Research and news about American Jews
Updated 2/6/26
COMMUNITY RESEARCH
The Zionist Gap: The Jewish Federations of North America has new survey data out about American Jews. While most support Israel (nearly 9 in 10), only 1/3 call themselves Zionists. Why the gap? Mimi Kravetz*, JFNA’s chief impact officer, says this likely has more to do with “definition creep” around the term Zionist than it does about perceptions of Israel.
*In the Berman Archive: Read our interview with Mimi Kravetz from 2024 where she discusses JFNA’s commitment to research. [2/5/26]
AI Antisemitism: The ADL just released its AI Index which aims to determine which LLM service has the strongest protections against antisemitism. The best AI for antisemitism guardrails? It’s Claude. Grok is the worst. [1/28/26]
Antisemitism Studied: Stand with Us is out with a report surveying Jewish K-12 educators, 61.6% of which reported experiencing or witnessing antisemitism at work. Blue Square Alliance released a survey in December showing antisemitism leveling off in the US, but at a worryingly high level. [1/26/26]
Secular Sectors: The newly launched Blue Compass Network just released a study on Jewish professionals working in secular nonprofits. 35% of those Jews are seeking new jobs due to antisemitism or Jewish stereotyping. [1/9/26]
Notes on Camp: The Foundation for Jewish Camp released a census report showing record attendance at Jewish camps this past summer. This year saw 200,000 Jewish campers. That’s a lot of bug juice. [12/19/25]
Roadside Attractions: The aggressive JewBelong billboard campaigns are hard to miss in the cities they target. This year they released an impact report attempting to quantify the public opinion effect of this campaign in Kansas City. [12/19/25]
American Religiosity: Pew has some new analysis of the broad religiosity of Americans. Not much has changed in terms of folks moving more towards religion. And the younger generations are less religious than their parents. [12/17/25]
We Heart Hebrew: #OnwardHebrew is out with a survey of synagogue education programs. The kids seem to like their Hebrew education! The survey’s co-authors share their findings in eJP. [12/8/25]
Untapped: Leading Edge is out with a new report assessing the “State of Jewish Nonprofit Talent.” From surveys of over 200 CEOs, over 3,000 people outside the sector, and over 13,000 current Jewish nonprofit employees, the report concludes that the Jewish nonprofit sector is not fully tapping the potential of its employees. [12/4/25]
Inaccessible: The Jewish community has a glaring disability accessibility* problem. Drawing from national data and trends, and from years of consultation with Jewish schools, synagogues, and community organizations, Matan’s report shows the many ways the Jewish community is falling short for disabled people and their families.
*In the Berman Archive:
We hold a 1982 issue of Sh’ma dedicated to disability and the Jewish community. Some of the terms might have changed, but roadblocks for the disabled persist. [12/3/25]
Philanthropic Profile: Slingshot, a non-profit focused on young Jewish philanthropy, released “Portrait of Next-Gen Jewish Giving Today,” by Dr. Tobin Belzer in collaboration with Worthy Strategy Group. This report offers a holistic profile of what motivates the next generation of Jewish philanthropists. [11/20/25]
War and Religiosity: A new study by the Jewish Public Policy Institute shows the Israel-Gaza war has caused an increase in religious observance and a politically rightward shift among Israelis, particularly among young Israelis. [11/20/25]
AI vs Antisemitism? The ADL is out with a new study today exploring the possibility of AI as a tool to fight antisemitism. [11/20/25]
Rabbi Research: The Atra Center for Rabbinic Innovation just released a comprehensive study of the rabbinate in the US. Notable for its breadth and rigor, the report counts 4,144 rabbis in the US (excluding Haredi). Read more about the report in the Forward and JTA. [11/13/25]
Studying Sephardic Inclusion: JIMENA* just released two new reports about the state of inclusion efforts in day schools and camps in New York and Los Angeles.
*In the Berman Archive: Read our recent interview with JIMENA Executive Director Sarah Levin about their research efforts. [11/10/25]
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
Perceptions of Safety: The Journal of Modern Jewish Studies has a new report by Tahir Abbas on the security, antisemitism and synagogues in Europe. The research includes a comparative approach to gauging safety concerns, observing “that Jewish respondents perceive significantly higher levels of anti-Semitic hostility and hate crimes than non-Jewish groups perceive regarding their own communities.“ [2/6/26]
Lost Memory: In Eastern European Jewish Affairs, a new paper drawing on first-hand testimony, argues that later exterminatory practices in Eastern Europe obscured earlier refugee geographies, contributing to the absence of a collective memory of flight, a crucial dimension of Polish Jewish experience during the Second World War. [1/28/26]
Nazi Terror: In the latest issue of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Kobi Kabalek examines the impact of Nazi violence and terror on its German Jewish victims during the 1930s. [1/28/26]
Haredi for Love: In the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, a new qualitative study investigates the transformative impact of digital media on traditional matchmaking (shidduchim) within Israel’s insulated Haredi community. [1/23/26]
Start the Presses: Jewish History has posted its latest edition, including an interesting exploration of print and rabbinic authority. The article reframes standard approaches in the history of the book and shows how rabbinic culture shaped modes of knowledge production. [1/9/26]
Romania Supreme: In Eastern European Jewish Affairs, a new paper explores the Jewish community’s role in shaping Romanian table tennis, their participation in international competitions, and how these were perceived in Romanian society. [12/11/25]
Forgive and Forge: A new study of ex-Haredi Jews focuses on spiritual harm and forgiveness, respectively. RNS has a nice summary of the project. [12/10/25]
The Jewish Policemen’s Statements: In Holocaust and Genocide Studies, a new paper looks at the accounts of Jewish policemen. Their fraught positions Warsaw and Otwock Ghettos, and their omissions in their statements shine a new light on an underexamined Jewish role during the Holocaust. [12/2/25]
Place Making: In the Journal of Jewish Education, Michal Muszkat Barkan explores how Jewish and Palestinian teachers in a Jerusalem professional development program interpret place. [11/6/25]
Antisemitism & Public Health:
New research from the American Psychiatry Association finds Jewish participants exhibited significant increases in depression and anxiety following the October 7, 2023 attack. Report co-author Leah Hibel suggests a national public health response. [11/18/25]
Rainbow Connection: In Jewish Culture and History, Teresa Bernheimer explores how discussions of the rainbow traverse centuries and cross boundaries of language, genre, and religious tradition. [11/5/25]
Back in the USSR: A new article in Holocaust and Genocide Studies explores the wartime and postwar experiences of some of the Polish Jews who remained in one of the Soviet republics. [11/3/25]
Nu Narratives: The Journal of Modern Jewish Studies offers an analysis of Thane Rosenbaum’s novels Second Hand Smoke and The Golems of Gotham, second-generation Holocaust narratives that reframe the collective memory of the Holocaust to include its aftermath on the later generations. [10/20/25]
Underground Couriers: The East European Jewish Affairs posted a few new articles this month, including one on the role of the Kashariyot (female couriers) in Poland’s ghetto undergrounds during the Holocaust. [10/16/25]
Mapping the Holocaust: Two interesting mapping projects were published in Holocaust and Genocide Studies this month. “Expanding Holocaust Cartography: Memory Maps as Testimonies” focuses on maps of victims of the Treblinka death camp and the hand-drawn maps appearing in postwar memorial books to highlight maps’ ambiguous standing as archival sources, as well as the unique histories they communicate. “Mapping the Emotional Landscapes of the Holocaust: Visualizing Space and Place in Survivor Trajectories” explores experiments with more multifaceted mapping of Holocaust space and place to include the emotional dimensions of spatial experience. [10/10/25]
NEWS OF NOTE
Black-Jewish Relations: PBS launches a new docuseries on the interwoven history of Black and Jewish Americans. The show is hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. with guests including Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Michael Twitty, Jamaica Kincaid, and David Remnick. [2/3/26]
Research Moves: The Nexus Project* is building out a new Antisemitism Research Center and has tapped Aryeh Tuchman, the ADL’s longtime researcher, to lead the effort.
*In the Berman Archive: read our interview with Nexus Project President Jonathan Jacoby.[1/29/26]
Called to Action: Rabbi Emma Kippley-Ogman of Minnesota was arrested on Friday, along with 96 other miltifaith clergy members protesting ICE’s actions in the region. She shared her story and a call to action with the Forward. [1/26/26]
Exit Interview: eJP interviews Eric Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, as he prepares to leave his role. [1/23/26]
Next Exodus: Minnesota’s Jewish leaders take a stand against the brutal federal occupation, while one hundred rabbis and religious leaders converge on Minnesota in a show of support. “There’s a feeling of obligation to be there on the street in the place that is the hotbed of anti-immigrant activities right now,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah. [1/22/26]
Go Big: Colby College’s Center for Small Town Jewish Life is making big strides and garnering some impressive funding as it celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. [1/22/26]
Mississippi Burning: Rabbi Lex Rofeberg reflects on his formative memories at the Jackson, Mississippi synagogue that was burned over the weekend. [1/13/26]
Jewish Omissions: Mireille Silcoff explores the ways recent films with Jewish central characters are favoring universality over the representation of Jewish experience, “leaving behind a peculiar Jew-shaped hole.” [1/8/26]
Cover Story: Nice to see Radical Jewish Politics: A Global Perspective in the Spine Magazine roundup of exemplar academic book covers. [1/2/26]
Mayor Mamdani: In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s winning run to be the next NYC Mayor, many of his prominent Jewish critics have sought a more positive way forward. He met with rabbis this week and made inroads. And Rabbi Elliott Cosgrove gave a notable, reflective speech urging a less rigid way forward for Zionism. [12/12/25]
The Galveston Moment*: The Forward looks back at the role Galveston, Texas played in American Jewish history. For a brief moment, this Texas island town was known was “the Ellis Island of the West.”
*In the Berman Archive: We hold many documents related to the Gaveston Moment, including this account by Morris Waldman and this interview we conducted earlier this year with Rachel Cockerel, whose book Melting Point, tells the story of Jewish Galveston with the help of our archive. [12/2/25]
Faculty Disunion: Marc Dollinger, chair of Jewish Studies at SFSU, addresses the CSU faculty union’s anti-Jewish, alienating actions. [11/19/25]
Assembly Required: The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly* is in full swing this week in Washington DC, where 2,000 Jewish communal leaders are meeting to discuss what’s next for Israel, Jewish safety, and deepening engagement.
*In the Berman Archive: We hold a lot of documents related to past annual gatherings like this account of the 1934 General Assembly in Chicago. A look forward from 1995: How has the Federation System met its own vision for itself? The Federation and Jewish Education from 1995—how are things looking 30 years later? Gender and Jewish Leadership — An assessment from 1995 and a baseline: how is the Jewish Federation System faring now? [11/17/25]
Benevolent Bagels: The birth of Boichik Bagels, reigning champ of Bay Area bagels [11/14/25]
