Jewish Survey Question Bank Provides Unprecedented Compilation of Jewish Social Research Questions

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The Berman Jewish Policy Archive and Berman Jewish DataBank today launched the Jewish Survey Question Bank (JSQB), a compilation of more than 15,000 survey questions and response options used in Jewish social research. The JSQB, located at http://jewishquestions.bjpa.org/, is designed to improve future Jewish social research and serve as a resource for academics, leaders of Jewish organizations, and Jewish educators by helping them craft their own surveys.

“JSQB offers access to Jewish education and demographic research, as well as program evaluation of education initiatives,” says Professor Steven M. Cohen, director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at NYU. “It is an unprecedented compilation of information that will be helpful to the professional researcher, academic, or Jewish organization professional or lay leader. Ultimately, JSQB is a tool that should enable these individuals to do their jobs more effectively.”

The user-friendly database is searchable by specific question, survey topic, geographic region, researcher, and other advanced search functions. Question topics cover the spectrum of Jewish social research – from Affiliation to Zionism, with thousands of other questions in between, many geared towards programmatic offerings.

“Jewish professionals at organizations and synagogues often write their own surveys for program evaluation and needs assessment,” says Sarah Benor, Associate Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Hebrew Union College “Yet, when they do, they often don’t know where to start, how to phrase questions, and how to properly develop the structure of a survey. The JSQB enables them to search for questions that have been tested in the field and tailor them to their own specific needs. And when professionals use those questions and publish their survey results, scholars will be able to conduct meta-analyses comparing multiple studies.”

“The JSQB is an important resource for evaluators as we collaborate with funders and organizations,” adds Ellen Irie, principal of BTW informing change, a strategic consulting firm focused on enhancing learning and effectiveness in the nonprofit sector. “This resource will help us determine how best to measure outcomes in ways that are relevant and meaningful for particular types of programs. Equally as important, JSQB will allow for cross-program comparisons and aggregation, which is how substantive and meaningful learning occurs.”

Professor Cohen offers a brief introduction to the JSQB in a video and will be conducting webinar tutorials for academics and researchers over the next few months.

Cohen notes, “By encouraging comparison across studies, JSQB will improve the field’s ability to measure Jewish programmatic outcomes more effectively. Subsequently, it improves the likelihood that the field will focus on the programming proven most effective and that funders will have better information on which to base their grant decisions.”

The JSQB was funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, which seeks to create compelling and effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews in the United States. The JSQB is one of multiple initiatives the Foundation is pursuing to increase and improve the availability of data and research findings for the field.

“The Jewish education field will benefit from easy access to thousands of questions used in research and evaluation projects,” adds Chip Edelsberg, executive director of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “JSQB helps to move the field towards an evidence base for myriad educational practices to enrich the entire range of contemporary Jewish educational experience. We believe that the JSQB will improve the quality of research and evaluation in Jewish education and, possibly, Jewish social science more broadly.”

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