Top Ten Jewish Communities in North America

[seaskyfan]

Originally Posted by arbeiter

West Seattle baffles me. As someone who grew up here and is half Jewish I never have once thought of West Seattle as a Jewish enclave. Seward Park and Mercer Island are, and parts of Montlake/Cap Hill, but West Seattle never seemed that way to me.

Either way, this is a very un-Jewish town.

I had the same thought about West Seattle, and when you go to the article they talk about Mercer Island being the center if Jewish life in the region (with another concentration around Seward Park).

It is indeed a very un-Jewish town - I've had a few Jewish friends who moved back east for a while to find a Jewish partner after discovering the local scene featured slim pickings.

[brickell]

Always a good time to bring these maps back. It'd be interesting to see a population skewed version.

src: http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/geo/cour.../religion.html

[blade_bltz]

Massachusetts is the only state with no white or beige counties.

Light purple counties are Norfolk, Middlesex, Plymouth, and MAYBE Suffolk (hard to see on the map). No surprises there. The first three are wealthy, with Brookline (40% Jewish) and Sharon in Norfolk county; Newton (35-40% Jewish) in Middlesex county, which also includes places like Cambridge and Lexington. Boston's Jewish population is concentrated in Brighton, but I assume there's a significant number in Back Bay/Beacon Hill as well.

[sharkfood]

Originally Posted by blorkishdork

Phillyrising, I grew up in Lower Merion and i was one of a handful of Christians, let alone catholics, in my high school (lower merion high school). Although the thing with LM is its the lower third is very jewish, bala cynwyd, merion, wynnewood, but if you go out to gladwyne, pennvalley and what not its more protestant old money. Cherry hill has a lot of jews as well, but I think (not positive) that LM has more, could be wrong tho.

Native main liner here. Let's set the record straight. Penn Valley is extremely Jewish and has been for forty, fifty years. Gladwyne was known for its Jewish population even in the sixties. Bryn Mawr and Haverford: mixed wasp/jewish. Once you get out to Villanova and Radnor, wasps more predominant.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by blade_bltz

Massachusetts is the only state with no white or beige counties.

Light purple counties are Norfolk, Middlesex, Plymouth, and MAYBE Suffolk (hard to see on the map). No surprises there. The first three are wealthy, with Brookline (40% Jewish) and Sharon in Norfolk county; Newton (35-40% Jewish) in Middlesex county, which also includes places like Cambridge and Lexington. Boston's Jewish population is concentrated in Brighton, but I assume there's a significant number in Back Bay/Beacon Hill as well.

Mass doesn't seem unusually Jewish to me. Feels much less Jewish than NY, NJ, FL, even PA and CT.

MA has only a few counties, and doesn't really have rural areas. Add in the colleges and you have some temporary Jewish transplants. As a former Cambridge resident, I can tell you Cambridge isn't particuarly Jewish. Some of the Harvard and MIT faculty/students are Jewish, but that's about it, and neither school has a particularly large % of Jews compared to peer schools like Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Yale, Brown, etc., all of which feel more Jewish.

I also doubt Brookline and Newton (especially Newton) are anywhere close to 40% Jewish.

[austlar1]

And a 20% Jewish neighborhood is not a Jewish neighborhood. Would you say a 20% Christian neighborhood in Jewish Brooklyn is a Christian neighborhood? Also, the UES and UWS Jews are mostly secular reform or conservative, so they are not "visible" like in other neighborhoods (though there is an Orthodox community mixed in among others in the West 80's on the UWS). -Crawford



I would say that a 20 % Christian population in a highly populated neighborhood would constitute a large aggregate number of Christians in that neighborhood. The UES and UWS are LARGE neighborhoods. Estimates, good reliable statistical evidence, tell us that these neighborhoods EACH contain over 75,000 Jews. Maybe most of the Jews there don't care about a Mikvah or a yeshiva for the kids, but they think of themselves as being Jewish. That suggests to me that these neighborhoods do indeed have two of the largest Jewish populations in the NY area, or the planet for that matter. I was under the assumption that this thread was about the "top" Jewish communities, not only communities with a Jewish majority. There are a lot more than 30,000 Jews on the UWS or the UES. You do not seem to want to deal in FACTS, if they interfere with your opinions.

[austlar1]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Mass doesn't seem unusually Jewish to me. Feels much less Jewish than NY, NJ, FL, even PA and CT.

MA has only a few counties, and doesn't really have rural areas. Add in the colleges and you have some temporary Jewish transplants. As a former Cambridge resident, I can tell you Cambridge isn't particuarly Jewish. Some of the Harvard and MIT faculty/students are Jewish, but that's about it, and neither school has a particularly large % of Jews compared to peer schools like Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Yale, Brown, etc., all of which feel more Jewish.

I also doubt Brookline and Newton (especially Newton) are anywhere close to 40% Jewish.

At 4.3% of the population of Massachusetts, the state ranks THIRD in terms of the percentage of population that is Jewish. NY is first, NJ is second, Mass. is 3rd, and MD. is fourth. If you count DC, Mass. would slide into 4th place. My source is the Virtual Jewish Library.

[blade_bltz]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Mass doesn't seem unusually Jewish to me. Feels much less Jewish than NY, NJ, FL, even PA and CT.

MA has only a few counties, and doesn't really have rural areas. Add in the colleges and you have some temporary Jewish transplants. As a former Cambridge resident, I can tell you Cambridge isn't particuarly Jewish. Some of the Harvard and MIT faculty/students are Jewish, but that's about it, and neither school has a particularly large % of Jews compared to peer schools like Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Yale, Brown, etc., all of which feel more Jewish.

I also doubt Brookline and Newton (especially Newton) are anywhere close to 40% Jewish.

Sure, Mass on the whole doesn't seem unusually Jewish. The region is obviously dominated by Irish-American culture in a way the states you mentioned are not. So even if Jews are 4.3% of the population, people will not tend to identify MA with Jews simply because Irish culture is so pervasive. I spent the first 18 years of my life in Brookline, however, and I can tell you that my view of the world was absolutely influenced by the Jewish culture there. I definitely had more friends who had Bar/Bat mitzvahs than those who went to church - I can say that much.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time researching this, but I found a book indicating (pp 161-162) that in the 1990s Brookline's Jewish population was around 24,000, and Newton's was 31,000. This comes to 42% and 37% respectively.

I'm sure that these numbers have decreased slightly in the last decade, but there have been absolutely no dramatic population shifts in either of these towns. Furthermore, thisarticle from the Globe claims that the Jewish population has been rising as a whole in Greater Boston, as of 2006.

[MAH4546]

Originally Posted by brickell

As for Aventura, I'm sure there are many Jews living there, but I've never thought of it as a Jewish area. You could say the same of Kendall, North Miami Beach and many of the Broward and Palm Beach suburbs. Miami Beach still seems to be the center of Jewish life but perhaps it's just more visible there because of the Orthodox. Many of the Russian Jews seem to be settling to the north in Sunny Isles/Aventura area.

Avenutra is very Jewish. It is by far the largest concentration of Jews in South Florida, per capita.

Though I wouldn't really call it a "Jewish neighborhood" just because literally everybody in that city is Jewish. I would call Midtown Miami Beach - where on Saturdays half the stores are closed and elevators run on Sabbath mode - to be a Jewish neighborhood.

[edluva]

as far as jewish metros go, it's basically ny, la, miami. and then the rest of the country. the jewish presence in the aformentioned is really strong. and this map only supports it.

[STLgasm]

Originally Posted by edluva

as far as jewish metros go, it's basically ny, la, miami. and then the rest of the country. the jewish presence in the aformentioned is really strong. and this map only supports it.

No question that those metros are the epicenters of Jewish culture in the US (New York far above all others), but some of the old rust belt cities can hold their own. Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc. all had large waves of Jewish immigration at the turn of the century.

It's also interesting that Philadelphia has a larger Jewish population than Chicago.

[Frisco_Zig]

If I had to guess within the Bay Area I would think Berkeley has the most Jews per capita (and the only decent Jewish Deli-Saul's according to my Jewish, Chicago born girlfriend) but there is no way I believe this would be ranked top 10. I would think there are 20-30 larger communities on the East Coast.

Jews on the West Coast were never as numerous but they were prominent early on in the history of San Francisco and they integrated very quickly. As far as I am aware there were a few small poor/working class Jewish enclaves around Fillmore and the Western Addition way back but nothing even remotely like what existed on the East Coast

[MIAMISKYLINE]

By far only New York, Miami and L.A have the biggest concentration of Jews in America and the world. Their population by metro surpasses more than 500,000 jews.

New York ( Tri-state) has a population of 1 million jews. It is the second largest concentration of Jews after Tel Aviv. Miami with a population of more than 500,000 jews ( Dade, Broward, Palm Beach) comes fourth place after Teal Aviv, NY and Paris. Los Angeles comes fifth with a population of more than 400,000 jews. There are no other metros in America or the world with these kinds of numbers.

Baltimore? Chicago? Denver? suburban America?

[MIAMISKYLINE]

Originally Posted by MAH4546

Avenutra is very Jewish. It is by far the largest concentration of Jews in South Florida, per capita.

Though I wouldn't really call it a "Jewish neighborhood" just because literally everybody in that city is Jewish. I would call Midtown Miami Beach - where on Saturdays half the stores are closed and elevators run on Sabbath mode - to be a Jewish neighborhood.

South Florida (Miami Metroplitan Area) is a heaven for jews. MOst of our jews are either New Yorkers or Israeli.

We even have a good number of a presumed illegal jewish-arab Israeli popuation.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by MIAMISKYLINE

New York ( Tri-state) has a population of 1 million jews. It is the second largest concentration of Jews after Tel Aviv.

New York has the world's largest Jewish population.

One million Jews live within city limits, and there are over two million jews in the metro area.

Three of the last five mayors were Jewish. Only Israel is more Jewish.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by MIAMISKYLINE

Los Angeles comes fifth with a population of more than 400,000 jews.

Los Angeles ranks fourth in world Jewish populations after Tel Aviv, New York, and Haifa.

[yeah215]

I just think it's important to mention that we are talking about 2-3% of the US population. There is sure a lot of attention spent on the Jews. In comparison, African-American Population is about 13%, the Hispanic and Latino populations make up 15% and the Asian American population is about 4-5% are Asian American.

[PFloyd]

Toronto ranks 14th in the world, 8th in North America, according to the following source: http://www.simpletoremember.com/vita...population.htm

Rank Metro area Country Jewish Population Share of World’s Jews Cumulative %

1 Tel Aviv Israel 2,560,000 19.3 19.3

2 New York U.S. 1,970,000 14.9 34.2

3 Haifa Israel 655,000 4.9 39.1

4 Los Angeles U.S. 621,000 4.7 43.8

5 Jerusalem Israel 570,000 4.3 48.1

6 Southeast Florida U.S. 514,000 3.9 52.0

7 Paris France 310,000 2.3 54.3

8 Philadelphia U.S. 276,000 2.1 56.4

9 Chicago U.S. 261,000 2.0 58.4

10 Boston U.S. 227,000 1.7 60.1

11 San Francisco U.S. 210,000 1.6 61.7

12 London U.K. 195,000 1.5 63.1

13 Buenos Aires Argentina 175,000 1.3 64.5

14 Toronto Canada 175,000 1.3 65.8

15 Washington U.S. 165,000 1.2 67.0

16 Be’er Sheva Israel 165,000 1.2 68.3

17 Moscow Russia 108,000 0.8 69.1

18 Baltimore U.S. 95,000 0.7 69.8

19 Montreal Canada 95,000 0.7 70.5

20 Detroit U.S. 94,000 0.7 71.2

It would be nice if people in forums showed links to sources; so many uninformed grand statements are made.

[UrbanSophist]

Definitely the most inaccurate list I've seen.

[PFloyd]

Originally Posted by UrbanSophist

Definitely the most inaccurate list I've seen.

Oh, really? OK, let's see what your "MOST ACCURATE LIST" looks like, and do show the link to your source.