Jewish Federation Discusses Population with Leaders

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland is working through data about thousands of Cleveland-area residents to help decide how it should plan its future.

The Federation conducts the survey every 10 to 15 years. The last survey, conducted in 1996, indicated there were 17,000 Jewish residents in the Northern Heights communities of Highland Heights, Lyndhurst, Mayfield Village, Mayfield Heights, Richmond Heights and South Euclid.

That number dropped to 10,400 in the recent study, a 39 percent decrease that was the largest of the seven geographical areas that were included.

The study reveals that Cleveland’s Jewish community has some unique characteristics.

There is a higher rate of poverty in the Cleveland Jewish community than in other cities that have gathered this population data, like Chicago and Baltimore, said Erika Rudin-Luria during a breakfast presentation to Jewish community leaders Tuesday.

The  contracted Jewish Policy and Action Research (JPAR), a professional survey services company, to phone people in all of Cuyahoga and parts of Portage, Geauga, Lake, Summit and Lorain Counties.

Rudin-Luria is the vice president of development at the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and part of the team that has worked closely on the study.

Nineteen percent of Cleveland Jews are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, she said – or makes less than $29,000 annually for a two-person household.

Rudin-Luria said that it’s too early to say how the Federation will use this information until they are able to identify that community. She noted that determining the geography –  in what part of the region these people reside – will be especially important in deciding how to move forward.

But the Cleveland Jewish community is unique in another way: its members identified strong connections to Judaism in themselves – much higher than in Jews in Detroit, Baltimore or Chicago.

Rudin-Luria said she has not determined what it is about this community that makes them feel more connected to Israel and their religion than in other cities.

But this could mean that the Federation’s potential to serve the community – and garnish donations and help - could be high.