The Jewish population of the United States,
 *<* a*.vhkv. **..<> « •; ^ V1 »<3pjE&’1 %•■<? « * j 9» » ,“F /k° <Pr„ C> * y//Cs) * < v « ^ O'. : ^ 1 *P ^ $ °* ** * $p " %> ^ °°^ ‘ ^ •' ’ ’ *° .Qr 4‘ <> V » ••* £k a*^ ^JPMh %* & <h" ►*&.^**- ^ •%>»«<> * * <y,& * J) 4* ;. >„ A*. ■>- » V < c.” ^ <V '••*’ ^ tm % '' % ^ ^ c°.*J«r % °0 L *; ^>o< « '^* 4* * g ^ ^ * %' * •"» ■> ’* s^,.. %■ ^ *^ *’ f°,.,. » “,/. < Avenue. THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES BY SAMSON D. OPPENHEIM, J. D. Director of the Bureau of Jewish Statistics and Research [Reprint from the American Jewish Year Book 5679] PHILADELPHIA THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF  article must consequently be regarded both as a sequel and, in some measure, as a revised edition of that portion of the division of statistics treating of the number of the Jews of the United States, which appeared in the Year Book for 1917-1918. All statistics regarding the number of Jews in the United States have, of course, been estimates. The earliest approximation seems to have been made in 1818, by Mordecai M. Noah, who put the number at 3,000. Other noteworthy estimates have been the following: Year Jewish Population Authority 1824. 6,000. Solomon Etting 1840. 15,000. American Almanac 1848. 50,000. M. A. Berk 1880. 230,000. William B. Hackenburg 1888. 400,000. Isaac Markens 1897. 937,800. David Sulzberger 1905. 1,508,435. Jewish Encyclopedia 1907. 1,777,185. Henrietta Szold 1914. 2,933,374. Joseph Jacobs. The 1917 inquiry into the number of Jews in this country naturally divided itself into two parts: the one covering New York City, and the other concerning the cities and towns outside of the metropolis. The following are the principal important estimates that were made of the Jews of New York City, prior to 1917 : New York City- Year Population Authority 1790 . 385 U. S. Census Bureau (for New York State) 1812 . 400 Gershom Mendes Seixas 1826 . 950 S. Gilman (for New York State) 1846 . 10,000 Isaac Leeser 1848 . 12, 000 to 13,000 M. A. Berk 1880 . 60,000 William B. Hackenburg 1888 . 125,000 Isaac Markens 1891 . 225,250 Charles Frank 1892 . 250,000 Richard Wheatley- 1897 . 350,000 Jacob H. Schiff 1905 . 672,000 Joseph Jacobs 1907 . 850,000 Henrietta Szold 1910 . 861,980 U. S. Census Bureau (for Yid¬ dish-speaking only) 1911 . 90£,000 Joseph Jacobs 1912 . 975,000 Joseph Jacobs 1912 . 1,250,000 Bureau of Education (New York Kehillah ) 1913 . 1,330,000 Professor Chalmers of Cornell University Judging by the two foregoing sets of figures, it was to he ex¬ pected that the number of Jews in New York City would, four years later, be found to amount to something in the neighbor¬ hood of one and one-half millions, or almost fifty per cent of the total Jewish population of the United States. Hence, in view of the fact that half of the subject matter of the entire inquiry was concentrated within a few square miles, it was con¬ sidered highly desirable to attack, in as intensive a manner as possible, the problem of ascertaining the number of Jewish inhabitants of the country’s largest city. On account of the enormous size of the New York community, individual esti- THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 33 mates, no matter how expert, could not be safely relied upon. Accordingly, arrangements were made, by which the cooperation of the New York Rehoboth, and especially that of Dr. Alexander Dushkin, of the Bureau of Education, were secured in approaching the problem from a different angle, a new method of approximation being invented and tried. It is a well-known fact that, whatever differences of belief or of religious attitude may exist among Jews, they are almost unanimous in observing the High Holidays (New Year, the Day of Atonement, and the Passover), practically all Jewish children refraining from attending school on these days. So, if the attendance in the public schools on these holidays were ascertained and were then compared with the attendance on normal days, we should get a fairly accurate estimate of the number of Jewish children in the public schools of New York. If we could then find the proportion of Jewish children to the total Jewish population, we should be furnished with an excellent means of determining the Jewish population of the entire city. It was possible to obtain from the New York City Board of Education reliable data concerning the attendance in the New York public schools on the Jewish High Holidays in the years 1913 and 1914, the information for 1915 and 1916 not being used, because in 1915 some of the Jewish holidays occurred during the registration week of the public schools, and in the early fall of 1916 the epidemic of infantile paralysis was still raging. The average school attendance for 1915-1916 was, however, used in computing the number of children of school age in that school year, after the general percentage co-efficient had been ascertained by the help of the 1913 and 1914 figures. When the 1913 and 1914 holiday figures were compared with the attendance on normal days during the same years, it was discovered that about 40.5% of the public school children stayed away from their studies on the Jewish holidays. Now no doubt a modicum of Jewish children attend school on the most important holidays, but on the other hand a number of non-Jewish children, especially in schools containing a large proportion of Jewish scholars, absent themselves on such days, because they know that the school work will have to be reviewed for the benefit of the large absentee contingent. The proportion of Jewish public school children in the entire city was for the purposes of this discussion, therefore, ultimately reduced to, or set at 38.5%, by boroughs, the percentages being fixed as follows: Manhattan 48.5% Bronx 40.5% Brooklyn 38.5% Queens 7.5% Richmond 5.5% A significant check on these estimates is furnished by the data obtained in the investigation of the United States Department of Education. States Congress Immigration Commission of 1910, whose method of inquiry consisted mainly in questioning children of the public schools concerning the nationality of their fathers. The percentage of New York public school children designating their fathers as Hebrews, in 1910, was, as to the city’s five boroughs, as follows: Manhattan. 46.1$ Bronx. 20.2 $ Brooklyn. 29.9$ Queens. 3.5$ Richmond.. 2.8$ Considering that the figures of the Immigration Commission do not include such Jewish children as may have designated their fathers as of American, Russian, German, or other origins or races, the similarity here exhibited is, as Dr. Dushkin points out in his splendid monograph in the Jewish Communal Register for 1917-1918, very striking. The largest discrepancy between these figures and those of the estimate made a few years later is discovered in the case of the Bronx, where, it is a matter of common knowledge, there has been a very large influx of Jews within the past half-dozen years. It was ascertained, then, that there were nearly 280,000 Jewish children in 1915-1916 in the elementary public schools, as appears more particularly set forth below. But in order to further corroborate the proportion-figure of Jewish children of school age obtained through the study of school attendance on Jewish holidays, another method of estimation was resorted to. The Bureau of Attendance of the Board of Education keeps a continuous school census of the population of New York. Some million and a half cards are filed in the census division of the Bureau, each of which represents a complete family, parents as well as children, these cards covering all schools, both public and private. From these cards over 4200 families were selected, practically at random, representing a total. Of 10,332 children of school age, i.e., at intervals of about 350 cards, two cards were selected, the first cards of each pair forming Set I, and the second cards forming Set II. The names were judged by experts (Dr. Alexander Dushkin and Mr. Meir Isaacs) as to whether they were Jewish or non-Jewish, the examiners being greatly aided in their decisions by the details noted upon the cards, which included the first names of the father and mother and of all the children, the nativity of the parents and of the children, the length of their stay in America, the year of their immigration, the country of their emigration, and the occupation of the father. It will be readily seen that these data furnished good clues for determining as to whether a family is Jewish or not. Even when German names, such as Bamberger, or Anglicized names, such as Brown, were encountered, the data on the cards, while not as helpful as in less puzzling cases, proved quite significant. Thus, if a child attended a Catholic parochial school, it would certainly be safe to assume that the family was non-Jewish. Or if in an immemorial way, the family was non-Jewish. igrant family living on Canal Street, the son's first name was the same as his father's, it would be reasonable to assume the family to be non-Jewish, because it is not customary among East-European Jews to name any of their children after a living father. The data furnished by the cards themselves were so helpful in deciding the judgments in question, that only 196, or 4.6% of the names considered, were included in the questionable category; while to guard against the temptation to call doubtful items Jewish, all cases about which there was any uncertainty were unhesitatingly counted as non-Jewish. For greater accuracy, the judgments were made in two sets, and the average was used in computing the proportion of Jewish school children. About thirty-three percent of all the children of school age, in the public, parochial, and private schools of New York City were by this “card” system adjudged to be Jews. The results thus arrived are in close agreement with those obtained by the public school attendance method above described. Since the thirty-three percent represent not only the public school children, but also the children in private and parochial schools, there were added to the 730,755, in the elementary public school register of New York City for 1915-1916. The 200,000 children attending, according to the estimate of the Statistical Division of the New York State Department of Education, the elementary parochial and private schools of the city. This made a total of 930,755 children, in 1915, between the ages of five and fourteen, of whom 307,149 would appear to have been Jewish. 931,000 children would mean a total population for New York City of 5,172,000, and that is just about what that city’s population was in 1915. By the holiday school attendance method, it was computed that in 1915-1916, there were 277,687 Jewish children in the elementary public schools of New York City. To this number should be added at least the aggregate of the 20,000 Jewish children in private schools, making a total of 297,687 New York City Jewish children of elementary school age. The difference between the two approximating methods used is seen to be only about 9450, or a variation of three percent. The agreement between the two computations is very striking, considering the fact that actually not all of the Jewish children between the ages of five and fourteen can have been at school in the early fall of the year, some obtaining their working certificates at the age of thirteen, and others being temporarily absent. In accordance with these calculations, the number of Jewish children of elementary school age, (i.e., five to fourteen years) in this city, in 1917, was found to be 300,000, or very close to that number, if anything a little greater. We must now proceed to investigate what bearing these results have upon the total population. According to the United States Census of 1910, the proportion of children between the ages of five and fourteen to the total population is approximately eighteen percent, i.e., for every eighteen school children, the existence of eighty-two other persons may be assumed, or one hundred individuals in all; or where there are one thousand children of school age, there are 5555 individuals altogether. But it is difficult to say off-hand whether the proportion of children to adults among the Jews is lower or higher than it is in the case of the general population. From a study of over four thousand families selected at random from the census cards of the Bureau of Attendance of the Board of Education, referred to above, it was found that the average Jewish family has 2.5 children at school, whereas the average non-Jewish family has 2.35 children at school. This would imply a difference of fifteen children per hundred families. Assuming five to six individuals per family, this would mean a difference of 2.5 to 3.5 in the proportion of children as between Jews and non-Jews. On the other hand, the fact that New York’s Jewish community is so largely composed of immigrants would tend to make the proportion of Jewish children lower than that of the children of the general population. In the United States Census of 1910, Population, Vol. 3, the proportion of children between five and fourteen years in the native population is given as twenty-six percent, whereas among the foreign-born whites it runs as low as seven percent. But as the Jewish immigration is largely a “family” immigration,” the proportion of children among Jewish immigrants is probably twice as great as among other immigrants. Thus, Samuel Joseph, in Jewish Immigration to the United States, shows that, whereas the age group “under 14” (which includes also children below five) is 12.3¢ for all European immigrants, it is twice as large, 24.8¢, among Jewish immigrants. One would therefore not be far wrong in assuming that the proportion of school children among Jews is little, if anything, above eighteen percent. It is certainly not greater than twenty percent. Allowing that every twenty Jewish children represent only one hundred individuals, or that every thousand such children represent only five thousand Jews instead of five thousand five hundred and fifty-five, then, upon the basis of its 300,000 Jewish children of elementary school age, we should have in New York City a Jewish population of 1,500,000, or over 45 percent of the total Jewish population of the country, and in New York State approximately a half of the Jewish population of America. Or if we include, with New York City, Newark, Passaic, Paterson, Jersey City, Hoboken, New Rochelle, Mt. Vernon, Elizabeth, Bayonne, and one or two other near-by towns, as all within the New York metropolitan district, then there will be found within that district, equivalent in size about to an area of thirty miles square, fully one-half of all the Jews living in the United States. The second largest Jewish community in the world, before the outbreak of the war, it may be mentioned in passing, existed in Warsaw, which, in 1914, housed between 300,000 and 330,000 Jews. As to the boroughs of New York, their Jewish quotas would seem to be as follows: Manhattan. 695,000 The Bronx. 210,000 Brooklyn. 567,000 Queens. 23,000 Richmond. 5,000 To revert to the question of the Jewish population of New York City. The number of public school children in this city was in the autumn of 1917 almost exactly 750,000. Even if we assume that the proportion of Jewish public school children was then only 35½ instead of 38½ of all the public school attendants, we should have, as the Jewish public school population, 262,500, which, with the 20,000 private school children, would give for Greater New York 282,500 Jewish school children, or over 280,000 Jewish persons between the ages of five and fourteen years. Let us now take for granted, what is not at all true, that one such Jewish person out of five, instead of 5.5, is a school child, between the ages of 5 and 14. Years, and we have, as the Jewish population of New York City, in September, 1917, 1,412,500 souls, or by January 1, 1918, 1,422,000, a too conservative maximum it would seem, in view of the facts as they have been actually ascertained and of the drastic reductions that have been assumed. For the New York City population was estimated by the Bureau of Education of the New York Community to be, six years ago, 1,250,000; and while this is considerably greater than was Dr. Joseph Jacobs’ enumeration of 1912, the Kehillah’s figures are upheld by Professor Chalmers’ calculations made in 1913, even though these may have been a little too liberal. Certainly it would be fair to presume that the correct number of New York City Jews was, in 1912, very close to 1,200,000. This approximation is supported by data to be found in the 1910 United States Census reports. In that census the number of persons speaking Yiddish together with their progeny, in New York City, was given As nearly 862,000, to be exact, 861,980. But there must have been more than this number of Jews in the city at that time, as will be seen from the following: In 1880, before the last great immigrational influx began, there were sixty thousand Jews in New York City, not including Brooklyn, which at that time had at least twenty-five thousand. Support is provided for the assumption of a slightly larger total, however, by the following: The Jewish population of the state of New York was, in 1907, estimated as 905,000. Probably this figure was too low, but let us assume that it was not. By 1910, if there had been no immigration at all, the state’s Jewish population would have, by natural increase, amounted to 960,000. But it could have gained not less than 120,000 through immigration during those three years, since the total Jewish immigration into the country during the same period was only a trifle under 250,000. (See Annual Reports of Commissioner General of Immigration, 1908, 1909, and 1910). Hence the Jewish population of New York State, in 1910, must have been at least 1,080,000. It was probably more. Yet, based on the number of persons who reported their mother-tongue as Yiddish, it is given in the 1910 Mother-Tongue Census as 912,692, which would indicate that only eighty-five percent of the population of New York State is now in the United States. Per cent of the New York Jews reported their mother-tongue as being Yiddish. Assuming likewise that fifteen per cent of the New York City Jews failed to so report their mother-tongue, then the 862,000 Jews of this city, who, according to the 1910 census figures, did so report, can have constituted only about eighty-five per cent of all the Jews in New York City; and so, in 1910, the total New York City Jewish population would have been at least a million, especially since the city had, back in 1907, already over 800,000 Jews. (See table above.) Support is lent to this conclusion by the survey made in 1911 by Dr. Joseph Brill for the New York City Board of Health, his estimate being then 1,100,000. Taking the city's Jewish increase during the next two years as being at the rate of 80,000 per annum, we should have, as the Jewish population of the city in 1912, 1,160,000. In all these calculations, no allowance has been made for what we may call domestic immigration, that is to say, persons coming from other parts of the country into the metropolis. There is no doubt that the aggregate of these, drawn as they would be, on account of the commercial and industrial opportunities afforded, to this immense financial, manufacturing, and shipping focus, cannot have been negligible. Surely their numbers can hardly have amounted to less than ten thousand in two years. Certainly five thousand in that time would be a reasonable expectation. Thus we get a total of 1,165,000. Dr. Jacobs himself confirms the opinion that he was too conservative in 1912, for later, in the American Jewish Year Book 5675, he calculates that by January 1, 1915, there should be 3,000,000 Jews in the country, in which prophecy he was fully justified by the event. And as New York City was even then rapidly approaching the point when it should come to contain nearly half of the Jewish population of the country, it must at the beginning of 1915 have contained very close to 1,300,000 Jews. Starting then with a New York City Jewish contingent of 1,165,000, in 1912, let us once more glance at the immigration figures. Jewish immigrants into the United States aggregated, for 1913 and 1914, 239,381, of this number 137,604 giving New York State as their destination. It is safe to say that a preponderating proportion of these came to, and remained in, or speedily returned to New York City. Thus that municipality may well be considered to have gained in population, through immigration, about 130,000 Jews, during the two years ending July 30, 1914. Certainly 120,000 would be for these two years a judicious estimate; since New York City’s population had been just prior to 1912 forging ahead at the rate of about 80,000 additional Jewish inhabitants annually, of whom 20,000, on an average each year, were attributable to excess of births over deaths, and the balance to influxes, mainly immigrational, from without. Hence by July, 1914, the Jewish population of the city can hardly have been less than 1,335,000. Since that time, there has been a total Jewish immigration into the United States of approximately 60,000, of whom 31,000 gave New York State as their destination, probably at least 25,000 remaining in New York City. AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK Totalling now, we shall have something like the following for the Jewish population of New York City on January 1, 1918: Population in 1912. 1,165,000 Foreign immigration 1912-1918. 145,000 Domestic immigration 1912-1918. 25,000 Natural increases. 150,000 Total. 1,485,000 In all of these considerations it has been assumed that the general Jewish increase rate in this country has been no more than two percent per annum; but as a matter of fact there is a strong probability that it has been somewhat greater, especially in New York City. In the first place it is well known that the death rate of a given Jewish community is always lower than the general local death rate. This is probably accounted for by the lower infant mortality rate found among Jews and by their greater tendency toward longevity. Now the death rate of New York City has averaged during the last ten years in the neighborhood of fifteen per thousand, while the Jewish death rate, according to information furnished by the actuaries of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., would seem to be about eleven per thousand. Again, speaking in general terms, the Jews in the large American cities have shared fully in the great prosperity which the country has enjoyed during the past decade. It is also a well-known fact that there is a strong tendency among Jews to translate increasing prosperity into matrimonial terms. Hence it is very probable that the increase rate among Jews has been for a number of years greater than the traditional two percent, and during the last half-dozen years, at least, probably nearer two and one-half percent than two percent in New York City. THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES On the other hand, there is nothing to show that the birth rate among Jews in our cities is markedly less than it is among their non-Jewish neighbors. If we are to hold that they have more than the average number of children at school, that fact would tend to support the foregoing contentions, and the apparent discrepancy between the very large number of Jewish children, on the one hand, which would make it appear that there were more than 1,500,000 Jews in New York City, and the diminished figure arrived at by the strict application of the two percent rule of increase, and the twenty percent assumption concerning school attendance among Jews, which would make it seem that there were less than 1,500,000 in this city, on the other hand, would tend to vanish. To conclude with New York City, which contains the largest Jewish community that has ever existed within the confines of a single municipality: It has over 2200 congregations and one hundred and eighty-one religious. Schools with 41,403 pupils, exclusive of about 14,000 who attend private hedarim. It has over a hundred recreational and cultural agencies, more than one thousand mutual aid societies, nine hundred and sixty-five lodges, one hundred and ninety-three economic agencies, and one hundred and sixty-four philanthropic and correctional agencies. Over $17,000,000 was expended in 1917 by all these activi¬ ties., of which amount the two great philanthropic federa¬ tions, that of Manhattan and the Bronx and that of Brooklyn, expended during the past year $2,500,000. In these figures are not included the $6,000,000 raised in the year 1917-1918 for Jewish War Relief abroad. Within the confines of the metrop- 46 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK olis are printed and published fifty-seven Jewish journals : five dailies ; twenty -eight weeklies ; eleven monthlies ; one bi¬ monthly; one quarterly; one annual; ten occasional publica¬ tions. Of these twenty-three are published in English, three in Hebrew, two in Judeo-Spanish, and twenty-nine in Yiddish. The following table, which is taken from the Hew York Jewish Communal Register , published by the Hew York “ Kehillah,” in 1918, affords details of the foregoing summary : Table Giving Estimate of Money Expended for Jewish Purposes by Jewish Communal Agencies in New York City AGENCIES SUB-TOTALS Religious Agencies: Permanent Congregations . $2,700,000 Temporary Congregations . 250,000 Kashruth . 3,000,000 Burial Societies . 50,000 TOTALS - $6,000,000 Religious Educational Agencies: Week-day Religious Schools, . 740,000 Sunday Schools . 50,000 Parochial Schools . 70,000 Hedarim and Private Instruction . 500,000 Cultural and Recreational Agencies: Young Men’s Hebrew and Kindred Ass’ns. . 435,000 Yiddish Press . . 2,000,000 Economic Agencies: Immigrant Aid Societies. Employment Bureaus (not in Institutions). Technical Schools. Clara de Hirsch Home. Loan Societies. Mutual Aid Societies. Lodges. 2,435,000 1 250,000 15,000 195,000 42,000 60,000 1,000,000 1,900,000 - 3,462,000 1 This does not include the amount of money spent on the Jewish theatre and in Jewish social clubs, both of which are of a distinctly Jewish recreational and cultural character. THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES Philanthropic Agencies: Relief Societies. 725,000 Day Nurseries. 50,000 Child Caring Agencies. 975,000 Hospitals and Convalescent Homes. 2,090,000 Old Age Homes. 150,000 Institutions for Defectives. 150,000 - 4,140,000 Correctional Agencies. 160,000 Co-ordinating and Research Agencies. 100,000 The great majority of American Jews live in cities or towns, there being only about 20,000 Jewish farmers and other agriculturists in the United States; and even most of these twenty thousand reside in little centers. Accordingly, to find the sum of the Jewish communities in all urban places would be to find practically the Jewish population of the nation. It was unfortunately not feasible to make a survey of the Jewish public school population in any of the major cities outside of New York. Therefore another method was adopted to ascertain, in the case of each town or city, how many Jews it contained. The Bureau of Jewish Statistics and Research has a list of nearly four thousand congregations, rabbis, etc. To every rabbi or other head of a congregation (in some cases to lay officials), was sent a questionnaire, asking the recipient to give, among other things, a careful and conservative estimate of the number of Jews in the city in which he resided. The thousands of resulting returns were carefully compared with one another, as well as with other data obtained through the reports of various charitable organizations in each city, and additional information furnished by Young Men’s Hebrew Associations, the Industrial Removal Office, and certain analogous organizations; and thus, finally, what is believed to have been a fairly accurate estimate in the case of each city having a general population of more than twenty thousand was arrived at, the more conservative averages being generally given the preference in all computations, deductions, etc. Whenever an estimate seemed unduly large, further inquiries were made, and statements from new correspondents were asked, the estimate conforming most nearly to the total called for by the rule 99 mentioned below being preferred. As to towns with a general population of at least one thousand and less than twenty thousand, it was not invariably possible to get a reliable estimate of their Jewish contingents. Sometimes, indeed, no response at all was received to the repeated inquiries sent out. But so many replies were obtained from the numerous smaller places, as well as from practically all cities of larger size, that it became after a while possible to formulate a sort of law or rule governing the percentages of Jews in localities of various proportions. Indeed, it was eventually found practicable in the case of smaller places, from which no adequate reply was to be procured, to estimate very closely their Jewish population by the aid of the “rule 99 in question. Quite frequently, after an estimate had been made, a return would come in from some little town, and in hardly any instance did the detailed report vary materially in its total of the Jews of that town from the estimate that had been made. To explain more particularly, it appears that between twenty-five percent and twenty-seven percent of the population of New York City are Jews, this city being with regard to its Jewish community unique. Next, in the group comprising Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Newark, and Detroit, nine large manufacturing centers, on an average a trifle under ten percent of the population are Jews, as will be seen from the following: THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES Table A1 Showing 9 Cities Containing an Aggregate of Over 9,200,000 Inhabitants of Whom Nearly 900,000 Are Jews General Population (Estimated as of City Dec. 31, 1917) Jewish Population Chicago. 2,572,000 225,000 Philadelphia. 1,785,000 200,000 Cleveland. 782,000 100,000 Boston. 765,000 77,500 Baltimore. 607,000 60,000 St. Louis. 867,000 60,000 Pittsburgh. 601,000 60,000 Newark 409,000 55,000 Detroit 841,500 50,000 Total 9,229,500 887,500 In the remaining sixty-two American Cities of the first order, namely such as have a general population of at least 100,000, the percentage of Jewish residents averages a little under 4.5, as will be seen by the following: TABLE B Showing Sixty-One Cities of the United States, Each Having a Population, in 1917, of 100,000 or More, and a Total Population  12,000 Lawrence, Mass.... ... 2,000 Hartford, Conn.... .... 16,000 Lowell, Mass.... ... 6,000 New Haven, Conn.... ... 8,000 New Bedford, Mass.... ... 3,500 Waterbury, Conn.... ... 6,000 Springfield, Mass.... ... 6,000 Wilmington, Del.... .... 3,500 Worcester, Mass.... ... 10,000 Washington, D. C. .... 10,000 Grand Rapids, Mich.... ... 1,000 Atlanta Ga.... ... 10,000 Duluth, Minn.... ... 2,300 Indianapolis, Ind.... .... 10,000 Minneapolis, Minn.... ... 15,000 Des Moines, la.... .... 3,200 St. Paul, Minn.... ... 10,000 In this and all other tables the Jewish population given is that of 1917. 50 TABLE B (continued) Jewish City Population Kansas City, Mo. 12,000 Butte, Mont. 1,000 Omaha, Neb. 10,000 Camden, N. J. 2,000 Jersey City, N. J. 12,500 Paterson, N. J. 15,000 Trenton, N. J. 7,000 Albany, N. Y. 20,000 Buffalo, N. Y. 20,000 Rochester, N. Y. 20,000 Syracuse, N. Y. 12,000 Akron, O. 2,000 Cincinnati, O. 25,000 Columbus, O. 9,000 Dayton, O. 4,000 Toledo, O. 7,500 Youngstown, O. 5,000 Portland, Ore. 8,000 City Jewish Population Reading, Pa. 1,750 Scranton, Pa. 7,500 Providence, R. I. 15,000 Memphis, Tenn. 7,000 Nashville, Tenn. 3,000 Dallas, Tex. 8,000 San Antonio, Tex. 3,000 Salt Lake City, Utah... 2,500 Richmond, Va. Seattle, Wash. 5,000 Spokane, Wash. 1,100 Tacoma, Wash. 900 Milwaukee, Wis. 20,000 Total. 513,000 or about 4.1 As to cities of the second class, namely, those having a general population of between 50,000 and 100,000, their percentage of Jews averages about three percent. Generally speaking, with regard to both classes mentioned above, it may here be noted that the proportion of Jewish residents is greater than the mean in the East, and less than the average in the West. The tables given below are peculiarly instructive as exhibiting how the percentage of Jewish residents tends to become gradually lower as the total number of citizens decreases. TABLE C Showing Jewish Population of the Cities of the United States Having in 1917 a Population of 50,000, or More, and Less Than 100,000 Cities Having a General Population of 90,000-100,000 each, and a Combined Population of 1,035,100, With Jewish Population of Each City Jewish City Population: San Diego, Cal. 600 Jacksonville, Fla. 2,000 Savannah, Ga. 5,000 Jewish City Population Evansville, Ind. 1,500 Lynn, Mass. 7,500 Somerville, Mass. 2,000 THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 51 TABLE C (continued) Jewish Jewish City Population City Population Schenectady, N. Y. . 3,500 Norfolk, Va. . 5,000 Yonkers, N. Y.... . 5,000 Oklahoma City, Okla.... 1,000 Total. . 34,600 Erie, Pa. or 3.3# (b) Cities Having a General Population of 80,000-90,000 Each, and a Combined Population of 591,570, With Jewish Population of Each City Jewish City Population City Population Fort Wayne, Ind.. . 1,650 Utica, N. Y. . 1,600 St. Joseph, Mo. . 3,300 Harrisburg, Pa... . 4,000 Manchester, N. H. . 600 Elizabeth, N. J. 5,000 Total. 19,150 Troy, N. Y. or 3.2 (c) Cities Having a General Population of 70,000-80,000 Each, and a Combined Population of 884,590, With Jewish Population of Each City Jewish City Population City Population. Sacramento, Cal.. . 900 Bayonne, N. J. . 10,000 Tampa, Fla. . 1,000 Hoboken, N. J. . 5,000 East St. Louis, Ill. . 1,000 Canton, Ohio. . 1,000 Peoria, Ill. . 1,750 Johnstown, Pa. . 400 South Bend, Ind.. . 2,000 Wilkes-Barre, Pa. . 3,000 Terre Haute, Ind. . 500 Wichita, Kan. . 300 Total. . 26,850 or 3.0 (d) Cities Having a General Population of 60,000-70,000 Each, and a Combined Population of 1,149,060, With Jewish Population of Each City Jewish City Population City Population Mobile, Ala. 2,200 Saginaw, Mich.... 1,000 Little Rock, Ark... 1,500 Passaic, N. J. Pueblo, Colo. 1,000 Springfield, O. 400 Rockford, Ill. 900 Allentown, Pa. 1,200 Springfield, Ill. 700 Altoona, Pa. 1,000 Sioux City, la. 2,500 Charleston, S. C. 1,900 Covington, Ky. 350 Chattanooga, Tenn. 1,400 Portland, Me. 2,500 El Paso, Tex. 1,800 Brockton, Mass.... 1,500 Holyoke, Mass.... 1,000 Total. 28,850 or 2.5# 52 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK TABLE C (continued) (e) Cities Having a General Population of 50,000-60,000 Each, and a Combined Population of 1,022,145, With Jewish Population of Each City Jewish Jewish City City Population City Population Montgomery, Ala... 1,650 Lincoln, Neb. . 1,200 Berkeley, Calif. . 3,000 Atlantic City, N. J., . 4,000 New Britain, Conn. .... 2,500 Binghamton, N. Y. . 1,500 Augusta, Ga. . 2,500 Lancaster, Pa. . 1,400 Macon, Ga. . 550 York, Pa. . 700 Davenport, la. . 600 Pawtucket, R. I. . 500 Topeka, Kan. . 1,000 Galveston, Tex. . 1,100 Haverhill, Mass. . 3,500 Superior, Wis. . 800 Bay City, Mich. Lansing, Mich. . 1,000 ...... 450 Total. . 25,415 Springfield, Mo. . 165 or 2.45 As to towns of the next degree, namely, those having a general population of between 20,000 and 50,000, the Jewish population in such places averages a trifle over two percent of the total population, as indicated in Table D, while in still smaller localities it falls to a little over one percent, and in places with less than one thousand inhabitants to 1-2 of one percent. TABLE D Showing Jewish Population of One Hundred and Fifty-Seven Cities, Each Having a General Population of Between 20,000 and 50,000, With Jewish Population  . 1,500 Alameda, Cal. . 200 Key West, Fla. . 200 Fresno, Cal. . 400 Pensacola, Fla. . 1,000 Pasadena, Cal. . 350 Columbus, Ga. . 300 San Jose, Cal. . 200 Aurora, Ill. . 300 Stockton, Cal. . 1,000 Belleville, Ill. . 150 Colorado Springs, Colo . 660 Bloomington, Ill. . 275 Danbury, Conn. . 300 Danville, Ill. 625 Meriden, Conn. . 1,000 Decatur, Ill. New London, Conn. . 1,000 Elgin, Ill. . 500 Norwalk, Conn. . 550 Evanston, Ill. . 250 Norwich, Conn. . 1,500 Galesburg, Ill. . 220 THE JEWISH POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 53 TABLE D Jewish City Population, Joliet, Ill. .... 1,100 Moline, Ill. Quincy, Ill. Rock Island, Ill. Anderson, Ind. Hammond, Ind. Hammond, Ind. Lafayette, Ind. Muncie, Ind. New Albany, Ind. Richmond, Ind. Burlington, Ind. Cedar Rapids, Ind. Clinton, Ind. Council Bluffs, Ind. Dubuque, Ind. Dubuque, Ind. Waterloo, Ind. Leavenworth, Kan. Lexington, Ky. Newport, Ky. Paducah, Ky. Shreveport, Ind. Bangor, Me. Lewiston, Me. Chelsea, Mass. Chicopee, Mass. Chicopee, Mass. 250 Everett, Mass. ... 334 Fitchburg, Mass. .... 528 Gloucester, Mass. .... 243 Malden, Mass. ... 9,000 Medford, Mass. ... 250 Newton, Mass. ... 400 North Adams, Mass. ... 500 Northampton, Mass. ... 400 Pittsfield, Mass. .... 1,500 Quincy, Mass. .... 1,250 Salem, Mass. .... 1,500 Taunton, Mass. .... 750 Waltham, Mass. .... 300 Battle Creek, Mich.. .... 244 Calumet, Mich. .... 110 Flint, Mich. .... 385 Jackson, Mich. 300 (continued) Jewish City Population Kalamazoo, Mich. 900 Muskegon, Mich. 300 Jackson, Miss. 126 Meridian, Miss. 400 Vicksburg, Miss. 532 Joplin, Mo. 250 Butte, Mont. 1,000 South Omaha, Neb. 262 Concord, N. H. 158 Nashua, N. H. 350 East Orange, N. J. 300 Montclair, N. J. 75 New Brunswick, N. J. 300 Orange, N. J. 210 Perth Amboy, N. J. 5,000 Plainfield, N. J. 1,500 Union, N. J. 400 West Hoboken, N. J. 350 Amsterdam, N. Y. 300 Auburn, N. Y. 250 Cohoes, N. Y. 200 Elmira, N. Y. 1,200 Gloversville, N. Y. 300 Jamestown, N. Y. 300 Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 300 New Rochelle, N. Y. 300 Newburgh. N. Y. 400 Niagara Falls, N. Y. 300 Oswego, N. Y. 300 Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 300 Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 300 Rome, N. Y. 300 Watertown, N. Y. 230 Charlotte, N. C. 350 Wilmington, N. C. 400 Winston Salem, N. C. 116 East Liverpool, Ohio. 300 Hamilton, Ohio. 260 Lima, Ohio. 300 Lorain, Ohio. 300 Mansfield, Ohio. 50 Newark, Ohio. 100 Portsmouth, Ohio. 128 Sandusky, Ohio. 143 Steubenville, Ohio. 400 Sandusky, Ohio. 150 Ogden, Utah. 125 Chester, Pa. 1,000 Burlington, Vt. 850 Easton, Pa. 800 Lynchburg, Va. .... 300 Hazleton, Pa. . 950 Newport News, Va. . 2,000 McKeesport, Pa. . 3,000 Petersburg, Va. .... 400 New Castle, Pa. . 610 Portsmouth, Va. .... 1,000 Norristown, Pa. . 220 Roanoke, Va. .... 300 Pottsville, Pa. . 400 Bellingham, Wash.. ... 250 Shamokin, Pa. . 235 Everett, Wash. ... 150 Shenandoah, Pa. . 550 Huntington, W. Va. ... 310 South Bethlehem, Pa.... 1,300 Charleston, W. Va. .... 1,000 Williamsport, Pa. . 350 Wheeling, W. Va. .... 1,000 Central Falls, R. I, . 250 Green Bay, Wis. ... 300 Cranston, R. I... . 400 Kenosha, Wis. ... 200 Newport, R. I.... . 500 La Crosse, Wis. ... 235 Warwick, R. I.... . 500 Madison, Wis. . 500 Woonsocket, R. I. . 900 Oshkosh, Wis. . 100 Columbia, S. C. . 281 Racine, Wis. . 700 Knoxville, Tenn. . 350 Sheboygan, Wis. . 852 Austin, Tex. . 300 Total. .. 112,521 The general population of these one hundred and fifty-seven cities was, according to the 1910 census, 4,278,000. It is now doubtless over 4,910,000. The Jewish population percentage is consequently 2.3$. 