Interesting Map Of Jewish Demographics In The United States

Here's a terrific map from researcher Joshua Comenetz, who has broken down the Jewish population in the United States according to congressional district:

(click for larger)

The actual number of Jews in America is a remarkably difficult question to answer, but Comenetz's numbers are almost identical to a recent Pew study which puts the total Jewish population at 6.7 million, or about 2.2 percent.

Jews are spread very unevenly throughout the country, though. Half of all American Jews live in just 37 congressional districts (out of 435), and 93 CDs contain three-fourths of all Jews. Just 13 districts are home to 100,000 or more Jews: nine in New York and two apiece in California and Florida.

The most Jewish district, you probably won't be surprised to learn, is Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's NY-10, which, thanks to its inclusion of Manhattan's Upper West Side and Brooklyn's Borough Park, two heavily Jewish neighborhoods, is 27.5 percent Jewish. The least, at 0.0004 percent (and perhaps with no Jews at all, given the margin of error inherent in such measurements), is rural OK-02, represented by freshman GOP Rep. Markwayne Mullin.

And if you're anything like the Daily Kos Elections crew, the first question upon seeing this data would be, "Which is the district with the least Jewish population that's represented by a congressperson who identifies as Jewish?" Answer: VA-07, the only district in the nation held by a Jewish Republican (Eric Cantor), at 0.27 percent Jewish. That's followed by TN-09 (Steve Cohen) and KY-03 (John Yarmuth), each of which are also less than 1 percent Jewish. (Cohen's district actually had much of its Jewish citizenry moved to a neighboring district during redistricting.)

How about the most-Jewish district represented by a non-Jew? Unsurprisingly, the top five in that category are all located in New York City, topped by NY-09 at 23.41 percent (thanks in large part to the inclusion of Crown Heights), represented by Yvette Clark, who identifies as Methodist. It also includes NY-08 (Hakeem Jeffries), NY-12 (Carolyn Maloney), NY-11 (Michael Grimm), and NY-06 (Grace Meng).

Comenetz has much more data available if you'd like to drill down further, including Excel spreadsheets and GIS files. And that full Pew report also has tons more demographic information on U.S. Jewry as well.