There are more Jews living in New York today than there were ten years ago. That is the result of a study by the United Jewish Appeal Federation in New York. According to the survey, there were around 1.41 million Jews in New York in 2002, compared to 1.54 million in 2011. In household terms: in 2002 there were 634,000, ten years later there were 694,000. That is an increase of an impressive ten percent.
suburbs However, this study not only included Jews in the five cities that make up New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx), but also those in the suburbs, such as Westchester and Long Island. Most Jews still live in Brooklyn, home to numerous Hasidic groups. One sixth of all households in this part of the city are Jewish.
The population increase is due to high birth rates and the fact that life expectancy has increased. The number of Jews under the age of 25 increased (by 66,000, compared with 2002), and the number of Jews over the age of 75 also increased (by 44,000).
poverty A relatively large number of Jews in New York are poor: a quarter of all Jewish households in the city itself – and 20 percent if you include the suburbs. The number of so-called mixed marriages has remained constant. It is 22 percent. This clearly sets New Yorkers apart from Jews in other American cities. There marriages with non-Jews have increased.
If you look closely at the study, you can clearly see which religious currents in New York are not benefiting from the upward trend: the reform Jews and the conservatives. Around 40,000 fewer of them live in the city today than ten years ago. 37 percent of New York’s Jews are Orthodox. 64 percent of all Jewish children in New York and the suburbs grew up Orthodox in 2011. At the same time, the number of Jewish households with no ties to any synagogue has more than doubled in the past 20 years: it has soared from 15 to 37 percent.
In summary, there are more Jews in New York today than ever before. Anything else that one would say about this community would be an inadmissible generalization because it is a very diverse group. This also applies to the tint of the epidermis: 12 percent of all Jews in New York said they were not white.
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