Population Decline of Western New York Jews

The End of the Buffalo Jewish Community

In 1957, 26,000 Jews lived in Buffalo and surrounding suburbs. Today there are less than 10,000 Jews in this area.

In the last two decades several synagogues have closed (Synagogues is Greek . It means “assembled together.” Symphony means sounding together; sympathy means feeling together, synonym means naming together, etc). Among these were Sinai and Beth El,  while others declined in attendance and membership. For example, Shaarey Zedek was visited by 80 to 100 members every Shabbat. Today only thirty to fifty people attend the (renamed) Beth Tzedek Saturday services. Shir Shalom has been reduced to a few members meeting each Shabbat in one room in the Beth Tzedek building and the Saranac congregation, which was well attended until about 1960, seldom achieves a minyan.

The reasons for this decline are several. The Jewish birthrate is only 1.4 per woman aged twenty to thirty-five. The overall birthrate of Americans is 2.00, which is also a measure of a declining population, as the number of single men has reached considerable proportions and the American family is in a state of both horizontal and vertical mobility.

Horizontal mobility refers to the removal of numerous persons to faraway places. Arizona, Texas, Florida and other southern locations have become popular settlements of former Buffalo Jews. That is also true of the general population, as the area of greater Buffalo has lost a considerable number of residents.

Vertical mobility refers to the effort to gain lucrative employment elsewhere. Many Buffalo Jews have moved to California, Oregon, Massachusetts, Colorado, and other places , particularly Beachwood, an all Jewish suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, where there are numerous opportunities to raise children in a Jewish environment. (The beech is a tree. The founders of the community called the area Beachwood although there is no beach anywhere near there).

A few years ago, the Jewish Day School, Kadimah, became obsolete, and finally closed. It had been founded by Rabbi Isaac Klein but was hardly supported by the Jewish community.

Yet another reason for the decline of the Buffalo Jewish community is the general rejection of religion in this country. There are many former Jews associated with the academic profession who declare themselves atheists, no doubt the most ridiculous superstition.

The Christian population has declined rapidly in this country as well, and intermarriage of Jews with Christians has reached seventy percent. The intermarried ae seldom interested in remaining Jews.

This brief outline indicates that Buffalo will be devoid of Jews within one decade.

The Latin origin of the word religion is Res Legare, which means “The Thing That Binds.”  The English word league is derived from legare. Not much binds Jews together now. Consider that only 29 percent of Americans have a college degree but that 80 of erstwhile Jews attend college, where agnosticism is taught daily (Greek for no knowledge. The Greek word gnosis means knowledge and agnosis mean no knowledge. Agnostics don’t know whether God exists).

In sum, this review of the Jewish community in Buffalo is a reflection of all Jewish communities in the United States today. Nevertheless it is certain we shall survive as we always have, with confidence in the promise of Shem Yisborach that His people shall never die.

Shalom u'vracha.

[ Home ] [ Up ]