Our research shows that the successful formation of Jewish identity through Jewish education is the result of cumulative serendipities: Jewish family connections, Jewish formal education, Jewish friends and social networks, Jewish informal education, and travel programs. All of these work together and reinforce one another to produce identified and attached Jews. The greater the number of Jewish educational activities and experiences, such as Jewish supplementary school combined with Jewish summer camp, the more impact each one of them has on the given child and on the family. The combination of youth group, camp, and Israel trips also is correlated with an 80 percent in-marriage rate. This is especially the case in the school-aged years. A major policy challenge is to seek out and support the serendipities, so that they are no longer left to chance, but become, instead, one of the primary strategies for promoting the future of Jewish life.
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
Previous
Next