Reinventing Hebrew School? Think About Your Audience First

In late 2024, a research team set out to understand the unmet needs of unaffiliated Jewish families with school-aged kids. Conducted by Sense Worldwide (SWW), the research was commissioned by the Emergent Strategy Team at the Jim Joseph Foundation, inspired by a stark reality: Hebrew school enrollment has plummeted in the last several decades. While the research project was known as “Reinventing Hebrew School,” the clearest takeaway was simple: families today want individualized and varied opportunities to engage in Jewish life.

Even as many congregations have worked to improve their Hebrew school, with many making real strides toward positive outcomes, the findings show that for Jewish families like those in our study, even a reimagined Hebrew school isn’t the answer.

Understanding the audience

Through a literature review, a series of expert discussions and ethnographic interviews with families, the researchers were able to learn about families who are Jewish but, according to them, are not served by Jewish communal institutions. To be clear, these unserved Jewish families — about 70% of American Jews — aren’t a monolith. They are diverse in terms of upbringings, family makeup, socioeconomic status and sense of Jewish identity. But the research does show that they tend to fall into three broad groups.

Read the entire blog at eJewish Philanthropy.