Studies
&evaluations
Summary: Repair the World commissioned Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators to provide a comprehensive look at the qualities of effective immersive Jewish service-learning (IJSL) educators and the training they need to continue providing deep and engaging IJSL experiences. Though this study focuses on the IJSL field, given that IJSL is a subset of Jewish experiential education, its findings also have relevance to the broader field of Jewish experiential education. Many of the skills, capacities and knowledge areas that IJSL educators need to be effective are shared with other Jewish experiential educators. The framework that this study offers for testing these competencies serves as a model that can be used in other areas of education.
Author: Dr. Shelley Billig, RMC Research Corporation
Download: Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators
Download: Teaching to the Moment: A Study of Immersive Jewish Service-learning Educators Executive Summary
Summary: The Jewish Organization Equality Index provides benchmarks for gauging, and resources for improving, LGBT inclusivity policies and practices of North American Jewish communal organizations. It is the Human Rights Campaign’s first-ever index of inclusion within a faith-based community and the nonprofit sector, and used similar techniques to HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates Fortune1000 companies on inclusion for LGBT employees, and Healthcare Equality Index.
Key findings from the index create a preliminary snapshot of how a broad range of Jewish organizations—from national umbrella and advocacy groups to local nonprofits and synagogues—address LGBT diversity and inclusion in three categories of practice: organizational inclusion efforts, community/client engagement and workplace policies.
An estimated 10% of the organizations invited to take the 89-question survey completed it, which is consistent with HRC’s experience in launching inaugural indices of this type. Of the 204 Jewish nonprofit organizations that participated, 50% received the top score of “inclusion,” meaning they are taking significant steps to welcome LGBT individuals and families.
The index also highlights significant opportunities for improvement, especially in the areas of recruitment and training. Of the participating organizations, 79% of participants expressed they have not targeted the LGBT community in workplace recruitment efforts, and 59% have not completed any diversity or inclusion training in the past three years. More work is needed to understand how representative these findings are across the broader Jewish communal sector.
Initiated by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, together with The Morningstar Foundation, Stuart Kurlander and an anonymous donor, the report aims to push the Jewish community to prioritize inclusion of LGBT employees, members and volunteers into communal organizations.
Author: Human Rights Campaign
Download the Report: Human Rights Campaign 2012 Jewish Organization Equality Index
Download the Press Release: Human Rights Campaign Releases First-Ever Index of LGBT Inclusion within a Faith-based Community
Download the Infographic:
Summary: Next Generation Advocacy is the first and largest study of young people involved in Israel advocacy, surveying more than 4,000 Israel advocates between 17 and 30 years of age. The study finds that among those who demonstrate the highest levels of involvement in Israel advocacy over time—defined as leader advocates—the desire to support Israel is driven by a general sense of values and commitment to Israel rather than by a specific ideological or political worldview. The research also indicates key areas where investment can make a profound impact on identifying, recruiting and nurturing effective Israel advocates.
The study surveyed students and mentors involved in Israel advocacy, particularly through organizations that offer Israel-related programming for teens and/or young adults. The organizations that participated include: Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity (AEPi), American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), BBYO, The David Project, iCenter, Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), Hillel, Moishe House and Write On for Israel, as well as Hasbara Fellowships, MASA and Stand with Us. They were not meant to represent the entire field of Israel advocacy but rather a sampling of organizations that engage young people in Israel programs. The study surveyed 4,061 individuals, which was supplemented by nearly 50 focus groups and interviews with students and mentors.
Author: Ezra Kopelowitz and Dr. Daniel Chesir-Teran, of Research Success Technologies, Ltd.
Download: Next Generation Advocacy: A Study of Young Israel Advocates
Read More: The Truth About Israel Advocacy Times of Israel
Summary: Chosen for What? Jewish Values in 2012 is a survey of 1,004 American Jews that takes a broad look at how Jewish values, experiences and identity are shaping political beliefs and behavior and influencing social action in the Jewish community and beyond. It finds that Jewish values, particularly pursuing justice and a commitment to social equality, are important for informing political beliefs and behaviors.
Author: Public Religion Research Institute
Download: Chosen for What? Jewish Values in 2012
Read More: New Survey Finds Jewish Values, Identity Strongly Inform Political Beliefs, Activities of American Jews (Press Release)
Summary: Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter? A National Study of Philanthropic Practice is a new national field survey from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations that examines some of the key shifts in grantmaking practice since 2008 and what they mean for supporting nonprofit resilience.
Author: Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
Download: Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter? A National Study of Philanthropic Practice
Summary: Many organizations that serve our communities struggle to maintain working technology infrastructures, let alone to experiment and imagine how to achieve their missions in a digital world. Bridging this gap between media innovation and mission accomplishment was the core goal of the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund (the Fund), a pilot launched in 2010 by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation, and the Schusterman Family Foundation.
The very act of establishing the Fund has already helped prompt conversations around technology and social innovation in organizations that may not have otherwise occurred. These conversations will only continue to grow and deepen as we watch and monitor the types of impact that these projects have on Jewish communities and individuals. The ultimate outcome of the JNMIF will rest as much on what the community learns from this experiment as it does on the results of the individual projects. In Innovating on Tradition: Reflections on the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund, we attempt to provide a foundation for spurring discussion about the experiment by reflecting on three key questions:
- What is the state of new media innovation in the organized Jewish community?
- How can the JNMIF process be improved?
- What might come next?
Author: Lucy Bernholz and Conan Liu, Arabella Advisors
Download: Innovating on Tradition: Reflections on the Jewish New Media Innovation Fund
Summary: The Jewish community is faced with the new, significant and exciting challenge of supporting and integrating the most promising post-start-ups in a systemic way. Currently, the Jewish community offers very little support specifically geared toward post-start-up needs, nor are those needs broadly understood by funders, capacity builders and even by the organizations themselves.
This study focuses on those start-up and post-startup organizations, few in number but strong in transformative potential, that are poised to make a significant contribution to the Jewish community. It examines the unique needs and opportunities of both start-ups and post-start-ups in the Jewish community and the challenges they face as the innovative Jewish start-up sector matures.
This report also provides useful direction on how the three critical players in this sector—funders, support organizations, and the new organizations themselves—can work together to advance those initiatives with the greatest potential to transform the Jewish community.
Author: Bikkurim and Wellspring Consulting
Download Executive Summary: From First Fruits to Abundant Harvest: Maximizing the Potential of Innovative Jewish Start-Ups
Download full report: From First Fruits to Abundant Harvest: Maximizing the Potential of Innovative Jewish Start-Ups
Summary: Mapping the Landscape: The Emerging Field of Israel Education follows up on a 2003 study by the Gilo Family Foundation that called for “Israel Education to become a field in its own right—with the requisite development of a curricular approach, systemized training, professionalization and the creation of a ‘central address’ to coordinate and streamline this process.”
Over the past decade, a series of indicators point to a developing response to that call. Though much work remains to be done, it seems legitimate to identify the emergence of a field of Israel Education that encompasses clear definitions, foundational principles, professional development frameworks and twenty-first century educational expertise.
A full articulation of these areas is found in the report. In addition, strategic goals that would represent significant advancement of the field are identified.
Author: iCenter
Download full report: Mapping the Landscape: The Emerging Field of Israel Education
Summary: In recent years there has been an upsurge in organizational activity on the American Jewish scene regarding Israel. The present inquiry, commissioned by the iCenter to support its own planning efforts, was designed to sharpen and clarify the special role of a Jewish educational enterprise directed at learners in the years between kindergarten and the end of high school. The findings draw on interviews with 21 experts about American Jewish and Israel education and ethnographic observations of the field and of the iCenter in 2010 and 2011, plus additional historical research about the development of the field.
Author: Bethamie Horowitz
Download full report: Defining Israel Education
Summary: In Oklahoma, thousands of innocent children and youth face the terror of abuse and neglect. Now is the time for our state to commit to bold changes. Improving the system that protects children and youth will bring a significant return on investment-saving lives and creating a brighter future for Oklahoma.
To this end, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation convened three summits of over 100 professionals in the broader child protection system. These professionals generated 20 Priorities for Change to help children and youth heal from the trauma of abuse and neglect and reach their potential as self-sustaining adults. This document details those 20 Priorities for Change.
Download: Priorities for Change in the Oklahoma Child Protection System
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: The Schusterman Family Foundation established the Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) in Tulsa in 2004 to help teens learn about philanthropy and service. This mixed-methods study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of YPI cohorts 1 through 4.
Author: The University of Oklahoma Center of Applied Research for Nonprofit Organizations
Download: Youth Philanthropy Initiative: An Evaluation of the First Four Cohorts
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: The Schusterman Family Foundation established the Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) in Tulsa in 2004 to help teens learn about philanthropy and service. This qualitative report assesses the students’ perceptions of the program’s impact on their leadership skills, of the curriculum and group leaders, and their general assessment of the value of participation.
Author: Q2 Consulting
Summary: The Schusterman Family Foundation established the Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) in Tulsa in 2004 to help teens learn about philanthropy and service. This quantitative report provides the results of a questionnaire designed to assess the perceptions and attitudes of young adults participating in YPI.
Author: The University of Oklahoma Center of Applied Research for Non-Profit Organizations
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