Maintaining a Jewish lifestyle in the U.K. costs an extra 12,700 pounds sterling per year, according to two researchers.
Maintaining a Jewish lifestyle in the United Kingdom costs a pretty penny — an extra 12,700 pounds sterling ($17,900) a year, to be exact, found two economists.
Anthony Tricot, a consultant for Ernst and Young, and Andrea Silberman, a British Treasury economist, published their findings at this year’s Limmud conference.
Their research was driven by a desire to quantify community concerns about the spiraling cost of Jewish living, they said.
“As economists, we wanted to see what actual data was available so we could encourage a more evidence-based debate on whether there is indeed a ‘cost of Jewish living’ crisis,” they wrote in the Jewish Chronicle.
Living Jewishly has several big-ticket expenses, they wrote.
Observant Jews are likely to spend an extra 2,000 pounds a year or more just on food, their research shows.
Kosher meat costs on average twice that of nonkosher supermarket meat, they found. They based their comparison on five products at London kosher chain Kosher Deli versus similar products at Tesco. That premium works out to 500 pounds a year. Those who buy only certified kosher food — and not just meat — are liable to spend even more.