December 30, 2012 | 12:08 pm

A Community Frozen in Time Demographically

Posted Bruce Phillips

I just got back from the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies.  One session was on Jewish diversity within the Jewish community. There were two papers on New York  and one on Chicago.  Which community is missing here? 

That’s right…Los Angeles!  New York and Chicago both did Jewish population surveys recently, and Los Angeles was conspicuously absent from this session because our last study is close to 16 years old. My colleagues in Jewish demography are astonished that LA does not even have a survey on the radar. 

I could only refer to Jay Sanderson’s, the Jewish Federation's President, Jewish Journal interview from this past summer: “While Sanderson agrees that a study could help refine and guide programs, he believes Federation already has a good read on the community.” I wonder how Mr. Sanderson would have to say to a Jewish educator at a large synagogue who called me the other day to ask why religious school enrollment has been steadily falling over the past few years. Was it the economy?  Were Jews leaving the area from which the synagogue has drawn students in the past? Was the number of Jews in that denomination shrinking? I gave him my best guess and emphasized it was only a guess. Jay Sanderson and the Federation leadership apparently know the answer but haven’t told the rest of us.  Or maybe they don’t know why and actually don’t care why enrollment was declining at this synagogue (and maybe others). 

Sanderson’s quote is telling: “I don’t think we’ll learn anything that will dramatically change the work we’re already doing. I think it will validate things we’re doing.” Apparently what Federation does matters, but not what other institutions do. In future posts I’ll try to address this question. In the meantime, you can party like it’s 1997 and look forward to 2000 when Joe Lieberman will be our first Jewish Vice President.

Bruce Phillips is a Professor of Jewish Communal Service in the School of Non-Profit Management, HUC-JIR/Los Angeles and USC. Bruce is among the leading sociologists studying the contemporary Jewish community, specializing in the sociology and demography of American Jewry.  Bruce can be found playing banjo, mandolin and other stringed instruments in the Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Shabbat Unplugged live Bayit (House) Band on many Friday nights.To email Bruce: pini00003@gmail.com

December 10, 2012 | 1:51 pm

Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Settler Demographics Behind One-State Impetus

Posted by Pini Herman

Demographic changes within the West Bank may obstruct the possibility of the two-state solution.  In-migration of ideological Jewish settlers has dwindled since the Second Intifada around 2000 and Jewish natural increase among non-Zionist Jews has created a new reality on the ground. Yinon Cohen and Neve Gordon recently highlighted the phenomenonal growth of the ultra-orthodox in the settlements where most would rather live within Israel, but live in settlements because of cheap housing.  This is congruent with my earlier blog of August this year that argued that the growth of settlements was driven by attainable quality of life rather than ideological considerations on the part of most Jewish migrants to West Bank settlements.

Ironically, the non-Zionist Haredi Jews who are driving the "natural growth" of West Bank Settlement, having an average of 7.7 children per ultra-Orthodox women, are the least ideologically motivated settlers or residents in Israel.  Haredi Orthodox Jews have a higher poverty rate of 54%, higher than the Israeli Arab estimated poverty rate of 53% of households.  The West Bank has become the safety valve of indirect subsidies to the Haredi Orthodox Jews through subsidized housing and services.

This infogram was designed by Michal Wexler

Source for the infogram: Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, International Data Base, US Census, and Israeli Statistical Abstract, 2009, 2010, 2011.

Neve Gordon is the author of Israel's Occupation with Yinon Cohen, who is Yerushalmi Professor of Israel and Jewish Studies, Department of Sociology, Columbia University, New York, and can be reached through his website.

Pini Herman, PhD. has served as Asst. Research Professor at the University of Southern California Dept. of Geography,  Adjunct Lecturer at the USC School of Social Work,  Research Director at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles following Bruce Phillips, PhD. in that position (and author of the “most recent” 15 year old study of the LA Jewish population which was the third most downloaded study from Berman Jewish Policy Archive in 2011) and is a past President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area. Currently he is a principal of Phillips and Herman Demographic Research. To email Pini: pini00003@gmail.com To follow Pini on Twitter: Follow @pinih

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December 4, 2012 | 6:41 pm

Israel May Get One State And Some Israelis Want Two Votes

Posted by Pini Herman

69 percent of Israelis are against granting the 2.5 million Arab residents of an annexed Judea and Samaria the right to vote in Knesset elections. Even Israeli Arabs’ right to vote should be taken away according to 33 percent of Israelis. This was the result of a poll undertaken by Dialog on Oct. 2012. It’s findings may be a slight improvement over a Dahaf poll taken two years ago in 2010 where 36 percent of Israelis did not support the right of non-Jewish citizens to vote in Knesset elections.

The recent Dialog survey found that only 38 percent of Israelis are for annexation of territories where there are Jewish settlements, while a small majority 48 percent were against and the rest, 14 percent didn’t know.

Israel may be getting closer to a one-state solution.  A few days ago Israel has declared that it will construct additional 3000 housing units in Jerusalem and the West Bank. As today’s LA Times editorial warned:

  As U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, it would deal "an almost fatal blow" to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because it would make it extremely difficult to configure a reasonably contiguous Palestinian state. (The Obama administration described the Israeli announcement as "counterproductive," and a State Department spokesman said that construction in E-1 "would be damaging to efforts to achieve a two-state solution.")

Pini Herman, PhD. has served as Asst. Research Professor at the University of Southern California Dept. of Geography,  Adjunct Lecturer at the USC School of Social Work,  Research Director at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles following Bruce Phillips, PhD. in that position (and author of the “most recent” 15 year old study of the LA Jewish population which was the third most downloaded study from Berman Jewish Policy Archive in 2011) and is a past President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area. Currently he is a principal of Phillips and Herman Demographic Research. To email Pini: pini00003@gmail.com To follow Pini on Twitter: Follow @pinih

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