This study has uncovered some remarkable and important information about the Jewish community that we serve. Our growth has been rapid, and today we are part of one of the largest metropolitan Jewish populations in the country. As a result, we are faced with both opportunities and challenges:

• The 2004 Jewish Community Study focused on Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, as well as the northernmost part of Santa Clara County (Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Cupertino). The Jewish Community Federation of Silicon Valley and the Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, which had been part of the last community study of 1986, declined to participate in this study.
• In the past, the FSA has been perceived to be different from the rest of American Jewry. Over the past two decades, however,the Jewish population in the FSA has come to more closely resemble the national Jewish population. Conversely, the Jewish national Jewish population has changed in ways that make it more similar to the FSA. For example, in decades past the rate of interfaith marriage in the FSA was considerably higher than nationally. Now they are almost the same.
• The Jewish population of the Federation Service Area (referred throughout the report as “FSA”) has almost doubled from 119,000 in 1986 to nearly 228,000 in 2004. Assuming that the areas covered by the Jewish Community Federation of Silicon Valley and the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay grew at this same rate, the “Bay Area”is now the third largest metropolitan Jewish population in the United States (behind New York and Los Angeles).
• In the past, the FSA has been perceived to be different from the rest of American Jewry. Over the past two decades, however, the Jewish population in the FSA has come to more closely resemble the national Jewish population. Conversely, the national Jewish population has changed in ways that make it more similar to the FSA. For example, in decades past the rate of interfaith marriage in the FSA was considerably higher than nationally. Now they are almost the same.
• Interfaith couples in the FSA are more connected to the Jewish community than interfaith couples nationally.
• Adults with only one Jewish parent have become a significant part of the Jewish population and will continue to grow.
• Since 1986, the trend has been for young adults raised by Jewish parents to become more Jewishly committed and involved, particularly in comparison to the young adult children of interfaith parents.
• Mostly as a result of interfaith marriage, there has been a further distinction between ethnic and religious identification among Jews in the FSA.
• Formal connections such as synagogue membership have declined, but informal connections with the Jewish community are both strong and widespread.
• Using 150% of the Federal guidelines as our definition of “poor,”almost 1 in 10 Jewish households in the FSA falls into this category, underlining the fact that there is a segment of the Jewish population that needs a broad range of institutional assistance.
• Children are particularly hard hit by the downturn in the economy: 11% of children under the age of 12 live in a poor household, and 22% of children in single parent households are poor. Almost one out of five children live with two parents where one is looking for work.
• Although the absolute number of families with children has increased as part of overall Jewish population growth, households with children as a proportion of all Jewish households declined by 10%.
• The proportion of children living with a single parent doubled from 15% in 1986 to 32% in 2004.
• Half of all married couples include a non-Jewish partner, and as many children are being raised by one Jewish parent as are being raised by two.
• After a child has a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, enrollment in a Jewish educational organization drops by 50%. Re-engaging these children and their families in Jewish learning is essential for Jewish continuity.
• Communal leaders have come to think of Jewish seniors as the most economically vulnerable population. While this may have been true in the past, it is no longer so today. Today Jewish seniors are actually more affluent than Jewish young adults (ages 18-40).
• Jews in the FSA connect with Israel in multiple dimensions. Although most respondents described themselves as not emotionally attached to Israel, they nonetheless follow news about Israel and regard “unfair criticism of Israel” as anti-Semitic.
• Concern about anti-Semitism cuts across all sectors of the community.
• The self-identified lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) population, which used to be concentrated in San Francisco County, is now dispersed throughout the FSA.
• Émigrés from the former Soviet Union account for 8% of all Jewish households, with a particular affinity for San Francisco County and the Peninsula.
• Israeli-identified households constitute 4% of all Jewish households and comprise 13% of all Jewish households in the South Peninsula.
• Federation is not well known to most Jews in the FSA. The more familiar members of the community are with the Federation, the more favorable their impression.
• Jews in the FSA are significantly involved in philanthropy and volunteerism both in the Jewish and general communities.