Portland one of the largest American Jewish communities

By PAUL HAIST

article created on: 2010-02-25T00:00:00

“Portland is now one of the big boys” among American Jewish communities. Greater Portland’s Jewish population has reached levels that place it among America’s larger Jewish communities, while a number of traditional centers of Jewish population in America are losing numbers.

That was the assessment of Dr. Bruce Phillips who delivered the fifth annual Gus and Libby Solomon Lecture Feb. 18 at Portland State University.

Phillips is a professor in the School of Jewish Communal Service at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. He is a leading sociologist and demographic analyst of American Jewry.

Phillips was invited as the Solomon Lecture’s guest this year to help shed light on the Jewish community demographic study carried out by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland last year. The findings of that study are still under analysis.

Federation Marketing Director Josh Stein said that the data presented by Phillips were based on preliminary data. “He did not have the benefit of the final report as it is still in development, a process that has taken far longer than anticipated.”

There was a standing-room-only crowd in the Michael J. Smith Memorial Center lecture hall where Phillips spoke.

Josh Blank is a JFGP Governing Board member and chair of the demographic study. He said, “We are really excited that there is such an interest in this data. Some of the preliminary results are already being used by our agencies and synagogues. The final report will be released to the community as soon as it is available.”

Phillips said the Portland study results suggest up to 46,000 Jews reside in the four-county area including Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington. Those 46,000 live in some 27,700 households.

He said that Portland’s Jewish community is like San Francisco’s in that it has roots deep in the 19th century, while communities in Seattle and Los Angeles are somewhat younger.

However, Portland’s Jewish community did not show strong growth in the years after World War II, the 1950s, when the general population in the West was growing strongly. Jewish life in the U.S. West then was focused mainly on Los Angeles, said Phillips.

“Now we are seeing lots of growth in the Northwest,” he said. He attributed the growth chiefly to migration from areas where Jewish numbers are in decline, including traditional Jewish strongholds such as Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukie and even New York.

And while the Portland study’s raw data indicate that about 50 percent of Jewish households have been here for more than 20 years, the same data point to about 25 percent of Jewish households here occupied by newcomers—about 22 percent in the last five years and about 7 percent in the last six-10 years.

“To have a quarter of (Jewish) households (occupied by) new in-migrants is like Los Angeles in the 1950s,” said Phillips.

He noted that the raw data suggest that newcomers are mostly younger. In fact, about 93 percent of young, single Jews have been here 10 or fewer years, and about 80 percent of young married Jewish couples also have been here 10 or fewer years, according to the preliminary figures.

Overall, however, greater Portland’s Jewish community appears to be older. Jewish empty-nesters and single Jews older than 40 comprise just above 70 percent of the population, according to the raw data.

Phillips found what he called “a big surprise” in the data relating to synagogue membership. Analysis of the data put membership at 35 percent, about 9,000 households.

The 35 percent figure raised murmurs in the packed room, reflecting the demographic study committee’s determination to further analyze the data.

Phillips attributed the discrepancy in part to how the membership question was worded. It didn’t specify Jewish congregation and it didn’t ask if the household was paying dues.

Phillips explained that many people may say they are members of a congregation because they feel ties to a particular congregation when they are not actually or no longer are members.

He suggested, therefore, that it was not surprising that more households would report themselves as congregation members than is actually the case.

Phillips was not surprised that synagogue membership in greater Portland appeared to follow national patterns with greatest membership reported by married couples with children where both parents were Jewish. Sixty-three percent of such families reported congregational affiliation. Among couples with children where only one spouse was Jewish congregation membership declined to 51 percent.

Phillips said that, in general, newcomers to a Jewish community tend to be more active in the community than longtime residents, taking steps to become involved.

This may point to growing influence among new members of a community. According to Phillips, that influence may not be limited to within the Jewish community.

“Studies show that while white populations are moving out of cities, Jews are moving in,” he said.

“Part of what I think we will see is that Jews will have an increasingly influential role.”

He cautioned that this and other Jewish communities will have to address or continue to address intermarriage and its impact on a family’s association with Jewish institutions and the family’s long-term identity as Jewish.

“Intermarrieds rarely join congregations,” he said, “because it is so expensive and not part of the norm.”

However, Phillips noted that the Portland study’s raw data suggested that some 80 percent of intermarried couples here reported that they are raising their children in Judaism.

He said that is “much higher than the nation” and “suggests someone is doing a good job at outreach.”

The Gus and Libby Solomon lecture at which Phillips spoke is presented by The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at PSU and this year was cosponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland. The annual lecture is dedicated to exploring the American Jewish experience and the ideals of social justice promoted by Gus and Libby Solomon throughout their lifetime. The lectureship is underwritten by the Solomon’s son Richard.