U.S. Jews of mixed origins

JTA:

Up to 20 percent of an estimated 6 million U.S. Jews, or 1.2 million people, are African-American, Asian-American, Latino, Sephardi, Middle Eastern or of mixed race.

That’s the major finding of research conducted over the past four years by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research, contained in the book “In Every Tongue” by the institute’s president, Gary Tobin, and co-authors Diane Tobin and Scott Rubin. The figures are substantially higher than the usual estimates of 10 percent to 14 percent, the authors say.

The research and interviews also showed that some of these Jews feel alienated from their ethnic or racial communities and from mainstream American Jewry but they continue to identify strongly with both. Included in the population count are Latino “hidden” Jews reclaiming their Jewish roots in the American Southwest and long-established communities of African-American Jews in cities such as New York and Chicago.

New Research Finds 20% of Jewish America Is Ethnically and Racially Diverse