According to a study released this week by the UJA-Federation
of New York, the overall New York Jewish community of the
metropolitan area has remained stable at 1.4 million people
over the last twelve years, but the population of New York
City itself has dropped below a million for the first time in
a century. The proportion of Jews identifying themselves as
Conservative and Reform has dropped from 70 percent to 55
percent in only 11 years.
About 50 years ago, the Jewish population of New York City
was put at 2 million. In 1981, the Jewish population of New
York City stood at 1.1 million. In 1991, the figure was 1.027
million. Now it is 972,000. In 1957 one out of four New
Yorkers was Jewish, compared with one in eight today. However
compared to other non-Hispanic whites the Jews are staying
on, so they now constitute over a third of the city's "non-
minority" population.
Entitled "The Jewish Community Study of New York: 2002
Highlights," the report is the result of a comprehensive
study of the Jewish population in the eight-county area --
the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island,
Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties -- served by the
UJA-Federation. The last such study was done eleven years
earlier in 1991.
The survey shows a 24 percent growth in the number of
households in Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties,
while Jewish households in New York City decreased by about 6
percent. The Bronx has approximately 45,000 Jews, and Staten
Island has 42,000 Jews. Brooklyn had the largest Jewish
population at 456,000, followed by Manhattan with 243,000.
Since there were 171,000 Jewish households in Brooklyn and
155,000 in Manhattan, Brooklyn households are clearly much
larger. In Queens there were 186,000 Jews and 87,000
households. In Nassau County there were 221,000 Jews and in
Westchester 129,000. Suffolk County had 90,000.
The Jews of New York are becoming polarized around the
extremes of Jewish identity. In the last study, 13 percent
said they were "Just Jewish" or had no religion. The current
figure is 25 percent.
On the other hand, in 1991 only 13 percent identified
themselves as Orthodox, while 19 percent did so last year.
Past experience also indicates that the Orthodox Jews may be
significantly undercounted.
Conservative and Reform declined considerably for such a
short period. In 1991, 34 percent identified themselves as
Conservative and 36 percent as Reform. In 2002 the figures
were 26 percent and 29 percent, respectively. This is an
extremely sharp drop in so short a period. Altogether, 70
percent of the New York Area Jews identified themselves as
Conservative or Reform in 1991 and in just eleven years the
percentage was only 55 percent. If this trend has continued,
it is now less than 53 percent. If it continues, then in
another decade Conservative and Reform Jews will be barely a
quarter of all New York metropolitan Jewry. The fall may even
accelerate since other studies have shown that Conservative
and Reform congregations tend to be elderly.
"Reconstructionist" declined from two percent to one percent,
but both figures are too small to be significant.
Of all the Jews in Brooklyn, 37 percent identify as Orthodox.
Twenty percent of the Jews in Bronx and Queens said they were
Orthodox, 11 percent of those in Manhattan and 10 percent of
those in Staten Island.
Still, 72 percent of all the Jews in New York say they
"always or usually" fast on Yom Kippur, though 28 percent
unfortunately say "never." The percentages for kosher are the
reverse: 28 percent say they "always or usually" keep a
kosher home and 72 percent, Hashem yeracheim, say
"never." Both these indicators rose in the past decade: in
1991, 25 percent said they kept kosher and 66 percent said
they fasted on Yom Kippur.
The New York area is much more traditionally Jewish by many
measures. One of these is the intermarriage rate. Keeping in
mind that these figures may be somewhat suspect because they
are based on the respondents' self-definition, 22 percent are
intermarried and 7 percent are conversionary marriages, and
thus 71 percent are inmarriages. The survey defines a
"conversionary marriage" as one in which one of the spouses
was not raised Jewish but now "considers self Jewish
regardless of whether a formal conversion occurred."
However the range varies considerably. In Suffolk County 41
percent of the couples are intermarriages, while in Brooklyn
only 12 percent are.
The rate of intermarriage has been pretty stable over the
past 25 years at about 30 percent, which is much lower than
the overall US Jewish community.
According to the survey, there are about 370,000 children
under the age of 18 in the New York metropolitan area.
Some other highlights: There are 202,000 Russian-speaking
Jews. There are almost equal percentages of children (22
percent) and seniors (20 percent). Approximately 83,000
seniors live alone in the New York area. Of the Jewish
respondents 75 and over who are living alone, 44 percent do
not have an adult child living in the New York region.
Despite substantial wealth within the Jewish community, there
is also substantial poverty. Jewish poverty in New York City
has doubled from 10.5 percent in 1991 to 21.2 percent as of
2002. 244,000 people live in poor Jewish households; 91
percent of Russian-speaking seniors report poverty level
incomes. One in five Jewish households in New York City are
poor. In 1991, one in ten Jewish households in New York City
were poor. Researchers attribute this to the influx of
Russian immigrants who tend to be poor, especially in the
first years after their arrival.
Interviews were carried out between March 11, 2002 and
September 13, 2002. 4,533 telephone interviews were conducted
with randomly selected Jewish households. A Jewish household
was defined as a household including one or more persons at
least 18 years old, who self-identify themselves as
Jewish.
The UJA-Federation Of New York calls itself the world's
largest local philanthropy, and helps people worldwide.
