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Stupid Poll Of The Week

Let's make that stupid poll of the 21st century.

The Jewish Week and The Jewish Press both have long features about "new demographic data" claiming that there are 378,200 Orthodox Jews in 100,000 Orthodox households in New York City, Westchester and Long Island, three out of four of which are "modern Orthodox" with the other 26 percent charedi.

The "study" was conducted by Jacob Ukeles, who The Jewish Week says is "a leading demographer."

Assuming that the "study" adequately represented chasidim in Boro Park and Williamsburg - something quite unlikely - it remains that the poll is beyond amateurish. A sixth grade student - whether in a charedi yeshiva or in a modern day school - could do a much better job.

The "study's" sole "litmus test" for determining whether someone is charedi or modern is whether one thinks a college education is "very important." That's it. Apparently, 3/4 of respondents said that college is important, they were put in the modern category, and that was that.

In my family, me, my parents, and my three siblings all have graduate degrees, and I believe that all six of us would consider college to be important. Some members of my immediate family would identify as charedi, others, particularly me, would reject having to be placed into a silly category in which one is labeled either "charedi" or "modern." I don't think any of my immediate family see themselves as "modern." But it doesn't matter, we're all "modern", because Jacob Ukeles' "study" has concluded as such.

The Ukeles "study" is truly moronic. Yet while both The Jewish Week and The Jewish Press quoted critics of the "study", The Jewish Week piece didn't even mention that the "study" was based on one stupid question until the article's 17th paragraph, with paragraphs 1 through 16 devoted to a celebration of modern Orthodoxy's upset victory.

Unfortunately, Avi Shafran of Agudah told The Jewish Week that the absurd litmus test seemed sound. Rabbi Shafran and Agudah apparently would like to convince themselves that only the modern see college as important, further evidence of the growing disconnect between many ordinary charedim and their purported leaders.

One aspect of the Ukeles "study" that was not questioned is the notion that there are 378,200 Orthodox Jews in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. Considering that New Jersey includes large observant communities in Teaneck, Englewood, Passaic and Lakewood, among other towns, the numbers in the Ukeles "study" suggest that there are far more observant Jews in the New York area alone than some previous assessments have claimed are in the entire country.

My father is quoted in both articles, though I have not yet spoken to him about the Ukeles "study." I find it hard to fathom, however, that anyone with common sense could fail to see the true idiocy of this "poll."
posted on 2/23/2005