New York – NYT: Aided By Orthodox, City’s Jewish Population Is Growing Again

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    Williamsburg chasidm. FILE photo By  Stefano GiovanniniNew York – After decades of decline, the Jewish population of New York City is growing again, increasing to nearly 1.1 million, fueled by the “explosive” growth of the Hasidic and other Orthodox communities, a new study has found. It is a trend that is challenging long-held notions about the group’s cultural identity and revealing widening gaps on politics, education, wealth and religious observance.

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    Along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. In 2002, 33 percent of respondents identified themselves as Orthodox Jewish; in 2011, 40 percent did.
    Those findings, contained in the first authoritative study of the city’s Jewish population in nearly a decade, challenges the entrenched image of Jews as liberal, affluent and well educated. Over the last decade wealthy, Ivy League graduates like those on the Upper West Side have increasingly lost population share relative to Orthodox groups, like the Hasidic population in Brooklyn, where college degrees are rare and poverty rates have reached 43 percent.

    Members of these Orthodox groups also have been known to be far more likely to adopt more conservative positions on matters like abortion, same-sex marriage and the Israeli approach to the Palestinians.

    At the same time, among non-Orthodox Jews, there has been a weakening in observance of quintessential Jewish practices. Participation in Passover Seders has declined: 14 percent of households never attend one, almost twice as many as a decade ago. Reform and Conservative movements each lost about 40,000 members between 2002 and 2011; nearly a third of the respondents who identified themselves as Jews said they did not ally themselves with a denomination or claimed no religion.

    “There are more deeply engaged Jews and there are more unengaged Jews,” said Jacob B. Ukeles, a social policy analyst and one of the principal authors of the study, which was sponsored by UJA-Federation of New York. “These two wings are growing at the expense of the middle. That’s the reality of our community.”

    Continue to read at The NY Times


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    26 Comments
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    11 years ago

    “like the Hasidic population in Brooklyn, where college degrees are rare and poverty rates have reached 43 percent.”

    You have the kids, now go out and get jobs to support them and teach them a trade!

    bucherel
    bucherel
    11 years ago

    This picture looks like a Jewish Marrathon.

    enlightened-yid
    enlightened-yid
    11 years ago

    With 43% poverty rate and rising, I don’t know how this is something to celebrate. It is only given that educated, upper middle class people don’t have many kids for the sake of having kids, but plan for the future of their children.

    11 years ago

    High poverty rates in Brooklyn? Who will take care of the next generation? If you don’t allow them to learn basic academic skills, if you stop them from learning a trade or going to college… who will pay for the next generation of 1st graders to go to yeshiva? There won’t be any wealthy parents/ grandparents, and the money from the great grandparents’ businesses will either have run out or have to be spread among so many people that it is as if there was nothing left! Our schools will crumble because no one can support them!

    Jothar
    Jothar
    11 years ago

    Every child is a slap in the face of Hitler, regardless of the size of the parents’ bank account.

    TheRealJoe123
    TheRealJoe123
    11 years ago

    Relax about the Poverty B.S, Chassidim all B”H know how to work and how to make great money, this whole food stamps culture was invited, simply b/c it was pushed on us by liberal Government admin over the past 50 years.

    11 years ago

    During the late 1940’s, and early 1950’s, the Jewish population of the five boroughs was between 2.5 million and 3 million, which is was much larger than today!

    sane
    sane
    11 years ago

    If they would spend millions on vocational education rather than their silly litigation, maybe it would alleviate the alleged poverty.

    TorahTruth
    TorahTruth
    11 years ago

    “nearly a third of the respondents who identified themselves as Jews said they did not ally themselves with a denomination or claimed no religion.”

    Say good Shabbos to them, invite them for a Shabbos meal… you never know..

    Jothar
    Jothar
    11 years ago

    Hashem loves all Jews, no matter the size of their bank account.

    11 years ago

    Just wait for the POVERTY rate will jump when starting over the next five – ten years the tax abatements for thousands of condominiums in Brooklyn will start to expire and phase out and landlords will be hit every month with a tax bill of $1,000 plus maintenance and mortgages fees!

    Average condominium tax bill is 7 times the rate of a brownstone. Ranging between $7,500 and $11,000 per year. It’s all because Mayer Bloomberg increased the public school teacher’s salaries 4 times the inflation rate? Bloomberg gave the teachers a 15% pay increase in one year alone! Some teachers earn $95,000 plus for only 180 days of work per year; there is no public school from mid June through September 7th plus mid-winter breaks! NY public school teachers receive one of the best pension plans in the entire country.

    All paid from Orthodox Jewish properties in the five Boros. While the Orthodox Jews are double taxed by paying extra yeshiva tuition!

    JMM64
    JMM64
    11 years ago

    With more and more assimilation among the non-Orthodox, the trend is not difficult to predict of American Jews: more and more Orthodox Jews since they retain most of their children, have a high birth rate, and low intermarriage/assimilation rate; fewer and fewer Reform and Conservative Jews since there is a low birth rate among their members and a high assimilation/intermarriage rate which leads in most cases to less affiliation with Judaism among most of the children born from the intermarriage who choose not to identify with Judaism at all, and there will be a de facto merger between Reform and Conservative Judaism since there are few theological differences between the two movements and decreasing membership in these movements; and more and more unaffiliated Jews who have no connection to , or interest in, Judaism or Israel and these unaffiliated Jews will become known as ” Americans with Jewish heritage”. The non-Orthodox American Jews are drastically shrinking and they will continue to shrink.