Jewish Community
About 89,000 Jews lived in Palm Beach County in 1980; by 2000, there were 230,000. Demographic studies by University of Miami professor Ira Sheskin reported 62,000 Jews living in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Highland Beach—South County—in 1984, increasing to 116,000 in 1995, and to 129,000 in 2001. The Jewish population in South County split in 1979 from the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, based in West Palm Beach, to form the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. Each organization is home to several charitable agencies that serve the general community.
From Boynton Beach to Jupiter, the number of people in Jewish households grew too, from more than 100,000 in 1999 to more than 135,000 in 2006; the largest growth appeared in the Boynton Beach and Lake Worth areas.
Education has always been a focus of the Jewish community, which helped to establish Lifelong Learning Centers on the Boca Raton and Jupiter campuses of Florida Atlantic University, donated collections, and established scholarly chairs.