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JTA – When the outcomes of the brand new inhabitants survey of Jewish Los Angeles got here in, Rabbi Noah Farkas was shocked by the information on Jewish id and affiliation.
Like many neighborhood leaders, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Higher Los Angeles has lengthy heard warnings a couple of decline in Jewish involvement and a gradual shrinking of the neighborhood.
However the knowledge instructed Farkas that the alternative was taking place.
Youthful Jews within the Los Angeles space is likely to be shifting away from the denominations that dominated in earlier generations, however they’re extra probably than their elders to be engaged in Jewish life. That features discussing Jewish matters, learning Jewish texts and consuming Jewish media. Younger folks within the survey are additionally extra prone to mark Shabbat.
“What stunned me absolutely the most is {that a} youthful demographic is extra engaged in Jewish life in virtually each class than an older demographic,” Farkas instructed the Jewish Telegraphic Company in an interview. “They won’t be thought of themselves Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, Orthodox Jews as denominational classes of identities appear to be fading, however they do Jewish exercise by and huge greater than the people who find themselves 55-plus. It was a complete shocker to me.”
The Research of Jewish LA is the neighborhood’s first demographic survey in a era. Spearheaded by town’s Jewish federation and funded by an array of companions, the research was introduced Wednesday and will probably be launched in phases all through the summer time.
With an estimated 565,000 Jews residing in 294,000 households within the space, the neighborhood has grown by 9% for the reason that final survey in 1997. The world has the second highest variety of Jews in america after New York Metropolis.
One explicit focus of the research was on range of race, ethnicity, language and nationwide origins. About half of Jewish households embody somebody, not essentially Jewish, who was born overseas or whose dad and mom have been born overseas — mainly from Latin America, Israel, Iran and the previous Soviet Union. Practically 20% determine as Sephardi or Mizrahi. About 6% determine as Jews of colour, however for kids the quantity is 9%, suggesting that the general quantity will enhance over time.
“Whereas LA’s Jewry has been much less white and Ashkenazi than different cities for many years, the way forward for Jewish Los Angeles is much more numerous,” Farkas mentioned.
According to Los Angeles’ general geography, the Jewish neighborhood is unfold out throughout an enormous space. However in two areas the place they’re most concentrated, the western San Fernando Valley and West LA, Jews make up about 25percentof the inhabitants.
Well being and well-being have been one other focus of the research, with psychological well being companies recognized as “some of the vital wants locally,” particularly amongst younger adults.
In the meantime, a portion of the neighborhood is struggling financially, and an equal portion is rich.
The research divides the inhabitants into 5 classes of monetary well-being. Whereas just one% % mentioned they “can not make ends meet,” an extra 18% are “simply managing to make ends meet.” About 60% have “sufficient” or “additional” cash, whereas a fifth of Los Angeles Jews mentioned they have been “effectively off.”
The research is meant to serve each a normal viewers and leaders locally, in response to Farkas.
“We’re offering instruments to the Jewish neighborhood to know itself and to assist establishments consider their work and take into consideration who’re our folks, so we all know how greatest to serve them,” he mentioned. “In a data-driven world, we want good, related knowledge to do that.”
Whereas this survey examined Los Angeles’ distinctive inhabitants, there have been two different main latest efforts at documenting the Jewish neighborhood in america. The outcomes of those sorts of demographic research can have political and different broad ramifications, as demonstrated by the 2020 Pew analysis research on American Jews, which discovered a rise within the variety of Jewish Republicans. A survey from the Jews of Coloration Initiative discovered that 80% of the Jews of colour who participated have skilled discrimination in Jewish settings.
Carried out by a analysis staff from the Cohen Heart for Fashionable Jewish Research at Brandeis College and NORC on the College of Chicago, the research was primarily based on surveys with 3,767 households between June and September 2021. Researchers contacted a random pattern of households within the Los Angeles space through mail, e mail and phone.
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