learn how abbvie could help you save. good morning and welcome in to "mosaic". i am rabbi eric weiss m honored to be your host. across the country, faith communities are changing and making an intense effort to know themselves. what we would like to do is invite you into a conversation this morning about a jewish population here in the san francisco bay area. we would like to introduce you to julie goal, the director of community impact at the san francisco-based jewish community federation and endowment foundation and also

to rabbi andrew kastner, also a director of the community director foundation of east bay. welcome. >> thank you for having us. >> let's just jump in an ask you, what is the jewish population study? >> right. 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 the study but the most exciting i think is the first population study that has ever been done that includes the entire bay area, that is 10 counties. it looks, not just that demographics, but more sort of like social demographics, about the population. >> generally, we are talking about the far east bay, sort

of what we think of the south bay, including silicon valley -- >> yes. >> out through napa county? >> yes, even solano county and, of course, san francisco. >> wonderful. what are some of the things we have learned? >> gosh, so much. i will just say, a few key takeaways, there is so much more to say about each one. i think one of the most important takeaways, from my perspective, is that we have highly engaged , small core of jewish people engaged in jewish community life and community and they are 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, what are the core questions is, if somebody feels like they are part of a community, they want

to know who is included. how was the study actually done? >> right. the study was done in a very method ugly -- methodically, sound way. all the communities and synagogues had on their list, we did a very controlled, random sample. we worked with the polling company called you go of , which is like gallup poll, which helped us conduct a strong sample. there were over 300 respondents and it was weighed through statistical analysis carefully so you can deduce and derive generalized conclusions about such a large area and population. >> fascinating. the last time the bay area jewish community did a study on itself was when? >> two . in 2004, the san francisco federation did a study that was just a subset of the entire bay area. in 2011, the east bay federation did a study that was just on the east

they area. it has been quite a few years and this is precedent-setting because it is the entire area. >> so we have really taken a holistic approach, the entire bay area jewish community? >> yes. >> so when we think about who jews are, not everyone will know this but one thing we ask ourselves is who is a trance 26 -- jew? what are some of the ways this was understood? >> we use the broadest definition on who is jewish. basically, if you consider yourself jewish or partially jewish in any way, by religion, or anything. you are in, as part of the screening, that is jewish. not a narrow definition of jewish at all, in fact, the broadest definition possible. we consider the bay area jewish population people who live with jews, we have

50,000 jewish people in the bay area, based on our findings and 473,000 total people in jewish households. >> fascinating. we will take it a quick break in just a moment but before we go, how does the bay area rank, in terms of its actual number of jewish communities in the country? >> we are the fourth-largest. >> we are the fourth largest. >> i don't even know who is first. i think it is new york los angeles. >> los angeles, southeast florida, that was like, what? sorry, florida. [ laughter ] >> los angeles and then the bay area. >> we will take it a quick break and come back to this conversation in just a moment.

welcome back to "mosaic". i am rabbi eric weiss and i am honored to be your host this morning. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation abt a sh conducted in the arwa tojue ld andrabbi drew stner, both directors of community impact at two different locations. rabbi andy kastner is at the jewish community federation and foundation the

east bay and julie is at the west they. we were talking about some of the basics around the jewish population study. i am wondering what are some of the 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 is extraordinarily diverse. it is stable. 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 to community in diverse ways. >> do we know sort of how the population age pie cut, in terms of age and race and

immigration status and that sort of 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 in north america. that is percentage of population, not numbers of people. the second bubble of our population are boomers, baby boomers. >> fantastic. young adults, probably 18 through -- >> 34. >> baby boomers are sort of late 50s and forward. >> exactly. forward to in 60s or 70 . yeah. >> fantastic. what are some of the other sort of big things that or sort of emerging from the study itself? >> andy mentioned the diversity. i daresay we have the most diverse jewish

population, perhaps in the whole world, outside of israel. you see that increasing beautiful diversity growing the younger you look at the population. it is about a quarter and younger, 34 about 38%. we can assume that will increase. >> i know it is being looked at in terms of the facts of the study, but i am wondering what is sort of highlighted about, therefore, how people express their jewishness? we have one of the most diverse communities and the most jewish community in the diaspora , then what does it say about how

a jew of color, an lgbt q tran 26, a jew who is single, a young person who comes through on their own and maybe they come from a different part of the country but they are sort of an immigrant to the bay area, what does all of that, do you think, say about how we might want to be jewish and express our jewishness? >> there is a unique cultural characteristic of the bay area. certainly, the jewish community in the bay area. we are really defined by flexibility. we have this adventurous spirit, kind of like a cultural coarseness. we don't, in general, express jewish life in a very particular way but there is openness to integrating and i would say remixing from other

cultures and other universal values. that is really the character and the way in which jewish life is celebrated and expressed here in the bay area. >> it seems interesting because in a reductionist way, the faith communities generally think of the locust of their faith community life in their place of worship, like a church or a temple or a synagogue or a shrum or a mosque. part of what i hear you saying is that in the coarseness of all of this, it might be that the locust of our jewishness is actually not singular. it is not monolithic, it is not even in one thematic structure. >> that is very well put. >> yeah. we are really in this moment experiencing this creative renaissance of jewish life in the bay area. we have one of the largest concentrations of the jewish information for 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 . >> interesting. we will take it a quick break and continue this wonderful conversation about the jewish community here in the bay area. join us.

good morning and welcome back to key "mosaic". i am rabbi eric weiss and i am honored to be your host. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about a jewish survey just done in the bay area. welcome back to julie gold and rabbi andrew kastner who are both directors of impact at their respective

federations, juliet of federation and endowment foundation in san francisco and in the east bay, rabbi andy kastner. welcome back. it seems like the population study is really in the midst of a very, sort of, robust analysis. it is not singular , concluded portrait. i think portrait is a wonderful word because it is a little more dynamic than study or analysis, but it seems like it is a little bit ongoing analysis. i wonder if you could talk a little bit about how that is going? >> sure. i also love the word portrait. if you look at a portrait in a museum, there's so much depth to it, as opposed to a photograph, which can be, you know, just flat. indeed, that is true. there is ongoing analysis we rolled the portrait out in may february. that is really the beginning of the process. the whole community is participating in the conversation through

ongoing meetings. 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 that people can kind of play around with the data and look at it according to lenses they are interested in. that is also expected at the end of the summer. if you keep checking back on the website, you will see additional reports, the scorecard link and people are writing a lot of opinion pieces. you can find that on the website, as well. >> fascinating. >> is there a place for someone who is just out there in the community to give input about what they see? >> absolutely. we want, when we do the digital portrait tool, a place for conversation, where people can say, here is where i see myself or here is where i don't myself. >> fascinating. in that context so far, what are some of the challenges, what are some of the ways in which we see ourselves that are perhaps different from what we thought

or the way we thought we saw each other, sort of part and parcel what we thought we knew about us? >> i think andy really describe what is so incredible, dynamic and amazing about the bay community. 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 of that vibrancy. it is a core. that is a significant take away. thinking about, why is that and what can we do to draw more people out 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 these community conversations and we will continue to. how can this lead to new policy and direction for jewish community leadership, so that the community is more representative of the full population? >> what are some of the, if we could call them pockets, of folks who, if you think of sort of concentric circles and there is a core, then what is the circle after that and the circle after that and the circle after that? can we name some of those 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 22% or 20% of people said they are really struggling. they are just barely managing to make ends meet. this is a very significant learning. we find that in previous studies of

generations, older people were the ones less financially secure in previous generations. that is not true today. this is reflected in the general population, as well, and affirmed by our study. it is young people, young adults and young families, who are struggling to make ends meet and very profound ways. they are saddled with things older generations to start, like the high cost of housing, an immense student debt and a lack of stability in the job market today. this is affecting our younger people in profound ways we don't expect to just resolve when they get more, you know, like when i was growing up, yes, there was a struggle but there was this understanding you would hit a certain age. it doesn't feel that way anymore. >> does that economic, you used the term economic uncertainty, economic stress, does that express itself in what seems to be across the board of one's career? it is from young adult, recent college graduate all the way through to somebody who is even nearing retirement? >> no. much more so in the younger and the next , 18 to 34

and then 35 to 49. much more profoundly this sort of lack of stability economically. i don't mean to imply there are not seniors who are not struggling, but the most economic need we see are in the younger sets of the demographics. >> is the 2%, you used the word, poverty grew, is that an older cohort? >> that we need to unpack a little bit more. that is leading to further analysis. trends andy and i talked about diving into the 2% and the 20% of yes, we are making it, but just barely. >> we will take it a quick break but we will come right back here on "mosaic".

good morning and welcome back to to "mosaic". i am rabbi eric weiss and i am honored to be your host . we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation about the jewish economic portrait done here in the bay area. welcome back, rabbi andrew kastner and julie gold. rabbi, we were talking about the economic stats of the stressors of the study. can you

talk more about that? >> yeah, one of the things i wanted to highlight is that these pockets of poverty and economic stress, which really impact us psychologically, emotionally , presents itself as a headline. what is really a surprise to a lot of people, when we look out at the community, it is very easy to see affluence and economic boom, but one of the great gifts the portrait offers us is really the ability to see what is hard to see. the responsibility that we have is 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 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 we can be more supportive of those who are in need . >> you know, 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 consider themselves to be a successful immigrant story, part of that story has to do with economic success, like what we were saying earlier. there is kind of the assumption you go to college, you get a career and you find that elevation comes with education and part of what we are seeing with economic stress is that you might do those things and yet, it may not be the same level of success and expectations are changing and also that 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 will show us about ourselves, in terms of what then gives

us, you said earlier about the porous nest of our interaction with one another. >> yeah, it is too soon to tell. we are early in the meeting meaning making. we have seen the philanthropy within the jewish community change. with this data point highlights for us, it harkens back to the origin of federations here in the bay area and in the country, which is to be accessible and supportive of those who are vulnerable in our community to really be a force for good in reaching out and to helping them stabilize. a shape that will take is really part of our work moving forward. >> do we know at this point in the portrait where some of these pockets are? is it across the entire bay area? is it in a particular place or particular county? >> well, the part where people are struggling to make ends meet, we see that throughout. in other words, we don't look at one county or geographic

area and say here it is. it is pretty evenly distributed. in terms of the actual poverty, where is that, we need to do a deeper analysis on that. i think we will find more of a locust there. that is part of the final report in more detail. also, just to say, it is really true what andy said and what you pointed out. if the jewish community, the organized communal life, is more occupied by middle-class, upper-middle-class and affluent people as it is and that is not your story or narrative, you are not cannot opt in, not because , you just wouldn't even think this is something for you that is relevant for you . it is important, as we go forward, to think about how to make this community one that is really reflective of the population, which, right now, i don't think it is. we have work to do. >> it seems so important when we talk about the consequence

with issues around philanthropy and issues around access in what you join and what you don't join and where you can be part of the community at large. >> yeah. >> rabbi andrew kastner and julie gold, this is such a wonderful conversation. we encourage you to go to the website and continue to participate. for more information, go to www.jewishfederation.org . for the east bay , www. jfet.org. thank you for being with us today.

♪ >> a driver loses control of their car, smashing into and oakland home. both the car and the house go up in flames. the owner of an rv park says he is shutting it down because the people who are living their say they are not going anywhere without a fight. >> this is my home. they are trying to kick us out. we have a valid reason. a hip-hop trailblazer in the bay area is sharing the lessons she has learned in the industry. this is as she works to inspire the next generation. good morning, it is sunday, february 19