A comparative profile of Jewish elderly in South Florida and Israel

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the elderly Jewish communities of two south Florida counties with the elderly Jewish population of Israel, on a series of demographic, socioeconomic, and “Jewishness” factors. The elderly population is segmented into three age cohorts [55–64 (the ‘youngest old’), 65–74 (the ‘young old’), and 75 and over (the ‘old old’)] which engenders an important focus for this paper. The similarities among the Jewish elderly populations of south Florida and Israel are shown to be more pronounced with increasing age. This may be a result of traditional and cultural characteristics shared by those in the older age cohorts. The results indicate that, despite the common ethnic/ religious heritage of many of the Jews of Israel and south Florida, significant differences are present among tile three populations. An important social service implication of these data is the realization that social service programs that may be successful in one geographic environment may not be successful in another because of the significant demographic differences extant between areas.