Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies

2018-19 Greater Denver Jewish Community Study

Janet Krasner Aronson, Matthew A. Brookner, Eliana Chapman, Daniel Mangoubi, Harry Aaronson, Matthew Feinberg, Matthew Boxer, Leonard Saxe

January 2020

Denver report coverThe 2018-19 Greater Denver Area Jewish Community Study employed innovative state-of-the-art methods to create a comprehensive portrait of the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of present-day Greater Denver Jewry. The study focuses on the Jewish community in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson Counties.

Download comparison charts (.xlsx)

Download the public use dataset (.zip)

Among the Findings

  • The Greater Denver Area Jewish community includes an estimated 90,800 Jewish individuals residing in 51,100 households. Jewish households contain 134,900 individuals and include both Jewish and non-Jewish adults and children.

  • The largest shares of Greater Denver Jewish households reside in Denver (29%) and Boulder (26%).

  • Nearly half (46%) of Jewish adults do not identify with a specific Jewish denomination.

  • Four-in-five Jewish adults are married or have a partner with whom they live. Among these married or partnered Jewish adults, 59% have a non-Jewish spouse or partner.

  • Fifty-seven percent of children in Jewish households are being raised exclusively Jewish, either by religion (26%) or culturally Jewish (31%). Another 13% are being raised Jewish and another religion.

  • Sixteen percent of households include a dues-paying synagogue member. Twenty percent of Jewish adults live in a household in which someone is a dues-paying synagogue member. However, 61% of Jewish adults attended a program or event at a synagogue in the past year.

  • Three-in-four Jewish adults in Greater Denver marked Shabbat or a holiday in some way in the last year; 70% attended a Seder.

  • Over half (55%) of Jewish adults have been to Israel.

  • Eight-in-ten Jewish adults feel that caring about Israel is important to being Jewish, including 33% who feel it is essential to being Jewish.

  • Nearly half of Jewish households donated to a Jewish charity in the past year.

Index of Jewish Engagement

Denver index of Jewish engagement