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"Extending Jain Heritage to the Next Generation"
5. Youth programs 6. Adult programs 7. Tapascharya 8. Paryushan/Daslaxana 9. Non-Jain Community Services 10. Publications on Jainism 11. Jain conferences 12. Cooperation with other religions 13. Special projects
Annual Membership Dues # of Centers
$0 $ 5 $ 10-15 $ 21-31 $51 Total
Other Centers
10. Boston 11. Houston 12. Dallas 13. New Jersey 14. Toledo 15. Allentown 16. N. Carolina, Charlotte
X
The family life membership dues also vary significantly from one center to another as shown below:
Life Membership Dues # of Centers $100 - 101 $150 - 151 $201 - 251 No life membership
Total
The deity selection for temples also vary from one center to another. For example, the Washington Jain Center temple has deities of Shantinath, Neminath and Chandraprabhu, while the Jain Sangh of New Jersey and Jain Center of Southern California temple has deities of Mahavir, Parshvanath and Adinath.
Establishment by Year
As mentioned earlier, the first Jain Center in America was established in New York City in 1966. The following matrix shows the growth of Jain Centers in North America during the last 25 years: Established During # of Jain Centers
1966-1969 1970-1974 1975-1979 1980-1984
1985-1990 Total
Besides these responding Jain Centers, there are numerous other local Jain groups in America which are not formally organized or have not responded to the survey. Appendix B lists the participating Jain Centers in North America with the year of establishment and membership.
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Temples
As the local Jain Centers grow in membership and their financial resources, a temple or a permanent place of worship is built for the benefit of the Jain community. Based on the survey, it appears that quite a few local centers have temples as shown below:
Temple Status # of Centers Jain temple by itself
5 Jain Deities in Hindu Temple 4 No permanent temple Total
25
10
Newsletters
While a majority of local Jain Centers publish a newsletter primarily for the membership, the frequency of such newsletter varies as shown below: Newsletter Frequency # of Centers
None 3 per year 4 per year 6 per year 8 per year 10 per year 12 per year Total
Aboutone third of responding local centers distribute their newsletters to non - Jains.
Non Jain recipients of the newsletter generally include non- Jain Indians, local religious groups, universities, yoga groups and the like.
Memberships
Memberships in local Jain Centers are categorized as regular members paying annual dues or life members paying one lump sum dues. Members generally represent a family; however, a few centers have a third category for single or individual members. A very few centers also have a category for honorary members, at least in their constitutions. The local centers are classified by the size of their membership in the following matrix:
Total Members # of Centers 8-50
12 51-125 126-250 251 and above 7 Total
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The building total costs for existing temples vary from $130,000 to $1,300,000. Of course, the cost burden for the local Jain Center is reduced when a temple is built in collaboration with Hindu Temple.
Most of the Jain temples in North America were built during 1980s. The following table shows the listing of the centers with a temple: Responding Centers Jain Temple JainHindu Temple
1. Washington, D.C. 2. Jain Sangh of N.J. 3. Toronto 4. New York City 5. South California 6. N. Carolina, Raleigh 7. S. Carolina 8. Buffalo 9. Pittsburgh
Lateiv
0
Youth Programs
In order to teach Jainism to youth, local Jain Centers organize programs strictly for youth ranging from once a week to once a year: Frequency of Youth Programs # of Centers
1 per week 2 per month 1 per month 4 per year 2 per year 1 per year Infrequently
Total
The family regular membership dues vary from one center to another as shown below:
6TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION
JULY 1991
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Jain Education Interational 2010_03
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