NJPS Home ---> NJPS Report ---> Special Topics --->

Poverty in the American Jewish Community

-Download NJPS Report PDF -Download PowerPoint Summary

Data on poverty* were collected only for the households of the more Jewishly engaged population. Five percent of these households report incomes that fall below the poverty line as defined by the U.S. federal government, (10)compared to 11% for all U.S. households. Within the households of this restricted segment of the Jewish population, 273,000 people – both Jewish and non-Jewish, and including 211,000 adults and 62,000 children – live below the poverty line.

Direct poverty data are not available for households that answered the NJPS short-form questionnaire.  However, a reasonable estimate of the total number of people living below the poverty line in all Jewish households (i.e., the households of the Jewish population of 5.2 million) is 353,000, including 272,000 adults and 81,000 children and again including both Jews and non-Jews.  This estimation makes two assumptions about households that answered the short-form questionnaire in which direct data on poverty were not collected: 1) the rate of poverty is 5%, and 2) the ratio of the average number of adults and children in poor households to all households is the same as in households in which direct poverty data were collected. (11)
 
Some Jews and their households are more susceptible to poverty than others (see Table 20). As noted above, 9% of the Jewish elderly live in poor households compared to 4% of non-elderly adults. Similarly, 22% of adult immigrants who have arrived in the U.S. since 1980 live in households below the poverty line, in contrast to 4% of other adult Jews. Education and employment status are also related to poverty. Twelve percent of Jews with a high school education or below live in poor homes, while just 3% with at least a college degree do. One-tenth of adult Jews who are not currently employed -- including among them the unemployed and the retired -- reside in households below the poverty threshold, compared to just 2% of those who currently hold jobs.

In contrast, poverty among Jews is not at all or weakly related to several important factors.  Equal proportions of men and women live in poor households, and equal proportions of households with and without children fall below the poverty line.  Poverty rates are marginally higher for single person households than for either two-person or three or more person households.  While single adults in general report slightly elevated poverty rates, the rate of poverty among single mothers with children reaches 8%, possibly suggesting some manifestation of the feminization of poverty in the Jewish

community.  In terms of regions, the Northeast has a slightly elevated proportion of poor Jewish households relative to South, with the Midwest and West between them.

Among the many consequences of poverty is the negative impact on health (see Table 21).  More than half of all adults in households below the poverty line say they have poor or fair health, more than three times the rate of other adults.  Likewise, nearly 30% of adults in poor households say they or someone else in their home have a health condition that limits employment, education or daily activities, double the rate of adults in other households.

Poverty also negatively influences engagement with Jewish institutions.  Many people in poor households join Jewish organizations and participate in communal activities, but they do so less frequently than people in other households.  For example, synagogue membership is 32% among adults in poor homes and 47% among other adults.  Similar patterns are evident for JCC memberships, affiliations with other Jewish organizations, enrollment in adult Jewish education programs, and charitable donations to federations and other Jewish causes.  Poor Jews are also less likely than other Jews to participate in Jewish activities characterized by interactions with other Jews, such as holding or attending a Passover seder and attending religious services monthly or more. 

Simultaneously, Jews living below the poverty line are equally or more likely than other Jews to observe individual rituals such as lighting Shabbat and Chanukah candles and keeping kosher. Jews living in poverty also have equally strong or stronger ethnic attachments than other Jews, as indicated by emotional attachment to Israel, a sense of common destiny with Israel, and reporting that being Jewish is very important to them.  These findings underscore the negative effect that poverty has specifically on joining and contributing to Jewish institutions and participating in activities with other Jews.

(10) Reports on local Jewish communities have sometimes used a broader definition of poor that includes households within 150% of the federal poverty threshold. NJPS was designed to measure the poverty level as defined by the federal government.

(11) Except for this estimation, all poverty data in the text and tables are limited to the Jewish population of 4.3 million. More information on the estimation procedure can be obtained from the UJC research staff.

Next page: Concluding Reflections