While there are Jewish poor spread throughout the New York area, the highest concentration of Jews in need are in Brooklyn. 70% of New York’s poorest Jews are concentrated in this one borough. Of the 141,000 Jewish households in Brooklyn, fully 30,600 are poor. By contrast, Manhattan, which boasts the greatest number of Jewish households –182,000 –, has only 7,600 that are poor. Queens is second to Brooklyn with 8,500 poor households from a total of 12,000. The Bronx has 3,400 poor out of 40,000 followed by Staten Island with 11,000 Jewish households of which 1000 are poor.

   

Accounting for the concentration of poor in Brooklyn and Queens apart from large Hasidic families, is the refugee phenomenon from the former Soviet Union. So-called “Russian” refugees are a growing presence in the overall Jewish population, while significantly represented among the poor.

The refugee population is found predominantly in such neighborhoods as Brighton Beach, Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Flatbush, Canarsie, Forest Hills and Rego Park. Other neighborhoods that host significant numbers of Russian Jews are Washington Heights in Manhattan and Pelham Parkway in the Bronx.

• Who are the Jewish poor?