Highest concentration live in Northeast Valley
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
The majority of Jews in the Greater Phoenix area live in the Northeast Valley.
According to the Highlights of the 2002 Jewish Community Study of Greater Phoenix, 41 percent of Jewish households (18,100) reside in the Northeast Valley.
Thirty percent (13,300 households) live in north and central Phoenix.
The other two geographic areas included in the survey are the Tri-Cities (Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe and Ahwatukee) and the Northwest Valley, which includes Glendale, Peoria, ASU West, Sun City, Sun City West and surrounding areas. These geographic areas have, respectively, 16 percent (7,200 households) and 13 percent (5,500 households) of Jewish households.
"When you look at the way the population falls, the largest of these four areas is the Northeast Valley," said Jacob B. Ukeles, project manager and president of Ukeles Associates, Inc., the research team that conducted the study.
Jewish households in the Tri-Cities area are the youngest - 31 percent are children and only 4 percent are age 65 and older. The Northwest Valley has the highest proportion of senior residents - 40 percent are age 65 and older.
Age has a direct effect on intermarriage rates, as respondents in the Tri-Cities are most likely to be intermarried - 60 percent - compared to 30 percent of the married respondents in the Northeast Valley.
"People who are younger and people who were married more recently are much more likely to be intermarried," Ukeles said.
Another noticeable characteristic of the Tri-Cities area is a lesser connection to Jewish life. Forty-nine percent of survey respondents reported that being Jewish is very important, compared to 72 percent in Phoenix, 69 percent in the Northwest Valley and 60 percent in the Northeast Valley.
Only half of Tri-Cities and Northwest Valley households regularly attend a Passover seder.
In the 1984 study, Central Phoenix was found to be home to the majority of the Valley's Jewish population at 45.5 percent (20,064 individuals), followed by 31.6 percent in Scottsdale (15,254 individuals) and 18.8 percent in the Tri-Cities of Tempe, Chandler and Mesa (8,085 individuals). The Sun City region had 4.1 percent of Jews (1,491 individuals). Glendale and Peoria were included in the Central Phoenix area.
"Even though this is a very spread-out community, there is a relative concentration in the Northeast Valley," Ukeles said. That concentration makes Scottsdale "the logical place" for the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, he said.
"On the other hand, you've got a lot of young Jewish households, many intermarried in the Tri-Cities area" and the research team recommends that Jewish leaders address the needs of these households, and consider a special study in this area.
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