This 2025 project by SubCulture Systems explores the impact of new media—including social media, podcasting, and online videos—on reaching and influencing key stakeholders by asking “How does new media influence stakeholders, particularly through reach and exposure frequency, and what are the resulting impacts on behavior and attitudes?” Key activities included a compilation of research on new media’s reach and effectiveness into a literature review, development of frameworks to assess investments, strategies proposed for real-world testing, and identification of potential New Media advisory group members.
“Impact Through Information Influence,” SubCulture Systems, January 2025
This research by Sense Worldwide in late 2024 was phase one of a larger emergent strategy project designed to address how we might reinvent or supercharge the supplemental, elementary age Jewish learning experience so that it deeply resonates with and is widely adopted by “the 70%.” The 70% are defined as those North American, non-orthodox, self-identifying Jewish and Jewish+ families who currently choose not to affiliate with traditional Jewish institutions or enroll in traditional supplemental Jewish education. (Note: because this research phase is part of a larger project, the Strategic Hypothesis represents recommendations for applying the findings).
The comprehensive research phase involved several components: a literature review; Global Mind Expansion Sprint; interviews with seven category, cross-category and cultural experts and change-makers; identification of the foundational building blocks for meaningful childhood experiences, modern values and parenting principles; and ethnographic deep dives with 18 unaffiliated families.
The research revealed a diverse set of needs and pain points for the 70% which are distributed over the life cycle of a family unit.
“Reinventing Hebrew School: Research Summary,” Sense Worldwide, December 2024
This 2024 framework by Dr. Ari Kelman shifts the focus from an approach to Jewish education that caters to learners to one guided by an understanding of learning. It offers a challenge, a charge, and a provocation to Jewish educators and supporters of Jewish education to imagine what might happen to the field if we shift its focus from what Jewish education teaches and instead explore how people learn. The paper begins with an overview of some basic approaches to general theories of learning to establish a framework for exploring their implications for the field of Jewish education. It serves as an invitation to consider what Jewish education might look like if it places the ways that people learn at the center.
Read the research: How People Learn in Jewish Education, Ari Y Kelman, Ph.D., November 2024
Read more insights in eJewish Philanthropy from the Foundation’s Stacie Cherner and Yonah Schiller
This study was conducted in spring and summer 2024 by Albi and Clarafy Research in order to learn where and how young American Jews who are currently not served (or are underserved) by mainstream Jewish institutions and organizations contend with, experience, navigate, and see Israel within their own identity.
Findings are based on 13 separate, moderated qualitative discussions with a total of 65 unserved and underserved Jews. Focus group conversations ranged from 90-120 minutes among audiences aged 18-49 who identified as Jewish and were currently not involved in Jewish communal organizations or institutions.
The findings show that young Jews in this study grapple with their identity, antisemitism, and the tensions and complexities of Israel and the Gaza War.
“Unserved & Underserved Jewish Research,” Albi + Clarafy Research, September 2024
This is a qualitative exploratory research study by Hart Research Associates conducted in early 2023. The overarching objective of this study was to discover what disaffected and unaffiliated Jewish young people need or want in a rabbi, even among those for whom the idea of connecting with a rabbi seems far-fetched. (Note: the terms “disaffected and unaffiliated” were placeholders and not terms we use now to describe people who are not served or are underserved by Jewish institutions and organizations)
Researchers conducted 20 in-depth interviews of young Jews between the ages of 18 and 34 who had no current connection with a formal Jewish institution such as a synagogue, Jewish federation, or Hillel.
The research highlights that, for these young Jewish people, any opportunity to connect must provide a relatable, modern experience that is inclusive and on-going.
“Rethinking the Rabbi: Findings from Qualitative Research Conducted in January and February 2023,” Hart Research Associates, March 2023
The reports presented here were the culmination of a roughly year-long narrative research study that sought to understand the differing ways and reasons Jewish Americans identify as being Jewish. The Foundation’s ultimate goal in commissioning this study was to better understand how to tell a more inclusive and sustainable story of what it means today to be Jewish in America and the world.
Our approach to this study utilized the Story Platform process, a proprietary process initially created by Kirk Cheyfitz and developed over some two decades by him and a collective of researchers. The process is meant to produce a “Story Platform” — essentially, a few words that shape and express a persuasive narrative that is most likely to be understood, believed, and embraced by its intended audience.
The results are reported here in two parts. For Part 1, researchers Kirk Cheyfitz and Michael Ahn, working with all the material and findings previously collected by the Foundation’s Emergent Strategy team, conducted 20 in-depth, hour-long, in-depth interviews (IDIs) with participants selected to represent the potential leaders of movements to create new kinds of Jewish communities. The purpose of the interviews was to discover the range of ideas and the underlying narratives driving the participants’ concepts of Jewish futures and, particularly, the potential nature of Jewish communities. All are proud to be Jews. The vast majority were unaffiliated and disengaged from Jewish communal life.
The IDIs focused on questions meant to discover the range of ideas, feelings, and underlying narratives driving the concepts of what “Jewish” means — what makes a community Jewish, the role played by Jewish history and tradition, what Jewish futures can be, and what constitutes Jewish values today.
The themes that emerged from the IDIs then informed the design of a one-day Story Platform Workshop, which is the subject of Part 2. The workshop had 18 participants, and the conclusions they reached together helped produce the core narrative that was the object of the Jewish Futures Narrative Project: a core narrative that could powerfully call American Jews to rebuild Jewish communal life on a more broadly engaging and inclusive basis.
“Story Platform Workshop for a Jewish Futures Narrative,” Kirk Cheyfitz and Michael Ahn, July 2022
This 2021 study utilized a research methodology fine-tuned by Harmony Labs using opt-in internet panel data to explore the cultural experiences and media preferences that make the Jewish American community unique. Researchers identified over 2000 research panelists who engaged with Jewish life on the internet over a period of a year. (Note: the terms “mapped and unmapped” were placeholders and not terms we use now to describe people who are not served or are underserved by Jewish institutions and organizations)
Key insights:
- Jews are avid information-seekers, consuming news to make sense of the world.
- When not consuming news, top content still features information and learning.
- Jewish users are distinctively associated with movies and unmapped Jews in particular are uniquely drawn to the fantastical, especially superhero content from Marvel and DC.
- Finally, unmapped Jews are drawn to “cozy” content – related to food, home and comfort.
“Cultural Experiences of Jewish Americans,” Harmony Labs, December 2021