For as long as he can remember, Jeremy Kalmanofsky has been passionate about his Jewish faith.

“Sometimes I wonder whether this is like how some people are good at math, some people are good at music, and some people are spiritually sensitive,” Kalmanofsky said, the rabbi at Ansche Chesed, a synagogue on the Upper West Side.

The temple’s name translated to English means “community of kindness.”

“It is our biblical tradition that taught the world in the book of Leviticus to love your neighbor as yourself, get rid of the hate in your heart, love your neighbors, love the strangers, pursue justice, feed the hungry,” he said. “We’re not the only people who say those things but we brought a particular articulation of those things to the world.”

Ansche Chesed is a conservative synagogue where the community is about more than shared beliefs. They learn and celebrate together while performing caring deeds.

“Judaism is a religion, it is a faith, and it is also a peoplehood,“ he explained. “The Jewish people is itself a major religious value, which means that there are plenty of Jews who are committed to being Jews, who love being Jews for whom God is not the central part.”

Jewish Americans account for just 1.5% of the United States’ total population according to the Public Religion Research Institute, but represent 7% of New York City residents.

Orthodox Jews maintain a strict adherence to traditional Jewish laws and religious practices. The ultra-orthodox, also known as Hasidim, are known for their distinctive clothing and for maintaining large, insular communities in parts of Brooklyn. Adherents of conservative Judaism hold more liberal beliefs.

“[It] really solidified as [an] organized denomination in the early twentieth century and by conservative they meant conserving traditional Judaism for the modern world in America” Daniel Soyer, a professor of history at Fordham University, said.

The conservative movement is notable for ordaining women and openly gay people as rabbis, and for its recognition of same sex marriage, but its numbers are shrinking as other movements like reform Judaism allow for more liberal interpretations.

“I think people are, not only less observant, but less embedded in a Jewish culture or community,” Soyer said.

According to the American Jewish Committee, reformed Jews make up nearly a third of American Jewish households, while conservatives account for almost 15%.

At Ansche Chesed, Kalmanofsky says he makes sure all feel welcome regardless of belief. This year’s Purim holiday celebration at the synagogue fostered that freedom in faith for the Jewish religion and culture.

“I want a Jewish community that has room for all the members of my family, even those who don’t feel the things that I feel,” he said. “Working in a synagogue in New York, I have an opportunity in synagogue on a daily basis, or on Shabbat on a weekly basis, on holidays, to help people have an experience that will make them say ‘wow this tradition has a lot of depth.’”