Raquel Magidin de Kramer

The Combined Dataset (CDS) combines data from 29 socio-demographic studies of federated Jewish communities, conducted between 2015-2024 by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies (CMJS) at Brandeis University. This CDS includes survey responses from more than 60,000 respondents including information about demographics and household composition; Jewish identity, behaviors, and attitudes; and financial and social service needs.

Although the CDS underlying dataset is not yet publicly available, the authors have created an excel file that reports on key metrics for the dataset as a whole, as well as differences across demographic groups and by community characteristics such as size and region. Individual communities may wish to compare results from their own studies to these national benchmarks. Direct comparisons, that account for recoding to match the variables and subgroups used in this analysis, can be provided to participating communities upon request. CMJS will not share individual community data with other communities.

For inquiries about additional analyses, contact the authors.

Jewish Maine: The 2024 Community Study is the first ever in-depth assessment of the size and characteristics of the Jewish community throughout Maine, and the first study to cover Southern Maine since 2007. The study provides a comprehensive portrait of the state's 19,000 Jews; their families; their Jewish attitudes, affiliations, and behaviors; their health and financial well-being; and other measures of their engagement in Jewish life.

The goal of the current study is to develop a typology of engagement among Jewish day school students that reflects the multidimensional nature of Jewish engagement and identity (Hartman, 2014; Horowitz, 2003; Himmelfarb, 1982). This study builds on the Jewish engagement typology (the Index of Jewish Engagement) developed for local Jewish community studies (Aronson et al., 2018) and applies this method to a dataset of over 4,000 Jewish day school students collected as part of the Hearts and Minds study of Israel education (Pomson et al., 2014). Although the focus of Hearts and Minds was on Israel education, the study collected data about many aspects of Jewish life. The present study uses that data to examine Jewish engagement among day school students more broadly. The purpose of this typology is twofold: 1. To identify the characteristics of individual students and of schools that are associated with various patterns of Jewish engagement; 2. To understand the patterns of interests and attitudes among students in order to enable educators to better tailor educational activities for their students.

The 2024 Jewish Population Study of Northeastern Pennsylvania is the first ever in-depth assessment of the size and characteristics of the Jewish community of Lackawanna, Monroe, Pike, and Wayne Counties in Pennsylvania. This study offers a comprehensive depiction of the 5,500 Jews in Northeastern Pennsylvania, delving into their families; their Jewish attitudes, behaviors, and affiliations; their health and financial well-being; and measures of their engagement in Jewish life.

Starting in 2020, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has provided financial support to Federations to collect a standard set of financial related information as part of their community studies. The purpose of standardizing these measures is to facilitate the development of aggregated data across participating communities as well as to support comparisons across individual communities. By aggregating data, the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies (CMJS) can also analyze small groups (such as households experiencing poverty) in cases for which there are insufficient responses in individual studies to support detailed analysis.

The current report presents an analysis of the aggregated data that have been collected as part of this effort. This report includes data from 10 completed CMJS Jewish community studies that collected information as part of the Weinberg grant along with data from two additional community studies that included the Weinberg questions but did not receive the grant. 

A Blueprint for our Future: The 2022 San Diego Jewish Community Study  was conducted by the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies (CMJS) at Brandeis University, in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago. The principal goal of this study is to provide valid data about the San Diego Jewish community that can be used by communal organizations and their leadership to design programs and policies that support and enhance Jewish life. Valid data are essential to effective decision making, allocation of resources, strategic priorities, community support, robust participation, and outreach. This report is based on data collected from 2,104 Jewish households in San Diego between June and September 2022. Survey respondents were randomly selected from all households in Greater San Diego.

Abstract In response to Isaac Sasson and Sergio DellaPergola’s commentaries on our assessment of the validity of the Pew Research Center's 2020 estimate of 7.5 million US Jewish adults and children (Tighe et al. 2022), we address key points of agreement and contention in the validity of the estimate; in particular, how the Jewish population is identified and defined. We argue that Pew’s definition of the Jewish population is consistent with major studies of American Jewry, from NJPS 1990 to recent local Jewish community studies. Applying a consistent definition that includes the growing group of “Jews of no religion” with one Jewish parent, as Pew Research Center does, allows for a faithful comparison across national and local studies and a more accurate understanding of levels of Jewish engagement and expressions of Jewish identity.

The 2022-23 Greater Portland Jewish Community Study is the first in-depth assessment of the size and characteristics of the Jewish community in Greater Portland and Southwest Washington since 2009. The study also includes a separate mini-report for Lane County, the first scientific study ever conducted of the Jewish community in the Eugene area. The study provides a comprehensive portrait of the 56,600 Jews in Greater Portland and Southwest Washington; their families; their Jewish attitudes, affiliations, and behaviors; their health and financial well-being; and other measures of their engagement in Jewish life.

The 2022 Community Study of Jewish Delaware and the Brandywine Valley is the first in-depth assessment of the size and characteristics of the Jewish community in Delaware since 1995, and the first to include a section of the Brandywine Valley in Pennsylvania. The study provides a comprehensive portrait of the community's 25,900 Jews; their families; their Jewish attitudes, affiliations, and behaviors; their health and financial well-being; and other measures of their engagement in Jewish life.

The Pew Research Center’s survey, Jewish Americans in 2020 , was designed to provide estimates of the size of the US Jewish population, sociodemographic data on issues such as intermarriage, child-rearing, engagement in Jewish communal life, and a description of American Jewish attitudes. A sophisticated sample design was employed to ensure accurate and generalizable assessments of the population. Because Jews are a small sub-group and the US government does not collect census data on religious groups, creating estimates is a non-trivial task. The focus of this paper is on the validity of Pew’s estimate of 7.5 million US Jewish adults and children, 2.4% of the overall US population. The estimate is an important standalone indicator and is the basis for assessments of current Jewish attitudes and behavior. This paper considers the underlying construct of Jewish identity and its operationalization by Pew and evaluates the convergent validity of Pew’s findings. The efforts to define “who is a Jew” in sociodemographic surveys is described, and a set of methodological challenges to creating estimates are considered. The results of this review indicate that Pew’s criteria for inclusion in the population estimate comports with long-standing views of how to assess the Jewish population. Furthermore, Pew’s estimate of 7.5 million Jewish Americans is consistent with other recent demographic studies of the population. Their conclusions about a growing US Jewish population suggest a new narrative of American Jewish life that reflects the diversity of ways in which Jewish identity is expressed.