a synagogue, community center or reading Jewish media population surveys have an impact on their lives.
The “Jewish Philanthropic Complex” as historian Lila Corwin Berman calls the loose network of Jewish federations, foundations and nonprofits sets funding and planning priorities for the organized Jewish community based on these surveys. The cost, quality and availability of Jewish education, social services, the arts and culture, efforts to combat antisemitism, support for Israel and more