Population · Growth through time · 1654 to 2024

Three and a half centuries of Jews in America, in three minutes

Twenty-three refugees reached New Amsterdam in 1654, and a 2024 county-by-county count puts American Jews at 7.7 million.

Three layers of evidence

Before 1877 the map is a reconstruction, and the screen says so. From 1877 through 2023 every spike rests on a count, starting with the first national census of American Jews in 1877 and continuing with the Year Book's state tables from 1899 to 2023. In 2024 the states give way to the county-based estimate of Comenetz and Sheskin. Between benchmark years the spikes move in straight lines, since nobody counted in between.

How the early map was rebuilt

The national totals follow the published series: 25 in 1654, about 1,500 in 1776, 3,800 in 1820, 15,000 in 1840, 175,000 in 1860 and 229,082 in the 1877 count. Where a source gives a range, the film draws a central value. Until 1820 we divided the total among the colonial ports by hand, using early city figures and standard accounts. Between 1820 and 1840 a model takes over, in which each of the 170 towns in the 1877 table appears in its settlement year and grows toward its 1877 size, with the sum held to the national total. From 1877 to 1899 the states are scaled so that they add up to the national estimates.

Counts and surveys disagree

The Year Book added up local estimates, while the national surveys sampled households. The National Jewish Population Surveys found 5.5 million in 1990 and 5.2 million in 2000-01, but the Year Book's compilation for 2000 came to 6,136,950. Pew counted 6.7 million in 2013 and 7.5 million in 2020. The gaps come down to who gets counted as Jewish, so the film sticks to one series and names the others in its notes.

The film's last step is partly a change of method. The 2023 Year Book, the last one done the old way, totals 7,460,600. The 2024 county estimate totals 7,698,840, and its authors put the rise down to the method rather than to growth.

Where the map moved

In 1960 the Northeast held 66.6 percent of American Jews. Its share was 46.1 percent by 2000 and 40.7 percent in 2024, while the region holds 17.0 percent of all Americans. Over the same span the South rose from 8.8 to 24.1 percent and the West from 10.8 to 23.6, and the Midwest slipped from 13.8 to 11.7. New York State by itself went from 45.8 percent of American Jews (2,533,900 people) to 21.7 percent (1,672,025).

Between 2000 and 2023 the Year Book series barely moves the Northeast, from 46.1 to 44.6 percent, and then the 2024 county method drops it to 40.7 in a single step. The long decline looks real to us. The 2000 to 2023 series seems slow to pick it up, and these data can't tell us when the catch-up happened.

What the film cannot show

The United States doesn't record births and deaths by religion, so there's no way to separate natural increase from migration. The spikes show an estimate at each date and don't follow anyone over time. Even the 1877 count disagrees with itself in small ways: its state rows add up to 229,082, Linfield's later review gives 229,087, and the 170 towns sum to 200,408.

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The sourcesHow do we know all this?

This section gives the source for everything in the film, along with the documents we could reproduce, the counts the map rests on and a reading list.

The documents

Manuscripts, a map, a magazine, a photograph and newspapers of the day, held by the Library of Congress and the American Jewish Historical Society. Click one to enlarge it.

**The Newport congregation writes to Washington**Moses Seixas, warden of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, signed the address presented to President Washington on August 17, 1790. The phrase Washington echoed, "to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance," came from Seixas.manuscriptGeorge Washington Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, shown in the exhibition From Haven to Home (item 5). View the originalIn the film: *1790 event, the colonial ports*

**Washington's reply, in his secretary's hand**The letterbook copy of Washington's answer to the Newport congregation: "the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."manuscriptGeorge Washington Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (From Haven to Home, item 6A). View the originalIn the film: *1790 event*

**The Mill Street synagogue on a 1755 plan of New York**Francis Maerschalck's engraved survey of the city marks every congregation's house of worship, including the "Jews Synagogue" that Shearith Israel built on Mill Street in 1730, the first in North America.manuscriptGeography and Map Division, Library of Congress (From Haven to Home, item 11). View the originalIn the film: *1730 event, New Amsterdam and New York captions*

**Touro Synagogue, Newport, on a postcard of about 1910**Peter Harrison's building for the Jeshuat Israel congregation opened in 1763 and is the oldest synagogue building still standing in the United States.manuscriptHebraic Section, Library of Congress (From Haven to Home, item 18). View the originalIn the film: *1763 event, Newport in the 1690 caption*

**Beth Elohim, Charleston, drawn by John Rubens Smith**A pencil sketch of the first Beth Elohim synagogue, consecrated in 1794 and burned in 1838. Charleston held the largest Jewish community in the republic around 1800, and the Reformed Society of Israelites broke from this congregation in 1824.manuscriptPrints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (From Haven to Home, item 29). View the originalIn the film: *1795 caption, 1824 event*

**Emma Lazarus's notebook: "The New Colossus"**The sonnet in the poet's own hand, dated 1883 and marked "Written in aid of Bartholdi Pedestal Fund." It was fixed to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903.manuscriptAmerican Jewish Historical Society, New York, shown in From Haven to Home (item 41). View the originalIn the film: *1886 event*

**"Letter from Kishineff," New-York Tribune, May 17, 1903**A resident's letter of April 18, made public by the Jewish Morning Journal and reprinted by the Tribune, with the relief committee's petition to President Roosevelt. The pogrom set off the surge of emigration the film marks in 1903.newspaperNew-York Tribune, May 17, 1903, page 3. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. View the originalIn the film: *1903 event*

**"Galveston. Ninety Jewish immigrants…" The Jewish Outlook, Denver, July 19, 1907**A Jewish weekly in Denver reports the first party of the Galveston plan: ninety immigrants, mostly Russians, landed from the steamer Cassel "in line with the plan to divert the tide of Jewish immigration from the congested cities of the north and east."newspaperThe Jewish Outlook (Denver), July 19, 1907, page 5. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. View the originalIn the film: *1907 event, 1911 caption*

**The Jewish Immigrant, January 1909**The magazine of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, published at 234 East Broadway, at the height of the East European migration. The cover shows Liberty opening the gate to the newcomers.newspaperHebraic Section, Library of Congress (From Haven to Home, item 54). View the originalIn the film: *1881 to 1924 wave, 1907 caption*

**New-York Tribune, March 26, 1911: the Triangle fire**The front page the morning after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire: "More than 140 die as flames sweep through three stories of factory building in Washington Place." The final count was 146, most of them young Jewish and Italian immigrant women.newspaperNew-York Tribune, March 26, 1911, page 1. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. View the originalIn the film: *1911 event*

**Lewis Hine, "Waiting for the Forwards," New York, March 1913**Newsboys wait at one in the morning for the Yiddish daily Forverts, founded in 1897, whose circulation grew with the immigrant city.manuscriptNational Child Labor Committee Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (From Haven to Home, item 58). View the originalIn the film: *1897 event*

**The Washington Times, May 26, 1924**The afternoon paper from the day Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. Its banner, in the language of the day, is about the Japanese exclusion clause. The act's national-origins quotas cut East European Jewish immigration to a trickle.newspaperThe Washington Times, May 26, 1924, page 1. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. View the originalIn the film: *1924 event*

The counts the map stands on

Each card covers one benchmark and links the study behind it, along with the scholarship that evaluates it.

1654 to 1877

The reconstructionNational totals follow the published series gathered in the Heshbon workbook Jewish Population in the United States, 1654 to 1899, which draws on Jewish Virtual Library milestones, the Year Book's retrospective estimates and the 1877 count. Where a source gives a range, the film draws the midpoint. The places are the 170 towns of the 1877 table, each appearing in its stated settlement year.

repositoryJewish Virtual Library, U.S. Jewish population by year
scholarshipRosenwaike, the 1790 estimate (PAJHS 50, 1960), on JSTOR
scholarshipRosenwaike, the 1820 estimate (AJHQ 53, 1963), on JSTOR
scholarshipMarcus, To Count a People: American Jewish Population Data, 1585 to 1984

1877

Statistics of the Jews of the United States (1880)The Board of Delegates of American Israelites and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations took the first national count in 1877 and published it in 1880. It found 229,082 Jews (230,257 with later corrections), listed town by town and state by state, and the film's state spikes begin with it.

repositoryFull scan, HathiTrust (public domain)
repositoryBoard of Delegates records, Center for Jewish History
encyclopediaJewish Encyclopedia (1906), "Statistics"

1899 and 1907

American Jewish Year Book, "Jewish Statistics"The first Year Book (5660, 1899 to 1900) printed state estimates from local correspondents, 1,043,800 in all. The 1907 to 1908 volume did it again and found 1,776,985 in the states, half of them in New York.

1917, 1927, 1937

Linfield, "The Jews of the United States, 1937"H. S. Linfield's chapter in the 1939 to 1940 Year Book prints three columns side by side: the American Jewish Committee survey of 1917 (3,388,951) and his own counts of 1927 (4,228,029) and 1937 (4,831,180), made alongside the Census of Religious Bodies.

1957

Chenkin, AJYB 1958, and the Census question of March 1957Alvin Chenkin's state table in the 1958 Year Book counted 5,227,441 across 49 states, rounded nationally to 5,255,000. That same year the Census Bureau asked about religion for the only time, and 3.2 percent of Americans aged 14 and over answered Jewish.

1960 to 2000

The Year Book compilationsEach year the Year Book's population chapter gathered local federation estimates into a state table. Those tables are the benchmarks behind New York's peak near 2.5 million around 1970, and behind both the rise of the Sun Belt and the thinning of the industrial states.

1990 and 2000

The National Jewish Population SurveysThese were sample surveys, where the Year Book was a compilation. They found 5.5 million in 1990, along with the 52 percent intermarriage figure, and 5.2 million in 2000 to 2001, when the Year Book's compilation came to about 6.1 million. The gap comes from how each defines who is Jewish, which is why the film shows both.

2011

Jewish Community Study of New York: 2011UJA-Federation of New York's eight-county study counted 1.54 million Jews, up 9 percent from 1.41 million in 2002, and found 61 percent of Jewish children living in Orthodox households.

studyComprehensive report, Berman Jewish DataBank
newspaperJTA report on the findings (June 2012)

2012 and 2023

Sheskin and Dashefsky, the Year Book state tablesThe 2012 chapter (6,721,680) and the 2023 chapter (7,460,600), the last done the old way, give the two ends of the community comparison in the spike map. They are also the source for the film's Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Washington caption.

2013 and 2020

Pew Research Center surveysA Portrait of Jewish Americans (2013) counted 6.7 million Jews of all ages, and Jewish Americans in 2020 counted 7.5 million, 2.4 percent of adults.

2024

Comenetz and Sheskin, the county countJewish population estimates by congressional district, county and state, finding Jewish residents in 1,545 counties and 7,698,840 in all. The film's finale and the spike map's county view both come from this file.

study2024 estimates and methodology, Berman Jewish DataBank

Fact by fact

Every caption and event in the film, in order, with where it comes from.

Year	What the film says	Where it comes from
The colonial haven, 1654 to 1820
1654	Twenty-three refugees from Recife, by way of the Caribbean, land in New Amsterdam.	repositoryLibrary of Congress, From Haven to Home: Haven encyclopediaEncyclopaedia Judaica, "United States of America" scholarshipSarna, American Judaism: A History (2004)
1690	The first communities grow in the port towns of Newport, Charleston and Philadelphia, settled by traders from London, Amsterdam and the Caribbean.	scholarshipSarna, American Judaism, chapter 1 encyclopediaISJL Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities, Charleston repositoryTouro Synagogue, Newport
1730	Shearith Israel builds the first synagogue in North America, on Mill Street.	manuscriptMaerschalck plan of 1755 (Library of Congress) repositoryCongregation Shearith Israel
1733	Forty-two Jews from London land at Savannah on July 11, 1733.	encyclopediaNew Georgia Encyclopedia, "Judaism and Jews" repositoryCongregation Mickve Israel, history
1740	The Plantation Act lets Jews in the British colonies naturalize.	repositoryLibrary of Congress, From Haven to Home timeline scholarshipSarna, American Judaism
1763	Touro Synagogue is dedicated in Newport.	repositoryTouro Synagogue National Historic Site manuscriptPostcard, Library of Congress
1776	Perhaps 1,500 Jews at independence, most of them in five Atlantic ports. The published range runs from 1,000 to 2,500.	repositoryJewish Virtual Library, national series scholarshipRosenwaike, the 1790 estimate, on JSTOR scholarshipMarcus, To Count a People
1790	Washington writes to the Newport congregation that the government "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."	manuscriptSeixas letter and Washington's reply, Library of Congress repositoryTouro Synagogue
1795	Charleston, with about 500 Jews, is the largest community in the young republic, and it reaches 700 by 1820.	encyclopediaISJL Encyclopedia, Charleston scholarshipRosenwaike, the 1820 estimate, on JSTOR studyHeshbon workbook, city figures (project data)
The German wave, 1820 to 1880
1820	Central European Jews begin arriving in numbers, and peddlers and merchants follow the rivers to Cincinnati, St. Louis and New Orleans.	scholarshipDiner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (2004) encyclopediaEncyclopaedia Judaica, "United States of America"
1824	The Reformed Society of Israelites in Charleston begins American Reform Judaism.	encyclopediaISJL Encyclopedia, Charleston manuscriptLibrary of Congress, Beth Elohim items
1834	Congregations mark the trail west: Cincinnati 1824, St. Louis 1837, Chicago 1847.	scholarshipDiner, The Jews of the United States encyclopediaEncyclopaedia Judaica, "United States of America"
1838	Rebecca Gratz opens the first Hebrew Sunday school, in Philadelphia.	encyclopediaJewish Women's Archive, Rebecca Gratz
1843	B'nai B'rith is founded on the Lower East Side.	repositoryB'nai B'rith International encyclopediaEncyclopaedia Judaica, "United States of America"
1848	Revolution in Europe speeds the migration, and San Francisco and Chicago grow from nothing.	scholarshipDiner, The Jews of the United States repositoryJewish Virtual Library, national series (50,000 by 1848)
1862	Grant's Order No. 11 expels Jews from his military district, and Lincoln revokes it.	scholarshipSarna, When General Grant Expelled the Jews (2012) repositoryLibrary of Congress, From Haven to Home timeline
1866	After the Civil War some 200,000 Jews spread through 170 towns, and a third of those towns count fewer than a hundred.	repositoryStatistics of the Jews of the United States (1880), HathiTrust encyclopediaJewish Encyclopedia, "Statistics" repositoryJewish Virtual Library, national series
1873	The Union of American Hebrew Congregations is founded in 1873, and Hebrew Union College in 1875.	repositoryHebrew Union College, history encyclopediaEncyclopaedia Judaica, "United States of America"
1877	The Board of Delegates and the UAHC count 229,082 Jews, a third of them in New York.	repositoryStatistics of the Jews of the United States (1880), HathiTrust repositoryBoard of Delegates records, Center for Jewish History
The East European wave, 1881 to 1924
1881	Pogroms in the Russian Empire open the great migration, and the refugees reach New York in 1882.	repositoryLibrary of Congress, From Haven to Home: A Century of Immigration newspaperNew-York Tribune, July 18, 1882, Chronicling America scholarshipDiner, The Jews of the United States
1882	The first general federal immigration law imposes a head tax and exclusions.	lawImmigration Act of August 3, 1882, 22 Stat. 214 (govinfo)
1886	The Statue of Liberty is dedicated. Lazarus's 1883 sonnet goes on the pedestal in 1903.	repositoryNational Park Service, Emma Lazarus manuscriptThe manuscript, American Jewish Historical Society (Library of Congress exhibition)
1890	Half a million Jews by 1890, as Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston swell.	repositoryJewish Virtual Library, national series repositoryAJYB 1899 to 1900, by state
1892	Ellis Island opens on January 1.	newspaperNew-York Tribune, January 1, 1892, page 3 (the new station) repositoryNational Park Service, Ellis Island
1897	The Forverts begins publishing.	encyclopediaYIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, "Forverts" manuscriptHine photograph, 1913, Library of Congress
1899	One million Jews in 1899, four in ten of them in New York State.	repositoryAJYB 1899 to 1900, Internet Archive studyAJYB 1899 statistics, Berman Jewish DataBank
1903	After the Kishinev pogrom, emigration surges.	newspaperNew-York Tribune, May 17, 1903, page 3 encyclopediaEncyclopaedia Judaica, "Kishinev"
1907	New York passes 900,000, half of American Jewry, and the Lower East Side holds over 500,000 Jews by 1910.	studyAJYB 1907 to 1908 statistics, Berman Jewish DataBank encyclopediaDiner, "Lower East Side," Dictionary of American History scholarshipRischin, The Promised City: New York's Jews, 1870 to 1914
1907 to 1914	The Galveston plan lands 10,000 immigrants in Texas, and from 1901 to 1922 the Industrial Removal Office sends 79,000 out of New York.	encyclopediaHandbook of Texas, Galveston Movement encyclopediaEncyclopaedia Judaica, "Galveston Plan" newspaperThe Jewish Outlook (Denver), July 19, 1907 repositoryIndustrial Removal Office records, Center for Jewish History scholarship"Leaving the Enclave": immigrant mobility from the IRO (Journal of Economic History)
1911	The Triangle fire kills 146 garment workers.	newspaperNew-York Tribune, March 26, 1911, page 1 repositoryCornell University, Kheel Center, Remembering the 1911 Triangle Factory Fire
1914	The war cuts the flow, and the Joint Distribution Committee is founded.	repositoryJDC Archives
1917	Jews number 3.4 million by 1917, the year the literacy test becomes law.	studyAJC survey of 1917 in Linfield, Berman Jewish DataBank lawImmigration Act of February 5, 1917, 39 Stat. 874 (govinfo)
1921 and 1924	The Emergency Quota Act and the Johnson-Reed Act close the gate.	lawAct of May 19, 1921, 42 Stat. 5 (govinfo) lawImmigration Act of 1924, 43 Stat. 153 (govinfo) newspaperThe Washington Times, May 26, 1924 encyclopediaUSHMM, U.S. immigration and refugee law, 1921 to 1980
1927 and 1937	4.2 million in 1927 and 4.8 million in 1937, with 2.2 million of them in New York.	studyLinfield, "The Jews of the United States, 1937," Berman Jewish DataBank
Refugees, survivors and the postwar map, 1933 to 1965
1933 to 1941	At least 110,000 Jewish refugees reach America from Nazi Europe.	encyclopediaUSHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia, immigration to the United States 1933 to 1941
1939	The St. Louis is turned away.	encyclopediaUSHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia, voyage of the St. Louis newspaperEvening Star, June 4, 1939, page 1
1945 to 1952	35,000 to 40,000 displaced persons under the Truman directive, then about 80,000 Jewish DPs under the 1948 act.	encyclopediaUSHMM, U.S. immigration and refugee law, 1921 to 1980 lawDisplaced Persons Act of June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 1009 (govinfo) newspaperEvening Star, June 26, 1948, page 2
1946	Miami grows from 9,000 Jews in 1940 to 134,000 by 1960, most of them from the Northeast and Midwest, while Los Angeles booms.	encyclopediaISJL Encyclopedia, South Florida scholarshipMoore, To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L.A. (1994)
1957	California is second at 514,000 and Florida crosses 100,000. The Census asks about religion.	studyChenkin, AJYB 1958, Berman Jewish DataBank scholarshipPew, a brief history of religion and the U.S. Census
1965	Hart-Celler ends the national-origins quotas. New York peaks near 2.5 million, and Florida more than doubles in the sixties.	lawAct of October 3, 1965, 79 Stat. 911 (govinfo) studyAJYB population chapters, 1961 to 1971 (Springer)
Sun Belt, Soviet Jews and the new counts, 1970 to 2024
1974	New York begins to thin, with nearly 400,000 fewer Jews by 1980, and Jackson-Vanik ties trade to Soviet emigration.	studyAJYB chapters 1971 and 1981 (Springer) lawTrade Act of 1974, 88 Stat. 1978, section 402 (govinfo)
1980	After 1979, some 60,000 to 80,000 Iranian Jews come to America, most to greater Los Angeles.	repositoryUSC Libraries, Iranian Jewish Life in Los Angeles
1986	Florida, California, Arizona and Georgia climb through the eighties.	studyAJYB chapters 1981 and 1991 (Springer)
1989 to 2000	The Soviet Union opens its doors and the Lautenberg Amendment eases refugee admission. From 1971 on, some 400,000 Soviet and post-Soviet Jews and their families arrive.	scholarshipTolts, A Half Century of Jewish Emigration from the Former Soviet Union (Davis Center, 2020) scholarshipGold, "Soviet Jews in the United States," AJYB 1994 lawPub. L. 101-167 of 1989, 103 Stat. 1195 (govinfo)
1990 and 2001	NJPS 1990 counts 5.5 million and reports 52 percent intermarriage. NJPS 2000 to 01 counts 5.2 million against the Year Book's 6.1 million.	scholarshipThe golden jubilee of the first NJPS (AJYB 2022) scholarshipNJPS 2000 to 01: a guide for the perplexed encyclopediaMy Jewish Learning, the 1990 survey and the debate
1997 and 2002	Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri each lose a fifth or more between 1970 and 1990. By 2000 New York holds just over a quarter of American Jews.	studyAJYB chapters 1971, 1991 and 2001 (Springer) studyHeshbon state series 1899 to 2024 (project data)
2008	California passes 1.2 million, while Georgia, Colorado and Virginia keep rising.	studyAJYB 2012 state table, Berman Jewish DataBank
2011 to 2014	New York turns upward, with 1.54 million in the metro area, up 9 percent since 2002. Of the area's Jewish children, 61 percent live in Orthodox homes.	studyJewish Community Study of New York: 2011, Berman Jewish DataBank newspaperJTA, June 2012
2013 and 2020	Pew counts 6.7 million, then 7.5 million.	studyPew 2013 studyPew 2021, Jewish Americans in 2020
2012 to 2023	Pennsylvania gains 139,000 and New Jersey 124,000 between the estimates, and Washington rises 71 percent.	studyAJYB 2012, Berman Jewish DataBank studyUnited States Jewish Population, 2023 (Springer)
2024	A county-by-county count finds 7.7 million in 1,545 counties.	studyComenetz and Sheskin 2024, Berman Jewish DataBank

Three and a half centuries of Jews in America, in three minutes

Play and scrub

Spikes

Lines and rings

The band and the sources

Three layers of evidence

How the early map was rebuilt

Counts and surveys disagree

Where the map moved

What the film cannot show

The sourcesHow do we know all this?

The documents

The counts the map stands on

Fact by fact

Reading list

Reference works

Books and articles

Repositories