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Summary: In an innovation economy, knowledge, technology and entrepreneurship are the core engines of change and growth. The many years of philanthropic investment in Jewish education and leadership development, new networks connecting emerging leaders across the continent and around the globe, and the creative spirit Jewish startup founders and leaders bring to their work have built a Jewish innovation sector that runs lean and burns hot with the twin fuels of knowledge and social capital.
This new report by Jumpstart, The Natan Fund and The Samuel Bronfman Foundation provides data, analysis, implications and recommendations about the growth and dynamism of the Jewish startup sector and its leadership.
Authors: Jumpstart, Natan Fund, Samuel Bronfman Foundation
Download: The Jewish Innovation Economy: An Emerging Market for Knowledge and Social Capital
Summary: Volunteering + Values: A REPAIR THE WORLD Report on Young Jewish Adults is the first-ever comprehensive study of contemporary Jewish young adults and their attitudes and behaviors toward community service. Prior to this study, little was known about the full extent of Jewish young adults’ service commitments as national surveys of volunteering either did not include information about the religious identity of respondents or contained too small a sample of Jewish young adults to permit meaningful analysis.
The study reveals that Jewish millennials believe their service can make a difference in the world and in the lives of others. While the majority of these young adults currently do not connect their service with Jewish values and identity, the findings provide a path forward for Jewish leaders who believe that making this connection is important for strengthening the Jewish community.
Authors: Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University and Gerstein | Agne Strategic Communications
Download Press Release: REPAIR THE WORLD Releases Results of Landmark Survey of Jewish Young Adults and Volunteerism
Download Executive Summary: Volunteering + Values: A REPAIR THE WORLD Report on Young Jewish Adults
Download Full Report: Volunteering + Values: A REPAIR THE WORLD Report on Young Jewish Adults
Download Technical Report: Volunteering + Values: A REPAIR THE WORLD Report on Young Jewish Adults
Summary: BBYO Impact Study: Analysis of Surveys Conducted with Current BBYO Members, College-Age and Young Adult Alumni and Non-Alumni takes a look at the impact of participation in the short, medium and long term. Overall, BBYO is having a remarkably positive impact. The BBYO experience results in young adults who are more inclined to have Jewish friends, believe that being Jewish plays an important role in their lives, hold leadership roles in their community and are committed to having Jewish families.
This impact research comes at a critical time. Researchers and sociologists who study American Jews have been documenting a decline in interest and participation in Jewish youth organizations and activities by young Jews. It is estimated that around 75 percent of teenage Jews celebrate their bar or bat mitzvah; yet, by the time these individuals reach their last two years of high school, at best about half continue to be involved in Jewish life.
Authors: Groeneman Research & Consulting and Gerstein | Agne Strategic Communications
Download: BBYO Impact Study: A Summary
Op-Ed: Upping the Ante: Why I am Doubling Down on the Teen Years (JTA)
Summary: Repair the World commissioned The Worth of What They Do: The Impact of Short-Term Jewish Service-Learning on Host Communities to examine the positive, long-term effects of short-term service projects—often called alternative breaks—on communities-in-need both in the United States and overseas. To date, a number of studies have been conducted on the impact of service projects on individual participants, such as a sense of accomplishment and first-hand experience of global problems such as poverty and food insecurity. However, relatively little research has been done on the impact of service projects—Jewish or secular—on the communities they serve beyond the concrete gains of the service project itself.
Among its findings, the study notes that short-term volunteerism jumpstarts local volunteerism, provides host communities the opportunity to develop local leaders and engage in cultural exchanges with the volunteers, contributes to a shift in community self-identity, and offers additional tangible resources they gained from even short-term projects that they would otherwise not have.
Author: BTW: Informing Change (BTW)
Download: The Worth of What They Do: The Impact of Short-Term Jewish Service-Learning on Host Communities
Summary: The REALITY (Renewal, Education, Action, Leadership, and Inspiration) Israel Experience is a unique leadership development opportunity for selected Teach For America corps members. Corps members with interests in and affiliations with the Jewish community are selected for a 10-day, all-expense-paid trip to Israel, involving tourism, exploration of the Israeli education system, self-reflection and learning. To date, two sets of corps members participated in the REALITY program – one in July 2009 and the other in July 2010.
The impact study finds that REALITY is a strong program with realistic activities and expectations for participants. The data gathered demonstrate this strength as well as REALITY’s success in achieving many of its intended outcomes.
Author: SuccessLinks, LLC
Download: The REALITY Israel Experience: An Impact Study
Download: The REALITY Israel Experience: An Impact Study Executive Summary
Summary: Social entrepreneurs change the world. Joshua Venture Group was founded on this premise, and our program is as much about cultivating social entrepreneurial talent as it is about growing sustainable ventures. But the question is: what makes someone a social entrepreneur? Picking a Needle out of a Haystack: Selecting for social entrepreneurs takes a look at frameworks from the corporate human capital arena to shed light on the inherent qualities that define social entrepreneurs.
Author: Joshua Venture Group
Download: Picking a Needle out of a Haystack: Selecting for social entrepreneurs
Summary: Engaging Jewish Teenage Boys: A Call to Action is a comprehensive report offering Seven Lessons and Seven Principles to help Jewish educators more effectively and meaningfully inspire teenage boys to stay connected to Jewish life. Distilled from three years of research, 40 focus groups with Jewish boys, multiple pilot tests and program development, the findings suggest that putting boys’ developing masculinity—their journey to manhood—at the center of male-focused Jewish programming will keep more boys engaged in Jewish life beyond bar mitzvah.
Informed by this research, Moving Traditions has crafted a comprehensive initiative to help both formal and informal Jewish educators better serve Jewish teenage boys: Seven Lessons and Seven Principles for more effective Jewish education; a Marketing Toolkit outlining best practices for more successfully reaching Jewish teenage boys; a Program Curriculum suitable for standalone use or for incorporation into any number of settings and programs; and a Path to Implementation comprised of professional development opportunities for Jewish educators
Author: Moving Traditions
Download: Engaging Jewish Teenage Boys: A Call to Action
Press Release: “Journey to Manhood” Key to Engaging Teenage Boys in Jewish Life
Summary: Generation of Change: How Leaders in Their Twenties and Thirties Are Reshaping American Jewish Life takes a look at women and men between the ages of 22 and 40 who serve as leaders of Jewish programs, initiatives and organizations, particularly to learn how they think about Jewish concerns and the experiences that have shaped them.
Author: Jack Wertheimer, The AVI CHAI Foundation
Download: Generation of Change: How Leaders in Their Twenties and Thirties Are Reshaping American Jewish Life
Press Release: It’s Not Your Grandparents’ Jewish Community
Summary: Still Connected: American Jewish Attitudes About Israel explores American Jewish attachment to Israel, in particular among the younger generation. It is based primarily on a survey of more than 1,200 individuals conducted in June 2010, beginning two weeks after the Gaza flotilla incident. The findings suggest a need to reconsider the popular narrative of declining American Jewish attachment to Israel.
Author: Theodore Sasson, Benjamin Phillips, Charles Kadushin and Leonard Saxe
Download: Still Connected: American Jewish Attitudes About Israel
Summary: In 2009, REALITY Israel Experience for Teach For America Corps Members brought 40 competitively selected Teach For America corps members to Israel for a short-term experiential learning experience. This report includes a summary of findings from a formal evaluation of the program conducted by an outside evaluator, as well as an informal post-trip survey conducted by Teach For America. Overall, participants reported powerful understandings and impacts of their experience, in keeping with partners’ hopes and expectations
Author: CLSFF and the Samberg Family Foundation
Summary: An update of a 2006 report, Searching for the Study of Israel examines the scope of academic courses being taught about Israel on more than 300 leading American college and university campuses and finds that the state of education about Israel has improved since the original study. A comparison of the 246 institutions included in both studies shows a 69% growth in courses that focus specifically on Israel over the three-year period.
Author: Dr. Annette Koren and Emily Einhorn
Download: Searching for the Study of Israel
Press Release: Report Finds Growing Support for the Study of Israel on U.S. Campuses
Summary: Generation Birthright Israel: The Impact of an Israel Experience on Jewish Identity and Choices is the first long-term study of Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni to document the program’s impact on early participants and their decisions and attitudes regarding marriage, community and connection to Israel. The report finds, most dramatically, a deepening attachment to Israel and commitment to Jewish family.
Author: Leonard Saxe, Benjamin Phillips, Theodore Sasson, Shahar Hecht, Michelle Shain, Graham Wright, Charles Kadushin
Download: Generation Birthright Israel
Summary: J-Serve was launched in 2005 by PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, in cooperation with the Jewish Coalition for Service, to mobilize Jewish youth across North America to engage in service to their communities as part of Global Youth Service Day. This evaluation of J-Serve 2008 was designed and conducted by BTW Consultants for CLSFF to increase understanding of J-Serve’s implementation and its impact on participants.
Author: Tina Cheplick, Cinnamon Daniel, Karissa Yee
Download: Reflections on J-Serve
Summary: The Innovation Ecosystem: Emergence of a New Jewish Landscape explores the implications of the findings of an earlier report, Jumpstart Research Report 2.09: Key Findings from the 2008 Survey of New Jewish Organizations (published in February 2009). This study offers new policy recommendations for specific ways that stakeholders in the American Jewish community can encourage innovation and build the Jewish future, even as we are forced to contend fully with difficult questions about how to sustain this renaissance in a world of scarcer financial resources.
Editors: Joshua Avedon & Shawn Landres (Jumpstart), The Natan Fund, The Samuel Bronfman Foundation
Download: The Innovation Ecosystem: Emergence of a New Jewish Landscape
Summary: This study looks into the value of Jewish Service Learning and the impact it can have on one’s sense of personal identity, communal identity and social identity.
Author: Ellen Irie, Jill Blair
Download: Jewish Service Learning
Summary: Until this report was published, little empirical evidence had been gathered to accurately describe how and whether Israel is being taught on American college campuses. It is the first-ever portrayal of the state of Israel studies nationwide based on a thorough examination of the course offerings of nearly 400 universities—public and private, sectarian and non-sectarian, and large and small.
Author: Israel on Campus Coalition
Download: In Search of Israel Studies
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