Your city's Jewish community

[Docere]

19% seems reasonable for Brooklyn to me. That's over half of the NHW population.

[Quixote]

Brooklyn
Manhattan
Nassau
Westchester
Bergen
Rockland

Those are the real workhorses for NYC Jewry. Maybe Queens too because Jews account for 27% of all whites.

Ocean County will eventually join that list of heavyweights. With the exception of Ocean and Bergen, NJ is considerably less Jewish than NY; Hudson County’s number is surprisingly low.

Suffolk is notably the most “mainstream Northeastern” locale in the immediate NY metro, with Italian/Irish dominating. Much more in line with NJ, Philadelphia, and Boston.

[Docere]

Most metro areas have a "Jewish sector" but the New York area is so Jewish that they're found in large numbers in all directions all over the metro.

[Quixote]

^ Agreed. It’s just interesting to me though how the region’s Jewry is markedly more pronounced within NYS, whereas NJ and CT are far and away more Italian.

I often go back and forth between whether I consider NY more Italian or Jewish. City- and CSA-wise, it’s obvious. NYC is nearly twice as Jewish, but Italians have the edge on Long Island and the Hudson River Valley. NJ has tons of Jews and there are well-known Jewish enclaves like Lakewood and Livingston, but I don’t think most people readily associate NJ with Jews.

NY pizza vs. NY bagel

Al Pacino vs. Jerry Seinfeld

Martin Scorsese vs. Woody Allen

[Docere]

It's interesting that Newark had a very large Jewish population, but Jersey City never really did. About 1/4 of NHWs in Essex County are Jewish (almost all in the suburbs now obviously). Hudson County is an outlier here.

[JMKeynes]

Originally Posted by Docere

Most metro areas have a "Jewish sector" but the New York area is so Jewish that they're found in large numbers in all directions all over the metro.

With exceptions, such as Bronxville, Rye, New Canaan, etc.

[Quixote]

Italian-American culture will always have a stranglehold on the mainstream perception of the archetypal New Jerseyan thanks to decades of (profitable) reinforcement — propagated by Jews.

In LA, the “Valley Girl” stereotype is essentially referencing the Jewish American Princess, the most famous example probably being Cher Horowitz in Clueless. Although one might say the Kardashians are now exhibit A.

[Quixote]

Regarding the long-term stability of South Florida Jewry, the apportionment of Jews gets progressively larger with age:

75+ (27%)
65-74 (19%)
55-64 (17%)
45-54 (12%)
35-44 (9%)
25-34 (9%)
18-24 (7%)

Those numbers are for the three-county (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach) metro, and they are an anomaly among the top Jewish metro areas. There are more people 75+ years old (not even Baby Boomers) than there are people ages 18-44.

[Docere]

Fairfield County leans more "WASP" than elsewhere in the metro, but it's really a relative measure (12.4% are English or "American" ancestry). Even there, Italian is the most common ancestry.

It's certainly much less Jewish than most of the NYC metro. Westchester is about twice as Jewish as Fairfield.

[Crawford]

NJ is very Jewish. It's easily the 2nd most Jewish state. Lakewood is probably now the largest Jewish concentration on earth outside of Israel and Brooklyn. CT isn't very Jewish, at least not for NY-area standards.

CT is actually growing much more Jewish, but historically had near-zero Jewish population. Now Greenwich, Westport and New Canaan have sizable Jewish populations. Darien is the lone holdout among the traditionally elite towns.

[Elkhanan1]

Originally Posted by Docere

There are nine countries with at least 100,000 Jews.

Jewish population by country

US 7,300,000
Israel 6,998,000
France 446,000
Canada 393,500
UK 292,000
Argentina 175,000
Russia 150,000
Germany 118,000
Australia 118,000

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...n-of-the-world

I've never seen that figure for the US Jewish population. 5.5 million has been the stable number of American Jews for about 5 decades (meaning the Jewish share of the overall US population is declining). 7.3 million must be the broadest of broadest definitions of who's a Jew, probably even taking in people like AOC. LOL

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, in May 2022 there were 7.02 million Jews + 478,000 Jewish-adjacent / non-Halakhic Jewish citizens for a total of 7,498,000 million. By now, it certainly exceeds 7.5 million.

[Docere]

^ Yeah, I think there's some discrepancy between say community surveys as done in the US and census figures (as in Canada and Britain). They may not be "apples" comparisons.

The "estimate" of 160,000 Jews in the City of Philadelphia alone (10% of the entire city population, which is only 35% NHW) is obviously off for example.

[Elkhanan1]

^ I think it's safe to say that the largest Jewish community in the world today is in Israel, not the US, certainly the largest core / halakhic Jewish community and probably the largest, reasonably broadly-defined Jewish community too, ie, excluding the AOCs of the world. ;-)

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Quixote

In LA, the “Valley Girl” stereotype is essentially referencing the Jewish American Princess

That's debatable. We have very different perceptions of what constitutes a stereotypical Valley Girl as defined in the early 1980s SFV.

the most famous example probably being Cher Horowitz in Clueless. Although one might say the Kardashians are now exhibit A.

Cher was so very proudly and conspicuously from Beverly Hills, though, not the Valley.

Personally, I'd say the most stereotypical Valley Girl is still Moon Unit Zappa (who delivers the monologue in the song and video)--mindlessly, effortlessly superficial and vapid, laying the accent on thick while saying absolutely nothing at all. Exhibit A for a modern day Valley Girl in real life is definitely Drew Barrymore.

[Crawford]

I think of Valley Girl as a 1970's-1980's white anglo cultural moment. Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the like. Nothing particularly Jewish-centric.

I'm pretty sure that demographic doesn't even exist in large numbers anymore, at least in areas like Van Nuys, Reseda, etc. Majority Latino areas now, I think.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I think of Valley Girl as a 1970's-1980's white anglo cultural moment. Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the like. I'm pretty sure that demographic doesn't even exist in large numbers anymore, at least in areas like Van Nuys, Reseda, etc.

I think of the early 1980s Valley Girl/Fast Times nexus as the last gasp of suburban, middle-class white SoCal youth culture, which also encompassed local surfer and skateboarder culture, new wave, and punk at the margins. After the sun set over the Pacific and the malls closed for the night, they all cruised along Ventura Boulevard with friends in their hand-me-down sedans. Maybe a hot dog and soda. Maybe a phone number.

That's all gone.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Crawford

NJ is very Jewish. It's easily the 2nd most Jewish state. Lakewood is probably now the largest Jewish concentration on earth outside of Israel and Brooklyn. CT isn't very Jewish, at least not for NY-area standards.

It is, but not quite to the same degree as places in NYS; NJ is closer to Fairfield in terms of Jewish-ness than it is to NYC and Long Island. Bergen is similar to Westchester, but all the other counties are small to medium-size. Whereas Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Nassau have 7-digit populations and Jewish percentages in the double digits. Even Suffolk's numbers are more impressive than any NJ county minus Bergen and Ocean.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by craigs

Personally, I'd say the most stereotypical Valley Girl is still Moon Unit Zappa (who delivers the monologue in the song and video)--mindlessly, effortlessly superficial and vapid, laying the accent on thick while saying absolutely nothing at all.

Yet the song references a rich girl from Encino (the Beverly Hills of the Valley) cruising down Ventura and shopping at the (Sherman Oaks) Galleria. The "Valley Girl" persona is neither explicitly Jewish nor Anglo, and not necessarily confined to the SFV (e.g. Cher Horowitz from Beverly Hills, Elle Woods from Bel Air). And like all LA stereotypes from the 80s, it sure hasn't aged well.

[Docere]

Looking forward to seeing the Chicago and DC/Baltimore numbers.

[Steely Dan]

^ yeah, I was curious to see if the big 8 Jewish metros (Boston, NYC, Philly, DC, Miami, Chicago, LA, and SF) had more than 50% of the nation's Jews.