The Utilization of Census Tract Data in the Study of the American Jewish Population

Lack of direct data on religious affiliation has remained a stumbling block to extensive demographic analysis of religious communities, or differentials, in metropolitan centers. Nevertheless,utilization of census data for specific tracts & tract groups can be demonstrated to be entirely feasible for some aspects of the study of such pop's in many Ur areas. The applicability of this type of approach to the Jewish community is specifically tested. Guidelines are established & evaluated by the findings of the Hamilton County (Greater Cincinnati, Ohio) census of 1935 - the only enumeration of a major metropolitan area in which religion was reported for each census tract. In this metropolitan center, as in others in which local surveys of Jewish communities have been taken, there is ample evidence of high r between the location of the Jewish residents & that of the pop of foreign birth originating from certain countries of Eastern Europe, esp the USSR. Data re the spatial distribution within an Ur area of this pop at the federal census, therefore, may provide a valuable index of Jewish concentrationbut allowance for the pop of other religions must always be made. Data re the USSR-born at the 1940 Census indicate a high degree of concentration in a number of leading cities. Utilizing the devised census tract method, evidence of a substantial degree of segregation of the Jewish pop, & of concentration within a limited number of tracts, is given. Boston is used as a case study in illustrating this method. AA.