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Preface

Preface

Introduction

This series of reports present the findings of UJA-Federation of New York’s 2023 Jewish Community Study. This study is based on nearly 6,000 completed questionnaires from Jewish households of all backgrounds, beliefs, and levels of belonging to Jewish communal organizations.

The U.S. Census is prohibited from asking questions about religion, so the 2023 Jewish Community Study of New York is the prime source of information about the Jewish community in the current moment. The survey collected data from a cross-sectional, representative sample of New York area adults who live in a Jewish household. The geographic scope is the New York eight-county area — the five New York City boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties. The study covers a breadth of topics, from poverty and mental health to Jewish ritual observance and participation in Jewish programs.

Over the past ten years, much has changed in how and where people live across the New York region. Most notably, the Covid-19 pandemic heavily impacted the entire New York metropolitan area, the New York Jewish community included. While it is impossible to know how characteristics of Jewish households would have changed in the absence of the pandemic, this study offers the most comprehensive portrait of the Jewish community in 2023.

Where possible, we have drawn comparisons to provide context to the count and characteristics of the New York Jewish community in 2023. We compare our 2023 findings, when appropriate, to Pew’s Jewish Americans in 2020 and to the New York eight-county census data taken from the 2022 American Community Survey (ACS). We also compare our findings to the 2011 Jewish Community Study and to the 2002 and 1991 New York Jewish community studies; however, shifts in the wording of questions and differences among the studies' methodological procedures complicate these comparisons, so we use longitudinal comparisons judiciously. For more on the limitations of data comparability, see the methods FAQ.

A complete methodological report can be found under the Methodology tab at the top of this page.

A few helpful terms:

  • Jewish Household: A household with at least one Jewish adult. Jewish households may include both Jewish and non-Jewish adults and children.
  • Jewish Adult: An adult who identifies with Judaism, either by religion or in any other way (for example, ethnically, culturally, or because of family background).
  • Eight-County Area: The UJA catchment area, this region includes the five boroughs of New York City, as well as Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties.
  • Neighborhood: One of the thirty-one local areas targeted in this study that were specifically sampled to ensure minimum sample sizes within each geographic area.

How to read the numbers in this report:

  • Rounding. Counts of people and households have been rounded to the nearest thousand. Percentages have generally been rounded to the nearest whole percent. As a result, some tables may not perfectly add up to 100%. Except where otherwise noted, tables are inclusive of all respondents and should be understood to add up to the number indicated in the total row.
  • Comparisons. Even where not explicitly indicated, all figures cited in this report are estimates, and therefore surrounded by margins of error. As a general rule, differences smaller than 5% may not be statistically significant. For more about changes in methodology that may affect comparisons with 2011 data, see the FAQ.