Where are we heading as a community?
With support from the NSW Jewish Communal Appeal, Dr Graham has analysed data from the 2021 Australian Census and drawn some key findings on our Jewish community.
Have you ever wondered who are we? Where do we come from?
No, this is not a philosophical or scientific exercise. These are questions that we can actually answer, in a literal sense anyway.
Thanks to some excellent work by demographer and global Jewish community expert Dr David Graham, we know a lot about our Jewish community here in Victoria. Dr Graham travelled to Melbourne this week as a guest of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) to answer these questions for community leaders and philanthropists.
With support from the NSW Jewish Communal Appeal, Dr Graham has analysed data from the 2021 Australian Census and drawn some key findings on our Jewish community.
So to answer who we are, we know the typical Australian Jew is 44 years old, urban-dwelling, tertiary educated and likely to have a partner.
If you are a Melbourne-based Jew, you are likely to live in a detached house in Caulfield North, Caulfield South, Elsternwick or St Kilda East.
While some rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne is inevitable, the data shows that our community is objectively stronger by a number of metrics (I will now duck before Sydneysiders throw rotten tomatoes).
The Victorian Jewish community is larger (54,500 people in Victoria, compared to 47,000 in NSW), has a greater number of children attending Jewish schools (57 per cent of school-aged children, compared to 45 per cent in NSW), and has a lower rate of inter-marriage (81 per cent of Victorian Jews have a Jewish spouse) than any other Australian Jewish community.
Our local Jewish community is also majority Australian-born (63 per cent). For those not born in Australia, they were most likely born in South Africa or Israel.
The number of people in our Jewish community is not expected to grow over the coming years, while the greater Australian population is experiencing growth. The Jewish total fertility rate is 1.71 children per woman of childbearing age, additionally there is no significant migration anticipated.
One caveat here, these are broad brush statements looking at all Jewish people as one “community”. But we know that in different pockets of Jewish Victoria, things can and do look very different, for example significantly higher birthrates and significantly lower rates on intermarriage in the ultra-Orthodox communities.
But why is the JCCV interested in this information? Well, aside from the first two questions at the start of this piece, there is a third question we need to ask, and that is where are we – as a community – heading?
In our times, the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data, and the same goes for our community. If we record and expertly analyse data, we can direct our community’s resources – professional leaders, volunteer efforts and funding – to solve our most pressing challenges. These challenges vary greatly: antisemitism and communal security, high cost of living and property prices, caring for a growing number of elders, increasing Jewish engagement, and whether we need a new communal hub, for education, for the arts or for other activities.
It goes without saying that we have had many dedicated community leaders who have led remarkable organisations, invested in community infrastructure and developed impactful programs. But there is an opportunity for the Victorian Jewish community to now look to the data to determine our next steps.
So what is the next step? As those at our AGM this week heard, the JCCV’s plan is to gather existing data on our community. We have a gold mine of insights thanks to the Census, and the Gen08 and Gen17 surveys led by Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. But other community organisations have also compiled information – from the Victorian Antisemitism Report and CSG’s impact reports, to Jewish Care’s post-October.
We also need to make the case why it is the JCCV that should be leading the discussion about community planning.
The JCCV, with our 60 member organisations, has worked hard to listen to presidents, board members and CEOs from across our community groups with forums, surveys and personal conversations. We have been listening to people who are not currently associated with our many Jewish organisations. We have had many discussions with the backbone of our community – our philanthropic organisations. Before we can embark on a project like this, we must have all of their backing.
To do this, we invite you, the community to engage with the JCCV, sign up to our newsletter, attend our public events, but most importantly think about what you want for our Jewish community in 10, 20 or 30 years time.
We can argue about a lot of things in the community, but one thing we can all agree on is the importance of a strong Victorian Jewish community for our kids and grandkids.
Naomi Levin is CEO of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria.
Subscribe to the JCCV newsletter: jccv.org.au
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