New York — The attention swirling around the National Jewish Population Survey focuses on the aggregate numbers of Jews in the United States and the methodology employed to produce those numbers.
This focus misses the point and seems to imply that this survey of American Jewry would serve a better purpose if it painted a rosy portrait.
Discomfort with some of the initial information, however, should not be permitted to obscure the ambitious intent of the survey, its potential value, or United Jewish Communities’ reason for conducting it.
The National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01 was driven by a simple, but powerful agenda: to learn accurately who we are and, according to the demographics, who we will be in the near future.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Jews across the United States generously come to the aid of the Jewish community. They entrust the 156 Jewish federations and UJC with hundreds of millions of dollars for our mission, which touches millions of Jews at home, and in Israel, the former Soviet Union and 60 countries around the globe.
In the United States, UJC supports social and communal services and programs that aid and strengthen the North American Jewish community. These include educational programs for children and adults, Jewish camps and trips to Israel for our youth, initiatives that build synagogue leadership, social welfare assistance for Holocaust survivors and hot meals and home health aid for our elderly.
To identify the community’s needs, plan services and use the funds wisely and with compassion, we cannot make our decisions based on anecdote, emotion, or political influence.
Inflated or distorted survey results serve no legitimate purpose for UJC or the broader community. Instead, such results would misdirect our attention and could lull us into complacency or induce us to squander our resources.
We need solid information about the size and condition of the Jewish community, the services it seeks, the services it may need in the future, and the support it requires.
Comprehensive picture
This is the fundamental and essential reason that UJC invested in the National Jewish Population Survey. This survey was the culmination of years of work by sociologists, demographers and researchers, with extensive input from communal professionals.
Between August 2000 and August 2001, some 4,500 Jewish respondents were interviewed, more than double the comparable group interviewed for the 1990 NJPS. More than 600 other Americans with varying levels of Jewish background were also surveyed. In addition, more than 4,000 non-Jews were interviewed.
When all of these people are considered, including those practicing another religion, the total number of Americans with Jewish backgrounds rises to 6.9 million people. They live in 3.6 million households, which have a total of 9 million people, both Jews and non-Jews.
The survey, with its deliberately large sampling size, is now providing us with the largest and most comprehensive picture of American Jewry ever.
The NJPS reveals the diversity and interests of the Jewish community by covering an extensive range of topics, including ethnic identification, cultural practices, religious beliefs and behavior, Israel, philanthropy and Jewish education, plus many demographic characteristics, from education and income levels, to marital history, fertility and family mobility.
It gives us an honest and accurate snapshot of the size of our families, how we live, our religious observance and our ties to the Jewish community and its institutions.
The survey shows a dynamic community that continues to evolve both with the trends in the larger American community, and in tune with social and economic conditions unique to us.
Our data show that, despite a small decline, the size of the American Jewish community is fairly stable. But the information about how many Jews there are is less important than who we are.
The survey shows that the Jewish population is aging and is older than that of the general American population. The median age of American Jews is 41, while the median age of Americans is 35. Jews have fewer children proportionately than the general population, and we have considerably more senior citizens.
This kind of data is essential for communal leaders and policy planners to set immediate priorities and long-range goals, and distribute our funds in ways that best serve our community and strengthen the quality of Jewish life in the United States. That is the mission of UJC.
The National Jewish Population Survey by itself also is a valuable community service with many uses for social scientists and Jewish communal organizations of all types.
As sociologist Steven M. Cohen, a UJC consultant and professor at the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University, said, this survey, with “its large sample size, scientific rigor and detailed information on Jewish identity, Jewish education, philanthropic behavior, aging and health issues among so many others will undoubtedly enrich the thinking of the Jewish federation movement and all of organized Jewry in America.”
Culling snapshots from the survey will turn it into a vital tool with which to help fashion the Jewish future in America.
James S. Tisch is the chair of the board of United Jewish Communities, which represents 156 Jewish federations and 400 independent communities across North America.
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