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In the past six months, 96-year-old Dan Chapman has lost $12,000 from a certificate of deposit that he had to withdraw from Washington Mutual bank before it came due, and he's seen his mutual funds decline precipitously.
"If it keeps on, it will be precarious," the one-time Jewish fundraiser said while sitting in the lobby of Westwood Horizons, a predominantly Jewish senior living facility in West Los Angeles.
While most Americans have been affected by the economic crisis that has crippled world markets, among the American Jewish population, seniors are disproportionately affected. According to the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey, the percentage of Jewish seniors - those 65 and over - rose to 19% from 17% in the period between 1990 and 2000. In the general population, the proportion of seniors actually decreased over that same period of time.
The NJPS reported that there are roughly 1 million American Jewish seniors. Just how many Jews are retired or are preparing to retire is a different question. Bruce Phillips, a former member of the NJPS technical advisory committee, calculated that based on NJPS statistics, there are roughly half a million retired Jews. And there are another nearly 400,000 who were not retired eight years ago and are now approaching or have hit the traditional retirement age of 65.
But according to Phillips, given the recent financial meltdown, a percentage of...