In terms of predicting adult Jewish connections, statistical studies show that every year past the bar mitzvah year “counts” more than the year before. Receiving formal Jewish education from age 16 to 17 more accurately predicts adult Jewish connectedness than receiving formal Jewish education from age 15 to 16. Quantitative and qualitative research suggest that having mostly Jewish friends in high school is a motivator for continuing formal and informal Jewish education and a predictor for marrying or partnering with a Jew and forging strong Jewish connections. Conversely, when teenagers stopped attending Jewish schools after bar and bat mitzvahs, both they and their parents (in separate interviews) reported that their family Jewish observances and activities such as Shabbat service attendance gradually declined.
Article Library / Policy Papers
Raising Jewish Children: Research and Indications for Intervention
- Introduction
- Family, Engagement, and Jewish Continuity among American Jews
- Learning Jewishness, Jewish Education and Jewish Identity
- Executive Summary and Policy Directions
- Summary of Findings and Analysis
- The Importance of Social Networks
- The Importance of Cumulative Educational Programs
- The Most Important Point of Intervention Is the Teenage Years
- The Second Most Important Point of Intervention Is Emerging Adulthood (the post-college years)
- Jewish Education For Mixed Social Networks
- The Special Needs of Jewishly “Impoverished” Families
- Research Gaps on Critical Issues
- Suggested Policy Directions
- Introduction to Full Article
- The Importance of Social Networks
- Jewish education and the Jewish life cycle
- Early Childhood
- Elementary School and Middle School
- Adolescence and Post Bar/Bat Mitzvah – The Most Critical Years
- College Years: Jewish Studies, Birthright Israel, and Beyond
- “Emerging Adulthood” – the Second Most Important Point of Intervention
- Adult Education and Jewish Journeys Across the Adult Life Cycle
- Need for New Research on Jewish Education
- Conclusion: Reflections on Jewish education and Jewish identity
- Endnotes
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