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(JTA) – When the outcomes of the new inhabitants survey of Jewish Los Angeles got here in, Rabbi Noah Farkas was surprised by the info on Jewish identification and affiliation.
Like many group leaders, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Better Los Angeles has lengthy heard warnings a couple of decline in Jewish involvement and a gradual shrinking of the group.
However the information instructed Farkas that the other was occurring.
Youthful Jews within the Los Angeles space could be transferring away from the denominations that dominated in earlier generations, however they’re extra seemingly than their elders to be engaged in Jewish life. That features discussing Jewish subjects, learning Jewish texts and consuming Jewish media. Younger individuals 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 nearly each class than an older demographic,” Farkas instructed the Jewish Telegraphic Company in an interview. “They may not be thought-about 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 Examine of Jewish LA is the group’s first demographic survey in a technology. Spearheaded by the 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 dwelling in 294,000 households within the space, the group has grown by 9% because the final survey in 1997. The world has the second highest variety of Jews in the US 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 mother and father had been born overseas — mainly from Latin America, Israel, Iran and the previous Soviet Union. Almost 20% establish as Sephardi or Mizrahi. About 6% establish as Jews of coloration, however for kids the quantity is 9%, suggesting that the general quantity will improve over time.
“Whereas L.A.’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.
Consistent with Los Angeles’ general geography, the Jewish group is unfold out throughout an enormous space. However in two areas the place they’re most concentrated, the western San Fernando Valley and West L.A., Jews make up about 25percentof the inhabitants.
Well being and well-being had been one other focus of the research, with psychological well being companies recognized as “one of the crucial vital wants in the neighborhood,” particularly amongst younger adults.
In the meantime, a portion of the group is struggling financially, and an equal portion is rich.
The research divides the inhabitants into 5 classes of monetary well-being. Whereas just one% p.c mentioned they “can’t make ends meet,” an extra 18% are “simply managing to make ends meet.” About 60% have “sufficient” or “further” cash, whereas a fifth of Los Angeles Jews mentioned they had been “properly off.”
The research is meant to serve each a basic viewers and leaders in the neighborhood, in accordance with Farkas.
“We’re offering instruments to the Jewish group to know itself and to assist establishments consider their work and take into consideration who’re our individuals, so we all know how finest to serve them,” he mentioned. “In a data-driven world, we want good, related information to do that.”
Whereas this survey examined Los Angeles’ distinctive inhabitants, there have been two different main current efforts at documenting the Jewish group in the US. 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 coloration who participated have skilled discrimination in Jewish settings.
Carried out by a analysis crew 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 by way of mail, e-mail and phone.
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