Your city's Jewish community

[Crawford]

I think those fringe LA areas would have very low Jewish counts. How many Jews live in places like Moreno Valley? Definitely lower than metro-wide Jewish shares in other major metros. Also, not sure the local community org ethnic surveys should be taken at face value, given they aren't apples-apples, and they're often overly generous.

For example, the local ethnic organizations now claim there are 600k Arab Americans in Metro Detroit, which is crazy. It's probably exaggerated by 25-50%. It would mean around 20-25% of NHW are Arab American. Way too high. Probably 10-15% at most.

[Docere]

The recent community survey of Philadelphia said that 10% of the city of Philadelphia was Jewish, in a city that's 35% NHW. I really doubt a quarter of all white Philadelphians are Jewish.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Docere

L.A. does seem more visibly Jewish than the Bay Area. There are some strong Jewish concentrations (Beverly Hills is about 60% Jewish). While in the Bay Area I couldn't tell you what "the Jewish area" or "Jewish suburbs" are.

Jews aren't as ubiquitous as in NY/NJ/CT or South Florida, but there isn't a "Jewish quarter" either. There's the Westside (west of La Cienega) of course, but there's also Central LA (including West Hollywood) between Western and La Cienega, the entire SFV minus the northeast quadrant, and the Santa Clarita Valley. Ventura County is 4.9% Jewish, the Coachella Valley is at least 5.4% Jewish, Greater Long Beach and west OC is 4.5% Jewish, and south OC has a decent concentration of 12 chabads.

My hometown of South Pasadena, I found out yesterday, now has a chabad house (opened in 2021). The Shaliach, rabbi Dovid Harlig, grew up in Upland as one of 8 children. His father moved from Brooklyn and founded the Chabad of the Inland Empire in 1989. One of his siblings opened the Chabad Jewish Center of Chino Hills in 2020.

So while Jewry is certainly heavily concentrated in a certain part of the region, it's also making inroads in other locales.

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I think those fringe LA areas would have very low Jewish counts. How many Jews live in places like Moreno Valley? Definitely lower than metro-wide Jewish shares in other major metros. Also, not sure the local community org ethnic surveys should be taken at face value, given they aren't apples-apples, and they're often overly generous.

Those are already low/standard estimates.

Orange County has been estimated to have 80,000-100,000 Jews for a long time now.

Coachella Valley ranges from 20,000-35,000. While 35,000 is probably too high, it's almost certainly at least 5% Jewish. Just go to Google Maps, type in "synagogue," and you'll see a dense concentration.

Same thing with Ventura west of Camarillo — specifically Ventura and the Ojai Valley. 10,000 Jews out of 400,000 is 2.5%... that's less than Orange County.

San Gabriel Valley is home to 2 million. 20,000 Jews would mean that it's just 1% Jewish. Jewish Virtual Library estimates 30,000-40,000, although that federation includes Upland and Rancho Cucamonga.

Greater Long Beach and West Orange County is home to 29,000 Jews, as the local community study will show. 20,000-25,000 was floated around for a long time.

Inland Empire excluding Coachella Valley is 4.25 million. If it's just 0.05% Jewish, which is the percentage of the Riverside MSA, according to the Berman Jewish DataBank, that's 20,000 Jews.

That's 170,000 Jews all based on lowball figures.

[Docere]

The 2021 survey says there's 22,000 Persian Jews in LA. And 13% of LA Jews are Sephardim or Mizrahi.

https://www.jewishdatabank.org/api/d...sed_081922.pdf

[Docere]

45% of Toronto Jews live in 7 Forward Sortation Areas (equivalent to ZIP codes) that are at least 20% Jewish. 40% of Montreal Jews live in 4 FSAs that are at least 20% Jewish.

[Docere]

Using Toronto's official neighborhoods, the following are at least 10% Jewish (by religion):

Forest Hill South* 4,175 38.6%
Forest Hill North* 4,740 38.3%
Bedford Park-Nortown** 8,305 37.5%
Englemount-Lawrence** 7,625 35.8%
Humewood-Cedarvale* 3,875 28%
Clanton Park*** 4,595 26.1%
Casa Loma 2,495 22%
Bathurst Manor*** 4,035 21.6%
Lansing-Westgate*** 3,150 19.8%
Westminister-Branson*** 4,680 18.9%
Lawrence Park South (North Toronto) 2,380 15.9%
Wychwood 1,620 12.6%
St. Andrew-Windfields (York Mills) 2,115 12.5%
Yonge-St. Clair 1,525 11.8%
Annex-Yorkville 3,305 11.3%
Yonge-Eglinton 1,330 10.7%

Clustering a few together:

* Forest Hill-Cedarvale 12,795 34.6%
** Bathurst-Lawrence area 15,930 36.7%
*** Bathurst-Sheppard area 16,430 21.9%

[edale]

I just stumbled upon an interesting fact related to this topic. Cincinnati was the first city in the US to establish a Jewish hospital (1850).

[Docere]

Cincinnati was a big German Jewish center in the 19th century.

[Docere]

Jewish population, 1878

New York 73,000 4.1%
San Francisco 16,000 6.8%
Philadelphia 12,000 1.4%
Baltimore 10,000 3%
Chicago 10,000 2%
Cincinnati 8,000 3.1%
Boston 7,000 1.9%
St. Louis 6,200 1.8%
New Orleans 5,000 2.3%

[Quixote]

^ Crazy to think there was ever a time when NYC didn’t have the biggest share of Jews.

[Docere]

Montreal, 2021 census:

Hampstead 4,440 63.1%
Cote St. Luc 17,845 52.9%
Outremont (borough) 5,715 29.3%
Westmount 4,330 22.5%
Dollard des Ormeaux 7,395 15.4%

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Docere

Montreal, 2021 census:

Hampstead 4,440 63.1%
Cote St. Luc 17,845 52.9%
Outremont (borough) 5,715 29.3%
Westmount 4,330 22.5%
Dollard des Ormeaux 7,395 15.4%

And what about the Ville de Montreal? The above are all independent cities.

[Docere]

Montreal Island 73,900 3.8%
Ville de Montreal 35,930 2.1%

[Docere]

Outremont was an independent municipality but is now part of the city of Montreal.

[mrnyc]

no, they don’t look cool, but anyway, about those brooklyn balconies …



COMMUNITY & COMMERCE|Feb 12, 2021

THE BRILLIANT, NOT-SO-SECRET REASON SOME BROOKLYN BALCONIES ARE STAGGERED

Beyond looking cool, Williamsburg’s zig-zagged balconies play an important role in Hasidic culture

By Anna Rahmanan


…

Look up and you might notice a number of buildings adorned with curious-looking staggered balconies that zig and zag down austere apartment facades. On those balconies, “sukkahs” are built: huts that Jews traditionally spend time in during the holiday. According to Jewish law, for a sukkah to be considered kosher, it must—among other things—have a roof that is open to the sky. But building owners have found a way to cater to a very specific need for a very specific set of customers: by zig-zagging their balconies, Hasidic Jews can build kosher sukkahs with roofs unobstructed by other balconies above them.

[edale]

That looks hideous.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by edale

That looks hideous.

The Orthodox parts of Williamsburg, Brooklyn are dominated by that housing style:

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7000...7i16384!8i8192

2023-era Jewish Williamsburg is technically more in Bed Stuy. It shifted south, into the formerly industrial no-mans-land between Williamsburg and Bed Stuy, and is quickly replacing low-slung warehouses with weird-looking apartment blocks.

[Crawford]

In recent years, Orthodox Williamsburg is also getting all these odd sliver commercial highrises. They're popping up everywhere. I have no idea what they're for. Maybe medical, or small businesses for the community. They usually have no signage, not even in Yiddish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6990...7i16384!8i8192

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Docere

The 2021 survey says there's 22,000 Persian Jews in LA. And 13% of LA Jews are Sephardim or Mizrahi.

https://www.jewishdatabank.org/api/d...sed_081922.pdf

So about 85%* (these are and will always be just rough estimates) of LA Jews are Ashkenazi, which aligns with the Jewry population writ large.

Interesting. I’ve always thought that LA had a greater share of Mizrahim due to the Iranian Jewish population. This is probably because Beverly Hills immediately comes to mind when it comes to LA Jewry and that pretty much every “Jewish” neighborhood (some majority, some plurality, some in the 10-20% range) in LA has a large Iranian population.

There are, I believe, 130,000 or so Iranians in Greater LA. It’s known that those in Glendale and south OC are largely Muslim, but my anecdotal experience also suggests that many of those in Beverly Hills are Muslim as well. I wonder if that’s the reason why Beverly Hills doesn’t have a large Israeli community. Encino, Woodland Hills, Tarzana, and Pico-Robertson all have Iranian pluralities, but they aren’t far and away the predominant ethnic group.

What’s the breakdown of Ashkenazi/Sephardic/Mizrahi Jews in the NYC area? And to what degree do non-Ashkenazi Jews associate/assimilate into the predominantly Ashkenazi, Yiddish-based population/culture?

*Edit: I think I originally read 80-85% on Wikipedia; now it says 75%.