Abstract
Local Jewish community studies face a range of methodological and communal challenges. The methodological challenges reflect larger difficulties facing the survey research industry as a whole, combined with the task of surveying a rare population. Numerous communal developments - including greater pressures for research-driven planning and policy making, increasing expectations of institutional transparency, and a fragmented philanthropic environment - complicate the mobilization of financial and social support for local studies and their operational implementation. Despite these challenges, demand for Jewish community studies remains strong, a testament to the critical information they provide local communities. Responding to this demand, researchers who specialize in local community studies bring varied and competing strategic approaches, methodologies and innovations to community studies, as illustrated in a set of articles and responses presented in this issue of Contemporary Jewry. Going forward, local Jewish community studies - standing squarely at the intersection of research and community - are likely to remain complex and valuable projects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In truth, the dividing line between the researchers and the community professionals among the book contributors was more porous than solid. Several of the community professionals — Peter Friedman, Steven Huberman, and Jack Ukeles — also hold doctoral degrees. Ukeles, then at UJA-Federation of New York, went on to found his own research and policy firm, which has conducted many local community studies for federations. Jonathan Woocher, at the time a Brandeis University faculty member, subsequently had a long career as a communal professional, mostly notably at the Jewish Education Service of North America.
Materials from more than two hundred local community studies are available at the Berman Jewish DataBank (http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/us-local-communities.cfm), a project of the Jewish Federations of North America.
References
AAPOR. 2015. AAPOR Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. Oakbrook Terrace, IL: American Association for Public Opinion Research. http://www.aapor.org/Standards-Ethics/AAPOR-Code-of-Ethics.aspx. Accessed 10 October 2016.
Arbetman-Rabinowitz, Marina, and Benjamin Kupersmit. 2014. Demographic and Attitudinal Survey of the Jewish Population of New Mexico. Albuquerque: Jewish Federation of New Mexico. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=788. Accessed 9 December 2015.
Baker, Reg, J. Michael Brick, et al. 2013. Report of the AAPOR Task Force on non-probability sampling. Oakbrook Terrace, IL: American Association for Public Opinion Research. http://www.aapor.org/AAPOR_Main/media/MainSiteFiles/NPS_TF_Report_Final_7_revised_FNL_6_22_13.pdf. Accessed 10 October 2016.
Blumberg, Stephen J., and Julian V. Luke. 2015. Wireless substitution: Early release of estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, July–December 2014. National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/wireless201506.pdf. Accessed 10 November 2015.
Chang, Linchiat, and Jon A. Krosnick. 2009. National surveys via RDD telephone interviewing versus the Internet: Comparing sample representativeness and response quality. Public Opinion Quarterly 73(4): 641–678.
Cohen, Steven M., Ron Miller, Ira M. Sheskin, and Berna Torr. 2011. Camp works: The long-term impact of Jewish overnight camp. New York: Foundation for Jewish Camp. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=2748. Accessed 9 December 2015.
Cohen, Steven M., Jonathan S. Woocher, and Bruce A. Phillips (eds.). 1984. Perspectives in Jewish population research. Boulder: Westview Press.
Dutwin, David, and Trent Buskirk. 2016. Apples to oranges or gala versus golden delicious? Comparing data quality of non-probability Internet samples to low response rate probability samples. Public Opinion Quarterly (in press).
Eisen, Lisa. 2011. Six key trends transforming Jewish philanthropy. PND: Philanthropy News Digest, February 21. http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=8549. Accessed 8 December 2015.
Gedzelman, Rabbi David. 2004. Envisioning a National Center for the Study and Assessment of Contemporary Jewish Life. Contact 6(4): 15.
Gelman, Andrew. 2014. Tracking public opinion with biased polls. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/09/tracking-public-opinion-with-biased-polls/. Accessed 10 November 2015.
Gelman, Andrew, and David Rothschild. 2014. When should we trust polls from non-probability samples? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/11/when-should-we-trust-polls-from-non-probability-samples/. Accessed 10 November 2015.
Goldberg-Schaible, Jocelyn. 2010. “Count Me In”: The 2010 Study of the Rochester Jewish Community. Rochester, N.Y.: Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=2710. Accessed 10 December 2015.
Groeneman, Sid, and Tom W. Smith. 2009. Moving: The impact of geographic mobility on the Jewish community. New York: The Jewish Federations of North America. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=2677. Accessed 11 December 2015.
Hartman, Harriet, and Ira Sheskin. 2011. The Influence of Community Context and Individual Characteristics on Jewish Identity: A 21-Community Study. Storrs, Conn.: Berman Jewish DataBank, University of Connecticut. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=3039. Accessed 8 December 2015.
Kaizar, Eloise E., Stephen E. Feinberg, Howard Seltman, and Sharon Stern. 2009. Who are connected to the Pittsburgh Jewish community? Contemporary Jewry 29(3): 301–316.
Keeter, Scott, Courtney Kennedy, et al. 2006. Gauging the impact of growing non-response on estimates from a national RDD telephone survey. Public Opinion Quarterly 70(5): 759–779.
Kelner, Shaul. 2014. American Jewish Sociology. Oxford Bibliographies. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199840731/obo-9780199840731-0073.xml. Accessed 2 December 2015.
Kotler-Berkowitz, Laurence. 2014. The Great Recession and American Jews: Evidence from Baltimore, Chicago and Cleveland. New York: Berman Jewish DataBank. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=742. Accessed 9 December 2015.
Kotler-Berkowitz, Laurence, and Chaim Adler. 2015. Exploring the social class context of Jewish education. Paper presented at the joint conference of the Network for Research in Jewish Education and the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry, New York, N.Y., June 10.
Kotler-Berkowitz, Laurence, and Chaim Adler. 2016. Financial constraints on intensive Jewish education: The interactive effects of financial capacity and Jewish connections. Contemporary Jewry 36(1): 125–150.
Levin, Jeff. 2015. Religious differences in self-rated health among US Jews: Findings from five urban population surveys. Journal of Religion and Health 54(2): 765–782.
Levine, Susan J. 2015. Have demographic studies of the Jewish community outlived their usefulness?. www.eJewishPhilanthropy.com, November 15. http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/have-demographic-studies-of-the-jewish-community-outlived-their-usefulness/. Accessed 16 November 2015.
Mellman, Mark. 2014. Findings from a survey of 1000 Jewish residents in the greater Washington DC area. Rockville, Md.: Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=3308. Accessed 10 December 2015.
Miguel, E., C. Camerer, K. Casey, J. Cohen, K.M. Esterling, A. Gerber, R. Glennerster, D.P. Green, M. Humphreys, G. Imbens, D. Laitin, T. Madon, L. Nelson, B.A. Nosek, M. Petersen, R. Sedlmayr, J.P. Simmons, U. Simonsohn, and M. Van de Laan. 2014. Promoting transparency in social science research. Science 343:30–31. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6166/30.full.pdf?keytype=ref&siteid=sci&ijkey=TMhxM94eiQUc2. Accessed 16 November 2015.
Moses, Larry. 2011. Tzedakah and philanthropy: Rethinking American Jewish giving. eJewish Philanthropy, October 31. http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/tzedakah-and-philanthropy-rethinking-american-jewish-giving/. Accessed 8 December 2015.
Pepinsky, Tom, Edmund J. Malesky, Nathan Jensen, and Mike Findley. 2014. Can Greater Transparency Lead to Better Social Science? The Washington Post, September 24. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/09/24/can-greater-transparency-lead-to-better-social-science/. Accessed 10 November 2015.
Pew Research Center. 2012. Assessing the Representativeness of Public Opinion Surveys. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center. http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/Assessing%20the%20Representativeness%20of%20Public%20Opinion%20Surveys.pdf. Accessed 10 November 2015.
Prager, Yossi. 2004. Philanthropic fundamentals: Evaluation and accountability. Contact 6(4): 12–13.
Ringel, Leopold. 2014. Organizational responses to expectations of transparency: A framework for comparative social research. In Paper prepared for the 30th EGOS Colloquium Rotterdam, The Netherlands July 3–5, 2014. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263773073_Organizational_responses_to_expectations_of_transparency_A_framework_for_comparative_research. Accessed 9 October 2016.
Rosenblatt, Gary. 2012. Leading Demographer Questioning N.Y. Population Study. New York Jewish Week, August 24. http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new-york-news/leading-demographer-questioning-ny-population-survey. Accessed 29 December 2015.
Sasson, Theodore. 2013. The New American Zionism. New York: New York University Press.
Saxe, Leonard, and Fern Chertok. 2013. “AAA” guide to developing and using knowledge to drive Jewish communal policy. Journal of Jewish Communal Service 88(1/2): 120–127.
Saxe, Leonard, and Charles Kadushin. 2004. Birthright Israel: Learning from rigorous research. Contact 6(4): 4–5.
Sheskin, Ira M. 2009. Local Jewish community studies as planning tools for the American Jewish community. Jewish Political Studies Review 21(1–2): 107–135.
Sheskin, Ira M. 2015. Comparisons of Jewish Communities: A Compendium of Tables and Bar Charts. New York: Berman Jewish DataBank. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=777. Accessed 9 December 2015.
Steinhardt, Michael H. 2004. “Why we need measurement and accountability.” Contact 6(4): 3.
The Melior Group. 2013. Jewish Pop! The 2013 Jewish Community Needs Assessment Study of Southern New Jersey. Cherry Hill, N.J.: Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=3324. Accessed 9 December 2015.
Wertheimer, Jack. 1997. “Current trends in American Jewish philanthropy.” American Jewish Year Book 97: 3–137.
Yeager, David S., Jon A. Krosnick, Linchiat Chang, Harold S. Javitz, Matthew S. Levendusky, Alberto Simpser, and Rui Wang. 2011. Comparing the accuracy of RDD telephone surveys and Internet surveys conducted with probability and non-probability samples. Public Opinion Quarterly 75(4): 709–747.
Acknowledgements
I thank Harriet Hartman for her efforts to organize and publish this special issue of Contemporary Jewry focusing on Jewish community studies, and for her review of earlier versions of this article. I retain responsibility for the article’s content.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kotler-Berkowitz, L. The Challenges of Local Jewish Community Studies: An Introduction. Cont Jewry 36, 289–295 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-016-9198-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-016-9198-x