Shahar Hecht

Ensuring that Jewish educational initiatives address the growing diversity of the US Jewish community requires, in part, understanding the background characteristics of participants and how a given educational program affects the trajectory of Jewish engagement for those with little, moderate, or a substantial amount of prior Jewish education and experiences. The present paper undertakes this analysis using the example of Birthright Israel. First, using latent class analysis, we develop a data-informed typology for classifying different religious and cultural childhood experiences of American Jewish young adults. We then examine the extent to which each group in the typology is impacted by participation in Birthright Israel, using an analytic approach that compares pre- and post-trip responses for both individuals who participated in Birthright Israel and a comparison group of those who applied but did not participate. We find that for some measures, Birthright Israel has a significant impact on participants with a variety of background experiences, while for other outcomes, Birthright Israel’s impact is concentrated among those with the least exposure to Jewish life.

Since October 7, 2023, antisemitism on American campuses has become a contested political issue. Scholars of antisemitism argue that the relationship between antisemitism and political ideology follows a "horseshoe" pattern, with higher levels of antisemitic hostility on both the far right and far left. However, existing empirical research has yet to establish this connection, in part because antisemitism may be expressed differently on opposite sides of the left-right political spectrum. To address this challenge, we develop a measure of antisemitism grounded in both formal definitions and empirical data about how US Jewish college students perceive anti-Jewish and anti-Israel statements and then measure the prevalence of these attitudes among non-Jewish US college undergraduates. We find that explicit anti-Jewish attitudes are more common among those with far-right political identities, and beliefs about Israel that formal definitions and most Jewish students find antisemitic are more common among those who identify with the political left.

In the 2023–2024 academic year reports of antisemitism on U.S.

college campuses surged. At the same time, contentious

debates about what antisemitism means reignited, in particular,

with respect to criticism of Israel. The present study addresses

this debate through a bottom-up approach that centers on the

perspective of the targets of antisemitism. Surveys conducted

during the 2023–2024 academic year with Jewish students on

over 50 campuses reveal wide agreement that certain statements

about Israel are inherently antisemitic and that these

views remained stable over the academic year.

Notwithstanding the increasing alignment between social and political identities, political divisions exist within social groups as well as between them. Despite their shared traditions, American Jews face similar political divisions as Americans in general. But could the perception of a common threat, such as antisemitism, alter the dynamics of political polarization within a social group? American Jews' concerns about antisemitism might themselves be filtered through political identities, with liberal Jews more concerned about "traditional" antisemitism (long-standing anti-Jewish stereotypes) emanating from the political right, and conservative Jews concerned about "Israel-related" antisemitism (blaming individual Jews for the actions of Israel) associated with the political left. Using a sample of over 2000 Jewish young adults, we find that, although liberal and conservative Jews are equally concerned about traditional antisemitism, conservatives are significantly more concerned about Israel-related antisemitism than liberals. We also find that, after a series of high-profile attacks on American Jews related to the 2021 Israel-Hamas conflict, liberal and conservative Jews' concerns about Israel-related antisemitism increased at similar rates. These results suggest that, although concerns about antisemitism are influenced by political identity, rising antisemitism is unlikely to exacerbate political polarization between liberal and conservative Jews.

Although there is substantial research on the effectiveness of online learning at the individual class level, there is little reliable data on how a shift to a mostly or fully virtual campus would impact undergraduates' satisfaction, engagement, and academic achievement. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the limited adoption of widespread online learning at selective schools and challenges of selection bias hindered a reliable assessment of such a shift in selective institutions. After the initial period of " emergency remote learning " in 2020, many selective institutions continued widespread online learning in the second year of the pandemic. Treating the expanded deployment of online learning as a natural experiment, the present study assesses the impact of frequent online learning during the spring semester of 2021 on representative samples of undergraduate students at three selective, four-year universities. The study finds that students who participated in classes that met in person at least once a week had higher evaluations of faculty engagement and higher overall levels of academic satisfaction, compared to those who never or rarely participated in an in-person class. This relationship appears less pronounced for Black and Asian students than for White students but does not vary significantly by gender. Although online learning has great potential, these results suggest a need to better understand the conditions that will support an expansion of online learning that can maintain student satisfaction.

The Pew Research Center’s 2020 survey of American Jews is a valuable resource to scholars of American Jewry, enabling interrogation of questions using data that no other source can reliably provide. One set of questions pertains to the reach and impact of Birthright Israel, the largest extant Jewish educational program targeted at Jewish young adults, on American Jews. Pew’s nationally representative sample provides important validation of previous findings regarding Birthright’s impact on participants and extends the generalizability of what has been learned. In this paper we use data from the 2020 Pew survey to assess the program’s “reach” into different segments of the American Jewish population and to extend the validity of existing findings regarding the program’s impact on participants’ attitudes and behaviors related to Israel and Jewish life. Pew’s data estimate that around 20% of American Jews ages 18–46 have participated in Birthright, and that among Jewish parents with a grown child, nearly 30% have an adult child who participated in the program. After controlling for preexisting differences between participants and those who have never been to Israel, Pew’s data also confirm that Birthright has a significant impact on a broad set of Jewish outcomes. These results support a more optimistic view of the future for US Jewry and suggest that the investment in large-scale educational interventions can substantially alter the trajectory of the American Jewish community writ large.

As individuals undergoing a developmental process characterized by identity exploration, Jewish young adults are particularly vulnerable to the disruption of social connections related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent research has demonstrated that young adults, including young Jews, have experienced higher rates of mental health difficulties than older individuals during the pandemic. Using data from a survey of Jewish young adults who applied to participate in Birthright Israel summer 2020 trips but were unable to participate due to the pandemic, we examined the factors contributing to young adults’ mental health difficulties. We found that loneliness, rather than financial worries or concerns about the health impacts of COVID-19, was the single most important driver of reported emotional or mental health difficulties. Results also suggested that simply increasing the frequency of contacts between individuals is unlikely to reduce loneliness, unless these are positive, substantial connections, such as those among members of a “social support network.” Building and rebuilding deep, meaningful social connections between Jewish young adults should be a top priority for Jewish organizations going forward.

Since 2016, a series of horrific acts motivated by antisemitism appear to have caused a fundamental shift in the prevalence of antisemitism in the United States. Little is known, however, about how the events during this time have affected the day-to-day experiences and concerns of American Jews. Using repeated cross-sectional data from surveys of Jewish young adults who applied to Birthright Israel, this paper analyzes recent trends in Jewish young adults’ experiences and perceptions of antisemitism. Despite the high-profile incidents during this period, there is no evidence of a major increase in experiences of antisemitic harassment among Jewish young adults—either on or off campus—between 2017 and 2019. At the same time, data show a substantial increase in concerns among young Jews about antisemitism in the United States and on college campuses, with concerns about antisemitism in the United States (but not on campus) being especially concentrated among liberal Jews. These results suggest that Jewish concerns about antisemitism are linked to broader views about the climate for marginalized populations in the United States. They also point to growing Jewish anxieties over violence, safety, and acceptance in the United States. In an era of widely disseminated antisemitic conspiracy theories, even young Jews who have no first-hand experience of antisemitic harassment have become concerned.

Taglit-Birthright Israel has brought hundreds of thousands of diaspora Jewish young adults on tours of Israel. Drawing on data from a large-scale program evaluation, we ask how the program affects participants' feelings of homeland attachment and political views on contentious homeland issues. North Americans who traveled to Israel with Taglit between 2010 and 2012 were surveyed together with a comparison group of applicants to the program who did not participate. In multivariate analysis, Taglit sharply increases feelings of connection to Israel but has no effect on attitudes concerning the future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The program modestly increases scores on a "favorability" scale and modestly increases opposition to a possible division of Jerusalem in a future peace deal. In contrast to Benedict Anderson's theory of long-distance nationalism, the findings suggest that feelings of homeland connection can be fostered without triggering ethnonationalist attitudes associated with the political right.

Contemporary Jewish young adults, like other Americans of their generation, often eschew traditional religious and communal institutions. The term 'Do-It-Yourself' (DIY) Judaism has emerged to describe alternative ways of engaging in Jewish life. Although much discussed, little is known about the extent or prevalence of DIY Judaism. Using a large sample of applicants to Taglit-Birthright Israel, the current study explores respondents' current Jewish activities though quantitative measures as well as through responses to open-ended questions which capture unique ways of engaging with Judaism. The analysis captures both current involvement and how childhood experiences impact adult Jewish engagement. The results indicate that although these young adults are unlikely to be a member of a synagogue, they are attending events sponsored by a wide array of other Jewish organizations, including many small, niche organizations, and some celebrate Shabbat. The majority of young adults also celebrated Hanukkah and attended a Passover seder during the past year. Home-based or self-organized ritual practice appears more appealing for the current young adult generation and far exceeds engagement with traditional Jewish organizations. As expected, current engagement is strongly predicted by respondents' background and intervening Jewish experiences, such as participation in Taglit. Those with stronger Jewish backgrounds are significantly more likely to celebrate Shabbat and holidays and participate in Jewish-sponsored events. Single young adults with minimal Jewish background, however, remain an especially disconnected segment of the Jewish population, and practices of DIY Judaism have yet to capture this particular demographic. Adapted from the source document.