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UPDATE: Washtenaw County Jewish Community Survey Begins November 7

Recognizing the need for valid and actionable data that serves the entire community, the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, in partnership with local Jewish communal organizations and congregations, is conducting a study of the Washtenaw County Jewish community.

This study is being conducted by an experienced research team at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University and NORC at the University of Chicago.

Starting in November, you may be contacted by letter, phone, or email with an invitation to participate in the survey. Invitation letters will have logos for NORC and Brandeis. Email messages will be sent from NORC at WCJCS@norc.org. Reminder phone calls will come from Brandeis University, with a phone number starting with 781-773-3535. 

Because this is a scientific survey with a defined sample frame, you may not receive one of these calls or emails; however, if you do, we encourage you to respond and participate in this important project to better understand our community.

This study is made possible by collaboration of all local Jewish communal organizations, with financial support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Ann Arbor, the JCC of Greater Ann Arbor, Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, Temple Beth Emeth, Beth Israel Congregation, Jewish Federations of North America, and the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

For more information about this study, visit the community study webpage at jewishannarbor.org/communitystudy. If you have any additional questions, please contact McKenzie Katz at mckenzie@jewishannarbor.org or 734-677-0100.

Thank you for your participation!

Greg Saltzman

ORIGINAL POST:

Repost of Washtenaw Jewish News article by Rachel Wall. (Note: more info on the study to come from AARC.)

The Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, in partnership with the Jewish communal organizations and congregations in Washtenaw County, is pleased to be launching a demographic study of the Jewish community in the greater Ann Arbor area. The goal of this study is to collect, analyze, and report accurate and actionable data to inform community planning and enhance the vibrancy of Jewish life in greater Ann Arbor.

Studies like this are conducted by Jewish communities all over the country to estimate the size and characteristics of the local Jewish community. The data then serve to assist Jewish communal organizations to make well-informed, data-driven decisions for the benefit of the entire community. Results can also assist organizations like Jewish Family Services (JFS) in applying for grants and funding that require detailed projections of the reach of their programs. Because of the present lack of data, these funding sources may not be available to our community at this time, but could significantly enhance the work done by JFS in Washtenaw County.

Following an extensive and competitive search process, the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies/Steinhardt Social Research Institute (CMJS/SSRI) of Brandeis University, the preeminent academic research center for the social scientific study of Jewry in the United States, will be conducting the study on behalf of the greater Ann Arbor community.

The Cohen Center team is in the process of conducting nearly a dozen similar studies in other communities around the country and has assessed large cities like Boston and Orlando, as well as cities more comparable in size to Ann Arbor, like Long Beach, CA.

According to an article published in the online publication eJewishPhilanthropy in April of this year, the Cohen Center has developed an “index of Jewish engagement” that identifies Jews by their activities, no matter how nontraditional they may seem, rather than creating demographic categories like Jews who have married someone not Jewish.

“We want to talk to the folks for whom doing Jewish is about volunteering…or eating your ham and cheese sandwich on Yom Kippur,” Matthew Boxer, assistant research professor at the Cohen Center, told eJewishPhilanthropy in the April 6^th article titled “U.S. Jewish communities are commissioning a flood of new population studies — and figuring out how to use them.”

While informal estimates suspect around 8,000 Jewish individuals in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and the surrounding areas, there has never been a formal investigation into how many people are part of the local Jewish community, nor is there empirical evidence of our community’s priorities for Jewish life. There is much to be learned from an endeavor like this to benefit those who may not feel particularly connected with the local Jewish community; this study is an opportunity to share how Jewish communal organizations can better meet their Jewish needs.

The study will be conducted in the fall and winter of 2022-2023, with results distributed publicly in mid-2023. The researchers will work closely with local Jewish institutions to ensure that diverse perspectives are represented. Survey responses will be confidential and findings will be reported only in the aggregate. The more households that participate, the more information will be available to help Jewish organizations in the community make data-driven decisions about the future.

For questions about the community study, please contact either AARC’s representative on the community – Greg Saltzman at gsaltzman@albion.edu or Federation’s Executive Director Eileen Freed at eileenfreed@jewishannarbor.org