Laura Safran, planning and allocations director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County, holds up a publicity flier for a community phone survey to begin June 15.
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Planning toolApril 08, 2008
The Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County is undertaking its first demographic survey in 12 years, hoping to pinpoint the Middlesex Jewish population’s needs and funding priorities.
The random phone survey, which will be conducted starting June 15, will be directed by Dr. Ira M. Sheskin, a Florida demographer who has conducted 43 such surveys for Jewish communities across the country.
The survey will cost between $125,000 and $130,000, but will be an essential tool in determining where communal philanthropic funds should best be allocated, assisting community organizations in securing grants, and helping plan programs, federation leaders said.
“We have an idea how the community has changed in the last 12 years, but no cold, hard facts,” said Lee Livingston, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County. “We’re directing a lot of money, but have nothing to back that up. I want to be sure we’re meeting the needs of the community.”
In particular, Livingston said, the federation was looking to find out the number of intermarried and unaffiliated Jews and how best to reach them.
Another area the federation is interested in is determining the number of special needs children and adults in the community.
“Of course, we know there is a significant senior citizen population because of the growth of the senior communities in Monroe,” said Livingston. “We need to know we’re directing the money to proper services for that community.”
Every synagogue and agency in the county has been strongly supportive of the demographic study, said Livingston.
“They all indicated they can use and need the information,” he said.
Barry Sherman, chair of the demographic study committee, said it will also assess age distribution and trends and will assist Jewish agencies in securing grants, which usually require demographic information.
“Without a statistical understanding of the Middlesex County Jewish community we cannot properly allocate resources,” he added.
Sheskin is director of the Jewish Demography Project of the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami.
He recently spent two days at the federation offices in South River presenting an overview to Jewish community representatives of how the survey will be conducted and how their agencies could benefit.
He said communities are often astonished by the results of its demographic studies.
“Las Vegas thought it had about 22,000” Jews, he said as an example. “They actually had about 55,000.”
Other information gleaned may be less dramatic but can prove invaluable in prioritizing and allocating services and funds.
In the Washington, DC, area, for example, planners learned the community had more middle-age and elderly residents than was believed. In St. Paul, Minn., the federation learned that a population drain of young people to larger cities had been staunched.
Those hired to conduct the surveys will be trained to be professional and nonjudgmental. “We have found our best interviewer is a 21-year-old college student,” said Sheskin.
He said that as many as 20,000 phone calls may be made to get a sample of 900, as non-Jews or those who decline to participate are eliminated.
Mindy Steinman, fund-raising vice president of Temple B’nai Shalom in East Brunswick, said she hoped the information gathered could be used by her synagogue to recruit members.
“I think this will be a great asset to the Jewish community,” she said.
Jennine Shpigel, director of Jewish and family programming at the Jewish Community Center of Middlesex County in Edison said, “I think it’s important for the federation to know more about how to efficiently spend its money. I think it needs to be spent in ways that benefit the entire community.”
Planning tool
Dr. Ira Sheskin, director of the Jewish Demography Project of the Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami, presents details about the June survey of the Jewish community his team will conduct. Photos by Debra Rubin
IN 2005, Ira Sheskin conducted a study for the Jewish Federation of Atlantic and Cape May Counties in south Jersey.
The completed study contained not only demographic information, but comparisons with other communities and, in some cases, suggestions.
One of the questions asked in determining the level of observance is whether Shabbat candles are lit in a household. In the south Jersey community, only 14 percent of respondents light candles, the third lowest among about 50 comparison communities. The 10 percent of children ages five-12 who attend Jewish day school was the second lowest among 25 communities, while donations to federation were significantly lower when compared to other communities.
The survey concluded that greater efforts were needed to engage Jewish households in Jewish life. Because participation in Jewish life among the intermarried was so low, it suggested that synagogues and agencies develop polices and programs for grappling with issue.
The survey also included warnings that any Jewish identity initiatives must carefully balance “outreach” to intermarried couples with “inreach” to moderately affiliated Jews.
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