American Jewish Population 6.7-6.8 Million, New Reports Say

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 jewishNew reports from the Pew Research Center and Brandeis University’s Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI) peg the Jewish population of the United States at 6.7 million and 6.8 million, respectively.

Pew’s Religion and Public Life Project today released “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” based on a survey of 3,475 Jews from Feb. 20 to June 13, 2013. The report estimated that there are 6.7 million Jews in the U.S., and that 78 percent of that population identifies as Jewish by religion, as opposed to by background or other criteria. A day earlier, SSRI released “American Jewish Population Estimates: 2012,” which concluded that there are 6.8 million American Jews, with about 81 percent identifying as Jewish by religion.

Prof. Leonard Saxe, SSRI’s director and the new report’s co-author, had estimated in December 2011 that the U.S. Jewish population was 6.4 million. Amid the release of the new figures, Saxe said the population increase as well as the stabilization of the number of those identifying as Jewish by religion (1.8 percent of the total American population, according to SSRI) could be interpreted as either a positive or negative narrative, being that synagogue membership and engagement with other Jewish institutions have not risen at the same rate as the Jewish population.

“You can either say, ‘Wow, this is a problem,’ or you can say, ‘This is an opportunity for the Jewish community,'” Saxe told JNS.org.

SSRI’s new data said that 24 percent of American Jews are 65 or older. More than 20 percent live in the state of New York, followed by 14 percent in California, 12 percent in Florida, 8 percent in New Jersey, and 5 percent each in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. SSRI also unveiled an interactive map of the U.S. Jewish population.

JNS.ORG

{Matzav.com Israel}


5 COMMENTS

  1. There is a new study of american Jews just released by the Pew Forum (rather reliable).

    if you go to this page and then scroll over the word orthodox, it shows that only 48% of Jews who grew up Orthodox today identify themselves as orthodox.

    http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-denominational-switching/

    Here is the full study that discusses intermarriage rates and Jewish identification.
    http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/

  2. here’s something from the attitudes article that is significant:

    http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/
    par 11 from top, under the graph of “Jewish Denominational Affiliation”

    Roughly half of the survey respondents who were raised as Orthodox Jews say they are no longer Orthodox. But the falloff from Orthodoxy appears to be declining and is significantly lower among 18-to-29-year-olds (17%) than among older people. (See discussion and table in Chapter 3, Jewish Identity.)

  3. Lets smell the brewing HOT coffee….
    It’s getting worse by the month week day hour etc., because we are not doing enough Teshuva, not enough Torah, not enough Chessed, not enough Ahavas Yisroel, Tzedakah, etc. we ain’t getting close enough to Hahsem as we should be. (some of us) s

    I suggest that all the true Jews to take themselves into their hands and come closer to G-D

    Truly give up all our nonsense, all the things we prefer to entertain ourselves with, i.e. constant vacations, restaurants, trips, hotels, TALKING IN SHULL DURING DAVENING, all the wrongdoing that we occupy ourselves with in order to forget our troubles, because if we don’t change our bad habits, our corrupt way of life and thinking, we will just disappear before the arrival of Moshiach Chas Vesholom.

  4. What a crock! They are counting in ‘jews’ who like to think of themselves as ‘jews’ and, of course, all those non-halachaic jews, whose father or a grandparent might be Jewish, but they are, of course, not. The intermarriage rate and assimilation is frightening and there are those who might have heard since childhood that they are jews but have nothing, absolute nothing to do with being Jewish, even in the most minor way. Halachacly, there are no more, if that much, then 4-1/2 to 5 million Jews in the U.S. Thankfully, the orthodox communities have grown, but are a minority.

  5. #3 – You are correct. What you discuss is mostly about “NISHMA”. Remember “NAASE” was first.

    Don’t just sit and learn and do for yourself. Do something with what you’ve learned. Do something for others too.

    Invite a non-frum Yid into your house for a pleasant Shabbos. Do at least one Kiddish Hashem
    daily. Bring the non-frum Yid closer to real Yiddishkeit.

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