Looking at ourselves in the mirror
We are extremely well educated, we are entrepreneurial, we occupy many of the most prestigious jobs available and have incomes well above the national average.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, which Jewish community is fairest of them all? While I realise this is neither a fairy tale nor a beauty contest, the mirror metaphor is a surprisingly convenient way to understand the census.
Mirrors, I need not remind you, are tools that allow us to see ourselves and confirm how good looking we (think we) are and, if it’s a bad hair day, afford us an opportunity to make a few adjustments. But as the queen in Snow White discovered, mirrors can also be brutally honest revealing details we’d perhaps rather not see.
In Australia we peer into the census mirror every five years. It contains an optional religion question and in 2021, after accounting for non-response, revealed the Jewish population to be 116,967; less than 0.5 per cent of the national population. But it also showed that after almost 40 years of strong growth, at some point around 2016 the size of the Jewish population plateaued, meaning it reached a point where it was neither growing nor contracting. And after reaching that point it started, ever so slowly, to decline. What’s going on?
As in life it starts with reproduction. On the plus side more Jews are being born here than are dying and that’s been the case for several years now. But the average number of babies that Jewish women in Australia are having in their reproductive lifetimes – the total fertility rate – is 1.7. Since it takes two to tango, that is well below what demographers consider to be the minimum rate of 2.1 for a population to remain stable.
Then there’s Jewish intermarriage. The census shows that intermarriage has been steadily increasing for decades. It tends to be highest in places like South Australia where there are fewer Jews and is lowest in Victoria where the Jewish population is largest. Jews aged in their late 30s are the group most likely to have a non-Jewish spouse – almost one in three married Jews in this age group is intermarried. But intermarriage is complex and does not automatically lead to assimilation. While only 15 per cent of intermarried Jewish men identify their children as Jewish in the census, almost half of intermarried Jewish women do so, in other words, many intermarried families still identify their children as Jews.
However, the main driver of Jewish population change in Australia is migration. In the 1980s they came mainly from the former Soviet Union, then from South Africa and in more recent years, from Israel. Indeed, other than English, you are now more likely to hear Hebrew spoken in Jewish homes than Russian, though South Africans remain the largest overseas-born Jewish group.
But the story of migration is mainly about numbers and in the first decade of the 21st century, just over 12,000 Jewish migrants arrived in Australia. By the second decade that number fell to just over 8000: for every three coming in the first decade just two came in the second. And it must be pointed out that the census is silent on emigration so even those 8000 cannot be considered pure gain.
Finally, mirrors annoyingly show evidence of ageing. And sure enough, we see that the average Jewish age is 44 years compared with 38 for Australians in general.
The single largest group in the Jewish population is aged 74 and that was in 2021. By the next census in 2026 this group will be 79. These are the baby boomers who arguably made the Jewish community what it is today but who in a few years’ time will enter their 80s and their giving will gradually turn into needing as they place greater and greater pressure on elderly care resources.
But don’t despair, our census mirror also highlights some very attractive features.
We are extremely well educated, we are entrepreneurial, we occupy many of the most prestigious jobs available and have incomes well above the national average. We live in the nicest parts of the nicest cities – 84 per cent of us are in Sydney or Melbourne – we are healthy and prospering.
The reflection we see before us is, on the surface, a pretty one, but don’t get beguiled. Reflection is one thing, but in the cold light of day, self-reflection is what counts. And like the mirror in Snow White, the census reveals not just the glory but also the gory details.
We see a few blemishes that could really do with some attention, and while they may be unsightly, they aren’t going away. So rather than ignore them, let’s try to understand and address them so we can make the best of what we have and ensure we are ready to face the mirror once again in 2026.
Dr Graham is a social research consultant to JCA NSW.
Read the full report: jca.org.au/the-jewish-population-of-australia-key-findings-from-the-2021-census
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