Israeli New Yorkers

A new UJA-Federation of New York study found that there are fewer Israelis in the New York area than previously estimated, but that they are more engaged in Jewish communal life than had been thought.

The study says that about 81,000 Jews in the New York area — including the five boroughs, Westchester County, and Long Island — live in households with at least one Israeli-born adult. This number refutes the widespread belief in a much larger number, according to the study's researchers, Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist of American Jewry and professor at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and Dr. Judith Schor Veinstein.

UJA-Federation's Commission on the Jewish People commissioned the report, Israeli Jews in Greater New York: Their Numbers, Characteristics, and Patterns of Jewish Engagement, which was released March 25.

The report also found a highly engaged Israeli population in Jewish communal life who outscores their American counterparts in terms of affiliation with synagogues, Jewish community centers, and Jewish organizations. This pattern also holds true, the study says, for Israelis who are non-Orthodox. Conventional wisdom, the study said, had suggested that Israelis were disaffected from Jewish communal life.

“The study has really changed our perception about the community,” said Esther Goldman, chair of UJA-Federation's Task Force on New York Jewry. “We also learned how we can benefit from this community as well.”

The report said that the high levels of Jewish engagement on the part of New York–area Israelis should be seen as a rich asset to nurture, develop, and use as a resource for the wider Jewish community.

“Israelis can teach us how to think of Jewish communal life in a different way,” said Cohen, who is also director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. “We can gear our policies not only to ‘reducing harm' but to maximizing potential. Israelis with their Jewish knowledge, Hebrew, and attachment to Israel bring great potential.”

Veinstein was formerly an associate director of the Florence G. Heller-JCC Association Research Center and was a planning director for the Commission on the Jewish People.
The study was based on analysis of data sets from three sources:

• UJA-Federation's Jewish Community Study of New York: 2002
• National Jewish Population Survey 2000–2001
• National United States Census American Community Studies from 2003 to 2007

“This study provides us, for the first time, with solid information on which to undertake programs to respond to the needs of the Israeli-American community,” said David Mallach, managing director of UJA-Federation's Commission on the Jewish People. “At the Commission on the Jewish People, we look forward to responding to this challenge.”