Nights are still getting longer and weather is getting colder. Which is exactly why the Office for National Statistics in England and Wales chose to release the 2021 Census data on religion and ethnicity. To keep us on fire with excitement. Census data are exciting (said nobody ever), but bear with me. You can do all sorts with the Census data. Cambridge versus Oxford Jewish race, for example.
Have you not always wondered which one, Cambridge or Oxford, has more Jews? So here is the end of that mystery. It is Oxford. Oxford has slightly (very slightly!) more Jews than Cambridge. Just above 2,000 people in the City of Oxford and the surrounding districts of Oxfordshire ticked the ‘Jewish’ box in the 2021 Census (2,117). Just under 2,000 people identified as Jews by religion in the City of Cambridge and the surrounding districts of Cambridgeshire (1,978). Just under 1,000 Jews in each place identified as Jews by ethnicity, but-from the experience of the previous censuses-a significant proportion of them would have ticked the ‘Jewish’ box in the religion question as well. So, the absolute conceivable maximum of Jews in each location is about 3,000, and Oxford still wins, but just about….To frame it: in terms of total population, Oxford/Oxfordshire is a larger entity than Cambridge/Cambridgeshire, but by a somewhat larger margin.
This ‘Jews by ethnicity’ thing is not new, strictly speaking, but it is more central than ever. It is not a contrary thing, by the way, not necessarily anyhow. Universally, in the UK and elsewhere, Jews understand themselves both as a religious group and an ethnic group and in previous censuses in the UK the proportion of those who wanted to ‘make a point’ that they are *just* Jewish by ethnicity and not religion was small. In the 2001 Census it was about 1% of all Jews, in the 2011 Census it was about 3%. This time, with respect to the 2021 Census, we still do not know what is happening exactly. It may not be different from the past, but, before this is clarified as more data are released, we should stick to the ranges rather than single figures. It is wiser to say that Oxford and Cambridge have between 2,000 and 3,000 Jews each, than to insist on a 2,000 or 3,000 figure. Not that it matters when Cambridge and Oxford are compared. Oxford wins with a very slim margin no matter what. Note one thing, however: in England and Wales as a whole, there is one Jew by ethnicity for every four Jews by religion. In Oxford and Cambridge there is one Jew by ethnicity for every two Jews by religion. Change in ethnic labels, and all new fashions, starts with the elites. Does not end there though…which is what we are witnessing today…..That Cambridge and Oxford are both locations best understood as elitists is hardly an objectionable statement.
Finally, Jews are 0.8% of the total population in the cities of Cambridge and Oxford, which is a somewhat higher share than in England and Wales as a whole (0.5%). It could be that the actual proportion is a little higher even. Again, when the situation with the ‘ethnic Jews’ fully clarifies, we will be able to have a better idea. In general, this is also to be expected. Jews are a very highly educated minority and university towns are expected to have a larger proportion of Jews than other places.
And now…historically speaking, the Cambridge versus Oxford situation has not changed for a while. In 2011, there were about 1,900 Jews in Oxfordshire and about 1,700 in Cambridgeshire. And back in 2001, Oxfordshire had about 2,000 and Cambridgeshire about 1,500 Jews. Then and now, just above 50% of all Jews in Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire lived in the core localities, namely Oxford and Cambridge. There is a hope for Cambridge in this story: over time its Jewish population of Cambridgeshire grew more than Jewish population of Oxfordshire. The gap was on the scale of 450 Jews in 2011, in 2021 Oxforshire leads by about 140 only.
