Getting the Jewish Workforce Out of ‘the Red Zone’

Recently, over morning coffee, my wife remarked to me how lucky I am to do the work I do to help the Jewish community in this moment.

She was and is 100% correct. “I know that I am so fortunate,” I said. “I have an amazing job, incredible colleagues and a brilliant and supportive board.  I am on the funder side, where true emergencies are extremely rare.”

“Even with all that,” I confided, “I very occasionally wish I was doing something else. It’s hard to be in the Red Zone all day, every day, which has been the case since Oct. 7.”

“The Red Zone” is a reference to the work of Susan Britton, founder and president of The Academies. Her company focuses on training courses for leaders, businesses and organizations using evidence-based methods that are rooted in neuroscience. One of the cornerstones of her work is what she calls Blue and Red Zones.

These “zones” are measurable physiological states. When we feel safe, in Britton’s words, our “parasympathetic nervous system… brings heart rate and blood pressure to healthy levels, nurtures immune and digestive systems, and restores cortisol levels to baseline… [Thinking becomes] broader and more creative so that we can be more strategic and proactive.”

But when we feel threatened, she writes, “we get emotionally hijacked… [T]he sympathetic nervous system [spikes] us with extra cortisol, adrenaline, and other neurotransmitters. In this fight-flight state, the smartest part of the brain goes off-line (the neocortex), heart rate increases, vagal tone diminishes, and open-mindedness shuts down.”

As humans, we simply can’t spend too much time in the Red Zone. For sure, acute events happen — a loved one dies, a medical diagnosis scares us — but over time, people generally regulate back to “Blue Zones.” As Britton explains, “These temporary spikes are normal and functional when limited to a short period of true need, but damaging to organs over extended periods of time.”

In our incredibly volatile world, pressures on communal professionals have been steadily growing for over a decade. We thought that came to a head with COVID-19, but sadly, while that was very difficult, it was a picnic compared to what many professionals are experiencing today post-Oct. 7. That unprecedented day affected nearly all Jews — most intensely, of course, the direct victims and hostages, as well as their loved ones and all Israelis. For professionals in the Jewish communal world, the lingering impact of that day is felt 24/7 (yes, even on Shabbat) in other ways. In addition to the emotional toll, we feel it logistically as well, with new efforts aimed to support Israel, readjust organizational priorities and respond to rising intra-community and intercommunity tensions and a global upsurge in antisemitism. These efforts are a sprint and a marathon combined.

Recently I had the privilege to attend BBYO’s International Convention. I witnessed the power and joy of over 3,800 teens as they sang, learned, hugged old friends and simply hung out together. The convention was a space to grow personally, share their perspective on big issues and articulate their hopes and fears. I think in many ways I needed that time and experience more than they did. It was incredibly uplifting to be “in the room where it happens” and witness teens, well, just being teens in deep community.

All the uplift of that moment was in stark contrast with the general state of Jewish professional life right now. Over the past five months, I have spent time with dozens of colleagues representing the full range of positions and years of experience in the Jewish professional field. What I saw and heard in many conversations was, frankly, scary. The burnout is massive and the pressures on them are simply not sustainable.

Our people have been in the Red Zone for over five months; this is damaging to the Jewish community and the people who make it function. I fear this will cause a exodus of professionals in the field. Particularly as we inch closer to a surely heated and polarizing November election, the pressure and urgency are not sustainable. The “brain drain” will accentuate an already acute workforce and leadership pipeline problem.

To be sure, being in the Red Zone every once in a while can be a good thing to deepen one’s focus and accelerate progress toward a goal. But how can we get the Jewish workforce out of the Red Zone in the long term to counter an exodus before it occurs?

This will take a concerted and long-term effort, but here are a few basic ideas to get started:

1.) Make jobs doable by no longer fearing overhead.  We need a serious rethink of the jobs we ask people to do. Our expectations of people should be, yes, demanding, but also manageable. That could mean leaders focusing more on key priorities and/or dialing back demand. To any leader, manager, board member or other stakeholder, I recommend that before you ask a professional for something, you ask yourself: Is this question important and/or urgent? If it is not, hold off.

On the flip side, making jobs more manageable could also be accomplished by hiring more people. Those who work in the Jewish community are our “raw material,” and yet we skimp and save like crazy. Even before Oct. 7, Leading Edge data from May 2023 showed that most employees and most CEOs at Jewish nonprofits don’t feel there are enough people in the organization to do the organization’s work. Since Oct. 7, that can only have gotten worse. More general operating support from more funders to our trusted grantees would begin to alleviate these feelings. Let’s not fear “overhead.” After all, Jewish professionals are in positions to bring joy to the community, but when their jobs are too overwhelming, that is impossible for them to do.

2.) Compensate our field better. If we want to attract and retain the best and brightest people, we have to pay them well. Why are so many entry- and mid-level employees, who are so critical to their organizations, paid so little while living in large cities (where many organizations are based) with high costs of living? This is even more egregious because we know how much day schools, camps, Israel trips and other programs cost in so many parts of the country. Ironically, working in the Jewish community can sometimes make it financially impossible to access the offerings in the community.

3.) Do more to activate boards to help. Boards will be vital in getting back to the Blue Zone. They are stewards of organizations’ resources and long-term strategies, as key partners to professional leaders, and as links between organizations and their communities. Boards need to support their professionals like never before in recognition of the massive amount of complexity they are dealing with every minute of each day.  In the long term, we need to rethink the sacred and powerful alliance of how boards and professionals work together. It is often the “secret sauce” that makes our community tick, but a lot of the models are stale. When professionals get stuck in the Red Zone, their boards need to help stabilize and transition their work back to the Blue Zone.

One thing we can all do immediately is express gratitude

A little thank you goes a long way. Let’s go out of our way to acknowledge all that Jewish communal professionals are doing in this moment. We can show patience, kindness and the wisdom of our ancient teachings to judge others favorably.

Think for a moment how, for example, a Hillel professional’s job has grown exponentially. Instead of just focusing on joyful Jewish interactions, they now deal with student mental health, antisemitism, college administrators, safety and security — the list goes on and on. One job became ten. The same is true as the list of demands on many professionals grows and grows.

As I wrote a few months ago, these organizations are the heartbeat of Jewish life in North America. They need more resources, they need more champions, they need more colleagues—and they need a simple thanks.

So, to everyone in this field: thank you. You are giving it your all, you are tired and you’ve been in the Red Zone far too long. Your work and dedication are incredibly valuable.

We can all engage more thoughtfully and more gracefully with professionals. We can structure organizations to better attract young talent and support their success as they become veterans in the field. The Blue Zone is out there. We can get back to it. The vibrancy and health of Jewish professionals and communities depend on it.

Barry Finestone is president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation.

This blog originally appeared in eJewish Philanthropy as part of its opinion column “The 501(C) Suite.”
(image credit Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay)

New research on U.S. College Students and the War in Israel: Jewish Engagement and Social Tension on Campus

Students survey pre and post Oct. 7th say they pay social penalties for being Jewish and supporting Israel; data also show how non-Jewish anti-Israel and antisemitic statements breakdown by political ideology

March 6, 2024 — Jewish college students are experiencing and exhibiting significant changes on college campuses since October 7th regarding their Jewish identity, participation in Jewish programming, and increased social tension on campus, according to new findings from research conducted by Eitan Hersh, PhD, and College Pulse, and funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation. The research provides key insights on the impact of October 7th and subsequent rise in antisemitism on Jewish college students on campus. The study also asked questions about their views on Israel and the extent to which their own mental health has been affected in recent months.

The research, “U.S. College Students and the War in Israel: Jewish Engagement and Social Tension on Campus,” is unique because it includes survey responses from Jewish college students who also participated in a study conducted by Dr. Hersh in 2022.

“The students from both surveys are a direct link between pre-October 7 Jewish life on campus and post-October 7 Jewish life on campus,” said Dr. Hersh, professor of Political Science at Tufts University. “The data show a campus environment that is a much different place for Jewish students. They felt a big social change. Many of their non-Jewish peers of all political perspectives act differently toward them.”

One set of findings, The Social Costs of Being Jewish and Supporting Israel on Campus: What a Before/After Survey Can Tell Us , notes that more than a third of Jewish students report they are hiding their identity in order to fit in and are being judged if they participate in Jewish activities. Those numbers have doubled from before the conflict. Additionally, Jewish students overwhelmingly perceive a social penalty for supporting the right of Israel to exist. Non-Jewish students in the survey corroborate this, with the highest agreement (50 percent) coming from those on the far left or who identify as socialist.

Another set of findings, A Survey Portrait of Jewish Life on Campus in the Midst of the Israel-Hamas War: 7 Key Findings notes that Jewish students feel a heightened sense of Jewish identity; 35 percent say they feel very close to a Jewish community, double the amount who said so in April 2022. Relatedly, there appears to be a substantial increase both in students who occasionally attend Jewish activities and programs on campus and those who attend events weekly or more. However, the increase in participation does not mean that these spaces were always comfortable for all Jewish students.

“Amid stronger Jewish identities and engagement, a major change from our survey just two years ago is that more of these young people have formed opinions and have increased their support for the state,” added Hersh. “Jewish students, and essentially only Jewish students, are attending Pro-Israel events.”

Additional findings, covered in The Complicated Relationship between Ideology and Attitudes about Jews and Israel, break down views among students by ideology, finding that “Young people on the left are more likely to exhibit extreme negative attitudes when it comes to Israel, whereas young people on the right, as well as some minority identity groups typically associated with the left, are more likely to endorse ominous and prejudicial statements about Jews.” These minority identity groups are “far more likely to say that Israeli civilians are legitimate targets of Hamas than White students are. In other words, these students answer the Israel-focused questions like liberals and Jewish-focused questions like conservatives.”

“For anyone looking to support and meaningfully engage Jewish college students, the data show both immense challenges and opportunities,” said Stacie Cherner, Director of Research and Learning at the Jim Joseph Foundation. “Both in scale and depth, the research goes beyond anecdotal stories many of us have heard. Jewish students feel more isolated and ostracized, and they feel this from peers of all political perspectives.”

These findings represent a mid-point in the research. A series of focus groups will be conducted in the spring, as well as another survey. Both of these data collection efforts will allow for continued examination of change over time, and a full report will be available in summer 2024.

 

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Study Background:
The study was funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation. The survey itself was administered by College Pulse, a survey and analytics firm specializing in the college student population. Dr. Hersh, who has conducted a number of studies on civic engagement, young adults, and antisemitism, worked with the Foundation and College Pulse to organize this research project and analyze the results. The Methodology is explained in the report:

Back in the Spring of 2022, our team surveyed approximately 2,000 Jewish students and 1,000 non-Jewish students across the country who were attending 4-year colleges. I published a report in 2022 that details the methodology and results. That report analyzed several questions related to Israel and antisemitism that have become especially relevant in light of the recent turmoil on campuses.

Because there are no official benchmarks of what the true population of Jewish American students looks like in terms of demographics or attitudes, it’s hard to know whether a sample of this kind is truly representative. However, as explained in my 2022 report, the basic demographics of the students who were sampled look similar to other studies, such as the young adults surveyed in Pew’s 2020 study of Jewish Americans, which gives us some confidence in the sample.

Between November 16 and December 21, 2023 – 40-75 days following the October 7th attack – we fielded a second survey. This survey was completed by about 1,000 Jewish students and 1,500 non-Jewish students. The Jewish students include those who consider themselves ethnically or culturally Jewish even if not Jewish by religion.

155 of the Jewish students surveyed in 2023 were among the students who were surveyed back in 2022. Back then, they were freshmen and sophomores. Now, they’re juniors and seniors. This is called a panel design, and I’ll refer to the students surveyed both years as “the panel.” The full set of respondents in each year I’ll refer to as the “cross-sections.”

The panel of students surveyed both years provides a link between pre-October 7 Jewish life on campus and post-October 7 Jewish life on campus. If we observe attitudinal changes in the panel, we know it’s not because of sampling variation but because students felt differently in 2023 than 2022. It turns out that the changes we measure are so big that they are highly statistically significant, even with a relatively modest sample size of 155 students in the panel.

One last note on the methodology. In the 2022 survey, the sample of non-Jewish students was designed to be representative of four-year college students across the country. In the 2023 survey, we made an adjustment. We focused the non-Jewish sample on schools that have substantial Jewish populations. To really understand social tensions and the campus climate as experienced by Jewish students, we didn’t need to survey non-Jewish students in schools that have very few Jewish students.

Instead, the 2023 survey pulls non-Jewish students mainly from 21 specific campuses. Those campuses are quite diverse. They include public schools (e.g., Binghamton, University of Michigan) and private schools (e.g., Columbia, Tulane); they are in northeast (e.g., Dartmouth, Northeastern), the south (e.g., Emory, University of Central Florida); the midwest (e.g., Washington University-St. Louis, Ohio State), and the west (e.g., University of California, San Diego, University of Arizona). But they are all campuses with sizeable Jewish populations.

About the Researcher:
Eitan Hersh is a professor of political science at Tufts University. His research focuses on US elections and civic participation. Hersh is the author of Politics is for Power (Scribner, 2020), Hacking the Electorate (Cambridge UP 2015), as well as many scholarly articles. Hersh earned his PhD from Harvard in 2011 and served as assistant professor of political science at Yale University from 2011-2017. His public writings have appeared in venues such as the New York Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, POLITICO, and the Boston Globe. Hersh regularly testifies in voting rights court cases and has testified to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the role of data analytics in political campaigns. In addition to work on elections and civic engagement, Hersh has written on topics ranging from antisemitism and the political consequences of terrorist attacks to politicization in health care delivery and the opioid crisis. His next book is about the civic role of business leaders.

What Moving Traditions has Learned about Teens and Israel

In the course of developing “Our Next Generation” — the most recent strategic plan for our organization, Moving Traditions, released in 2022 — we learned that many teens didn’t feel they had permission to talk about Israel. They felt they weren’t sufficiently informed about the country’s deep and complicated history, or they were worried that they had an opinion that wasn’t the “right” opinion. As a result, we started asking ourselves and our stakeholders: How can we better support Jewish teens by making sure they can bring whatever is weighing on their hearts to Jewish spaces without fear? How can we do that in a way that also respects the very different mindsets their parents and educators might have?

Curricula evolution: First planned, then accelerated

Israel education has not always been at the center of Moving Traditions’ curricula. For many years, Moving Traditions has provided institutions and individuals with materials that merge social and emotional support with Jewish education. These often incorporate a gender lens, as sexuality, sex and gender are primary lenses through which preteens and teens see the world. We have vast experience in creating safe spaces for teens, teaching them how to feel a sense of wellbeing (shleimut) and caring connection (hesed) and build toward a more just world (tzedek).

With that focus, Moving Traditions’ curriculum previously touched upon Israel relatively lightly. We explored similarities and differences in experiences of homeland in the United States and Israel and issues of Jewish identity and peoplehood, and we incorporated quotes, poems and contemporary midrash by Israeli leaders and writers; but we didn’t delve deeply into Israel education as it wasn’t our primary issue. Not only that, but it was a complicated subject — one that might alienate participants, partners, parents and funders.

Yet even before Oct. 7, we were heading towards change. In November 2022, we invited our board into a conversation about leaning into Israel education, seeking their guidance and guardrails as we embarked on work that was new to us. But the war has accelerated that process. Now, we find ourselves investing significant resources to help teens respond to the war in Israel and Gaza. We have created curricula and webinars that have served 5,000-plus educators and parents since the start of the war. Like many others within the Jewish community and outside of it, we are also grappling with rising antisemitism that has been too prevalent in responses to the Oct. 7 massacre and the subsequent war in Gaza.

We are finding that teens do want to talk, learn and think. We know that as Jewish educators specializing in teens, we need to do more to support them and their parents in this moment and in the years to come. We are still figuring out how to fully navigate the new and complicated terrain. But one of our most important discoveries is that when it comes to teens and Israel, what might be needed most is making them feel safe and welcome in these difficult conversations.

The extent to which Israel is a part of teens lives

While some Jewish educators and parents can think of little else, teens are still consumed by the already overwhelming experiences of adolescence. In holding these conversations, we simultaneously understand that Israel is not the only thing occupying teens’ minds.

One of our most compelling anecdotes about this came from a leadership conference we held in early November for Kumi, our anti-oppression teen leadership initiative. Toward the beginning of the retreat, we did a standing thermometer exercise about what pressures teens were facing at that moment, on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). We invited teens to call out what was weighing on them. The first teen to speak called out “Israel,” and went to stand close to the end of the line at what would have been a 9.5. This was a teen who had recently returned from a trip to Israel and Poland. The other teens mostly congregated around 7 on the invisible thermometer. Then another teen called out “AP classes,” and the teens all rushed toward the “10” — one teen joked he would have burst through the wall to go farther if it was an option.

Teens who participate in Moving Traditions come from a variety of Jewish backgrounds, and the diversity of their day-to-day environments and social milieus were reflected in the stories they shared. Some who attend Jewish day schools talked about how it felt shocking not to hear any sympathy at all for Palestinian civilians; others who attend public and non-Jewish private schools talked about the challenge of making decisions about which teachers were safe to be open with about their experiences of antisemitism and which they felt would just stand by — or worse. In a conversation about race, a student spoke about how oppressive it felt to have to hide as a Jew in some spaces. At the same time, the student acknowledged the privilege of being able to pass as white, something the Jews of color at the retreat couldn’t do.

The teens were engaged and spoke with nuance. Overall, they expressed deep gratitude at the retreat that Israel came up organically, that the conversation was not “forced” on them, and that it felt safe to share how they were truly feeling.

In one of the curricular exercises we created shortly after Oct. 7, we encourage educators to go around the room and ask teens: When it comes to Israel, who and what are you most worried about right now? I recently posed this question to 40 teen leaders at a regional retreat for another leading youth organization, one of the most effusive and friendly groups of teens I’ve ever had the chance to speak with.

Their answers spanned the spectrum: One teen spoke about a cousin who is serving in the IDF in a unit that lost 21 of its members in a single day when Hamas forces fired rocket-propelled grenades on buildings the soldiers were inside; her cousin was one of the lucky ones in the unit who survived. Another student spoke about how the war has changed every day of their lives, as they feared backlash or antisemitic responses to decisions they wouldn’t have previously thought twice about, like wearing an Israeli flag charm on their Crocs. A third teen shared their fears about kids their own age living in Gaza — were they being killed? Could they sleep at night when they hear rockets and gunfire nearby? Would they ever return to school?

These thoughtful and varied answers reflect our broader experience working with teens, particularly the ease with which a group of teens engages with “both/and” thinking — the ability to feel strongly connected to Israel and recognize the devastating costs of the current war on Israelis and on Palestinian civilian life. Most importantly, though, the question clearly communicates to teens that they and their worries will be held with compassion, and that every teen can participate in a conversation about Israel even if they are starting at very different places.

Shuli Karkowsky is CEO of Moving Traditions.

This blog originally appeared in eJewish Philanthropy. Photo courtesy of Moving Traditions: Teens participate in a Moving Traditions program for Rosh Hodesh.

CASJE’s Research Digest: Timely Analysis Post October 7th

In the immediate aftermath of October 7th and the subsequent rise in antisemitism, a plethora of new research emerged focused on the needs, feelings, and opinions of American Jews. Jewish communal professionals wanted to make sense of these often-complex data and trends for their own practical purposes. Responding to this need, CASJE (Collaborative for Applied Studies in Jewish Education) developed a Research Digest to serve as an educational tool that made research more accessible and applicable for professionals busy planning and practicing in a new, post-October 7th world.

Over the last ten years CASJE has helped stakeholders in Jewish education develop and use high-quality, applied research to improve their work. The CASJE Research Digest built on this proven record, providing reliable, meaningful, and timely information to support communal leaders and funders benefit in their decision making.

At CASJE, we believe that Jewish communal decision-makers should be guided by the highest quality knowledge. A core aim of our work is to help Jewish communal and foundation professionals put research to good use. In the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel we saw the launch of a number of important data collection efforts here in the U.S. focused on the attitudes and experiences of American Jews. In this challenging and pivotal time we designed the Research Digest to both facilitate access to this growing body of research evidence and give insight into how to read that evidence in contextually appropriate ways.
– Arielle Levites, PhD, Managing Director of CASJE at George Washington University

A key aim of the digest was to help the field improve its collective capacity to be smart consumers and users of research. All studies have limitations, and the digest illuminated those limitations without judgment. Interpreting sophisticated research for a general audience, and unpacking where data can and cannot be applied, aligns with CASJE’s mission to see research applied effectively. Examining study limitations in the digest also enabled the reader to answer critical questions: What do these findings mean for me and what I am trying to accomplish for the people I serve, in this place where they are, at this time that we’re in, and with the resources I have. To that end, CASJE also shared a discussion guide in each digest for use with colleagues to frame discussion about the featured studies and their applicability in various Jewish communal settings.

CASJE, the Jim Joseph Foundation, and certainly many others were hearing a real need to help make sense of this immense amount of new information. Leaders and practitioners in the field had to pivot so quickly; they didn’t have time to comb through new studies and determine what information was most pertinent to them. CASJE stepped in to help these professionals quickly make sense of them and think about the contexts in which these new findings were most relevant.
– Stacie Cherner, Director of Research and Learning, Jim Joseph Foundation

The Research Digest’s 11 issues featured studies on American Jews and timely topics around the Israel-Hamas war and/or antisemitism. The studies, conducted by professional researchers, were already being discussed and circulated in the Jewish communal space and the general public. Two issues of the Research Digest also featured interviews with experts on how to interpret public opinion polls.

Beyond the digest, CASJE’s ongoing work continues. The CASJE Small Grants Program supports studies of Jewish educational processes and outcomes. These grants are intended to stimulate research that investigates Jewish education and its effects, and that is well-positioned to inform practice. Previous Small Grants projects have investigated learning across the wide variety of settings where Jewish education happens and focus on learners of any age across the lifespan. Other current CASJE projects include its Applied Research Fellowship, an advanced training program for scholars, and its Research Use Group, which empowers Jewish educational and engagement professionals to build their capacity to lead research-informed initiatives. CASJE also is a proud member of the fifth cohort of Project Accelerate, a unique program that guides and supports high-performing organizations poised to enter a new stage in their growth and development.

CASJE’s work is guided by an Advisory Board made up of highly accomplished scholars and practitioners in Jewish education and general education. Access the Research Digest issues here. Learn more about CASJE’s other current projects here.

 The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of CASJE.

U.S. College Students and the War in Israel: Jewish Engagement and Social Tension on Campus

New research conducted by Dr. Eitan Hersh provides key insights on the impact of October 7th and subsequent rise in antisemitism on Jewish college students on campus. In particular, the research examines whether and how Jewish college students are experiencing changes in Jewish identity and participation, and increased social tension, on campus. Students also answered survey questions regarding their changing views about Israel and the extent to which their own mental health has been affected in recent months.

This research is unique in that it includes survey responses from Jewish college students who also participated in a study conducted by Dr. Hersh in 2022. As Dr. Hersh notes, “The panel of students surveyed both years provides a link between pre-October 7 Jewish life on campus and post-October 7 Jewish life on campus. If we observe attitudinal changes in the panel, we know it’s not because of sampling variation but because students felt differently in 2023 than 2022.”

These new findings represent a mid-point in the research. A series of focus groups will be conducted in the spring, as well as another survey. Both of these data collection efforts will allow for continued examination of change over time. A full report will be available in summer 2024.

Dr. Hersh shares interim findings from the research in the three-part essay series below:

About the Researcher:
Eitan Hersh is a professor of political science at Tufts University. His research focuses on US elections and civic participation. Hersh is the author of Politics is for Power (Scribner, 2020), Hacking the Electorate (Cambridge UP 2015), as well as many scholarly articles. Hersh earned his PhD from Harvard in 2011 and served as assistant professor of political science at Yale University from 2011-2017. His public writings have appeared in venues such as the New York Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, POLITICO, and the Boston Globe. Hersh regularly testifies in voting rights court cases and has testified to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the role of data analytics in political campaigns. In addition to work on elections and civic engagement, Hersh has written on topics ranging from antisemitism and the political consequences of terrorist attacks to politicization in health care delivery and the opioid crisis. His next book is about the civic role of business leaders.

Brief Study Background:
The study was funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation. The survey itself was administered by College Pulse, a survey and analytics firm specializing in the college student population. Dr. Hersh, who has conducted a number of studies on civic engagement, young adults, and antisemitism, worked with the Foundation and College Pulse to organize this research project and analyze the results.

To receive the full data set of the study when it’s available, please email [email protected] with “data set request” as the subject line.

Media Coverage

 

Responding to this Historical Moment: Jewish Educators, Clergy, Engagement Professionals, and the War in Israel

This report delves into the experiences of Jewish professionals in the wake of October 7th, highlighting their feelings of isolation and confusion. Faced with events of historical magnitude, there is across the board recognition of the need to respond, coupled with uncertainty about the best course of action. Post-October 7th, during the survey period, these professionals were seeking clarity, facts, safety, and hope, while grappling with fundamental questions about the unfolding events and their implications.

The report underscores the inherent difficulties in facilitating conversations about challenging issues; including, but not limited to, those related to Israel. These challenges existed prior to October 7th and in the immediate aftermath were on full display. Issues fundamental to living life in contemporary society at this particular moment in time were raised. For example, in the age of social media as a primary source of information, “what should we believe?” The jarring experience of feeling oneself as part of a persecuted minority, “why do they hate us?”

These experiences and questions lead to a desire to speak and process. Some of the survey respondents provide purposeful responses to the war, which demonstrate how these large existential issues can integrate into a Jewish professional’s repertoire in a manner that overrides narrow disciplinary or context-specific approaches to Jewish education and community. The focus is on responding to this moment and
seeing one’s membership in the Jewish People as an asset for tackling life’s big issues.

In the past decade, various initiatives have emerged, focusing on enhancing the communication ability of Jewish professionals, particularly around contentious issues. These initiatives represent a shift towards acknowledging the importance of talking about and addressing challenging topics as essential components of a vibrant Jewish community. They aim to foster environments where individuals can engage in meaningful conversations about personal and collective issues, thus strengthening community bonds.

The report draws on the answers to the survey questions to propose a framework for purposeful communication to help Jewish professionals navigate the dynamic and changing post-October 7th landscape. This framework emphasizes the importance of identifying one’s professional narrative; including, specifying the big questions posed by learners, educational and institutional considerations, and dilemmas in order to craft an appropriate educational strategy. Ideally this process occurs through discussion with colleagues.

“Responding to this Historical Moment: Jewish Educators, Clergy, Engagement Professionals, and the War in Israel,” Ezra Kopelowitz, Ph.D., Hadar Franco Gilron, Ph.D., Jake Gillis, M.ED, Research Success Technologies LTD. & The Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education, February 2024

Read more insights from this research in this piece in eJewish Philanthropy.

Building Personal Connections Among American and Israeli Teens

On October 7th, Israel experienced a pogrom, a targeted massacre intended to destroy as many Jews as possible. The trauma is still raw, and many displaced Israeli families are still living out of suitcases. Moreover, the attack and its aftermath did not merely affect Jews living in Israel. Jews in the Diaspora are feeling isolated, othered, and forced to endure a new wave of antisemitism. Historically, connection between Jews in Israel and those in the Diaspora has been a mitigant to seclusion and an accelerant to peoplehood. Today, with travel limited, especially for organized teen trips, external factors are making those connections more difficult to foster and sustain. How do we build these connections now?

In the last few months, Jewish leaders and educators have rightfully been thinking about how Jewish education and Israel education must evolve post-October 7th. Israel travel experiences and curricula on Jewish history and modern Israel are being looked at anew. Along with these important aspects of education, we want to elevate the importance—now more than ever—of mifgashim, cross-cultural encounters. These personal relationships between young Diaspora Jews and young Israeli Jews will be critical in building a Jewish future in which youth find meaning and meaningful connections.

Mifgashim have existed in numerous Jewish settings—camps, schools, service programs and Israel travel—with outcomes proven over decades. This web of personal relationships across Jewish societies creates cross-cultural frameworks, which foster a shared consciousness of peoplehood and belonging. We certainly see these outcomes with ENTER’s One2One initiative, a mifgashim program that relies on technology to build connections. In peacetime, mifgashim are structured around the defining elements of Jewish peoplehood, including mutual responsibility and a shared sense of belonging. In wartime, such opportunities can foster empathy, counter misinformation, breakdown stereotypes, and foster a sense of personal responsibility in the Jewish future. Undoubtedly, for young diasporic Jews experiencing virulent antisemitism for the first time in their lives, these relationships can feel therapeutic and create safe spaces. They also can help young Jews navigate questions of identity and expectations around Jewish solidarity.

While Diaspora leaders and educators often focus on the influence of mifgashim on Diaspora youth and young adults, we have long known of the positive outcomes on Israelis. Post October 7th, Israelis need mifgashim more than ever. Investing in relationships can chip away at Israelis’ sense of isolation and insecurity during such a traumatic time. This reality invites us to think about interactions between Jews in the U.S. and those in Israel as a form of first aid.

With looming uncertainties, innovative, virtual frameworks take on even greater importance. As antisemitism permeates social media and seeps into high schools as it already has on college campuses—and as Israeli teens feel ignored by the world around them—we cannot wait for the college years for a critical, interpersonal interaction. There is increasing interest from teens to pair with a chavruta (partner) who understands what she or he is going through. This demand on the ground aligns with research showing that young people are eager to connect with each other and shape their own future with experiences in which they find meaning and purpose. Investing in mifgash frameworks, as we know from summer camp cross-cultural encounters or from programs like Birthright, creates pathways that stimulate interest in Jewish learning, Jewish ideas, and our expansive Jewish cultural milieu.

Fostering connectivity, including peer-to-peer relationships, is also an opportunity for North American Jewry to demonstrate its collective concern in ways that are non-partisan, supportive, and unvarnished.  These efforts are about people, not talking points. Three years ago, during the worst days of the pandemic, ENTER had this mindset when it established the One2One initiative to address the lapse in connection at that moment. The program began with 600 participants in 2021 and expanded to 2,500 in 2022 and 4,100 in 2023.  Today, there are more than 4,000 Israeli teens in schools across Israel who have signed up and are waiting for North American counterparts to join them in conversation. The outcomes of these conversations show greater connection, knowledge, and friendship for both partners. Young people find such opportunities both edifying and enriching.

Put in different terms, we would rather have our teens’ most memorable exposure to Israel be through a one-on-one relationship with an Israeli peer rather than a YouTube video, internet meme, or social media post. Building personal connections between Israeli and American teens is a support mechanism and educational system all in one. The demand from teens is there. Now it’s up to leaders and educators to make those connections possible.

Alon Friedman is the Founding CEO of ENTER. Steven Green is a Senior Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation, which is a supporter of the One2One initiative.

Originally published in the Jerusalem Post

Continuing to build: What we’ve learned and what we’re changing in our new area of grantmaking

Over a year ago, the Jim Joseph Foundation shared with eJewishPhilanthropy readers that it would be investing in a new grant area: Build Grants (“Building something together: How our new grant category supports organizations’ growth and sustainability,” May 9, 2022).

“One of our three strategic priorities is investing in Powerful Jewish Learning Experiences (PJLE),” the foundation shared then. “Build Grants support organizations to invest in their capacity to expand their programs and operations, thus engaging more people at different life stages in meaningful Jewish life. And importantly, we utilize these grants, in part, to support offerings that engage new audiences of young Jews whom we are not reaching with our existing investments.”

When we launched this new strategy, we relied heavily on all of the principles that now compose the Foundation’s First Principles, including centering young people, building  meaningful relationships, looking around corners, being curious and leveraging time. Aware that grantee-partners would be on a learning journey with us, we leaned on strong relationships developed over years of relational grantmaking. Our mutual trust actually deepened as we navigated unknowns together about how the work was going and what might come at the conclusion of these grants.

With a new strategy and hypothesis about structure and impact, the Foundation Program Team sought from the outset to always learn throughout this grantmaking experiment. We are devoting significant time, energy and resources to learn as much as we can to improve this area of grantmaking, continually reflecting on what works well and where changes could strengthen our approach.

To this end, we solicited early feedback from grantee partners, funding colleagues and field experts, incorporating high-level insights from our board and assessing our own experience with these investments along the way. We also partnered with Third Plateau on an external evaluation to capture both best practices and formal feedback from early Build Grantee partners.

Some insights led to minor changes, such as identifying which readiness factors needed to be met in full and which had more flexibility. One major observation became clear, however: Given the high bar to qualify, fewer organizations than anticipated were ready for a Build Grant right away. Many required smaller, more targeted capacity-building investments to improve their readiness to absorb growth capital.

In response, we conceptualized Capacity Build Grants: an investment in an organization’s initial capacity when it is a promising Build Grant candidate but missing one or more of the readiness criteria. These targeted investments can fund a strategic plan, evaluation, organizational assessment or other specific areas of need that further position an organization for a Scaling Build Grant next. Growth targets are not tied to these initial investments, as the focus is on preparing for growth. This shift helped us to understand the mutual value of making grants tied to dramatic growth projections only when an organization is ready to absorb significant capital to expand its work.

Importantly, we also learned that we needed to lengthen the timeline of funding. Three years — the initial design — is usually enough time to grow the staff, upgrade systems, further enhance internal operations and begin to expand the program; but it is not enough time for organizations to fully achieve ambitious goals around breadth of reach, fundraising and sustainability. As a result, we have adjusted our arc of investment to best position our grantee-partners to achieve our shared goals.

Another piece of feedback we are acting on is to provide additional technical support beyond the grant funding. While we have begun providing opportunities for networking and learning, specifics of this approach will be identified through continuing engagement with Third Plateau, who will work closely with our grantee-partners to identify areas of emergent need.

These lessons learned, challenges and successes are covered in the evaluation report we shared with Build Grantee-partners in late summer 2023. In addition, a best practices report, which was shared broadly, highlights best practices in capacity building support and is a tool to assess and evaluate our assumptions and design of this new grantmaking area based on the experiences of our grantee partners.

Of course, after we shared the evaluation, the world changed on Oct. 7. Following that day, the foundation recognized a need to provide both emergency grantmaking and additional non-grantmaking support to existing grantee-partners. Our Build Grant recipients were no exception. We relied on our genuine, open, honest relationships with those grantees to learn about their needs and to respond as best we could. We also affirmed that sound grantmaking strategies are effective during both routine and unprecedented times.

More broadly, we are pleased that Build Grants are helping the foundation reach new audiences and support new approaches to powerful Jewish learning; and we look forward to continuing to learn and to share our insights along this journey. As a strategy, Build Grants are a vehicle to support multiyear growth plans and capacity building across the Jewish education ecosystem. These efforts help more Jewish leaders and organizations expand their reach, increase their impact, strengthen their organizations and raise new dollars. As with nearly all of our grantmaking, honesty and transparency with grantee-partners is paramount. Then independent evaluation can be digested and shared and important changes can be made — enabling all of us to better pursue our goals.

Aaron Saxe is the program director of Powerful Jewish Learning Experiences (PJLE) at the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Rachel Shamash Schneider is a program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

originally published in eJewish Philanthropy.

Enrollment Trend Report: The Impact of the Israel-Hamas War on Jewish Day School Enrollment in North America

In the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, the landscape of Jewish day schools and yeshivas in North America has experienced significant shifts. This second Enrollment Trend Report delves into the influx of temporary Israeli students and an emerging trend of interest from public and independent school students for mid-year transfer to Jewish day schools during this time.

Covering the period from the start of the war in October, 2023 to December 8th, 2023, this report presents a snapshot of the responses from enrollment professionals and heads of school from 110 schools in the United States and Canada. Data collection was open for two weeks from November 27th, 2023 through December 8th, 2023. While the sample is not fully representative of the field of Jewish day schools and yeshivas, it clearly depicts that the trends reported herein are happening amongst one-third of the Prizmah network of schools.

The report highlights a significant increase in inquiries and temporary enrollments1 from Israeli students and transfer students from public and independent schools into Jewish day schools and yeshivas in North America following the Israel-Hamas war.

The surge in inquiries from Israeli students has prompted Jewish day schools and yeshivas to swiftly address the evolving needs of these students and their families. The collective resilience of the schools, combined with the collaborative efforts of local Jewish organizations, illustrates a community-driven approach in delivering comprehensive support for the incoming students.

“Enrollment Trend Report: The Impact of the Israel-Hamas War on Jewish Day School Enrollment in North America,” Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, January 2024

Unprecedented Study Will Explore How Professional Development Experiences Help Jewish Educators and Leaders Throughout Their Careers

Research Team Will Follow Study Participants Over Five Years to Understand Impact of Programs

A first-of-its-kind longitudinal study aims to understand how professional development programs influence the growth and career advancement of Jewish educators and Jewish educational leaders throughout their careers. A research team at Rosov Consulting will survey participants of Jim Joseph Foundation professional development programs multiple times over the next five years to follow their continued professional learning and career trajectories.

“Effective professional development is key to attracting and retaining these individuals in the field,” said Stacie Cherner, Director of Learning and Evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation. “This unprecedented study will help grow the pipeline of talented, highly skilled leaders and educators who are vital to Jewish communities. We are grateful to all of the educators that take part in the study as we all learn together.”

Rosov Consulting will survey educators and educational leaders who work in Jewish serving organizations and participated in a professional development opportunity in 2023 that was supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation. Those include programs offered by: Birthright Israel, Foundation for Jewish Camp, Hillel International, M²: Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, Jewish New Teacher Project, Institute for Jewish Spirituality, Leading Edge, Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, Repair the World, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, SVARA, The iCenter, The Jewish Education Project, UpStart, and The Wexner Foundation.

The surveys will include questions about the participants’ attitude towards professional development and career commitment; other influences in their life, such as supervisors and current events; and outcomes of participation in professional development.

“We’re excited to have been given the opportunity to track the career trajectories and professional growth of educators and leaders across the various sectors of Jewish education,” said Alex Pomson, Principal at Rosov Consulting. “Real-time panel studies are quite common in general education. As far as we know, this is the first study of its kind in the Jewish community. We have a chance not only to observe how educators grow over time, but to see how their roles evolve in response to tumultuous times.”

Learn more about the study at gelsresearch.org.

New Rosov Consulting study examines “texture” of diverse Jewish families

Crown Family Philanthropies, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation funding the new investigation, which will be based largely on focus groups, qualitative data

With the Jewish family becoming increasingly diverse and Jewish identity increasingly fluid, a leading Jewish researcher is trying to figure out how the rich tapestry of family life is being woven today.

“There are lots of assumptions about, ‘This is what it’s like as a person of color in the Jewish community. This is what it’s like for somebody who is economically challenged in the Jewish community,’” Alex Pomson, principal and managing director of Rosov Consulting, told eJewishPhilanthropy.

Funded by Crown Family Philanthropies, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation and conducted by Rosov Consulting, the new study of Jewish families is qualitative, looking at the experiences and needs of diverse families within the Jewish community.

“We really want to better understand, [to] hear people’s voices, to hear their own lived realities at this moment,” Pomson said. “Where is the ‘Jewish’ in their lives, and to what extent is it in their lives, and in what ways do they understand what it means to be Jewish?”

The study defines a family as a unit made up of at least one primary caretaker and child who is between the ages of 0 and 8. To participate in the study a family must want to incorporate “any kind of Jewishness” in their lives, Evelyn Dean-Olmsted, senior project associate at Rosov Consulting, told eJP.

Identities that were focused on include members of the LGBTQ+ community, interfaith families, interracial families, interethnic families, single-parent families, families who live in communities that don’t have large Jewish populations and families who are socioeconomically vulnerable.

“We started out with a checklist,” Pomson said, “We thought, ‘We want to do a group with this identity, this identity and that identity,’ but it turned out the people who we were interviewing possess multiple identities inevitably. So you’ve got a person of color who may also be somebody in our socioeconomic group or in our outlying community group. They tick multiple boxes.”

The first part of the study is a literature review, which was released in November, and the second involves gathering information from 40 focus groups made up of 182 individuals from 45 states. Participants were recruited with the help of Jewish federations, Honeymoon Israel, 18Doors, Keshet and PJ Library. Interim findings will be released next month, with the full study being published in early summer 2024.

Researchers aim to answer many questions, including how participants express their Jewishness, how they express other identities, what organizations best support them, what role does extended family play in their Jewish lives and what challenges they face raising Jewish children.

While interfaith marriages have long been a source of concern and consternation in much of the Jewish community, they are “a source of a lot of inspiration and creativity and energy for other people,” Annie Jollymore, senior project associate at Rosov Consulting, told eJP. “We have heard so many cool and interesting stories about cultural mixing, about reimagining of Jewish traditions with influences from other cultures that are present in the family.”

The study being qualitative — as opposed to being based solely on hard data — offers many benefits, Pomson said. “There are things you learn from qualitative research that you don’t learn from quantitative and vice versa… It’s very much about the quality of people’s lives and really getting to the texture of their lives, and it isn’t simply about counting up how many people are there of this kind and how many are there of that kind. We aren’t going to be able to say that. What we are going to be able to say is what’s it like for somebody who is a person of color, what’s it like for someone who is raising a disabled child,or what’s it like for somebody in an interfaith relationship who wants to introduce ‘Jewish’ in their [children’s] lives and their partner wants to introduce another faith into their children’s lives.”

Although it’s early in the study, the researchers have many hypotheses, including that a family’s Jewish practices and identity is heavily influenced by their relationship with their extended family. Because Jews today are often geographically separated from larger family networks, there are additional challenges to raising children with Jewish practices that past generations didn’t face. This gets exacerbated for families who can’t afford to live within Jewish communal hubs.

The experience has been a lot of fun for the researchers, Pomson said. “We’re talking to some really interesting people that we wouldn’t normally be speaking to, and there’s nothing more affirming [then] when people tell you how meaningful that conversation was to them.”

published in eJewish Philanthropy, January 3, 2024, photo credit Getty images

New Study Will Provide Insights on Wide Diversity of Jewish Families Today

A new study is exploring the interests, needs, hopes, and challenges of a wide diversity of Jewish families, including those with more than one religious or cultural tradition, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, single parents, and families experiencing economic insecurity. More diverse families are an increasingly higher proportion of Jewish communities and may, at times, feel marginalized in Jewish communal settings.

“This research will help organizations that work with Jewish families and engage Jewish youth better understand their audience,” said Alex Pomson, Managing Director of Rosov Consulting, which is conducting the study. “As the Jewish community becomes more diverse, more knowledge will help communal leaders meet people where they are—and design Jewish experiences that are meaningful to them.”

The research team will engage directly with families who are raising children ages 0-8, who want some kind of Jewish content or experiences in their children’s lives. What do their Jewish lives look like, and what kinds of Jewish lives do they seek to construct? From where do they derive their Jewish inspirations? Which organizations do (and don’t) they feel understand who they are, and which have (or have not) brought them meaning? What are their educational and engagement interests and needs, and how and where are those needs being met, if at all?

Funded by Crown Family Philanthropies, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and the Jim Joseph Foundation, the study’s findings will be shared publicly throughout the research process. The first part of the study is a review of relevant research literature on factors shaping contemporary family life, available here. Researchers also conducted 40 regionally diverse focus groups with 182 individuals. One set of focus groups was with parents raising their children as Jews who are not typically active in Jewish organizations. The second set was with parents who participate in some aspects of Jewish communal life. Researchers will next conduct follow-up interviews with select focus group participants.

Key findings from the literature review:

  • Rising housing costs mean that many people are priced out of areas with greater Jewish infrastructure, impeding their ability to participate in local Jewish communities.
  • Literature on multi-faith and multi-ethnic families dispels the still-common belief that mixed-heritage families represent a “threat” to Jewish continuity.
  • Extended family networks – especially grandparents – can play an important role in children’s lives; relatedly, researchers understand households not as self-contained units, but rather as embedded in broader social networks.

Adds Pomson, “Jewish families have been impacted by the Israel-Hamas war, rising antisemitism and political polarization, the COVID-19 pandemic, school shootings, rising housing costs, and more frequent and widespread climate catastrophes in recent years. It is not an easy time to raise children; this research will shed light on the kind of support, connections, and experiences parents want to navigate these and other challenges.”

photo courtesy of Keshet