>> good morning. welcome to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. i am honored to be your host. faith communities are changing and making an intense effort to get to know themselves. we invite you to a conversation about a jewish population study that's just been concluded in the san francisco bay area. we would like to introduce you to julie, director of community impact at the san francisco based jewish community federation and endowment foundation and to rabbi castner from the jewish federation and foundation of the east bay. welcome. >> thank you.

>> thanks for having us. >> let's ask you what is the jewish population study? >> well, this is a study about the demographics and so much more of the bay area jewish community. there are many things that are exciting about this study but i think most exciting is it's the first population study that's ever been done that includes the entire bay area. that's ten counties. it looks not just at demographics but more sociodemographics about the population. >> generally, we are talking about the far east bay, what we think of as south bay including silicone valley and up north throughout napa county. >> even s on olano and of course san francisco. >> what are some of the things that we have learned? >> so much. i will say a few key take aways. there is so much to say about each one.

i think one of the most important take aways from my perspective is that we have highly engaged small core of jewish people who are engaged in jewish community life and community and they're highly engaged and quite vibrant. the vast population in the bay area of jewish people are not engaged actively in jewish life and community. >> interesting. just rewinding a little bit, i think whenever communities look at themselves one of the core questions is if somebody feels they're a part of a community, they want to know who was included. how was the study actually done? >> great. the study was done in a very method logically sound way. we didn't work off of who is coming to events and who do the the community agencies and synagogues have on their list. we did a very controlled random sample.

we worked with a polling companll you gov which is like gallop poll that helped us construct a sound sample. there were over 3000 respondents to the survey. then it's rylly thugh the statistical analysis so that you can deduce and derive generalize conclusions about such a large area and population. >> fascinating. the last time that the bay area jewish community did a study on itself was when? >> in 2004, the san francisco federation did a study that was just a subset of the entire bay area. then in 2011, east bay federation did a study that was just on the east bay area. so it's been quite fears and this is precedent setting because it's the entire area. >> so we have really taken a holistic approach to the entire bay area jewish community.

>> yes. >> so when we think about who jews are, i know not everybody would necessarily know this but some of the questions we ask ourselves is who is a jew? what is jewish status? what were some of the ways in which that was understood? >> well, we use the broadest definition of who is jewish. basically if you consider yourself jewish or partially jewish in any way by religion or anything, you are in. in other words as part of the screening that's jewish. not a narrow definition of jewish. in fact the broadest definition possible. we also consider part of the bay area jewish population people who live with jews, people who are partnered or married to jews. we have 350,000 jewish people in the bay area based on study findings and 473,000 total people in jewish households.

>> fascinating. we are going to take a quick break in just a moment. before we go, how does the bay area rank in terms of its actual number of jewish community in the country? >> we are the 4th largest. >> we are the 4th largest. so we are after who? >> i knew you would ask that. i think it is new york. >> los angeles. >> southeast florida. that was sort of like "what"? sorry florida. then los angeles and the bay area. pretty significant. >> wonderful. we will take a quick break and come back to this conversation in just a moment.

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>> welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about a study conducted in the bay area. i would like to reintroduce you. julie is at the san francisco based jewish community federation and endowment foundation and rabbi castner is at the foundation from the east bay. welcome back. >> thanks. >> talking about the basics around the jewish population study, i am wondering what are some things we can say about

this particular jewish community at this point in time? >> there is a lot to say about the jewish community. we use the portrait really to assess the state of our community, the fitness, the well being, and to do some meaning making. what we can say about our community is that it's extraordinarily diverse. it is stable, and we are seeing a lot of movement within the bay area. we have a lot of young jews who are looking to find ways to connect to community in different ways. >> do we know sort of how the population age pie kind of cuts in terms of age and race, immigration status, and that sort of a thing? >> yeah. we know a lot. in terms of the pie, the

largest percentage of our population are young adults. in fact, we have the largest young adult population of any jewish community in the united states, even north america. that's percentage of population, not numbers of people. the second bubble of our population are boomers, baby boomers. >> so young adult is probably 18 through? >> 34. >> then baby boomers are late 50s and forward. >> exactly. forward to somewhere in the 60s or 70. >> fantastic. what are some of the other sort of big themes that are sort of emerging from the study itself? >> well andy mentioned the diversity. i dare say we thmost diverse jewish population perhaps in the whole world outside of israel. and you see that increasing

beautiful diversity growing the younger you look at the population. so it's about a quarter of households have racial and ethnic diversity in them. then as you get younger, 18 to 34, it's about 38%. we can assume that the trend would increase. >> i know there is so much that is being looked at and analyzed in terms of what perhaps one might think of as facts of a study. but i am wondering what is sort of highlighted about therefore how people express their jewishness? we have in the bay area anyway one of the most diverse communities in the entire world. if we are also probably it seems like the most diverse jewish community in the community then what does it say about lgbt jew, a jewish person who is a single parent, a young

person that comes here on their own and might come from a different part of the country but are sort of an immigrant to the bay area, what is all of that do you think saying about how we might want to be jewish and express our jewishness? >> it's a unique cultural characteristic of the bay area and certainly the jewish community in the bay area. we are really defined by flexibility. we have this adventurous expert and a cultural courseness. we don't necessarily in general experience jewish life in a particular way but there is an openness to integrating and i would say remixing from other cultures and universal values. that's the the character and the way in which jewish life is celebrated and expressed in the bay area. >> it seems interesting because in a reductionist way, faith communities generally think of the locus of their faith

community in life in their place of worship, like a church or a temple, synagogue, a mosque. part of what i hear you saying is that in the porousness of this it might be that the low locus of our jewishness is not even in one thematic structure. >> that's very well put. >> we are really in this moment of experiencing this creative renaissance in the bay area. we have one of the largest concentrations of jewish innovation or start up sector which are looking at new pathways to express jewish life, jewish wisdom through the arts, through earth based traditions, in and outside of synagogues and jccs. >> interesting. we'll take a quick break and

come back to this interesting conversation. please join us in just a moment back here on mosaic. [music] thank you. you got a king? go fish! it only takes a moment to make a moment. take time to be a dad today.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are talking about the jewish population study that was just done here in the bay area. welcome back. julie is from the jewish community federation anden dowment foundation in san francisco and in the east bay rabbi kastner. welcome back. >> thanks. >> it seems like the population

study is really in the midst of a very robust analysis. it's not a singular concluded portrait. i think portrait is a wonderful word because it is a little bit more dynamic than study or analysis. it seems like it is a little bit on going analysis. i wonder if you can talk a little bit about how that's going. >> sure. i also love the word portrait because when you look at a portrait in a museum there so much depth as opposed to a photograph which is flat. indeed that's true. there is ongoing analysis that we roll the portrait out in mid february. that's really the beginning of a process. the whole community is participating in the conversation through ongoing meetings and there is a final report due at the end of the summer. another sort of exciting innovation with the portrait which is a digital tool so people can kind of play around

with the data and look at it according to lenses they're interested in. that's also expected at the end of the summer. if you keep checking on the website, you will see additional reports, score card link. people are writing a lot, opinion pieces. you can find that on the website as well under the community study banner. >> is there a place in the portal for somebody who is just out there in the community to give input about what they see? >> absolutely. when we do the digital portrait tool we want a place for conversation where people can say here is where i see myself or here is where i don't see myself. >> fascinating. in that context so far, what are some of the challenges, some of the ways in which we see ourselves that are perhaps different than the way we thought we saw each other? what's a part and parcel when we find out what's new about us. >> right. andy really described what's so

incredible, exciting, dynamic about the bay area jewish community and sort of pivoting from that with all of that as a foundation going back to the original observation that so many people are unengaged in jewish life and community. with all the vibrancy, it's a core. that is a significant take away. thinking about why is that? what can we do to draw more people to experience jewish life since it provides so much meaning and grounding in the world today? that is really a lot of what we are looking at in some of the community conversations and will continue to. how can this lead to new policy and direction for jewish communal leadership so that the community is more representative of the full population? >> so what are some of the, if we can sort of label pockets -- >> sure. >> folks who if you think of

concentric circles and there is a core, what is the circle after that and the circle after that and the circle after that? can we name some of the outer circles? >> yes. we found economic stress and strain in the bay area population and even pockets of poverty. more than the poverty which was about 2%, about 20% of people said they are really struggling. they're just barely managing to make ends meet. so this is a very significant learning. we find that perhaps in previous generations, older people were the ones that were less financially secure in previous generations. that's not true today. this is reflected in the general population as well and affirmed by our study. it is younger people, young adults and young families struggling to make ends meet in very profound ways. they're saddled with things that older generations aren't. like the high cost of housing,

immense student debt, the lack of stability in the job market today. it is affecting our younger people in profound ways that we don't expect to just resolve when they get more. like when i was growing up, there was a struggle. but there was an understanding that you would hit a certain age. it doesn't feel that way anymore. >> you used the term economic uncertainty, economic stress, does that express itself what seems to be like across the board of one's career? so it's from the young adult, recent college graduate, all the way through to somebody even nearing retirement? >> no. much much more so in the yoger 34 and then 35 to 49, much more profoundly, the lack of stability economically. i don't mean to imply there are not seniors who are struggling.

but the most economic need we are seeing in the younger sets of the demographics. >> is our 2% when you use the word poverty group, is that an older cohort? >> that we need to unpack a little bit more which is leading to the further analysis and andy and i have spoken about diving more deeply into the 2%. then of course the 20% of the yeswe are making it but just barely. >> so interesting. we need to take a quick break, but we are going to come back in just a moment on mosaic.

good morning. welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about the jewish demographic portrait done in the bay area. welcome back rabbi kastn i.e. and julie. we are talking about the economic progress stressors of the study. >> one of the things i wanted to highlight et of poverty and economic stress which really impact us psychologically, emotionally

presents itself as a headline. it was really a surprise to a lot of people. when we look at the community it's very easy to see affluence and economic boom. one of the great gifts that the portrait offers us is really the ability to see what is hard to see and the responsibility that we have as a community is really to look at kind of the safety net within our community and how it can be buttressed and more active. the other piece is that we know that there is a stigma around poverty and economic strain. part of our role as a community is to be conscious and to address this strain so that we can be more supportive of those in need. >> it brings to my mind just the complexity of what that means. when you think of the jewish community at large as an immigrant community and by and large the jewish community across the country considers itself to be a successful

immigrant story, part of the story has to do with economic success like julie was saying. there is an assumption that you go to college, get a career, and you are kind of fine and education elevates you. there are a lot of things that line up after that. i think part of what we are seeing with economic stress is you might do those things. yet it might not be the same level of success and expectations are changing. also a lot of us in the community are in the trades or become disabled in some way or don't earn an income based on a professional career. i am wondering what those things are going to show us about ourselves in terms of what then gives us what you said earlier about the porousness of our interaction with one another. >> it's too soon tobecauswe are community change.

what the this data point highlights is it harkins back to the origin of federations in the bay area and in the country, which is to be accessible and supportive of those who are vulnerable in the community and to really be a force for good to reaching out and helping them stabilize. the shape that will take is really part of our work moving forward. >> do we know at this point in the portrait where some of the pockets are? is it across the entire bay area? is it in a particular place, a particular county? >> well, the part ergglingto ma meet, we see that throughout. in other words we don't look at one county or geographic area and say oh here it is. it's pretty evenly distributed. in terms of the actual poverty, where is that? we need a deeper analysis on that and i think we will find

more of a locus. that's part of the final report in more detail. also just to say it's really true what andy said and what you pointed out, if the jewish community, organized communal life is more occupied by upper middle class and affluent people as it is and that is not your story and narrative, you are not going to opt in. you just wouldn't even really think this is something that's relevant for you. it is very important as we go forward to think about how to make this community one that really is reflective of the population which right now i don't think it is. so we have work to do. >> it seems so important when you talk about the consequence to issues around philanthropy, access to where you join or

don't join and can be a part of the community at large. >> this is such a wonderful conversation. we will put a comma in the conversation and encourage you to go to the website and continue to participate. for more information go to www. www.jewishfederationoftheeastba .org. thank you for being with us on mosaic.

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i'm devin fehely. and i'm melissa caen. a mass it's 6:00 am on this sunday, june 17. good morning. >> let's get to our top story. a massive oak tree came crashing down in the east bay hitting a house, crushing cars, snapping power poles like toothpicks. witnesses say it was windy when the 100-foot tree toppled on ferry street in martinez. >> it he was crazy. it was a loud crackling like crackle, crackle, crackle. >> reporter: trish lives next door and not only heard it but felt the tree slam into the ground. >> it shook the house. i am right next door. i actually felt