Initial survey findings: 45,700 Jews live in Portland area

By PAUL HAIST

article created on: 2009-01-29T00:00:00

While a comprehensive report on the findings of the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland’s Jewish population study is “a month or so” away, according to Josh Blank, who chairs the federation’s population study committee, Blank was able to provide some tantalizing figures at the federation’s June 10 annual meeting.

“The results are looking good,” said Blank, referring to the study numbers, which he added had been reviewed by an independent statistician.

Blank offered an overview of the findings, supported by a PowerPoint presentation.

In the four-county Portland metropolitan area the study found approximately 27,700 Jewish households, which are home to 79,000 individuals including 45,700 Jews.

That means that some 33,000 non-Jews also live in those households.

While there is no earlier Portland-area Jewish population study with which to compare these findings, Blank said, “The Jewish population is likely to have grown at a healthy pace over the past decade.”

He suggested that it probably grew at about the same rate as overall household and population growth in the Portland area in the last 10 years, 12.9 percent and 11.5 percent respectively.

That would mean that in the last 10 years the Jewish population here grew by about 5,200.

Multnomah County has the highest Jewish population, 16,000, followed by Washington County with 6,000, Clackamas County with 3,600 and Clark County, Wash., with 2,100.

Within Multnomah County, the highest concentration of Jews is in the Southwest where 3,823 Jewish households were identified, home to 9,098 Jews.

Forty-nine percent of Jews in the Portland area describe themselves as religious, while 42 percent call themselves cultural Jews and about 9 percent say they are non-practicing Jews.

Those with no children in their household, college graduates and those earning $150,000 or more are slightly more likely to call themselves cultural Jews.

Twenty-seven percent of Jewish households have at least one child under the age of 19.

Reform and Conservative Jews together comprise nearly two thirds of all Jewish households, according to Blank’s presentation. The study found a great deal of movement across religious streams.

Seventy-eight percent of Portland-area Jews are Ashkenazi and 6 percent are Sephardic/Mizrahi.

The study found that 51 percent of Portland-area Jews have lived here more than 20 years.

The study found an unusually high rate of interfaith marriage in the Portland area. About 70 percent said that someone in their immediate family is now married to a person who was not born a Jew. The national rate, according to the 2002 National Jewish Population Study, is 42 percent.

Blank’s report called this “perhaps the highest interfaith marriage rate of any major city in the United States.” However, he cautioned that there is likely to be some overlap of related family members in different households here reporting the same interfaith marriage, and some respondents reporting relatives in interfaith marriages not in the Portland area.

The survey tested respondents’ knowledge of and attitudes about some local Jewish institutions.

Eighty-two percent of survey respondents would recommend Cedar Sinai Park, the senior adult living campus in Southwest Portland. Only 8 percent said they have a family member who now lives there.

Thirty-nine percent were “very familiar with the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Only 15 percent said they are MJCC members, while 33 percent of households had MJCC membership in the past.

The report concluded that “if the MJCC does everything right, up to 7 percent (840 known Jewish households) may join the JCC in the next three years.”

The Jewish Family and Child Service is perceived positively by 65 percent of respondents, although 55 percent did not know enough about the JFCS to grade its performance.

In the area of philanthropy, the survey found that giving by Jews here is about evenly split between Jewish and non-Jewish charities.

Donations to Jewish charities were generally made through congregations rather than through the Jewish federation. However, those who reported donating more than $25,000 to all Jewish charities or between $5,000 and $10,000 were more likely to report making their contributions through the federation.

Of those who give to federation, 34 percent reported they do so because they believe in the mission of the federation.

Blank observed that the responses “indicate there are lots of ways to increase participation.”

Noting that questions can and do arise as to the accuracy of a study’s findings, Blank quoted 19th-century English mathematician, philosopher and mechanical engineer Charles Babbage who said, “Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data.”

In conclusion, Blank said, “I am confident this will be a valuable tool to help us improve our community.”

A PDF copy of the preliminary report as presented at the JFGP annual meeting may be downloaded from the Jewish Review Web site, jewishreview.org.

Federation representatives stressed that the report is only “preliminary.” Updated reports are expected in the near future. When they are available, they will be posted at jewishreview.org.