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The 2007 Lehigh Valley Jewish Community Study
Sponsor(s): Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley (PA)
Principal Investigator(s): Ira M. Sheskin
Study Dates: October 14-24, 2007.
- 2% of all households in the Lehigh Valley are Jewish.
Lehigh Valley is the third largest Jewish community in Pennsylvania.
24% of adults in Jewish households were born in the local Lehigh Valley community; 7% are foreign-born.
Median age is 52; 18% of all people in Jewish households are children under 18, while 23% are 65 or over (12% at least age 75).
72% of children are being raised as Jews.
36% of all married couples are intermarried (55% inmarried, 9% conversionary); 39% of children in intermarried households are being raised as Jews.
4% of Jewish respondents identify as Orthodox, 34% Conservative, 2% Reconstructionist, 30% Reform, 31% Just Jewish.
51% of Jewish households report synagogue membership; another 11% are members of either the JCC or another Jewish organization.
45% of Jewish households contain a member who has visited Israel; 21% of Jewish respondents are extremely attached to Israel; 32% very attached.
16% of Jewish respondents report personally experiencing anti-Semitism in the Lehigh Valley in the year proceeding the survey; 18% of households with children report a school-related anti-Semitic episode related to a child ages 6-17.
Sample Size: 537 completed Jewish household interviews - - 217 RDD (random digit dialed) and 320 from DJNs - distinctive Jewish names - from local telephone directories.
Since there was not a prior study in the area, the size of the Jewish community in 2000 was estimated by analyzing DJN names in CD-ROM telephone directories in 2000 and in 2007. DJN counts and estimates for 2000 are based only on calculations based on Jewish surname counts. However, results indicate a relatively stable Jewish population presence in the area.
Over 30,000 different telephone numbers were dialed in the RDD frame. Telephone exchanges included in the RDD calls were reduced after previous calls resulted in Jewish incidence too low to continue interviewing given potential costs involved.
Data are weighted to address issues of disproportionate sampling, multiple telephone line households, and some non-statistically significant differences between the RDD sample and the DJN sample.
Weight factor "wf" reduces sample size to 516 weighted, while "wfhh" extrapolates to Jewish households, N=4,000.
Downloads
Survey Reports
» Main Report - Volume 1
(PDF)
» Main Report - Volume 2
(PDF)
» Lehigh, 2007_SLIDES BY CHAPTER OF MAIN REPORT
(ZIP)
» Presentation Set - Easton
(PDF)
» Presentation Set - Allentown
(PDF)
» Zipped Supplemental Slide Presentations to Various Agencies
(ZIP)
» Questionnaire
(PDF)
» Lehigh, 2007_SPSS SAV PUBLIC DATABANK
(SAV)
» Lehigh, 2007_SPSS SYNTAX FILES
(ZIP)
» Lehigh, 2007_SPSS POR-PORTABLE PUBLIC DATABANK
(POR)
» Lehigh_PreSurvey Publicity Materials Combined
(PDF)
» Lehigh_INTERVIEWER Recruitment Materials Combined
(PDF)