Jewish population burgeoning in north
By GARY STERN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: August 15, 2004)
The well-to-do Jewish community of northern Westchester doubled in size between 1991 and 2002, but appears to be less connected to Jewish tradition and ritual than the more established Jewish communities of lower Westchester, according to a new study by the UJA-Federation of New York.
The study provides the most detailed demographic profile ever available of Jews in New York City, Westchester and Long Island. It breaks Westchester down into three zones — northern, central/southeastern and southwestern — and offers previously unavailable data for each.
"The big story here is one of growth in the Jewish community, which is mostly attributable to the growth in northern Westchester," said Pearl Beck, a senior researcher with Ukeles Associates, which conducted the study. "In the last decade, the number of people in Jewish households in that region increased by 102 percent."
Of all regions in the eight-county study, northern Westchester, a region the study defines as stretching from Mount Pleasant and North Castle up to the Putnam County border, boasts the highest percentage — 68 percent — of Jewish households with annual incomes over $100,000.
About half of northern Westchester's Jewish households belong to synagogues, more than the eight counties' overall rate of 43 percent. And 55 percent of those households give money to Jewish and non-Jewish causes, also higher than the overall rate of 41 percent.
But the study, based on extensive telephone interviews conducted during 2002, showed that only 53 percent of respondents in northern Westchester feel that being Jewish is "very important." Only 16 percent of households light Shabbat candles, and 29 percent of respondents do not fast on Yom Kippur. Northern Westchester's intermarriage rate of 35 percent is among the highest in the study area.
"This is an area of great potential, an area to focus on in terms of reaching out to families, getting them more involved," said Lyn Light Geller, the study director for the UJA-Federation of New York. "Part of the problem is that it's a newly developed area. In '91, it was difficult to even count the number of Jews in northern Westchester."
It can be difficult to draw precise conclusions about a geographically large region like northern Westchester, said Rabbi Seth Limmer of Congregation B'nai Yisrael of Armonk.
"My experience of Jewish life up here in northern Westchester is that it is vibrant, with a lot of young families," he said. "It can't be an Orthodox community because it is spread so far apart, and walking to synagogue is not an option in Chappaqua or Bedford or Armonk. This is certainly a liberal area, and liberal Jews tend to be more in touch with the ethos of the tradition than the practice. But there are few Jewish kids in Armonk who don't belong to a synagogue, which takes a financial commitment and testifies to me that Judaism does play a role in people's lives."
The UJA-Federation released initial, broad findings last year, and Jewish leaders in Westchester have been discussing since then the implications of one, overwhelming statistic: The county's Jewish population soared by 40 percent between 1991 and 2002, to 129,000 people.
The new, localized findings will be used by Jewish organizations, including the UJA-Federation, to fine-tune their educational and social outreach efforts in New York's distinct Jewish communities.
"For communal planning, the study bears out areas of concern and priorities to focus on," said Adrienne Tanner, the UJA-Federation's director of Westchester program services. She is now taking applications for seed grants from synagogues and Jewish agencies interested in addressing areas of concern.
One grant last year, for instance, went to Dorot, a Manhattan-based agency that tries to improve the lives of the frail Jewish elderly. Dorot plans to start a Westchester program that will, among other things, arrange for volunteers to visit elderly residents.
"We have a large volunteer base in Westchester, and we've been getting more and more calls from the frail elderly and their caregivers," said Vivian Ehrlich, Dorot's executive director. "We will grow as rapidly as we can build support."
Westchester's southwestern region — which includes Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle — has an older and more needy Jewish population than the rest of the county. Almost 90 percent of those 75 and older live alone. Thirty-three percent of households earn $35,000 or less per year, compared with 13 percent overall in Westchester.
Southwestern Westchester has higher proportions of Orthodox Jews (16 percent) and Conservative Jews (36 percent) than the overall county. But only 39 percent of households belong to a synagogue, possibly due to the cost of membership fees. Seventy percent attend a Passover seder, lower than in the county overall (81 percent), which may be due to the immobility of seniors.
Central/southeastern Westchester — which includes Scarsdale, White Plains, Rye and Mamaroneck — has long included some of the county's bedrock Jewish communities. The region has a high Reform presence (47 percent) and a strong rate of synagogue membership (56 percent). Thirty-one percent belong to other Jewish organizations, higher than in the county as a whole (23 percent), and 81 percent feel part of the Jewish community.
The intermarriage rate in the central/southeastern region is only 17 percent, lower than in the overall county (25 percent) or the eight-county study area (28 percent).
The findings of the UJA-Federation study showed that New York City's Jewish population dipped below 1 million for the first time in a century. But Jewish growth during the 1990s in Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau counties made up the difference in Greater New York, keeping the Jewish presence strong in the region.
Reach Gary Stern at
[email protected] or 914-694-3513.Reach Gary Stern at
[email protected] or 914-694-3513.
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