CMJS SPOTLIGHT ON JEWISH COMMUNITIES |
In the past several years, we have been privileged to work with more than two dozen federated Jewish communities to conduct local community studies. We believe that we still have much to learn from one another about how to harness data to enhance Jewish life in your community.
This monthly newsletter, Spotlight on Jewish Communities, will focus on research developments, case studies for putting data to use, tips for understanding study reports, and sharing resources across communities.
Do you have a case study to share with other communities? A question we could answer for you about using study data? An accomplishment or challenge to share? Looking for best practices? Please contact the research team at cmjs@brandeis.edu to let us know what you’d like to see in upcoming issues of this Spotlight.
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CMJS DATA SYNTHESIS PROJECT
We now have the ability to dramatically enhance the utility of individual studies by combining and synthesizing data across communities.
Example questions for exploration:
- What are the characteristics and levers for engagement of members of sub-groups of the community (e.g., Jews of Color, single parents, households in poverty) for whom a single study does not have an adequate number of respondents for analysis?
- How do communities compare with one another, once the different make-up of the population is considered (e.g., age, religious/ethnic cultural background)?
- What are the trends over time in Jewish attitudes and engagement?
Across a combined dataset from an initial group of communities, our current dataset includes 6% of Jewish adults who identify as LGBTQ+, 4% who identify as Jews of Color, 6% who identify as Sephardi, and 2% who identify as Mizrachi. In local community studies, especially those of small and moderate-sized communities, we have not been able to provide information about these important subgroups other than an estimate of their size. Through the data synthesis, we learn that half of Mizrachi Jews say that being Jewish is very much part of their daily lives, compared to 34% of Sephardi Jews and 30% of Ashkenazi Jews.
Across communities, we see that 44% of Jewish adults have no denomination: including 20% who identify as secular or culturally Jewish and 24% who identify as “Just Jewish.” Although this group is “unaffiliated,” a small but significant share of those without a denomination are intensely engaged in Jewish life. See below about for more about this subgroup in Metropolitan Chicago.
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METROPOLITAN CHICAGO: JEWS WITH NO DENOMINATION
The Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF) commissioned CMJS to conduct a follow-up report to their 2020 Metropolitan Chicago Jewish Population Study to examine the 44% of Jewish adults who do not identify with a specific denomination and the types of engagement they have in Jewish life—particularly those who fall in the Immersed and Communal (highly engaged in most measures of Jewish life) engagement groups.
In the 2020 study, we found that the proportion of Jewish adults (6%) who are highly engaged in Jewish life despite having no denominational identity is large—in fact, it is almost as large as the proportion of adults who are Orthodox (7%).
What did we learn out about the engaged Jews with no denomination?
On most measures of Jewish engagement, there is little difference between Jewish adults who identify with a denomination and those who don’t. The main differentiators between these groups are Shabbat observance and congregational membership.
From David Rubovits, Chief Operation Officer, Jewish United Fund:
"While Jewish denominational labels, and their absence, provided useful proxies to categorize and understand Jewish community previously, the data shows they no longer reflect our local Jewish identity with the same utility. As elsewhere in the United States, here in Chicago a significant proportion of the Jewish community, 44%, do not consider themselves part of any traditional Jewish denomination. Understanding which Jewish adults do not identify with a denomination and how those Jews participate in Jewish life is essential to the success of many Jewish organizations, including JUF. This report contains important and actionable information for Jewish communal professionals and board members throughout the community."
Follow up reports from other communities have included topics such as poverty in the community and in-depth profiles of interfaith couples. Let us know what you would like to hear more about, and we will try and include it in a future issue!
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From the Research Team
Since its founding in 1980, the mission of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies has been to produce high-quality data about contemporary Jewish life. This effort includes our American Jewish Population Project that provides estimates of the size and demographic characteristics of the population, along with our studies of local Jewish communities across the country. We have been leaders in advancing the science of Jewish communal research, and we now want to step up our efforts to advance the utilization of data for communal assessment and planning.
A year before COVID-19 landed in the United States and turned our lives upside down, we brought a dozen communities together at Brandeis to talk about how to better utilize data. We had a very productive two days, and our hope was that annual meeting would be the best way to exchange information. Perhaps, down the road, those regular meetings will be possible. For now, we hope this newsletter will serve as a place to continue the conversation about how systematic data can be used to enhance our understanding of American Jewish life and your day-to-day work.
We look forward to hearing from you about what you would find most useful.
Leonard Saxe
Janet Krasner Aronson
Matthew Boxer
Matthew Brookner
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