Gainesville, FL - As Jewish Population is Declining Hasidic Population Grows

Gainesville, FL - A new study shows that in an era when the Jewish population in America is stable or declining, the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish numbers are growing rapidly -- a trend that may make the Jewish community not only more religiously observant but also more politically conservative.
So says a University of Florida population geographer who recently completed the first estimate of the Hasidic population based on the U.S. Census.

Geography professor Joshua Comenetz estimated today's Hasidic population at about 180,000, just 3 percent of the approximately 6 million Jews in the U.S. However, Comenetz calculated that the Hasidic population doubles every 20 years because Hasidic Jews tend to have many children. That's occurring even as demographic studies show that the non-Orthodox Jewish population is flat or falling.

If current trends continue, Hasidic and other growing ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups will constitute a majority of U.S. Jews in the second half of this century - a potentially profound cultural and political change.