What our community is, and isn’t: editorial

The recently released Jewish community study j. reported on last week served to tell us who we are.

But it also tells us who we aren't.

Despite the estimated 450,000 Jews living in the Bay Area, and the real probability we are the third-largest Jewish community in the nation, we are not New York or Los Angeles. We are not Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia or even Cleveland.

This study demonstrates a growing Bay Area trend toward suburban Judaism. The few Jewish neighborhoods we ever had now only exist in sepia-toned photographs tucked away in archives. The vast majority of Bay Area Jews don't join Jewish organizations, certainly not a synagogue. A huge percentage of Bay Area Jews don't have longstanding roots in the area.

These aren't value judgments. These are the findings of the study.

So we aren't going to be able to create communities centered around synagogues in Jewish enclaves a la Shaker Heights.

But, in its own way, the Bay Area is a Jewish place. The study revealed that nearly 70 percent of young Jewish couples and 60 percent of Jewish singles celebrated Shabbat in the past year. In fact, very many of the Bay Area's Jews are finding ways to express their Jewishness other than paying dues and going to shul.

Simply put, the study reaffirms that there are plenty of proud, if underinvolved, Jews out there. And if area communal organizations consider their missions relevant — and we're inclined to think they do — they simply must find a way to reach this openly Jewish but religiously inert population.

But we must do more. The study also revealed a serious chunk of the Bay Area's Jews are struggling financially, especially in the emigre community. What's more, the most economically vulnerable group in the Jewish community isn't senior citizens but young adults.

If we allow financial woes to chase younger Jews from the area, we will all be poorer for it. And if we as Jews fail to aid the poor and the jobless among us, they may well turn their backs on the community — and who could blame them?

There is cause for hope. Over the past 18 years, concerted efforts by the organized Jewish community to attract mixed-faith families have been rather successful. Evidently, when this community puts its mind to solving a problem, problems get solved.

The study revealed an unconventional Jewish community beset with myriad strengths and weaknesses. We will never have the look of New York or L.A.'s more traditional communities.

Yet we can still be a vital, strong and compassionate community and resemble no one but ourselves.