Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- Nochmal: der arme, fromme Pinkas: (ex NYT, E) - dottore, 16.06.2003, 12:41
Nochmal: der arme, fromme Pinkas: (ex NYT, E)
-->June 16, 2003
City Milestone: Number of Jews Is Below Million
By JOSEPH BERGER
he Jewish population of New York City has fallen by 5 percent since 1991, dipping below one million for the first time in a century,
according to a roughly once-a-decade study that is being released today by the UJA-Federation of New York.
But Jews who left the city seemed to stay in the area, because the Jewish population has risen by a corresponding amount in three suburban
counties in New York state.
The study, regarded as the most authoritative count of the Jewish population, said there were 972,000 Jews in New York City in 2002. That
was a moderate drop from the 1990's and 1980's but less than half the peak of two million living in the five boroughs in the late 1950's. The
study also showed that the decline would have been steeper if not for an influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union during the 1990's.
But the addition of those immigrants — now totaling 186,000 — a sluggish economy and an aging population helped to more than double
the rate of poverty among the city's Jews since 1991, according to the survey. One in five Jewish households in New York City — one in six
if three suburban counties are included — reports an income that meets a commonly accepted definition of poverty.
[...]
The Jewish population of the United States was put at 5.5 million on the last completed study, taken in 1990, Dr. Ukeles said. A tentative
study released last October put the national Jewish population at 5.2 million, but the study's methods and definitions have been questioned.
The new study of the New York area was designed in part to alert Jewish communal agencies how to tend to the population and from that
point of view, the new poverty figures surprised many. Dr. Ukeles blamed much of the increase in poverty on the economy and on an
increase in the proportion of immigrants, who tend to be poorer at least for their first few years in the country. But stories like that of Cathy
Markowitz show that other factors come into play as well.
Mrs. Markowitz, the mother of three teenage boys, said she had been living a solid middle-class life in a house in Baldwin on Long Island
when her husband, an accountant, suffered a severe stroke in 2000. She discovered that his health insurance was not paid up and that he had
not put away enough money to care for his family. Now divorced, she receives Medicaid and food stamps and earns $24,000 a year as a
medical receptionist.
"All Jewish people are not wealthy," she said."What happened to me can happen to anybody."
[...]
Thread gesperrtgesamter Thread:
