Jewish Community Within the U.S.A.

¶ … Jewish Community within the U.S.A.

Any research on American Jews must start with the question "Who are they?" However, in order to be able to provide a pertinent answer, one must begin with the conclusion, i.e. that Jewish history, is, similarly to American history itself, a succession of waves of migration. Each of these three waves of immigrants came to America in different periods, established in different regions of the country and was contributed to the profile of American Jewry in its own way. The first wave of immigrants was made up of Sephardic merchants who came from Brazil and settled in New Amsterdam; other immigrants from Spain and Portugal followed towards the middle of the seventeenth century and settled in Newport, New Amsterdam, Philadelphia, Georgia and South Carolina. The second wave of settlers consisted of German Jews who came to America in the 1840s in search of economic and social opportunity. They left Germany because of persecution and the failure of their reform movements. The final wave lasted from the 1880s to 1924 and consisted of Eastern European Jews emigrating from Russia, Austria-Hungary and Romania. Over 2 million people left Europe due to poverty and overpopulation and arrived in America in search of financial and social progress. Thesis: The three waves of Jews immigrants had one very important aspect in common, i.e. their desire to prosper in America; in turn, this aspiration has contributed to America's skyrocketing development among the nations of the world, and has re-affirmed the Jewish community as one of the strongest and most important ethnic-religious communities in America.

While American population has increased significantly since mid-twentieth century, Jewish population has not. On the contrary, the American Jewish community has decreased from 3% in 1950 to 2.2% in 1998 (Chanes: Who are we?). Although it is quite difficult to determine the exact number of Jews living today in America, a widely accepted figure is that provided by the Association of Religion Data Archives whose 2000 survey concluded that there were approximately 6.2 million Jews living in America (ARDA Religious Affiliations 2000). Despite the fact that the Jewish community only represents around 2% of the total American population, there are two Jews on the Supreme Court, eleven in the Senate and many others in key positions such as chairman of the Federal Reserve or ambassadors. Dr. Steven Bayme, National Director of Jewish Communal Affairs at the American Jewish Committee, the leading advocate for Jewish cultural creativity and preservation in America, argues in one of his articles on the website of the organization that members of the Jewish community have created "a network of social welfare, community relations and educational organizations." As the researches and surveys of the Committee have shown, there is hardly a major university in America lacking an academic program in Jewish studies. Jews make up 5% of all college students and 10% of college faculties -- a figure that rises to at least 20% for the elite universities. Also, close to 200,000 Jewish children attend Jewish day schools; Bayme refers to Jewish day schools as "the single most effective vehicle for transmitting Jewish identity." According to the National Jewish Population Survey of 2000-01, the Jewish community is very well educated with 55% of Jewish adults have received a bachelor's degree, and one in four Jewish adults has also earned a graduate degree. Also, as far as employment, the statistics are quite positive. Sixty-one percent of Jews are employed full- or part-time, and the majority of these Jews (also 61%) work in management, business and professional/technical positions. (United Jewish Communities).

The majority of the Jewish population living in America is located in the Northeast with over 40% of American Jews living there. New York is the center with over 15% of the total Jewish population in the world. With the Jewish community being older than any other in America (Smith: 9) and the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey which concluded that intermarriage numbers represent more than 50% of the total rate of marriages within the Jewish community (Chanes: How do we see ourselves?), the main concern that most members share is the loss of Jewish identity. Although maintaining a strong Jewish identity is an important value shared by all members of the community, the majority of the Jews living in America do not oppose intermarriage. In fact, although rituals such as lighting Hanukkah candles, and the kindling of Sabbath candles on Friday nights are still popular in Jewish or mixed families, they are mostly preserved out of a sense of duty towards the community, and especially its elderly members (Chanes: Ibid.). Spirituality has eroded as the core value of Judaism. The Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion referring to Identity issues (conducted in 2006 by the American Jewish Committee) indicated that 53% of the respondents belonged to a synagogue or temple. This percentage is low when compared to the number of Christians belonging to a church for instance. In fact, only 7% of Jews report going to synagogue on a weekly basis as opposed to 27% of non-Jews who answer they attend services once a week (Smith: 11). Also, only 62% answered that being Jewish was a big part of their lives, whereas only 10% found it unimportant in the context of their private lives.

Anti-Semitism is another important concern of the Jewish community. The results of the 2006 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion showed that 65% of the respondents viewed anti-Semitism as "somewhat of a problem" in the United States, and around 70% responded that it was a "very serious problem" in the Muslim world (2006 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion: American Jewish Committee). Among the other values shared by the Jewish community, racial equality, integration and inter-group tolerance ranks very high (Smith: 20). Also, they rank top among all religious groups in terms of their support for more government health care (Smith: 17).

As far as self-identification, in order to understand the perception that the Jewish community has of itself, it is important to look at statistics concerning their self-image as opposed to that of other racial ethnic or religious groups. Jews are more likely than any other group to say that they are upper middle class (67%) or upper class (19%), significantly higher than the percentages for non-Jews (46% and 3%). Also, they tend to rate their financial situation as above average, with 51% as opposed to 22% for non-Jews. Other relevant factors which have contributed to this self-image on the part of the Jewish community are the high rate of greater education graduates and higher occupation standing, as well as the lowest level of unemployment among all racial ethnic or religious groups (Smith: 10).

As with any other racial, ethnic or religious group, there have always been many biases and stereotypes associated with the Jewish community. Nevertheless, there has been a decline in the level of acceptance of any kind of anti-Jewish stereotype (Anti-Defamation League Survey 1998). Common biases such as those associated with Jews having too much power in the United States, or too much control and influence on Wall Street and the business world in general have drastically declined (Ibid.). The most common stereotypes affecting the Jewish community are definitely associated with business and their renowned skills for trade and administrative issues: Jews are capable of anything to achieve what they want, that they are not honest businessmen, and that they do not follow the rule of the game in business. Other classic negative stereotypes are that Jews have a lot of irritating faults, that they only care about their own kind and that they are more loyal to Israel than to America. Fortunately, surveys have shown a significant decrease in the popularity of these anti-Jewish statements.

Jewish community organization is somewhat of a complex matter which requires a great deal of attention. First of all, it is important to establish the guiding principles of this organization. The American Jewish community has a voluntary nature, which combined with the principles of federalism, depends upon affiliation to a synagogue, federation, or community-relations agency (Chanes: Their structures). The synagogue is at the core of Jewish life serving not only as a house of worship but as a center of both education and community life. Each of the Jewish religious movements, i.e. Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist, has organizations for its rabbis and congregations. Conservative rabbis are represented by the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), which dates back to 1900. The Reform movement's rabbinical body, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), was founded in 1889, and is the oldest rabbinical organization in the United States. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, located in Philadelphia, was founded in 1968, and its graduates affiliate with the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. (Chanes: Their structures). Also, each denomination has its own community organizations which deal with broader issues that the rabbinical associations, i.e. The formal leaders of the community. The Jewish community relates to the external world through a number of community agencies. Their origin can be found in the old American Jewish Committee founded in 1906 and known as a "defense agency" whose main goal was to counteract anti-Semite manifestations throughout the U.S. Although this concern has remained, nowadays, the agenda of such agencies features a wider range of issues, especially the relationship between the American Jewish community and Israel, as well as that with other Jewish communities all over the world (Chanes: Advocacy Organizations). The Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) and the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education (CAJE) are national bodies dealing with Jewish education (Ibid.: Educational and Cultural Organizations).