WASHINGTON - Between 6 million and 6.4 million Jews live in the United States, about 1 million more than was previously thought, according to a study conducted by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at Brandeis University and released yesterday.

The researchers said that if they had included Americans who have Jewish family backgrounds but are not Jewish "by religion," the number would have reached 7.5 million.

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The study appears to indicate that the non-Orthodox segment of American Jewry is far larger than previously estimated, since the researchers suspect that the vast majority of the Jews who were added to the previous count of 5.2 million are not Orthodox.

However, critics have said that the Brandeis researchers relied too heavily on the previous count, which was based on a telephone survey.

The researchers based their findings on official documents of various American agencies as well as previous studies, particularly the telephone survey.

The full Brandeis study confirms the conclusions that Brandeis researchers announced several weeks ago, when a dispute broke out over the number of American Jews in the wake of another study on the matter.