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nagikabegi bilama::, : a:Ag),
From the pages of the Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
Suns
DEBRA L. WALLACE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
West Palm Beach, Fla.
ore than 10 percent of
all American Jews
reside in the South
Florida counties of
Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-
Dade.
The Jewish population of these
areas, which now
stands at
644,000,
increased by 30
percent during
the past 20
years.
These figures come from a new
study commissioned by the Jewish
Federation of Palm Beach County,
which provides details on synagogue
membership and Jewish ritual cus-
toms as well as the intermarriage rate.
"The three-county South Florida
area is the second largest concentra-
tion of Jews in the country after the
New York metropolitan area," said Ira
Sheskin, author of the study and a
professor of geography at the
University of Miami.
Released last month, the study
found that there are 101,568 people
in Jewish households living in north-
ern and central Palm Beach County,
making the area the 12th-largest
Jewish community in America.
In 1987, the last time a full demo-
graphic study was undertaken by the
local Jewish federation, there were
76,204 people in Jewish households
living in the same area.
This incredible burst of growth
amounted to some 33 percent in 12
years. The north-central Palm Beach
County Jewish community is now
larger than those in Cleveland,
Detroit and Milwaukee.
If all of Palm Beach County is
counted, the total becomes 230,000
people in Jewish households, and the
entire county becomes the sixth-
largest Jewish area in the United
States, making it larger than Jewish
Study in
South Florida
finds more
elderly Jews.
populations in Boston,
the San Francisco area,
Philadelphia and
Washington.
Some other key find-
ings:
• The median income
is $59,000, which
includes 1,000 families liv-
ing below the poverty line.
Twenty-eight percent has a net
worth of more than $500,000.
Two percent are Orthodox, 34
percent Reform, and 39 percent
Conservative. The remaining 25 per-
cent identified themselves as "just
Jewish."
• Palm Beach County has a high
percentage of Jewish households, 57
percent, with members who have vis-
ited Israel compared to other Jewish
communities — the second highest in
the nation of the 35 communities
surveyed since 1982. South Palm
Beach County, including Delray
Beach and Boca Raton, has the high-
est rate of Israel visitation at 61 per-
cent.
• Palm Beach County has a very
low intermarriage rate, at 11 percent.
• A significant number of local res-
idents participate in Jewish rituals
and customs in their own homes. For
example, 89 percent post a mezuza
and 87 percent attend a seder.
• Ninety-three percent of house-
holds perform Jewish rituals, pay
membership dues to a Jewish organi-
zation ors ynagogue or donate to
Jewish charities. Some 37 percent of
those surveyed belong to a syna- -
gogue somewhere in the United
States. About half, 19 percent,
belong to a synagogue in Palm
Beach County.
Sheskin, a nationally rec-
ognized Jewish demographer,
said the local community has
been successful in dealing
with the needs of a growing
elderly population.
South Palm Beach
County, with Delray
Beach and Boca
Raton, boasts the old-
est Jewish population
in the nation: 69
percent are age 65
and over.
What is sig-
nificant about
these numbers is
that most chil-
dren of older
Jewish adults in
south Florida
have not followed
their parents to
the Sunshine
State. Adult chil-
dren can often pro-
vide a support system
in times of medical or
economic crises.
"Most of the children of older
people have not moved to south
Florida with them, which creates
problems and challenges for those
involved in social services and other
helping programs," Sheskin said.
Some 1,008 Jewish households
were surveyed. They included some
non-Jewish spouses and children
residing with Jews. The survey's mar-
gin of error is plus or minus 3 per-
cent. ❑
Representatives of Hebrew
University in Jerusalem and Yonsei
University in Korea signed an
agreement of cooperation that calls
for an exchange of academic staff
and students.
Honda ended its compliance with
the Arab League boycott of Israel.
,
ANO
Congregation Shaarey Zedek made
plans to introduce the bat mitzvah
ceremony as an option; it would be
held at Friday night services.
Streets of Tel Aviv filled with
garbage during the recent three-day
strike of sanitation workers.
A 12th-grade student in Israel won
a prize from the Weizmann Institute
of Science in Rehovot for inventing
an electronic device that will permit
easier communication between people
who are both deaf and blind and
those with normal faculties.
William G. Butler, mayor of Grosse
Pointe Farms, purchased $1,000 in
Israel Bonds upon his return from
Israel.
Attorney and builder Lester S.
Burton has become the new presi-
dent of the Builders Association of
Metropolitan Detroit.
Max Raminick, post commander
of Rosenwald Post, American Legion,
was awarded a life membership.
The first full-scale graduation cere-
mony took place at Bar-Ilan
University in Ramat Gan, Israel.
A modern synagogue of the
Ashkenazi Jewish congregation on
the outskirts of the Hague,
Netherlands, was to be converted
into a motion picture theater.
The Jewish community in Hong
Kong celebrated the reopening of
the Jewish Club. Originally built in
1905, it was destroyed by Japanese
bombs in 1941.
— Compiled by Sy Manello,
Editorial Assistant
1/7
2000
27