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Top Document: soc.culture.jewish FAQ: Who We Are (2/12) Previous Document: Question 2.20: Is it true that Jews are all (fill-in-the-blank)? rich? (or smart, or ...) Next Document: Question 2.22: How many Jews are in the world? See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
Answer:
A 1990 [yes, this appears to be the latest survey] National Jewish
Population Survey of the Council of Jewish Federations (which can be
found at the [5]North American Jewish Data Bank
([6]http://web.gc.cuny.edu/dept/cjstu/na.htm) reports the following:
American Jews: (TOTAL......5,515,000)
Born Jews, Consider Judaism their religion.....4,210,000
Born Jews, Citing no religion..................1,120,000
Jews by Choice (formerly gentiles)...............185,000
Reform.......................41.4% "Traditional"*............... 3.2%
Conservative.................40.4% Reconstructionist............ 1.6%
Orthodox..................... 6.8% Miscellaneous "Jewish"*...... 1.4%
"Just Jewish"*............... 5.2%
*: self-description, though not a denomination.
Survey Criteria for the classifications:
Orthodox:
Emphasizes the binding unchanging character of Jewish law
Conservative:
Asserts the continuing authority of Jewish law as part of a
dynamic and developing tradition.
Reform:
Emphasizes the Jewish prophetic values and accepts Jewish
practices that it considers relevant for modern times.
Reconstructionism:
A humanistic approach to Jewish tradition that redefines the
idea of G-d in humanistic terms.
The [7]Information Please Almanac, at
[8]http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0193644.html, reports that as of
1998, Jews made up approximately 2% of the population of the United
States. This is about the same percentage as in 1900, but is lower
than the percentage in 1970 (3.2%). The top 5 non-Christian religions
in the United States, according to the Almanac, are as follows:
Adherents 1900 Mid-1970s Mid-1990s Mid-1995 (Projected)
Mid-2000
Nonreligious 1.00M 11.73M 22.23M 23.39M 24.55M
1.3% 5.6% 8.7% 8.8% 8.8%
Jews 1.50M 6.70M 5.54M 5.52M 5.50M
2.0% 3.2% 2.2% 2.1% 2.0%
Muslims 0.01M 0.80M 3.60M 3.77M 3.95M
0.0% 0.4% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4%
Buddhists 0.03M 0.20M 1.68M 1.86M 2.00M
0.0% 0.1% 0.7% 0.7% 0.7%
Black Muslim 0.00M 0.20M 1.25M 1.40M 1.65M
0.0% 0.1% 0.5% 0.5% 0.6%
As this chart shows, the percentage of Jews in the U.S. is projected
to be slowly shrinking. For this survey, the count for Jews is based
on the core Jewish population relating to Judaism, excluding Jewish
persons professing a different religion but including immigrants from
the former U.S.S.R., Eastern Europe, Israel, and other areas.
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Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM
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