2021 Study of Jewish Los Angeles

Challenge

How to best understand the size and diversity of the Los Angeles Jewish community.

Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and local partners were interested in conducting a study designed to provide systematic data to guide strategic planning to meet the needs of its members and community. Understanding the composition of the community and its diverse needs was an essential step to improving well-being, deepening the Jewish engagement of its members, and strengthening the LA community as a whole.

Solution

Capture characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes of the Jewish community members in the Greater Los Angeles area.

A team of researchers at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University and NORC at the University of Chicago were engaged to conduct a study employing state-of-the-art methods to create a comprehensive description of the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of members of the Jewish community in Greater Los Angeles.

This study was based on an analysis of a rich set of data collected from 3,767 eligible households between June and September 2021. Survey respondents were randomly selected from all households in the Los Angeles area. The study design integrated an Address-Based Sample (ABS) with known households on Jewish organizational lists. Households were contacted by mail, email, and telephone, and invited to complete the survey online or by telephone. Responses were statistically weighted to represent all LA Jewish households. The questionnaire was developed to capture stable characteristics of the community as well as to account for changes in usual patterns of behavior during the pandemic.

Results

The Los Angeles Jewish community is large and diverse.

The community was made up of individuals of various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, who lived in a number of different household types and had varying connections to Judaism. Jewish Angelenos are dispersed across a wide geographic area which reflects variation in Jewish density, institutions, and opportunities.

Some key findings:

Current age patterns suggested that diversity was likely to increase over time.
What was most essential to being Jewish for LA Jews? Leading a moral and ethical life, connecting to family and traditions, and working for justice and equality.
Almost all LA Jewish adults were concerned about antisemitism.
Close to 1 in 4 Jewish households were financially struggling and described their financial situation as “cannot make ends meet” (1%) or “just managing to make ends meet” (18%).
One of the most significant needs in the LA Jewish community was for mental health services, and this need is even more striking among young adults.

The Federation will be following up with in-depth interviews of specific segments of the L.A. Jewish Community including LGBTQIA+ Jewish young adults and Interfaith families with young children.