Study Provides New Data
About Jews of Color
Sophie Panzer | JE Staff
N ew data released from “Jews of Color Community Portrait: A
2019 Jewish Population Study of Greater Philadelphia” reveals
high levels of socioeconomic inequality in the area, as well
as cultural differences between Jews of color and white, non-Hispanic
Jews. The study was part of “Community Portrait: A 2019 Jewish
Population Study,” the larger 2019 Jewish community demographics
study commissioned by Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia from
the Maryland-based research firm Westat.

The study defined a Jew of color as “any Jewish individual who iden-
tified themselves as Hispanic or any other non-white racial identity.”
According to the results, there are approximately 36,300 Jews of color in
the Greater Philadelphia region — about 10% of the Jewish population
here — living in 18,400 households.

The last time Jewish Federation conducted a study on Jewish demo-
graphics was in 2009, when the results revealed approximately 5% of the
Jewish community identified as Jews of color.

Jewish Federation Director of Strategy and Impact Kelly Romirowsky
said the recent community portrait was more comprehensive and used
questions and methodology similar to the American Community
Data shows a large percentage of Jews of color are unaffiliated.

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Survey conducted by the United States Census
Bureau. It is the first study of a Jewish community
in the United States to use address-based sampling
rather than landlines.

The study found households that include a Jew
of color are significantly more likely to be making
under $50,000 per year than households that consist
only of white, non-Hispanic Jews (54% versus 21%).

Households that include a Jew of color are nearly
four times as likely to be living in poverty (46%
versus 12%).

Twenty-nine percent of households with a Jew
of color are receiving some form of public benefits,
including Supplemental Security Income Program
or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
versus 13% of households that do not include a Jew
of color.

Households with a Jew of color are also more
than four times as likely to be at risk for food inse-
curity (41% versus 9%) and twice as likely to be
without health insurance than households without
a Jew of color (16% versus 8%).

The study addressed Jewish identity and engage-
ment and found that Jews of color are significantly
less likely to identify as Jewish by religion (41%
versus 69%). However, they are nearly twice as
likely to identify as Jewish by culture, ethnicity or
heritage (56% versus 27%).

Results showed that Jews of color also tend to
engage with Judaism and Jewish community differ-
ently than white, non-Hispanic Jews.

“What we found is that there are some engage-
ments that households with Jews of color are more
likely to participate in than white non-Hispanic
households. So they’re more likely to participate
in non traditional activity, like a Shabbat hike
or Jewish meditation, and they’re more likely to
participate in prayer or attend a class or lecture,
but they’re less likely than white non Hispanic
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www.slhomecare.com THE GUIDE 2021/2022
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