Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere
The counties in L.A. may be mega-sized, but the overall pattern seems pretty clear to me. The Long Beach area, Orange County and Riverside County are about 2-3% Jewish in an area of 6 million - pretty much the US average. All are majority-minority areas, but the Jewish percentage remains well below a tenth of the NHW population, so it's not if low Jewish overall percentages are "hiding" large Jewish concentrations.
Meanwhile the portion of the NYC metro that's in NJ is 7% Jewish over a similar population area. That's lower than NYC and Nassau/Westchester (as I said Jewish population does level off a bit as you get further from NYC) but this is far above the US average and higher than every metro areas outside of NYC/South Florida.
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We've gone back and forth for several pages, so I think taking a step back would help. To summarize:
I never claimed that Greater LA was as Jewish as Greater NYC or even NJ. I think it's pretty clear that there are more Jews and a greater density of them over a wider area of Greater NYC compared to Greater LA. Rather, what I've been disputing is the idea that there aren't "Jewish-heavy" concentrations in every direction from the "core" of Jewish LA.
I also contend that you can find several swaths of geography in the 370,000-1,000,000 range that are in the 4.5-6% Jewish area, which many NJ counties and NJ (the NYC-area portion) as a whole are closer to than the Greater NYC average of 9.5% and certainly the "core." The core can be defined as NYC (11.5% Jewish) or NYC/Nassau/Westchester (11.9% Jewish percentage).
NJ (7.3%) is a notch below NY (including Suffolk and all the Upstate counties) across all metrics: Jewish number, Jewish percentage, and Jewish share of NHWs. Obviously NJ is a vital part of the Greater NYC area, but there are cultural and demographic differences between the two places writ large. For example, NJ is either single-handedly "responsible" or is a major contributor for several ethnic groups: Korean, Peruvian, Filipino, Portuguese, Cuban, Indian, etc. When it comest to the "big three" of Italian/Irish/Jewish, NJ is substantially more Italian/Irish, while in NY the three groups are more even.
I know I'm being a broken record, but am I the only one who finds it pretty amazing that 35% of Greater NYC's Jews live in Brooklyn and Manhattan? There are more Jews that live in those two boroughs alone than NJ (the NYC-area portion) and Nassau County COMBINED. Think about that.
So it seems odd to say that Jews are heavily concentrated in one area of Greater LA while ignoring the fact that 10% of all NYC-area Jews live in 5.7 square miles (UES, UWS, Borough Park). I argue that Brooklyn and Manhattan having the numbers, percentage, share of NHWs, and the *density* make it so "Jewish-heavy" (17.8% Jewish out of a population of 4.1 million) that you could say that there is a clear "Jewish area" within the metro both in absolute and relative terms.
Regarding LA, the "core" would be either the Westside and the entire SFV (LA County only) or the Westside and the Valley Hills (south of Ventura). Either way, you have notable Jewish enclaves or areas that are in the 4-6% range that aren't unlike many of the NJ counties (sans Bergen and Ocean).
West:
Thousand Oaks (128,623)
Unclassified 11.8%
American 4.7%
Polish 3.3%
Russian 3.2%
European 2.1%
Iranian 1.1%
Hungarian 1.0%
The tracts with the largest percentage of Russian ancestry:
Tract 007402 (6,352)
Unclassified 13.9%
Russian 6.8%
American 5.7%
European 5.1%
Polish 4.1%
Hungarian 3.3%
Iranian 2.1%
Tract 007202 (4,232)
Unclassified 12.8%
European 5.1%
Russian 5.0%
American 4.5%
Iranian 3.6%
Polish 2.3%
Czech 1.3%
Austrian 1.1%
And so on. Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, and Oak Park are almost certainly over 10% Jewish, likely north of 15%.
To the north in the Santa Clarita Valley, there are at least half a dozen tracts of a few thousand people that are likely more than 10% Jewish.
To the south and east, you have 127,000 Jews in the Long Beach area, OC, and the Coachella Valley. That's still 17% of all Greater LA Jews located in the opposite corner of the metro. In these places, you have the city of Long Beach (4% Jewish) plus nearby Los Alamitos and Rossmoor. Lots of tracts of a few thousand in various south OC communities that have a high probability of being over 10% Jewish, Laguna Woods clearly above that threshold. This would put the Jewish share of the NHW populations in the double digits; the Jewish share of NHWs in Laguna Woods is probably 20%. And of course the Coachella Valley is a destination for Jews to retire, celebrate the high holidays, or enjoy the National Jewish Retreat.
The point is that even in the Jew-sparse Inland Empire, there's still a notable Jewish area. Even in WASPy OC, you still have a community like Laguna Woods in the heart of south county. It's not the numbers but the randomness — "Even here there are Jews??? I never would've thought. Why does this place even exist? Not only is it out in the middle of nowhere, it also gets so fucking hot!" — that I'm trying to get at. I don't have anything like a Coachella Valley on the exurban fringes of Chicago, DC, Boston, or Philly. So in a sense, Coachella Valley is an oddity like Kiryas Joel. I am NOT saying that Coachella Valley is Kiryas Joel.
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