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April 15, 2005/Nisan 6 5765, Volume 57, No. 33
Grant puts Brandeis at research forefront
RICHARD ASINOF
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
BOSTON - Brandeis University is getting a $12 million gift from philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and his Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation.
The Steinhardt Social Research Institute, which is due to open in September, will try to answer such questions as: How many Jewish children are enrolled in Jewish preschools? How many Jewish preschools are there in America? How many Jewish families include newborns?
Surprisingly, according to Rabbi David Gedzelman, executive director of the Jewish Life Network in New York, there are no accurate numbers that measure these demographic trends.
For philanthropists, federations and Jewish communal organizations, quantifying these trends is not just an academic exercise. The ability to reverse the decline in the American Jewish population, many community leaders believe, may hinge in large part on the success of Jewish education programs targeted at young children.
But which programs work? Which reach their audience? And why?
Under the direction of Leonard Saxe, head of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis and backed by Steinhardt's initial gift, organizers hope the institute will become the premier site for collection and analysis of statistical data about American Jews, cornering the market on the country's Jewish demographics.
"The amount of data that doesn't exist is astounding," Steinhardt told JTA in an interview. "The Jewish community is in the 19th century in terms of data, and the quality of the data that does exist is poor."
When the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey was released more than a year late in September 2003, it was dogged by controversy over both methodology and lost data.
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