‘
rums
PuTATioN
the number of random phone calls made to reach 1.3 million households.
_
the number of Jewish households surveyed.
the number of organizations and individuals that provided input into the questions.
the number of people with a Jewish background, but not identified as Jews, who completed a shorter survey.
the questions asked.
•the number of people who opted to answer the survey in Russian.
the average number of minutes to complete a survey.
•
the number of "replicate" surveys NJPS conducted, studies nearly identical to the main study which will
be used to offer subsequent in death looks at various segments of the Jewish community.
Source: The National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001
NJPS tried to avoid creating a single
focus by releasing the data in two parts.
This week, officials of the UJC
released what Mott termed only a "skele-
ton outline" of the Jewish population.
The study, which was delayed in an
effort to reach the sample of 4,500,
cost $6 million, compared to
$500,000 in 1990.
Among those who found the results
less than surprising was Egon Mayer,
who chairs the Brooklyn College soci-
ology department and directs the
Center for Jewish Studies at the
Graduate Center of the City
University of New York.
"I wish I could say they have got it
all wrong, but on this macro level, it's
pretty much what every study has
found — they've identified what's
real," said Mayer, who sat on the
NJPS advisory panel.
If U.S. Jewry dropped 5.45 percent
during a decade when the U.S. popu-
the regional distribution of Jews
since 1990:
• 43 percent of Jews live in the
Northeast, compared with 19 per-
cent of the total population.
• 22 percent of Jews live in the
West, compared with 23 percent
of non-Jews.
• 22 percent of Jews live in the
South, compared with 35 percent
of non-Jews.
• 13 percent of Jews live in the
Midwest, compared with 23 per-
cent of non-Jews.
• 38 percent of Jews live in a
different region of the country
from where they were born.
HOUSEHOLDS:
• The average number of people
per Jewish household is 2.3, down
from 2.5 percent in 1990, and
compared with 2.6 percent in
non-Jewish households.
• 30 percent of Jewish house-
lation expanded 33 million to 288
million, in some part due to immigra-
tion, then even "a modest decline is
not a good thing," Mayer said.
Mayer led his own 2001 demo-
graphic survey, meant as a second
opinion to the NJPS 2000 - 2001. His
survey, which used criteria similar to
the 1990 NJPS, counted 5.5 million
U.S. Jews. But Mayer also found that
only 51 percent of those Jews identi-
fied themselves as Jews, down from 58
percent in 1990.
One critic of the NJPS who issued
his own report last month, identifying
6.7 million Jews, blasted the initial
results as a "methodological disaster."
Gary Tobin, president of the San
Francisco-based Institute for Jewish &
Community Research, said the NJPS
scared away some Jews by asking
screening questions about their reli-
gion immediately.
Unlike his own study, which located
holds have one person, compared
with 26 percent of non-Jewish
households, and up from 24 per-
cent in 1990.
• 38 percent have two people,
13 percent have three, 12 percent
have four and 8 percent have five
or more (compared with the gen-
eral population, where 14 percent
have four people and 11 percent
have five or more).
EDUCATION:
• 24 percent of adult Jews have
a graduate degree, and 55 percent
have earned at least a bachelor's
degree, as compared with 5 per-
cent and 28 percent, respectively,
in the general population.
EMPLOYMENT:
• 62 percent of Jews are
employed full-time•or part-time,
just 1 percent higher than in
1990; broken down by gender, 68
250 Jewish households by asking a
series of general questions first, the
NJPS "waded way too quickly" into
the Jewish survey, he said.
But Ira Sheskin, a member of the
NJPS advisory panel and a geography
professor at the University of Miami,
said the NJPS used synagogue and
Jewish community center lists of
known Jews to test whether people
admitted to being Jews.
In addition to the 6.7 million Jews
Tobin found using the same definition
of a Jew as NJPS, Tobin pinpointed an
additional 2.5 million Americans as
" connected non-Jews" who are tied by
marriage, ancestry or secondary prac-
tice to Judaism, and 4.1 million more
people with some Jewish ancestor such
as a grandparent.
Competing Figures
Sheskin said he could not explain why
percent of Jewish men and 56 per-
cent of women are employed.
• 21 percent of Jews are retired,
up from 16 percent in 1990 and
compared with 16 percent of non-
Jews.
• 59 percent of Jews work in
management, business and profes-
sional/technical positions, com-
pared with 46 percent of non-Jews
who work in those areas.
• Of the 59 percent, 41 percent
work. in professional or technical
positions.
INCOME:
• $50,000 is the median
income among Jews, compared
with $42,000 among non-Jews.
• 19 percent of U.S. Jews are
defined as low income, earning
$25,000 annually or less, com-
pared with 29 percent of non-
Jews.
Tobin came up with different figures
from NJPS, or from the 6.1 million
Jews estimated in the 2000 American
Jewish Year Book — a figure based on
local community lists.
But Sheskin, who has criticized
Tobin's study for casting too wide a
net in determining Jews, added that
the dueling studies are ultimately
"about the same" and differ largely
along lines of "how you go about
defining who is a Jew." Indeed, some
demographers, cautioned that it
-
would be a mistake to focus too heav-
ily on the NJPS numbers.
Calvin Goldscheider, a professor of
Judaic studies at Brown University,
said one key challenge will be to study
the 1.5 million non-Jews living in the
2.9 million Jewish households that
the study identified.
These non-Jews are associated with
Jews because the community is family-
oriented, well-educated, relatively high-
income and strongly American, he
said. Given the earlier focus on inter-
marriage, the community now should
focus not on fewer numbers, but at
what kind of Jewish life is happening
in these homes, he said. Mayer, who
has been involved in outreach pro-
grams for interfaith families, agreed.
The greater the decline in those
identified as Jews, Mayer said, "the
greater the question is, Who are these
people in the Jewish household, and
what impact will they have on the life
of the Jewish community?"
Stephen Cohen, a sociologist of
American Jewry and professor at the
Melton Centre for Jewish Education
at Hebrew University in Jerusalem,
said few sociologists would be sur-
prised that after a decade of high
intermarriage rates, the NJPS pointed
to many non-Jews living with Jews.
Now, the community needs to
"look at how to intensify the involve-
ment of Jews, and how to negotiate
the boundary between Jews and non-
Jews," said Cohen, who was a consult-
ant to the NJPS.
-
While that symbolic line was once
automatic" between the Jewish and
non-Jewish world, it "now runs
through families" of Jews, he added.
Some will want to "eviscerate" the line
and be as "inclusive" as possible, he
said, while others will argue the bor-
der should be "more sharply defined."
Mayer is more concerned - about the
political implications of the overall
"decline" in strictly Jewish numbers,
coming as it does as the overall U.S.
population rose by 33 million to 288
million. "That means that our propor-
tional share has weakened," he said. ❑
"
10/11
2002
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