Amber Garrett

Education 280

Dr. Flowers

June 17, 2016

Assignment 3

Statistics

There are 5.3 million Jewish people in the U.S. Thats about 2.2% of the adult population in the
United States as of 2013.

Additionally, there are another 2.4 million adults who define themselves as having Jewish
background (people raised Jewish or with one Jewish parent)

There are approximately 67,500 Jewish individuals living in Clark County, Nevada and about 42,000
Jewish households. Las Vegas was the 23rd largest Jewish community in the United States.

Cultural Differences

3 subcultures of Judaism.

Ashkenazic: Jews of France, Germany, and Eastern Europe and their descendants.

Sephardic: Jews of Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East and their descendants

Mizrahi: Jews spread around the Arab world.

Within America there are 3 denominational movements

Reform Judaism: adapts to social and political changes in the modern world

Conservative Judaism: which seeks to preserve tradition and ritual

Orthodox Judaism: which also seeks to preserve tradition and ritual and more strictly follow the
Torah.

Ethnic Identity

Jews in the youngest generation of American adults, known as Millennial reflect that 68% identify as
Jews by religion, compared to the 93% who identify as Jewish from the oldest generation of Jewish
Americans.

About 80% of males and 50% of females can trace their ancestry back to the Middle East, but
Jewish identity is made up of multiple threads of influence.

In America, Jewish identity often is a mix of ethnicity, religion, culture and the choices each
individual makes to include aspects of these in their lives.

Discrimination

Anti-Semitism has mainly been based on stereotypes and myths that have invoked a belief that
Jewish people have extraordinary power or influence to harm or control society.

Jewish people have been victims of hate speech, discrimination, violence and persecution.
Obviously the most extreme example of this is the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.

American Jews also worked for civil rights with the Jewish Feminism Movement and the movement
to save the Soviet Jews in the 1960s and 70s.

Works Cited

Altman, Abby N; Inman, Arpana G; Fine, Stephanie G; Ritter, Hollie A; Howard, Erin E.
Exploration of Jewish Ethnic Identity. Journal of Counseling and Development. 88.2.
(2010): 163-173. Proquest. Web. 16 June 2016. Retreived from:
http://search.proquest.com/openview/b9a0607ff0cb8569d57a0ee717253fd6/1?pqorigsite=gscholar

2010 Census Population and Housing Tables. United States Census Bureau. 2016. Web. 17
June, 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/population/race/data/cen2010.html
Lipka, Michael.How Many Jews Are There In The United States. Pew Research Center.
October 2013. Web. 17 June 2016. Retrieved from: http://www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2013/10/02/how-many-jews-are-there-in-the-united-states/
Dr. Mariam and Sheldon G. Adelson School. The 2005 Las Vegas Jewish Community Study.
Berman Jewish Databank. 2005. Web.17 June 2016. Retrieved from:
http://www.jewishdatabank.org/studies/details.cfm?StudyID=487