For the first time in a decade, the Jewish population in Denver and Boulder will be the subject of a major demographic survey, an undertaking local Jewish institutions hope will provide a road map to better serving the community’s needs.
The Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado announced plans Wednesday for a telephone survey of 1,200 Jewish adults to be conducted beginning in January, with results expected to be announced in March.
“We believe this study will give all of us essential information about the demographics, as well as the wants and needs, of the Jewish Denver-Boulder community,” said Rob Klugman, who is co-chairman of the study for the federation and urged community cooperation.
A $454,000 grant from the Rose Community Foundation is bankrolling the survey, said Stacy Rivera, marketing director for the Allied Jewish Federation.
Though questions are still being developed, the survey will delve into issues such as synagogue affiliation, intermarriage, charitable-giving trends and views on Israel, Rivera said.
The region’s Jewish population is thought to have grown in recent years, but no one knows by how much.
The last survey, in 1997, found 63,000 Jews living in the six-country metro area and also a high number of intermarried couples. Nineteen percent of Jewish households included people who are not Jewish, typically a spouse or child not being raised Jewish.
The 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey put Colorado’s Jewish population at 73,000, or 1.7 percent of the state’s population.
Staff writer Eric Gorski can be reached at 303-954-1698 or egorski@denverpost.com.
