Religious Population Share and Religious Identity Salience: Is Jewish Identity More Important to Jews in Less Jewish Areas?

Abstract

Survey data from Jews find that Jewish population density is positively related to rates of synagogue attendance and most other behavioral measures of religious commitment. We ask whether, after controlling for higher rates of religious practice in more Jewish areas, Jewish population concentration has its own separate independent negative effect on Jewish identity salience. Using the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey, we present three main findings. First, the simple correlation between population share and identity salience is positive. Second, after statistically controlling several key control variables, including level of Jewish practice, the overall direct effect of population share is negative. Third, we find that respondents who were raised Jewish but no longer consider themselves Jewish are more likely to reside in low Jewish population share areas. Taken together, our second and third main findings suggest that different kinds of “assimilation” are occurring in high versus low Jewish population share areas.