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Census of U.S. Synagogues, 2001

BY JIM SCHWARTZ, JEFFREY SCHECKNER, AND

LAURENCE KOTLER-BERKOWITZ

1 HE SYNAGOGUE is THE most prevalent and arguably themost important institution in American Jewish life. One measureof its significance is that more Jews belong to a synagogue than toany other Jewish organization. The synagogue is classically de-picted as the site for prayer, study, and communal gathering. Lessfrequently mentioned are other reasons for affiliation with a syn-agogue, such as companionship, communal identification, chil-dren's education, transacting business, gathering news, and ex-changing gossip. The significance of the synagogue for Jews whobelong may vary from essential to minimal. It also may be impor-tant for many Jews who do not attend as a reference point for pos-itive or negative Jewish memories, a focus for accepting or reject-ing Jewish identity, or other reasons.

Historically, the primary source of information regarding thenumber of U.S. synagogues was the decennial Census of ReligiousBodies conducted between 1850 and 1936.1 According to the datacollected, there were 37 "congregations" in 1850, increasing to3,728 by 1936. But the number of "edifices"—a category that maybetter approximate the definition of a modern synagogue—waslower. For example, in 1916 there were 1,901 congregations butonly 866 edifices (see table 1).

However, the Jewish data from these censuses, as one scholarnoted, "are very defective from the point of view of comprehen-

Note: The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Deborah Bursztyn of theUnited Jewish Communities in preparing many of the tables that appear in this article andMichele Anish of the Blaustein Library of the American Jewish Committee for providingbibliographic sources. The authors thank United Jewish Communities for supporting thisresearch as part of its mandate in serving the Jewish community.

'Uriah Zvi Engelman, "Jewish Statistics in the U.S. Census of Religious Bodies(1850-1936)," Jewish Social Studies 9, Apr. 1947, pp. 127-174. See also H. S. Linfield, "TheCommunal Organization of the Jews in the United States, 1927," AJYB 1929-30, Vol. 31,pp. 107-18.

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siveness, completeness, and accuracy,"2 and therefore should beused with caution. To the best of our knowledge there has been noattempt to enumerate the number of synagogues since the 1936Census of Religious Bodies.3

This article reports on a 2001 census of U.S. synagogues, pro-viding the number of synagogues at the national, regional, state,county, and metropolitan levels, as well as categorizing them by de-nomination within geographic divisions. Our data are about syn-agogues, not individual Jews; the denomination with which a Jewidentifies is not necessarily the denomination of the synagogue(s)s/he attends, belongs to, or financially supports.

Definition of a Synagogue

A typical dictionary definition of a synagogue is "a Jewish com-munity meeting for religious observances or instruction; the build-ing or assembly place used by Jewish communities for this purpose"(Webster). This definition, however, is not specific enough to dis-tinguish a synagogue from other forms of Jewish assembly, suchas a minyan (a quorum of ten Jews for praying) or a havurah (oftena gathering for prayer that is less formal than a synagogue). We con-sider five factors to be essential to the definition of a "synagogue":

1. Religious: Primary purpose is Jewish prayer.2. Physical: A permanent location for such prayer.3. Time: Regularly scheduled Jewish religious services, even

if infrequent.4. Leadership: Ordained (rabbi and/or cantor) and/or lay.5. Psychological: Members'4 perception of the entity as a syn-

agogue.

2Engelman, "Jewish Statistics," p. 127.3There was one additional U.S.-government-sponsored study of religion, in 1957, but it

explored religion at the individual level and did not deal with the church/synagogue di-mension. See Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Population Characteris-tics, Religion Reported by the Civilian Population of the United States: March 1957, SeriesP-20, No. 79, Feb. 2, 1958; and Samuel A. Mueller and Angela V. Lane, "Tabulations fromthe 1957 Current Population Survey of Religion: A Contribution to the Demography ofAmerican Religion," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 11, Mar. 1972, pp. 76-98.

The term "member" is used in a generic sense and may have different meanings in dif-ferent synagogues. The overwhelming majority of synagogues have a membership fee, butnot all.

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When a group of Jews first begins holding religious services in-frequently, or in an informal setting such as a living room, meet-ing room or other facility that is not perceived as a permanent lo-cation, their entity has not reached the point of qualifying as asynagogue. This is the case with many minyanim and havurot, someof which function independently and others that are within thestructure of a synagogue.

Factors that are not essential to the definition of a synagoguebut are often associated with it are:

1. Ownership of a building. The vast majority of synagoguebuildings are owned by their congregations. However, somesynagogues are located in rented or donated facilities.5

2. Legal status, such as incorporation or development of by-laws identifying the entity as a synagogue.

3. Membership in a denominational association and adher-ence to the rules and standards of that group.

We exclude Christian (e.g. Jews for Jesus, Hebrew Christians) andother groups that may use the word "synagogue" in describingtheir houses of worship, for their primary purpose is not Jewishprayer as defined by the mainstream Jewish community.

Methodology

The enumeration and identification of synagogues required theacquisition of lists from all Jewish denominations and organiza-tions known to represent or to be associated with synagogues.Most encompassing were the lists prepared by the four major Jew-ish denominations:

1. Conservative—United Synagogue of Conservative Ju-daism (USCJ)

2. Orthodox—Agudath Israel; Chabad/Lubavitch6; Union ofOrthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU); YoungIsrael

5There are some Orthodox rabbis who own their synagogue buildings.6Chabad is the Hebrew acronym referring to Lubavitch Hassidim. We use the terms in-

terchangeably in this article.

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3. Reconstructionist—Jewish Reconstructionist Federation(JRF)

4. Reform—Union of American Hebrew Congregations(UAHC)

Lists were also acquired from other organizations representingor associated with synagogues:

5. Gay/Lesbian—World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jew-ish Organizations (WCGLJO)

6. Humanistic—Society for Humanistic Judaism7. Sephardi—American Sephardi Federation8. Traditional—Union for Traditional Judaism (UTJ)

Most of the denominations and organizations noted above sug-gested utilizing their Web sites for their most complete and accu-rate synagogue lists. Each list was scrutinized for specific syna-gogue indicators. These included the use of the words "synagogue"or "temple" in the name, noting the name of an officiating rabbiand/or cantor, and publishing the times at which services wereconducted.

However, two of the lists, WCGLJO and Chabad, contained somany entries indicating the presence of non-synagogues that theyrequired particularly careful review. The WCGLJO had more than50 U.S. members, but upon review, only 19 qualified as synagogues.

A rabbi actively involved in national Chabad affairs provided alist of approximately 470 facilities. To confirm that the facilities onthat list were synagogues, we called at least one in each area to con-firm whether it and other Chabad facilities in close proximity metour criteria. We determined that about 120 of the units functionedprimarily as education or outreach centers, youth centers, admin-istrative offices, or schools, or else were university-based and servedmainly college students. These Chabad centers did not have regu-larly scheduled services, or in some other way did not meet the cri-teria for being a synagogue.7

To augment the information obtained from the organizations,

'Given the rapid expansion of Chabad centers over the last decade it is possible that someof these non-synagogues will become synagogues. Our impression is that the number ofChabad synagogues is growing at a faster pace than the number of any other synagogue


we acquired synagogue lists from all Jewish federations whosecatchment areas have a Jewish population of 10,000 or more,and cross-referenced them with other lists. As many catchmentareas extend well beyond metropolitan boundaries and some evencover entire states, many local communities with fewer than10,000 Jews are included in this process. These federation direc-tories probably cover more than 90 percent of the American Jew-ish population.

Further, we used the 2001 listing of local Jewish populations ap-pearing in the American Jewish Year Book to ensure that we didnot overlook the presence of any synagogue in all communitieswith a known Jewish population of at least 100. This involveddouble-checking contact information for synagogues appearing inthe United Jewish Communities' files and cross-checking with aJewish travel guide, plus a keyword search on the Internet for thepresence of synagogues that might not appear in other lists thatwe obtained.

Several areas are known to have a large concentration of Or-thodox Jews, including a substantial number of Hassidim—Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens in New York City; RocklandCounty and Kiryas Joel (Orange County) in New York State; andLakewood in New Jersey. In these areas we made additional ef-forts at gathering synagogue names. We cross-referenced the localtelephone directory yellow pages with other lists we had of thesecommunities. In addition, lists were acquired from local rabbis andother community leaders so as to locate smaller, independent,and nonaffiliated entities that might meet the criteria for beingsynagogues.

Our search—using name, location, denomination, and otherrelevant descriptor information—is, we believe, the most exten-sive effort ever conducted to enumerate U.S. synagogues. How-ever, our data may contain errors due to such factors as the vol-untary nature of synagogue identification and the unreliability oflists.

organization. This may largely be due to the Chabad strategy of sending young couples toareas previously not serviced by Chabad, with the goal of raising sufficient funds and othersupport within a relatively short period of time so as to become self-sustaining. While asynagogue may be described as Chabad, the actual number of members and attendees insuch synagogues who consider themselves to be Chabad is often very small.

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Total U.S. Synagogues by Denomination

The total number of synagogues in the United States in 2001was 3,727 (see table 2). The denomination with the largest num-ber of synagogues was Orthodox (40 percent), followed by Reform(26 percent), and Conservative (23 percent). All other denomina-tions and forms of synagogue identification have 3 percent orless of the synagogues: Reconstructionist (3 percent), Sephardi (3percent), Traditional (1 percent), Humanistic (1 percent),Gay/Lesbian (0.5 percent), and Jewish Renewal (0.4 percent). Allbut four of the Sephardi synagogues also identify themselves asOrthodox. Four percent of synagogues intentionally do not iden-tify with any specific denomination, probably for a variety of rea-sons, including a desire to appeal to a broad range of members.One percent of the synagogues provided no denominational iden-tification.

Formal affiliation with a denominational association does notnecessarily follow from denominational identification. There maybe fiscal, ideological, theological, political, geographic, and otherreasons for some synagogues not to formally join the synagogueassociation of the denomination with which they identify. Amongthe 976 synagogues that consider themselves Reform, 90 percentbelong to that movement's association, the Union of American He-brew Congregations. Of the 865 synagogues identifying as Con-servative, 79 percent are members of the Conservative movement'sassociation, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. All99 Reconstructionist synagogues are members of the Jewish Re-constructionist Federation.

The Orthodox sector, unlike the other denominations, has sev-eral different synagogue groups. Of the 1,501 Orthodox syna-gogues, 352 identify as Orthodox Union (24 percent). In addition,OU officials maintain that since they have different levels of as-sociation, the number of synagogues in some sense affiliated withthe organization is much larger than the number of formal mem-bers. Lubavitch has nearly as many members as the OrthodoxUnion, 346 (23 percent). The third largest Orthodox synagoguegroup is Young Israel, with 150 members (10 percent). Agudath Is-rael, with 55 members (4 percent), is the fourth largest Orthodoxsynagogue group. Like their counterparts at the OU, Agudath Is-rael leaders state that a good number of Orthodox synagogues


that are not actual members are nevertheless aligned with it. Thereis duplicate membership among all four of these groups. AmongOrthodox Union synagogues, 56 are also members of anothergroup, among Young Israel 35, among Lubavitch six, and amongAgudath Israel five.

Over a third of all Orthodox synagogues (36 percent) appear tofunction independently. These 542 synagogues apparently are notmembers of any of the groups mentioned above, although manysympathize or identify with at least one of them. Based on theirnames and location we believe that many in this group are amongthe most traditional segments of the Jewish community, both Has-sidic and non-Hassidic. The Hassidic groups include Satmar, Ger,Bobov, Vishnitz, Bratslav, Skver, and Boston, none of which prac-tice the Lubavitch philosophy of actively proselytizing among Jews.Some of these independent synagogues tend to have relatively fewmembers, and prefer the Yiddish term shtieblach (small prayerhouses) to characterize their synagogues.

Forty-six synagogues use the word "traditional" to describethemselves. The Union for Traditional Judaism (UTJ), originallyan offshoot of the Conservative movement, claims to represent aphilosophy and does not define itself as a denomination. Never-theless, two traditional synagogues reported UTJ membershipwithout connections to any other denominational group. Anotheruse of the identifier "traditional" is for a synagogue with anOrthodox-style service but without a physical divider separatingmen and women. Of the 19 synagogues identifying as gay and les-bian, seven are members of the UAHC, one of the JRF, and theremaining 11 are independent.

U.S. Synagogues by Metropolitan Area

The 50 metropolitan areas with the largest Jewish populationscontain 3,075 synagogues, amounting to 82 percent of all U.S.synagogues (see table 3). The plurality of those synagogues is Or-thodox (46 percent), more than a fifth are Conservative (24 per-cent) and Reform (21 percent), 3 percent Reconstructionist, and 7percent some other type.

The metropolitan area with the greatest number of synagogues,by far and away, is New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island,

CENSUS OF U.S. SYNAGOGUES, 2001 / 119

with a third (33 percent) of all synagogues.8 Six other areas contain3 percent or more of all synagogues. The area with the secondlargest number of synagogues is Los Angeles-Riverside-OrangeCounty (7 percent), followed by Boston-Worcester-Lawrence (5percent), Chicago-Gary-Kenosha (4 percent), Philadelphia-Wilmington-Atlantic City (4 percent), Miami-Ft. Lauderdale (4percent), and San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (3 percent). Theseseven communities, the only ones with over 100 synagogues, ac-count for well over half (58 percent) of all the synagogues in thecountry.

Three other communities have over 50 synagogues: Washing-ton, D.C. (65), Baltimore (56), and Detroit-Ann Arbor (51). Twomore have over 40, Cleveland-Akron (48) and West Palm Beach-Boca Raton (45). Sixteen additional communities have 20 or moresynagogues, and nine more have 10-19 synagogues. In total, thereare ten or more synagogues in 37 metropolitan areas. Three-quarters of all the synagogues are within the 26 metros with thelargest Jewish populations.

The New York metro area, which contains 1,233 synagogues,dominates not only in the total number, but also in the number forall four major denominations. Relative to their national levels, theOrthodox are overrepresented in the New York area (57 percent)and the Conservative are in their proper proportion (24 percent),while the Reform (14 percent) and Reconstructionist (1 percent) areunderrepresented.

In addition to New York, other areas where Orthodox syna-gogues are well represented are Los Angeles (128 synagogues),Miami (67), Boston (53), Chicago (53), Philadelphia (37), Balti-more (35), and San Francisco (35). Eleven other communities haveat least ten Orthodox synagogues. There are eight metropolitanareas in which at least half of all the synagogues are Orthodox:Memphis (67 percent), Baltimore (62 percent), New York (57 per-cent), Syracuse (57 percent), Springfield, MA (54 percent), Miami(52 percent), Los Angeles (50 percent), and Columbus, OH (50percent). The fact that three of these areas are the nation's largestJewish population centers, along with the data noted above,

8Full names of metropolitan areas are listed for the first mention. Thereafter, only thefirst city in a metropolitan area is noted.


demonstrates the disproportionate concentration of Orthodox syn-agogues in major urban centers.

The greatest number of Conservative synagogues is in the NewYork metro area (295), with other major centers being Los Angeles(49), Philadelphia (49), Boston (37), Miami (33), and Chicago (30).Five other communities have at least ten Conservative synagogues.

Reform synagogues are most prevalent in New York (175), withother major concentrations in Los Angeles (57), Chicago (41),Boston (34), and Philadelphia (32). Eleven other communities haveat least ten Reform synagogues.

The two metropolitan areas where Reconstructionist synagoguesare best represented are New York (15) and Philadelphia (13). Pro-portionately, Reconstructionism is strongest in Philadelphia (9percent), at least partly owing to the presence of the Reconstruc-tionist Rabbinical College in that community.

Altogether, there is at least one Orthodox, Conservative, andReform synagogue in every one of the top 50 metros. A Recon-structionist synagogue exists in each of the top 16 metros, and 32of the top 50.

Of the "other" types of synagogues, the 120 Sephardi syna-gogues are especially concentrated in the New York metropolitanarea (64 synagogues). Within the New York area the counties hav-ing the greatest number of Sephardi synagogues are Kings (Brook-lyn) 24, Queens 13, Monmouth, NJ 9, Nassau 4, and New York(Manhattan) 4. The two other metro areas with the greatest num-ber of Sephardi synagogues are Los Angeles (10) and Miami (10).

The 46 "traditional" synagogues are most represented in Chicago(14), New York (9), and Philadelphia (5). The only communitieswith at least two Humanistic synagogues are New York (7), LosAngeles (4), and San Francisco (2). Two or more Jewish Renewalsynagogues exist only in San Francisco (5) and Los Angeles (2).Synagogues without denominational affiliation are especially pre-sent in Boston (43), New York (16), and San Francisco (11).

Groups within Orthodoxy

Because Orthodox synagogues predominate and there are sev-eral divisions within Orthodoxy, it requires separate attention (seetable 4).

The 708 Orthodox synagogues in the New York area are nearly


half (47 percent) of all Orthodox synagogues. Three-quarters ofall Orthodox synagogues are in the top ten metros and 94 percentin the top 50. The dominant type of known, affiliated Orthodoxsynagogue in the New York area belongs to the Orthodox Union(25 percent; 22 percent are members of the OU only and not someother group). However, an even larger group (44 percent) has noknown synagogue association. About a tenth of the New York Or-thodox synagogues are Young Israel (11 percent; 9 percent aremembers only of Young Israel and not some other group) andLubavitch (10 percent), while 5 percent are Agudath Israel.

There are at least ten nonaffiliated Orthodox synagogues in eachof nine metropolitan areas. In addition to the 310 in the New Yorkarea, the greatest numbers are in Los Angeles (41), Baltimore (22),Miami (21), Chicago (19), Boston (17), and San Francisco (17).Lubavitch has ten or more synagogues in seven communities. Itsgreatest penetration is in the New York (69) and Los Angeles (54)areas. Other communities with at least ten Lubavitch synagoguesare Miami (23), Boston (17), Philadelphia (13), Chicago (12), andSan Francisco (10). Aside from New York, with 176 synagogues,the Orthodox Union has at least ten synagogues in four commu-nities: Chicago (17), Los Angeles (12), Boston (12), and Washing-ton, D.C. (10).

Of the 150 Young Israel synagogues, over half (81) are in theNew York area. The only other metro area with at least ten YoungIsrael synagogues is Miami (10). Over half of the OrthodoxSephardi congregations are in the New York metro area (51 arenon-OU and 10 are OU). Two other communities, Los Angeles andMiami, each have ten Sephardi synagogues (all non-OU). The onlymetro area with a large number of Agudath Israel synagogues isNew York (38).

Metro vs. Non-Metro Concentration

While 82 percent of all U.S. synagogues are in the 50 largest met-ropolitan areas, the Orthodox are even more heavily concentratedin those areas (94 percent). Among the individual Orthodoxgroups, Chabad, with its outreach programs, has the lowest per-centage in the top 50 metros (87 percent). In contrast, 84 percentof Conservative, 65 percent of Reform, and 81 percent of Recon-structionist synagogues are in the 50 metropolitan areas with the


largest Jewish populations. Conversely, many more Reform syna-gogues are located outside the major metros than is the case forthe other denominations, both in absolute numbers (339) and rel-ative terms (35 percent). There are 141 Conservative synagoguesoutside the 50 major metros (16 percent), 93 Orthodox (6 percent),19 Reconstructionist (19 percent), and 60 "other" synagogues (21percent).

U.S. Synagogues by Regions, States, and Counties

Table 5 provides details on the number of synagogues by de-nomination within states, as well as for all counties containing atleast five synagogues.

There are synagogues in all 50 states. The state with the greatestnumber of synagogues is New York (995), followed by California(425), New Jersey (331), Florida (263), and Massachusetts (201).These five states also have the largest Jewish populations, with oneexception—Pennsylvania's 197 synagogues rank it slightly belowMassachusetts, even though its Jewish population is a bit larger(282,000 vs. 275,000).9 Three more states have more than 100 syn-agogues: Illinois (161), Ohio (114), and Maryland (107). Another14 states have at least 20 synagogues, five of them with 50-99, sixwith 30-49, and three with 20-29. In contrast, over half of thestates (27) and the District of Columbia have fewer than 20 syna-gogues—ten states below 10, another ten states and Washington,D.C., having 10-14, and seven with 15-19. North Dakota, Idaho,and Wyoming have the fewest synagogues, with only two each.

Only in New York State are Orthodox synagogues a majority ofall synagogues (60 percent). In ten additional states—regionallydiverse and with Jewish populations ranging from small to sub-stantial—Orthodox synagogues constitute a plurality. In order ofthe Orthodox plurality, these are Maryland (49 percent), Rhode Is-land (47 percent), New Jersey (43 percent), California (43 percent),Ohio (39 percent), Florida (37 percent), Michigan (35 percent),Colorado (32 percent), Massachusetts (32 percent), and Oregon(27 percent).

'Population estimates are taken from Jim Schwartz and Jeffrey Scheckner, "Jewish Pop-ulation in the United States, 2001," pp. 247-74 in this volume. That article reports a com-pilation of estimates provided by local communities.


Reform synagogues dominate in small communities and ruralareas, especially in the South. In five states, 90 percent or more ofall synagogues are Reform: Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, NorthDakota, and Wyoming. Furthermore, in 16 states 50-89 percentof the synagogues are Reform: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Indiana,Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire,North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah,and West Virginia.

Conservative synagogues do not constitute a majority in anystate. However, the plurality of synagogues in Connecticut (33synagogues=38 percent) and Pennsylvania (65 synagogues=33 per-cent) are Conservative.

Aggregating the data to the regional level, the Northeast con-tains half of all U.S. synagogues (1,865=50 percent), the South hasa fifth (744=20 percent), and the West (613=16 percent) and theMidwest (505=14 percent) less than a fifth each.

There are 3,066 counties in the U.S.10 Of these, 24 have 30 ormore synagogues, 47 have 10-29,47 have 5-9, 167 have 2-4, 335have only one, and 2,446 have none (see table 6). In other words,the most prevalent Jewish institution does not exist in 80 percentof U.S. counties, and only 4 percent of all counties have at leastfive synagogues.

The counties with the largest number of synagogues are in thelarge metropolitan areas, with five of the top ten in the New Yorkarea (see table 7). Cumulatively, these ten counties account for athird (33 percent) of all U.S. synagogues.

With the exception of Westchester and Broward counties, Or-thodox synagogues dominate in these ten counties. The proportionof Orthodox synagogues is highest in Kings County (Brooklyn),at 86 percent. Ocean County, NJ, which includes the communityof Lakewood, is second (83 percent), and Baltimore City third (81percent). In addition to Kings County, three other New York Citycounties rank in the top ten: Bronx (73 percent), Queens (68 per-cent), and New York—Manhattan (67 percent). Other countieswhere more than 65 percent of all synagogues are Orthodox areSullivan (Catskill Mountain area), NY (70 percent), Dade

'"National Association of Counties, Washington, D.C., http://www.naco.org/counties/general, 2002.


(Miami), FL (69 percent), Shelby (Memphis), TN (67 percent), andRockland (Monsey-Spring Valley), NY (66 percent).

Turning again to table 5, counties with fewer than five syna-gogues are collapsed into the category "all other counties," withan indication of their number. (See table 8 below for counties withone to four synagogues.) Eighteen states (Alaska, Arkansas,Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hamp-shire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina,South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming) donot have even one county with as many as five synagogues. Thereis not one state in which all counties have at least five synagogues.

Synagogue Density

The concentration of synagogues may be measured by the num-ber of synagogues per 1,000 Jewish population. Tables 3 and 5provide this data for the 50 top metros, the 50 states, and the Dis-trict of Columbia. The ten metropolitan areas with the highestratios are medium-size communities, eight of them in the North-east and Midwest: Providence-Fall River-Warwick (1.4), Albany-Schenectady-Troy (1.0), Buffalo-Niagara Falls (1.0), Cincinnati(1.0), Milwaukee-Racine (1.0), Springfield (MA) (1.0), Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News (1.0), Pittsburgh (0.9), Hartford(0.8), and Austin (0.8). None of these communities ranks higherthan 23 (Pittsburgh) in total Jewish population. We hypothesizethat the high synagogue densities in these communities, particu-larly those in the Northeast and Midwest, reflect the length ofJewish settlement, the more traditional Jews who tend to live there,and the priority given to institution-building and affiliation inmoderate-sized communities as a way of sustaining social con-nections among Jews.

Conversely, the ten communities with the lowest synagogue den-sities are in the South and West: Las Vegas (0.2), West Palm Beach(0.3), Portland-Salem (OR-WA) (0.3), Phoenix-Mesa (0.3), LosAngeles (0.4), Miami (0.4), Washington, D.C. (0.4), Atlanta (0.4),San Diego (0.4), and Sacramento-Yolo (0.4). Most of the com-munities with low ratios have posted significant Jewish populationgrowth in recent decades, and, with two exceptions (Portland andSacramento) are now among the top 17 metros. This suggests thatthe number of synagogues commencing operations has not kept


pace with the growth in Jewish population. Another factor possi-bly contributing to the low ratio of synagogues to Jewish popula-tion is that new areas of growth attract relatively less traditionalJews, who have less desire to support and be connected to Jewishinstitutions. Among the largest Jewish population centers in thiscategory (Los Angeles, Miami, West Palm Beach, Washington,D.C.), low synagogue density may reflect reduced pressure on Jewsto affiliate with and support synagogues in order to develop socialties to other Jews.

The states with the highest ratios tend to be rural and to haverelatively small and declining Jewish populations: South Dakota(10.0), Mississippi (9.3), Montana (7.5), Arkansas (5.9), Wyoming(5.0), West Virginia (4.8), North Dakota (4.4), Iowa (2.6), Vermont(2.4), Alabama (2.0), and Oklahoma (2.0). We hypothesize that thisis a residual effect of Jewish settlement—many of the synagoguesin these areas were established in the last half of the 19th and firsthalf of the 20th centuries. These communities went into declinedue to the passing of the founders and the movement of their chil-dren and grandchildren to larger urban areas, and many of the syn-agogues remain more as a testament to earlier generations than asthriving institutions.

The five states with the lowest ratios are in the South and West:Nevada (0.3), Florida (0.4), California (0.4), Arizona (0.5), andOregon (0.5). As with the metro areas with low synagogue con-centrations, each of these states experienced significant Jewishpopulation growth in recent decades. This also suggests either thatpopulation growth precedes institutional development, or that theJews moving to these areas are less inclined to build and supportsynagogues.

Discussion

In conclusion, we wish to highlight three findings.First, American Jews are primarily an urban population, and

consequently their synagogues are located primarily in urban areas.A remarkably high 50 percent of American Jews live in the topthree metropolitan areas, and 94 percent in the top 50. Their syn-agogues are almost as concentrated, with 43 percent in the topthree metros and 82 percent in the top 50.

One factor that helps explain the smaller proportion of syna-


gogues than Jewish population in the largest metros is Jewish mo-bility. American Jewish population was more dispersed amongsmaller communities during the 19th and first half of the 20th cen-turies than it would later become, and the primary physical ex-pression of those communities was the synagogue building. AsJews moved up the socioeconomic ladder, they and their childrenmigrated to more populated areas, leaving a declining and oftenless affluent population." Many of the synagogues that they builtremained.

Second, Orthodox synagogues are highly overrepresented rela-tive to the Orthodox population. Though less than 10 percent ofAmerican Jews are estimated to be Orthodox,12 the Orthodox syn-agogues represent 40 percent of all U.S. synagogues.

Several factors might account for this. Orthodox Jews tend tohave a greater population concentration than other Jews, and thisprovides a social structure that encourages development of andparticipation in the Orthodox synagogue. A major reason for thisconcentration is the desire to be within walking distance of a syn-agogue on Shabbat, when other forms of transportation are pro-hibited. That social structure also creates a demand for other com-munal services, such as Jewish schools, kosher butchers, and ritualbaths (mikvaoi).

In addition, a higher proportion of Orthodox Jews attend and"use" their synagogues, at least for traditional religious purposes,than is the case among other Jews, and they do so for a greater pro-portion of their lives, thus increasing the demand for synagogues.In contrast, many non-Orthodox Jews who attend services do soless frequently and tend to affiliate with a synagogue for feweryears, most commonly the period prior to a child's bar/bat mitz-vah. Additionally, the need for synagogues among the non-

"For examples, see Ira M. Sheskin, "The Dixie Diaspora: The 'Loss' of the Small South-ern Jewish Community," Southeastern Geographer 40, May 2000, pp. 52-74; Lee ShaiWeissbach, "East European Immigrants and the Image of Jews in the Small-Town South,"American Jewish History 85, Sept. 1997, esp. pp. 260-61; and Lee Shai Weissbach, "SmallTown Jewish Life and the Pennsylvania Pattern," Western Pennsylvania History 83, Spring2000, esp. p. 45.

l2Barry A. Kosmin, et al., Highlights of the CJFJ990 National Jewish Population Survey(New York: Council of Jewish Federations, 1991), p. 33; Ira Sheskin, How Jewish Commu-nities Differ: Variations in the Findings of Local Jewish Population Studies (New York:North American Jewish Data Bank, 2001), pp. 71-76.


Orthodox declines even further to the extent that non-OrthodoxJews have fewer children than the Orthodox, and tend to inter-marry more as well, both factors limiting the number of Jewishchildren.

Furthermore, anecdotal information suggests that the averagemembership size of Orthodox synagogues is smaller than mem-bership in Reform and Conservative synagogues, the two denom-inations with which the greatest number of American Jews iden-tify.13 Also, the Orthodox community is divided internally in waysthat Conservative and Reform Jews are not, and those internal di-visions may take institutional form in the creation and mainte-nance of more synagogues.

The third significant finding is the relationship between Jewishpopulation and two important characteristics of synagogues—total number and density. Not surprisingly, the correlation be-tween Jewish population size and absolute number of synagoguesis remarkably high and statistically significant at both the metro-politan (r=.99, p=.00) and state (r=.98, p=.00) levels. The greaterthe number of Jews who reside in a geographic area, the greaterthe number of synagogues in that area as well.

Less intuitively, Jewish population size appears to have a weakinverse relationship to synagogue density across all 50 metros(r=.14, p=.35) and the 50 states (r=-.23, p=.l 1). These correlationsmust be interpreted cautiously because they do not reach conven-tional levels of statistical significance. As a general pattern,though, they suggest that the larger the number of Jews in a geo-graphic area, the lower the concentration of synagogues, as mea-sured by the number of synagogues per 1,000 Jews. As noted above,several factors may explain this, including differences betweensmall and large Jewish communities in the pressures and incentivesto affiliate with a synagogue, historic and contemporary mobilitypatterns, and the time lag between shifting populations and insti-tutional decline or development.

l3Kosmin, et al., Highlights, p. 33; Sheskin, How Jewish Communities Differ, pp. 71-76.

128 / A M E R I C A N J E W I S H Y E A R B O O K , 2 0 0 2

TABLE 1. NUMBER OF CONGREGATIONS AND EDIFICES REPORTED IN U.S.

CENSUS OF RELIGIOUS BODIES*

Year Number of Congregations Number of Edifices

1850 37 Not provided1860 77 Not provided1870 189 1521875-78 270 Not provided1890 533 3011906 1769 8211916 1901 8661926 3118 17821936 3728 2851

'The numbers are culled from Engelman, "Jewish Statistics," cited in note 1 in the text. Cen-sus for 1875-78 was conducted by two major Jewish organizations of that time, and notan agency of the U.S. government.

TABLE 2. u.s. SYNAGOGUES BY DENOMINATION

% of Total % withinTotal U.S. Synagogues Denomination

Total Orthodox 1,501 40.3 100.0

Total Orthodox Union (OU)Orthodox Union*Orthodox Union and Agudath IsraelOrthodox Union and LubavitchOrthodox Union and Young IsraelSephardi OU

Total Lubavitch/ChabadLubavitch/Chabad*Lubavitch/Chabad and Orthodox UnionLubavitch/Chabad and Young IsraelTotal Young Israel

Young Israel*Young Israel and LubavitchYoung Israel and Orthodox Union

Total Agudath IsraelAgudath Israel*Agudath Israel and Orthodox UnionSephardi Agudath Israel

352296343316

346340l 42

150

115233

555032

9.47.90.10.10.90.4

9.39.10.10.14.0

3.10.10.9

1.51.30.10.1

23.519.70.20.32.21.1

23.122.70.30.110.0

7.70.12.2

3.73.30.20.1


TABLE 2.—(Continued)

% of Total % withinTotal U.S. Synagogues Denomination

Sephardi Other OrthodoxOther Orthodox

Total ReformReform-UAHCGay/Lesbian-UAHCReform-non-UAHC

Total ConservativeConservative-USCJConservative-non-USCJ

Total ReconstructionistReconstractionist-JRFGay/Lesbian-Reconstructionist-JRF

Total SephardiSephardi OUSephardi Agudath IsraelSephardi other orthodoxSephardi-non-orthodox

Total TraditionalUnion for Traditional JudaismTraditional-non-UTJ

Humanistic

Total Gay/LesbianGay/Lesbian-no denominationGay/Lesbian-ReconstructionistGay/Lesbian-UAHC

Jewish Renewal

No Denomination noted

Other/Not Known

Total number of U.S. synagogues = 3,727

*No duplicate membership

98542

976875794

865684181

99981

120162984

46244

32

191117

14

142

37

2.614.5

26.223.50.22.5

23.218.44.9

2.72.60.0

3.20.40.12.60.1

1.20.11.2

0.9

0.50.30.00.2

0.4

3.8

1.0

6.536.1

100.089.70.79.6

100.079.120.9

100.099.01.0

100.013.31.7

81.73.3

100.04.395.7

100.057.95.3

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146 / A M E R I C A N J E W I S H Y E A R B O O K , 2 0 0 2

TABLE 6. NUMBER OF COUNTIES AT SYNAGOGUE LEVEL

Number of Synagogues Number of Counties ContainingSynagogues at Noted Level

100+50-9930-4920-2915-1910-14

9

321

NoneTotal

65

13161714648

1217294494

3352,4463,066

TABLE 7. COUNTIES WITH LARGEST NUMBER OF SYNAGOGUES

County Number of Synagogues

1. Kings (Brooklyn), NY2. Los Angeles, CA3. Queens, NY4. Nassau, NY5. Cook, IL6. New York (Manhattan), NY7. Dade, FL8. Bergen, NJ9. Westchester, NY

10. Broward, FL

25620215914111710270666259

Total 1,234


TABLE 8. COUNTIES WITH FEWER THAN FIVE SYNAGOGUES, 2001

Note-Counties listed are those with one to four synagogues. Unless otherwise noted eachcounty has only one synagogue.

ALABAMA

CalhounDallasEtowahHoustonMadison 2Mobile 2Montgomery 3TuscaloosaWalker

ALASKA

Anchorage 3FairbanksNorth Star

Juneau

ARIZONA

CochiseCoconinoLaPazMohaveYavapaiYuma

ARKANSAS

CraigheadDeshaGarlandJeffersonMississippiPhillipsPulaski 2SebastianWashington

CALIFORNIA

AlpineAmador

ButteFresno 3HumboldtImperialKern 2MendocinoMercedMonterey 3NapaNevada 2PlacerSan JoaquinSan LuisObispo 2

SantaBarbara 4

Santa Cruz 4ShastaSolano 3StanislausTuolomneTulareYoloYuba2

COLORADO

Adams 2Arapahoe 3EagleEl Paso 4Jefferson 2LarimerMesaPitkin 2PuebloRoutt

CONNECTICUT

Litchfield 3

MiddlesexTolland 2Windham 2

DELAWARE

Kent

FLORIDA

Alachua 3BayBrevard 2Charlotte 2CitrusCollier 2EscambiaHernandoHighlandsIndian River 2Lake 2Lee 4Leon 3Manatee 2MarionMartin 2Monroe 2OkaloosaOsceolaPascoPolk 2Santa RosaSeminole 3St. JohnsSt. Lucie 2Volusia 4

GEORGIA

Bibb 2Chatham 3Clarke

Clay 2Cobb4DecaturDoughertyFayetteFloydGlynnGwinnett 2LowndesMuscogee 2Richmond 2RockdaleWhitfield

HAWAII

Honolulu 3Maui

IDAHO

AdaCuster

ILLINOIS

Adams 2ChampaignColesDekalbDuPageKane 2KankakeeKnoxLaSalleMaconMadisonMarionMcHenry 2McLeanPeoria 3Rock Island

Sangamon 2VermillionWhitesideWillWilliamsonWinnebago 2

INDIANA

Allen 2BartholomewDelawareGrantHowardLa Porte 2Lake 3MonroeSt. Joseph 3Tippecanoe 2VanderburghVigoWarrickWayne

IOWA

AlamakeeBlack HawkDes Moines 2DubuqueJohnson 2LinnPolk 3ScottStoryWapelloWoodbury 2

KANSAS

DouglasRiley



SedgwickShawnee

KENTUCKY

DaviessFayette 3McCrackenWarren

LOUISIANA

CaddoCalcasieuE. Baton RougeIberiaJefferson 2OuachitaRapides 2St. TammanyW. BatonRouge

MAINE

AndroscogginCumberland 4KennebecKnoxPenobscot 3

MARYLAND

AlleganyAnneArundel 3

CarrollFrederickHarfordWashingtonWicomicoWorcester 2

MASSACHUSETTS

DukesFranklin

Hampshire 3Nantucket

MICHIGAN

AlpenaBayBerrienEmmetGenesee 3GrandTraverse 2

HoughtonIngham 2IsabellaJacksonKalamazoo 2Kent 3Macomb 2MarquetteMonroe 2MuskegonSaginawVan BurenWayne 4

MINNESOTA

DakotaOlmsted 2St. Louis

MISSISSIPPI

AdamsBolivarClaiborneCoahomaForrestHarrisonHindsHolmesLauderdaleLeeLeflore

LowdnesWarrenWashington

MISSOURI

BooneBuchananColeGreeneJackson 3JasperMillerPettisSt. CharlesSt. Louis (city) 2

MONTANA

CascadeFlatheadGallatinMissoulaSilver BowYellowstone

NEBRASKA

Lancaster 2

NEVADA

DouglasWashoe 4

NEW HAMPSHIRE

BelknapCheshire 2Grafton 2Hillsborough 4MerrimackRockinghamStrafford

NEW JERSEY

Cape May

Cumberland 4Hunterdon 4Sussex 4Warren 2

NEW MEXICO

Bernalillo 4ColfaxDona AnaLos AlamosSanta Fe 3

NEW YORK

Broome 3CattaraugusCayugaChatauquaChemung 2ClintonColumbiaCortlandDelaware 2Dutchess 4FultonGreeneHerkimerJeffersonMontgomeryNiagara 3Oneida 3OntarioOtsegoPutnam 2Rensselaer 3Saratoga 4Schenectady 4St. LawrenceSteubenWarren

NORTH CAROLINA

Buncombe 2

CatawbaCravenCumberlandEdgecombeForsythGastonGuilford 3HalifaxHendersonIredellLenoirMecklenburg 4New Hanover 2PittWayne

NORTH DAKOTA

CassGrand Forks

OHIO

AllenAshtabulaAthensButler 2ClarkColumbianaDarkeErieJeffersonLakeLickingLorain 3Lucas 4Mahoning 4MarionMontgomery 4MuskingamRichlandRossSciotoStark 3



Summit 4TrumbullWarrenWayne

OKLAHOMA

CarterKayMuskogeeOklahoma 3PontotocTulsa 3

OREGON

BentonClackamasDeschutesJacksonKlamathLane 2MarionWashington

PENNSYLVANIA

AdamsBeaver 2Berks 4Blair 2ButlerCambriaCentre 2Chester 3ClearfieldClintonCumberland 2Erie 2Fayette 2FranklinIndianaLackawanna 3

Lancaster 3LawrenceLebanonLehigh 4LycomingMcKeanMercerMonroeNorthamp-ton 4

Northumber-land

PikeSchuylkill 3VenangoWashingtonWayneWestmore-

lanH 3lallU J

Vnrlf 9IU[K 2.

RHODE ISLAND

Bristol 2Kent 2Newport 3

SOUTH CAROLINA

AikenBeaufort 2Charleston 3FlorenceGeorgetownGreenville 2HorryRichland 2SpartanburgSumter

SOUTH DAKOTA

Brown

MinnehahaPennington

TENNESSEE

AndersonDavidson 4Hamilton 2HaywoodKnox2MadisonMarionSullivan

TEXAS

BowieBrazoriaBrazosCameron 2Collin 3DentonEctor 2El Paso 2Fayette 2Fort BendGalveston 2GraysonGreggHidalgoJeffersonLubbockMcLennan 2Mont-gomery

NuecesPotterSmith 2Tarrant 3TaylorVictoriaWebb

WhartonWichita

UTAH

Salt Lake 4SummitWeber

VERMONT

Bennington 3CaledoniaChittenden 3LaMoilleRutlandWashingtonWindham 2Windsor

VIRGINIA

Alexandria(city) 3

Arlington 2Charlottesville(city) 2

Danville (city)Fairfax(city) 2

Falls Church(city)

Fredericksburg(city)

Hampton (city)Harrisonburg(city)

Loudon 2Lynchburg(city)

Martinsville(city)

Montgomery

Newport News(city) 2

Norfolk (city) 4Petersburg(city)

Portsmouth(city) 2

Prince WilliamRoanoke(city) 2

StaffordStaunton(city)

Virginia Beach(city) 4

Winchester(city)

WASHINGTON

BentonClallamClarkGrays HarborKitsap 2Pierce 2SnohomishSpokaneThurston 2Whatcom 2Yakima

WEST VIRGINIA

BerkeleyCabellHarrisonKanawhaMercerMingoMonongahelaOhioRaleigh

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