National Jewish Population Survey Research Articles

Marshall Sklare Award Lecture, 2017: Beyond Policy: New Directions for Jewish Demography

The era of national Jewish demographic studies appears to have ended. The 2013 Pew Portrait of Jewish Americans study is an excellent substitute, but it is an opinion survey and lacks demographic questions important for studying intermarriage. The American Jewish Population Project of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University is an innovative alternative utilizing meta-analyses of national surveys that include Jews, but these surveys usually include only Jews by religion and do not include questions about Jewish identification and practice. Local Jewish population surveys, once the main source for quantitative research on American Jews, remain a viable alternative, but have become more descriptive and policy-driven than theoretical because the 1990 and 2000-01 National Jewish Population Surveys rendered them redundant for this purpose. Even so, local Jewish population surveys can once again be a fruitful resource for Jewish social research when used to study theoretical questions such as spatiality, suburbanization, and the individual community as a predictive variable in comparative analyses. Some studies have included theoretical topics such as spirituality that have not been utilized for secondary analysis. More theoretical questions (which are nonetheless policy relevant) could be added to future studies, but this will require a culture change on the part of the Jewish communities that sponsor them. In the meantime, we should look to qualitative research to break new ground and develop new perspectives that will become so compelling that they will be examined quantitatively in future local studies.

Targets of Out-Group Hostility in the Contemporary United States: Individual- and Community-Level Factors Associated with the Experience of Anti-Semitism Among American Jews

While anti-Semitism has plagued American society, as well as many others, for centuries, anti-Semitism tends to be overshadowed in the social sciences by what are seen as more common forms of prejudice, discrimination, and racism. This tends to reinforce the erroneous view that anti-Semitism is not a significant social problem in the US today. The study of anti-Semitism must incorporate its uniqueness as a social problem and as a form of racism, prejudice, and discrimination, most vividly demonstrated in the Holocaust, and must take into consideration its history as well as its particular characteristics. This study seeks to answer the following primary research question: How do individual- and community-level factors relate to the perception or experience of anti-Semitism by Jews? This study focuses upon the prevalence and nature of anti-Semitism as it exists in the contemporary United States. Specifically, this research consists of regression analysis and a hierarchical linear model of the predictors of the experience of anti-Semitism on the individual as well as the community level. Data sources for this research consist of the 2000–2001 administration of the National Jewish Population Survey and a number of community studies on the Jewish population. These findings indicated that a number of individual- and community-level predictors significantly influence the experience of anti-Semitism.

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

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.

Do Jews Feel Like Outsiders in America? The Impact of Anti-Semitism, Friendships, and Religious Geography

While once the archetypical outsiders, most Jews today do not feel like outsiders in the United States. Using the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey, we examine the factors that differentiate those who feel like outsiders from those who do not. We find that feeling like an outsider is largely associated with having experienced anti-Semitism, the number of Jews living nearby, the proportion of a respondent's friends’ that are Jewish, and whether Jews identify with some branch of Judaism versus those who identify as ethnic Jews. Although the effects of discrimination on feeling like an outsider are unsurprising, the smaller but persistent effect of geographic context deserves more attention. Jews feel less like outsiders when they live in places where they can and do have more contact with other Jews. The increased within-group ties that are possible in areas of greater Jewish concentration appear to facilitate psychological integration into the larger community.

Migration, Time, and Religioethnic Identification Among U.S. Jews1

This article examines changes between 1985―1990 and 1995―2000 in relationships between migration and religioethnic identification among U.S. Jews. The results of multivariate analyses of the 1990 and 2000 National Jewish Population Surveys show that Jewish background characteristics have lost their significance as determinants of internal migration and, especially, migration across state boundaries. Concurrently, migration no longer constitutes a serious threat to group continuity and erstwhile negative effects on major religious and social behaviors have disappeared. When the two surveys were integrated into one data set, it was found that time enhances the inclination of Jews to move and strengthens their religious and ethnic commitments (though not their commitments to informal Jewish networks). The results are discussed in reference to three competing perspectives of migration-identification relationships—selectivity, disruption, and heightening—and in the wider theoretical context of religious and ethnic processes in the contemporary United States.

Health Impact of Jewish Religious Observance in the USA: Findings from the 2000–01 National Jewish Population Survey

Using data from the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) (N=5,148), effects of eight religious measures were investigated in relation to two health outcomes, standard single-item indicators of self-rated health and presence of an activity-limiting health condition. Seven of the religious measures were associated bivariately with one or both health indicators. Through two-step OLS regression of each health indicator onto all of the religious measures, adjusting for age and other sociodemographic correlates, two measures of synagogue involvement remained statistically significant. Follow-up analysis revealed a net health impact of religious observance primarily limited to Orthodox and Conservative Jews.

Jewish Identity and the Secular Achievements of American Jewish Men and Women

Three questions are addressed concerning the relationship of Jewish identity to secular achievements. Are the secular achievements of American Jews related at all to the strength of their Jewish identity? Which has a stronger relationship to secular achievement, a religious or an ethnic Jewish identity? Do communal aspects or private, personal aspects of Jewish identity have the stronger relationship to secular achievements? Using the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey, we find that educational attainment, labor force participation, and occupational achievements are related to several expressions of Jewish identity, even after controlling for the traditional sources of variation (age, gender, education, family status). Jewish identity, as expressed in terms of religion, ethnicity, communal commitment, and private attitudes and practices, is related to contemporary Jewish secular achievement, albeit differently for men and women.

Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Characteristics, Coethnic Social Ties, and Health: Evidence From the National Jewish Population Survey

We explored whether a White ethnic group with a history of structural disadvantage, Jewish Americans, shows evidence of continuing health impact independent of socioeconomic position (SEP), whether coethnic social ties appear health protective, and whether the strength of any protection varies by SEP. In a series of ordered logistic regressions, we analyzed data from the National Jewish Population Survey, 2000-2001, regressing self-rated health on race/ethnicity, education, and income for US Blacks, Jews, and other Whites and, for Jews alone, indicators of coethnic social ties. controlling for SEP indicators, the self-rated health of Jews converged with that of Blacks and was significantly worse than that of other Whites. Access to coethnic social ties was associated with better self-rated health among Jews, with the strongest estimated association among those of lower SEP. The finding that a White ethnic group with a favorable socioeconomic profile reported significantly worse health than did other Whites, after controlling for SEP, calls for better understanding of the complex interplay of cultural, psychosocial, and socioeconomic resources in shaping population health.

Poor Jews: An Analysis of Low Income in the American Jewish Population

This article examines low income in the American Jewish population. It situates the study of the Jewish poor within a broader sociological framework by utilizing general sources on poverty among Americans to identify and test a range of predictors of low income among American Jews. Using data from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000–2001, it finds six major predictors of low income: age, education, employment status, family-household type and its interaction with gender, citizenship status and Jewish denomination. Importantly, it shows that the simultaneous presence of several predictors is necessary to raise the probability of having low income above the Jewish population’s mean rate, and it builds on this finding to examine the factors that contribute to low income among Orthodox, immigrant and elderly Jews. The article also investigates social correlates and communal consequences of low income, demonstrating a pattern of poorer health, increased social service needs and diminished communal participation among the Jewish poor. It concludes with a discussion of a research agenda on economic vulnerability among American Jews.

Accounting for Jewish Secularism: Is a New Cultural Identity Emerging?

Barry Kosmin, Ariela Keysar, and Egon Mayer have observed an increase taking place in the number of Jews who identified with “no religion” during the 1990s. They have proposed two explanations. Kosmin and Keysar interpret this increase as part of a larger American secularization trend. Mayer understands it to be a specific “disaffection from organized Jewish life.” Implicit in both explanations is the emergence of a new secular Jewish identity that excludes identification with Judaism. As such, this new identification represents a radical departure from the American Jewish norm. American Jews have long been comfortable identifying with Judaism even though their outlook is as secular as the most secular of all Americans. Using the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey and the 2001 American Jewish Identification Survey these two hypotheses are tested and rejected because secular Jews were found to be less “ethnic” than Jews by religion both in terms of attitudes and behaviors. Instead a third explanation is explicated which attributes the increase in the number of secularly identified Jews to a compositional change in the American Jewish population. Jews with no religion are overwhelmingly of mixed ancestry; and the number of such Jews increased dramatically between 1990 and 2000 as a result of intermarriage. Two OLS regressions show that both ethnic attitudes and behaviors are influenced primarily by Jewish background experiences. Jews of mixed ancestry are less likely to have these and thus score lower. A third OLS regression shows that these background experiences strengthen ethnic attachments which in turn influence ethnic behaviors. A logistic regression demonstrates that ancestry does have a direct influence on identification as secular above and beyond Jewish background experiences. Secular Jews choose the “no religion” option because it allows them to identify as Jews without having to choose between either of their parents’ two religions.

Aging Among Jewish Americans: Implications for Understanding Religion, Ethnicity, and Service Needs

This article challenges popular conceptions of the nature of ethnicity and religiousness in the gerontological literature. Using the example of older Jewish Americans, the authors argue for more nuanced definitions and usage of terms such as "religion" and "ethnicity" in order to begin to understand the complex interweaving of these two dimensions in the lives of older persons. The analyses used data from the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) as well as comparisons with the 1990 NJPS. There were 1,099 respondents aged 65 years and older in the 2000-2001 NJPS who reported themselves to be Jewish. This sample was then split into three groups: those who reported observing only Judaism and were affiliated with a denomination within Judaism (n = 776) or were not affiliated (n = 277) and those who reported observing another faith in addition to Judaism (n = 46). Respondents to the 2000-2001 NJPS were older, wealthier, and less likely to be members of a religious denomination than those in the 1990 NJPS. Denominational affiliates were more likely than the other two groups to have a strong ethnic identity but less likely to indicate that religion was important in their lives. Denomination members were also more likely to be children or grandchildren of immigrants. Several key assumptions in the study of ethnicity and religiousness in much of current gerontological research need reassessment especially assumptions about the links between religious identification, beliefs, practices, and communal solidarity.

Demographic and Socioeconomic Selectivity in Jewish Internal Migration in the United States

This paper examines the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Jewish internal migrants in the United States and the changes in the selectivity of migrants over the course of the last decade of the twentieth century. To this end we utilize data from the 1990 and 2000 National Jewish Population Surveys. We focus on 5-year migration, both intra- and interstate. Further, we distinguish between Jewish men and Jewish women. We apply descriptive analysis of the relationships between migration status and individual social affinities as well as multivariate technique which enables us to evaluate the net effect of individual demographic and socioeconomic factors on the likelihood of moving geographically. We conclude with several implications for Jewish social and cultural vitality.

The implications of potential boundaries and definitions for understanding American Jewry: Can one size fit all?

This paper utilizes data from the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey to explore (1) the extent that alternate Jewish population boundaries and related concepts impact on interpretations of American Jewry and (2) tradeoffs between population size, population characteristics, and the potential dynamics of population change based on defining the population more or less broadly. The focus is on how alternative boundaries and definitions impact not only on population size, but intermarriage and Jewish child raising propensities for individuals passing through the childbearing years.

The Earnings of American Jewish Men: Human Capital, Denomination, and Religiosity

This article analyzes the determinants of the earnings of American Jewish men using the 2000/2001 National Jewish Population Survey. Nonresponse to the question on earnings is analyzed. Earnings are related to conventional human capital variables, as well as Jewish‐specific variables. Except for the size of place and region variables, the standard human capital variables have similar effects for Jewish men and the general male population. Jewish day schooling as a youth enhances earnings. Earnings vary by denomination, with Jewish men who identify their denomination as Conservative earning the most, with secular and Orthodox Jews earning less. The effect on earnings of religiosity (measured by synagogue attendance) is not monotonic. Earnings are highest for those who attend about once a week, are lower for those who attend daily, and are lowest for those who never attend.

Spirituality and Religiousness Among American Jews

In this article we examine the association between spirituality and religiousness for Jews in the United States. Using data from the most recent National Jewish Population Survey of 2000–2001, a large national sample, we examined the extent to which these two concepts correlate. In addition, we compared the relative importance of sociodemographic factors, stressors, and Jewish contextual factors in predicting spirituality and religiousness. We found that spirituality and religiousness correlated, but modestly; some variables were predictive of both concepts (less education, younger age, experienced anti-Semitism in last year, ethnic identity, social identity), some of being highly spiritual only (female, not living in the Northeast), and others of being highly religious only (being married, having a child at home, living in the Northeast, not living in the West, and Jewish background). The differences in sociodemographic characteristics and Jewish background suggest that family life (marriage, having children at home), knowledge about Judaism, and living in a geographic area where there is a high population of Jews are conducive to religiousness as a framework for meaning. Jewish contextual factors were salient for both spiritual and religious pathways.

Dynamics of Internal Migration Determinants for American Jews, 1985–1990 and 1995–2000

This paper examines how individual characteristics and structural factors have changed in determining Jewish internal migration in the U.S. between 1985–1990 and 1995–2000. Multinomial logistic regression analysis of the 1990 and 2000 National Jewish Population Surveys shows that socio-demographic characteristics have both increased their power to explain variation in 5-year migration and have become more similar for intra- and interstate migration. Further analysis added migration status at the beginning-of-period, state context of residence characteristics, and ethnic concentration to the explanatory variables. Results from logistic regression analysis, which was limited to interstate mobility, were very much in accordance with the observations of the single-level analysis of the socio-demographic variables. Additional findings suggest that previous mobility increases subsequent interstate migration; that per capita income does not have a meaningful effect on migration; that unemployment encourages migration (yet later this relationship turned negative); and that warm climate deters migration. The importance of ethnic concentration has weakened over time albeit maintained statistically significant. Finally, when the two surveys were integrated into one data set, “time” enhances the tendency of Jews to migrate. The results are discussed in the context of ethnic diversity in contemporary America.

Who's a Jew in an Era of High Intermarriage? Surveys, Operational Definitions, and the Contemporary American Context

The old ways in which surveys of Jews handled marginal cases longer make sense, and the number of cases involved is longer small. I examine in detail the public-use samples of the two recent national surveys of Americans of recent Jewish origin — the National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) and the American Jewish Identity Survey (AJIS) — and also explore the implications for the American Jewish Committee annual surveys of Jewish political opinion. When Jews are defined by the question What is your religion, if any? the effect is not primarily to eliminate secular or culturally oriented Jews. However, large majorities of the children of intermarriage will fail to reply Jewish. Accordingly, the paper turns to two competing procedures for treating respondents of recent Jewish origin who do not report themselves to be Jewish by religion. The core Jewish population includes respondents who answer that they have religion. I find this procedure problematic because the meaning of the no response has also changed: it longer captures people with close connections to the Jewish world who deny the religious connection out of principle. Yet two out of three are the products of intermarriage. I tentatively suggest an alternative principle: self-identity. Americans of recent Jewish origin who are not Jews by religion should be asked (as they were in the 2000-01 the NJPS) whether they consider themselves Jewish for any reason. Those that reply in the affirmative should be counted as Jews. The paper examines the proportions of people affected by limiting surveys of American Jews to Jews by religion, and the results of using one or another procedure for deciding who else is a Jew. As an example, some demographic outcomes are tabulated using different definitions, as are responses to the question How close do you feel to Israel?

Recent Books on Jewish Eugenics: A Triple Review

Jewish Tradition and die Challenge of Darwinism Editors: Geoffrey Cantor and Marc Swetlitz Other contributors: Shai Cherry, Raphael Falk, Carl Feit, Ira Robinson, Rena Selya, Lawrence Troster, Richard Weikart University of Chicago Press, 2006, 260 pages ISBN: 978O-226-09276-8 (ISBN-10: 0-226-09276-3), cloth ISBN: 978-0-226^)9277-5 (ISBN-10: 0-226-09277-1), paper A Life (Un)Worthy of Living: Reproductive Genetics in Israel and Germany Yael Hashiloni-Dolev Springer, 2007, 195 pages ISBN 978-1-420-5217-0 (hardback ISBN 978-1-420-5217-7 (e-book) The Healthy Jew: The Symbiosis if Judaism and Modern Medicine Michael B. Hart Cambridge University Press, 2007, 200 pages ISBN 978-0-521-87718-3, hardback Jewish Tradition and Challenge of Darwinism, Cantor/Sweditz This book documents a red-hot debate which previously took place behind closed doors but has now been outed by one of world's most prestigious academic presses and is therefore already available in a large number of libraries. The very title of collection is ambiguous: what, after all, is the Jewish tradition? Jewish atheists and perhaps even most Jewish converts to other religions still consider themselves Jewish and are so viewed by other Jews. Thus, even though Judaism as a religion receives considerable treatment in this book, it is by no means its exclusive topic. The relationship of Judaism to Darwinism has heretofore remained relatively unexplored, principal attention being devoted in media to clash of evolutionary theory and Christianity, but since latter springs direcdy from Judaic tradition, two encounters have much in common, albeit with a very considerable shift in emphasis. According to 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, less than a quarter of those identified as Jewish agreed that the Torah is actual word of God. Even Orthodox and progressive Jews are far more accepting of Darwinism than are Christians. And while Catholic Church has called for a dialogue between religion and science, there is no Jewish analogue. As for debate over creationism, now rechristened design, most Jews have opposed what they see as an intrusion of state into religion, but there have been numerous Jewish attempts to argue compatibility of Genesis and science (see below). Nevertheless, once all debaters have had their say, audience will have to recognize difficulties inherent in any attempts to reconcile two worldviews: The Darwinian picture of natural world denies traditional concepts of creation. Instead of being designed and created by God in its present form, natural world, including all species, are products of a long process of natural selection. Darwinism not only provides a scientific explanation of development of species; it also undermines religious concept of divine providential guidance. As Catholic theologian John F. Haught has observed, Darwinism creates several critical problems for religion. First, it shows that all living beings share a common ancestry and are historically and organically interconnected. Therefore, ontological discontinuity between humanity and rest of creation, which was a central feature of Jewish and Christian theology, no longer exists. In addition, Darwinism challenges traditional religious picture of universe as a hierarchy of distinct levels of being and meaning.... In addition, Haught argues that many recent interpreters of Darwinism also see no qualitative distinctions between life and nonlife. Life arises from dead matter as a result of laws of physics and chemistry... Finally, some theologians and scientists argue that theory of natural selections asserts that variety of life in natural world is a product of completely random forces undirected by any intelligent agency or providential designer. The struggle for life and survival of fittest imply that we live in an impersonal universe. …

Defining American Jewry From Religious and Ethnic Perspectives: The Transitions to Greater Heterogeneity

The passage of time has led to considerable changes in the character of the American Jewish population. One of these changes has been the increasing distinction between religion and ethnicity as an expression of identification with the Jewish group. The National Jewish Population Survey 2000/01 was used to examine the attitudes and behavior along religious and ethnic dimensions for respondents who are members and/or self identify with the three major Jewish denominations (Reform, Conservative and Orthodox) and a fairly large group of unaffiliated persons and persons who do not identify with any of these denominations but who do state that they are Jewish. The central question asked is how the configurations of membership (or lack thereof) and self-identification with a denomination (or lack thereof) are related to attitudes and behaviors toward the religious and ethnic dimensions of being Jewish. The results of the analysis indicate that those persons with stronger connections to Judaism, on either attitude or behavior, in general also have a stronger positive connection to ethnic Jewishness than those who express their connection through less traditional religious norms and values.

Informal Social Networks and Formal Organizational Memberships Among American Jews: Findings From the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01

This article contributes to a small but developing literature on social network effects among American Jews. We employ data from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01 to examine how informal social networks and f m l organizational memberships among American Jews are related to philanthropic behavior, religious observance, attitudes toward Israel, and political party identification. Using standard OLS and logistic regression techniques, and controlling for household size, age, sex, region, education and denomination, we show that giving to Jewish causes is strongly related to organizational memberships and somewhat less so to informal networks; Jewish observance is similarly but slightly less related to organizations and informal networks; emotional attachment to Israel is still less related but organizations and informal networks have about equal effects; and finally, Democratic party preference is related only to informal networks and more weakly than the other variables. A concluding discussion offers a hypothesis about the differential effects, linking the explanatory power of networks to the institutional embeddedness of the dependent variables.