1 mil American Jews live in low-income households

The Forward reports: Close to 1 million people in American Jewish families live in low-income households, according to a new study that appears to be the most extensive national communal study ever done about economic vulnerability among American Jews.

The report also underscores the difficulty that some poor families face in accessing Jewish communal institutions. Fully 25% of poor Jews said that costs prevented them from joining a synagogue, and 17% said they were unable to keep kosher because of the cost.

The 1990 survey had found that poor Jews were less likely to be religiously observant than those with higher incomes, apparently due to the cost of participation. That was seen as a reversal of a traditional pattern in which wealthier Jews were considered less observant. The new findings appear likely to confirm the 1990 trend.

The study did confirm many well-known trends among the Jewish poor, including the high degree of economic trouble among immigrants from the former Soviet Union, 50% of whom are under the low-income threshold. The Los Angeles study found that in the Fairfax neighborhood, which is heavy with immigrants, fully 33% of Jews were under the poverty line.

If one to assume 6 mil Jews in America then every sixth Jew you meet is poor.