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Germeindbarometer. Ergebnisbericht 2024
Translated Title: Community Barometer 2024
Date: 2024
Topics: Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Surveys, Antisemitism: Jewish Perceptions and Experiences, October 7 2023 Attacks and Aftermath, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: Im Auftrag des Zentralrats der Juden in Deutschland hat das unabhängige Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft (infas) nun zum zweiten Mal 2023/24 eine Onlinebefragung unter Jüdinnen und Juden in Deutschland mit dem Titel „Gemeindebarometer“ durchgeführt. Die zweite Untersuchung verfolgte das Ziel, die 2019 gewonnenen Erkenntnisse zur Wahrnehmung der jüdischen Gemeinden und Verbände sowie zur Nutzung von Angeboten innerhalb und außerhalb der Gemeinden zu aktualisieren und längerfristige Entwicklungen zu identifizieren. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt lag auf der Sicherheitslage der Gemeinden im Zusammenhang mit den Ereignissen vom 7. Oktober in Israel.
What works? The impact of Jewish programmes and experiences on Jewish identity outcomes in the UK
Author(s): Graham, David; Bankier-Karp, Adina L.; Boyd, Jonathan
Date: 2025
Topics: Jewish Identity, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Jewish Community, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Education, Schools: Jewish Schools, Youth Movements: Jewish, Holocaust: Education: Tours of Holocaust Sites, Family and Household, Age and Generational Issues, Denominations
Abstract: This landmark study uses statistical modelling and data generated by the JPR 2022 National Jewish Identity Survey to examine the long-term impact of several early Jewish educational and family experiences on various Jewish identity outcomes. The study authors have sought to quantify the extent to which different programmes and experiences shape Jewishness in the long run.

The report was funded by and prepared for the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) as part of its ‘Forge the Future’ programme.

Some of the key findings in this report:
The type of Jewish upbringing people receive in their childhood home—especially Orthodox or Traditional upbringing—is the most important and enduring predictor of Jewish identity outcomes, and far more so than any single programme.
In the long run, involvement in a Jewish youth movement is statistically more impactful than attending a Jewish school or a short-term Israel programme. Indeed, not only are peer-led experiences the most impactful, they are also the cheapest to run.
The impact of educational programmes is slightly greater on those who were aged 18–39 than those who were aged 40–59 whereas the impact of upbringing is greater on the 40–59 year olds. This suggests that the impact of educational experiences in childhood ‘wears off’ over time, whereas Jewish upbringing is more enduring.
Parents need to recognise their key role in fomenting Jewish identity outcomes through the home; the task cannot be outsourced, however good the programmes seem to be.
But the amount of impact even upbringing has on Jewish identity outcomes is surprisingly limited. There are simply too many unknown and random variables that impact Jewish identity formation.
Ultimately, none of the experiences we examined dramatically shift long-term Jewish identity trajectories; there are no silver bullets and no short cuts. It is far better therefore to conceptualise the task of Jewish identity development in terms of a Jewish ecosystem of interrelated learning opportunities.
Une Approche Du Judaïsme Laïque en France: Engagements Associatifs Et Parcours Individuels
Author(s): Cohen, Martine; Ferran, Paul
Date: 2004
Topics: Secularity, Secularisation and Secular Jews, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Organisations, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Germeindbarometer. Ergebnisbericht
Translated Title: Community Barometer
Date: 2020
Topics: Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Surveys
Abstract: Der Zentralrat der Juden hat in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Jewish Joint Distribution Committe (JDC) sowie dem Sozialforschungsinstitut infas eine Online-Umfrage unter Jüdinnen und Juden in Deutschland durchgeführt. Die Befragung lief vom 24. September bis zum 31. Dezember 2019. Untersucht wurden Einstellungen zur jüdischen Gemeinschaft, Erfahrungen in und mit jüdischen Gemeinden sowie mit bestehenden Angeboten.
Being and Becoming. Polish Conversions to Judaism and the Dynamics of Affiliation.
Author(s): Lorenz, Jan
Date: 2021
Topics: Conversion to Judaism, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Academic achievement and engagement in Jewish life: First signs of a brain drain?
Author(s): Miller, Stephen H.
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Education, Universities / Higher Education, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Surveys
Abstract: JPR has been conducting research on Jews in Britain for many years, allowing us to explore trends in Jewish life over time. This study takes four major datasets, spanning close to quarter of a century, to investigate an important and challenging question: is there a negative correlation between high academic achievement and Jewish community engagement? Or, more simply, are the most academically qualified Jews turning away from Jewish communal life?

The answer appears to be yes. It demonstrates that:

• Jews with postgraduate qualifications are, on average, the least engaged members of the Jewish community;
• The gap in levels of Jewish communal engagement between postgraduates and others is particularly substantial in areas such as synagogue membership, outmarriage, charitable priorities and support for Israeli government policy
• Highly educated Jews are about half as likely as non-graduates to see their fellow Jews as a source of natural support, or to express concern about Jewish continuity.

However, high academic achievers are more likely than others to cite positive traits and values (such as fairness, respect, dislike of prejudice, love of learning) as examples of how they feel their Jewishness has affected them.

The report author, Professor Stephen H. Miller OBE, one of the leading experts in the social scientific study of British Jews and senior adviser to JPR’s research team, also notes that the drop in Jewish engagement seen in highly educated Jews can be largely attributed to their more critical evaluation of the Jewish community, rather than any weakness in their personal identity as Jews.

So, in short, the fundamental message of this study is a challenging one for Jews of all types. It indicates that the most academically qualified Jews are turning away from organised Jewish life in unusually high numbers, because the types of Jewishness they find there fail to resonate with the ways in which they understand their own Jewish identities.

It leaves us with at least two critical questions: (i) is academia a detrimental environment for Jews, teaching them to think in ways that implicitly undermine their links with Jewish life (or, viewed from an alternative perspective, is academia a positive environment for Jews, helping to free them from the limitations imposed by Judaism and to think more openly?); and (ii) is Jewish communal life insufficiently rigorous in its thinking to attract the most thoughtful and qualified (or, again, viewed differently, an intellectually rich environment that rightly differs from the academy and challenges its modes of thinking by offering an alternative model)?
Convergent Aims: The revival of Jewish Studies in St. Petersburg and the search for Russia’s “unaffiliated Jews”
Author(s): Reed, Andrew C.
Date: 2013
Topics: Assimilation, Jewish Revival and Renewal, Jewish Organisations, Fundraising and Philanthropy, Jewish Studies (Academic Discipline), Universities / Higher Education, Jewish Education, Main Topic: Education, Outreach and Kiruv, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: Twentieth-century events in Russia and Eastern Europe resulted in complex definitions of Jewish identity and communal relations. When the Soviet Union disbanded, foreign agencies pushed funds and resources to rebuild Jewish communities and institutions. One of the avenues for this funding is the creation and support of academic research centers responsible for training students and scholars. Organizations interested in Russia’s “unaffiliated Jews” and the research centers responsible for the revival of Jewish Studies form unique partnerships that bridge academic and public arenas. Reclaiming Jews who do not identify with Judaism or Jewish culture (unaffiliated Jews) in Russia is a significant goal of some Jewish funding agencies in the United States and Israel. An examination of mission statements by these philanthropic agencies reveals narrow definitions of “Jews” that ignore major contributions from Jewish Studies scholars focused on understanding a diverse population with disparate self-understandings.
A Jewish Family in Germany Today: An Intimate Portrait
Author(s): Bodemann, Y. Michal
Date: 2004
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Interviews, History: Oral History, Biography and Memoir, Family and Household, Holocaust: Survivors, Holocaust: Survivors: Children of, Intermarriage, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Jewish Identity
Abstract: Immediately after the Holocaust, it seemed inconceivable that a Jewish community would rebuild in Germany. What was once unimaginable has now come to pass: Germany is home to one of Europe’s most vibrant Jewish communities, and it has the fastest growing Jewish immigrant population of any country in the world outside Israel. By sharing the life stories of members of one Jewish family—the Kalmans—Y. Michal Bodemann provides an intimate look at what it is like to live as a Jew in Germany today. Having survived concentration camps in Poland, four Kalman siblings—three brothers and a sister—were left stranded in Germany after the war. They built new lives and a major enterprise; they each married and had children. Over the past fifteen years Bodemann conducted extensive interviews with the Kalmans, mostly with the survivors’ ten children, who were born between 1948 and 1964. In these oral histories, he shares their thoughts on Judaism, work, family, and community. Staying in Germany is not a given; four of the ten cousins live in Israel and the United States. Among the Kalman cousins are an art gallery owner, a body builder, a radio personality, a former chief financial officer of a prominent U.S. bank, and a sculptor. They discuss Zionism, anti-Semitism, what it means to root for the German soccer team, Schindler’s List, money, success, marriage and intermarriage, and family history. They reveal their different levels of engagement with Judaism and involvement with local Jewish communities. Kalman is a pseudonym, and their anonymity allows the family members to talk with passion and candor about their relationships and their lives as Jews.
Does identification predict community involvement? Exploring consequences of social identification among the Jewish minority in Poland
Author(s): Wójcik, Adrian; Bilewicz, Michał
Date: 2010
Topics: Surveys, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Previous research indicated that people who strongly identify with their own group are more involved in the group's actions. The current study examines the relation between three dimensions of group identification (affect, ties, centrality) and forms of community involvement among members of the Jewish minority in Poland. The strength of ingroup ties predicted involvement in the ethnic minority community. The link between identification and involvement was mediated by the cultural dominance. The reported study was the first quantitative survey of the Jewish community in post-War Poland.
Survey Results: General Assembly Budapest 2004
Date: 2004
Topics: Jewish Organisations, Jewish Community, Jewish Identity, Surveys, Jewish Leadership and Representation, Antisemitism, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: This survey was given to participants in the 3rd General Assembly of European Jewry, which was held in Budapest in May 2004. Participants were asked how many Jews participate in community programs in their respective cities; the programs and activities their Jewish community offers; and how they believe their community could be more effective in attracting more members.
Shades Of Closeness. Belonging And Becoming In A Contemporary Polish Jewish Community
Author(s): Lorenz, Jan
Editor(s): Diemling, Maria; Ray, Larry
Date: 2016
Topics: Jewish Identity, Boundaries, Jewish Community, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Identity à la Carte: Research on Jewish identities, participation and affiliation in five Eastern European countries
Author(s): Kovács, András; Ildiko, Barna; DellaPergola, Sergio; Kosmin, Barry
Date: 2011
Topics: Antisemitism, Intermarriage, Israel: Jewish Attachment, Surveys, Jewish Identity, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract:

This report describes the process and results of a research study on Jewish identity and community participation in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, it identifies trends among Jewish adults in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania. This two-year and wide-reaching study, examined views on religious observance, Jewish identity, anti-Semitism, Israel, Jewish knowledge, and organizational affiliation among 1,270 Jews, ages 18-60.
Being Jewish in Scotland: Project Findings, August 2013
Author(s): Frank, Fiona; Borowski, Ephraim; Granat, Leah
Date: 2013
Topics: Strategic Planning, Policy, Jewish Community: Small Jewish Communities, Surveys, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: Being Jewish in Scotland was a small-scale inquiry carried out by the Scottish Council
of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC), with funding from the Scottish Government, to
find out more about the variety of experience of Jewish people in Scotland, and
encourage them to identify the issues that are important to them. It has helped
SCoJeC to build a better understanding of what affects the sense of security of
Jewish individuals and communities, and thus to establish what matters to the
community, and improve our support for Jewish people in Scotland. The process
of carrying out the inquiry has itself had the result of strengthening networks
and social capital in the community, and has helped to provide support to Jewish
people throughout Scotland.
It is intended that the findings should also prove useful in assisting statutory
and voluntary organisations and agencies such as the Scottish Government,
the NHS, local authorities, education authorities, employers, faith groups, and
others to support and respond more effectively to the needs and concerns of the
community.
More than 300 Jewish people, from Shetland to the Borders, participated in Being
Jewish in Scotland, either by attending one of the 30 focus groups and events
held as part of the project, or by completing a survey or participating in a oneto-one
interview
Post-Soviet Jewry on the Cusp of Its Third Decade - Part 1
Author(s): Gidwitz, Betsy
Date: 2011
Topics: Antisemitism, Demography, Intermarriage, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract:

Demographically, post-Soviet Jewry has seen an overall decline resulting from assimilation, intermarriage, low fertility, high mortality, and emigration of younger age cohorts. Some  demographers believe that less than 500,000 Jews remain in the post-Soviet states. An intermarriage rate that some view as exceeding 80 percent creates complex situations for those Jewish groups that prefer to confine their programs to halachically Jewish individuals.

Jewish identity among Jews in Russia and Ukraine is most likely to be expressed as a sense of Jewish heritage, in particular, a common cultural or intellectual heritage, rather than a sense of common spirituality or sharply focused religious practice. Post-Soviet Jews also tend to believe that Jews should be familiar with modern Israel, but not necessarily feel obligated to live in Israel.
The effects of a Jewish primary school education in England on the religious observance and practice of less or non-observant parents of the pupils
Author(s): Leviton, Mervyn
Date: 2005
Topics: Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Schools: Jewish Schools, Psychology (Social and Experimental), Parenthood, Schools: Primary / Elementary, Main Topic: Education, Schools: Jewish Pupils in Jewish Schools
Abstract: The main aim of this research is to determine whether or not there has been any noticeable change in the level of religious observance and practice of less or non-observant parents which directly or indirectly can be attributed to the influence of their children and the Jewish primary school they attend. There is a frequently voiced assumption amongst those involved in Jewish education that parents, whose children attend a Jewish primary school, have increased their level of observance due to the influence of their children and the school. However, no previous research has been carried out in the United Kingdom in order to examine the basis of this premise. The purpose ofmy own research is to test this assumption in a thorough and rigorous manner by means of both questionnaires and in-depth interviews with parents of pupils attending three Jewish primary schools in England.
In addition, there are two further specific areas that will be investigated as supplementary parts ofthe main research:
[i] To compare the extent of similarities and differences of any such changes in religious observance between those Jewish families in England who formed part ofmy study, and those in the USA whose children attend Jewish day schools, who have also been the subject of separate research in the USA.
[ii] To determine whether within the data of this research study, there is any correlation with previous research in the field of social psychology regarding causes and effects of social conformity and deviation. The data from this specific area of research will be used to focus on the effects of a crucial inter-connection between parents, children and the school.
The thesis includes an examination of previous allied research and its implications relating to the nature of religious identity and changes in parental behaviour attributed to the influence of their children's Jewish education.
It also contains chapters outlining the historical and social background which led to a weakening ofJewish religious observance in the UK during the zo" century and a study of the changing role of the traditional Jewish family and its effect on the levels of religious observance in Anglo-Jewry. The data from questionnaires and interviews are analysed in a thorough manner. The results and conclusions of this thesis should be of benefit to those planning and administering Jewish primary schools in the UK.

Outcomes of Conversion to Judaism through the Reform Movement 1952-2002
Author(s): Tabick, Jacqueline
Date: 2013
Topics: Denominations: Reform/Liberal/Progressive, Conversion to Judaism, Jewish Identity, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Statistics, Demography, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: I examined the characteristics of converts to Judaism through the Reform Synagogues, 1952-
2002, exploring the psychological impact of conversion, the nature of their Jewish identity and
the durability of their religious commitment through time. Recognising the large variation in the
Jewish practice and attitudes displayed, I also examined the influence of motivational, family
and biographical factors on their Jewish identity.
Motivation for conversion was multi-dimensional. The instrumental desire to create family
unity was identified as the most powerful motivating factor. The strength of this variable
was found to be a significant predictor of the level of behavioural changes in the converts’
Jewish lifestyle. Counter-intuitively, this motivational factor formed negative correlations
with ethnicity and a non-significant relationship with ritual behaviour.
The data highlight differences between the factorial structure of the Jewish identity of converts
and born Jews. For converts, four identity factors were identified: ritual practice, ethnic
belonging, Jewish development and spirituality. Miller et al. have identified three factors
underlying the Jewish identity of born Jews under 50: behavioural ethnicity, religiosity and
mental ethnicity. Survey data of converts has shown a clear division of ritual and ethnic
behaviours, whilst in born Jews, the same differentiation is not demonstrated.
Like moderately engaged born Jews, converts emphasised the notion of affective identity rather
than the actual performance of Jewish ritual acts, though it is clear that ‘on average’ converts
have a somewhat more intense pattern of ritual practice than born (Reform) Jews.
The majority of the converts felt content with the results of their conversion but the relative lack
of emphasis placed on Jewish continuity as opposed to the convert’s individual self-fulfilment,
can be seen as an indication of a possibility that the conversion process may only delay
demographic decline in the Jewish community for just one or two generations.
Shades of Jewishness : the creation and maintenance of a liberal Jewish community in post-Shoah Germany
Author(s): Kranz, Daniela
Date: 2009
Topics: Synagogues, Denominations: Reform/Liberal/Progressive, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Discourse and Narrative, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: This PhD thesis focuses on the creation and maintenance of the liberal Jewish community in present day Cologne, Germany. The community has the telling name Gescher LaMassoret, which translates into „Bridge to Tradition.‟ The name gives away that this specific community, its individual members and its struggles cannot be understood without the socio-historic context of Germany and the Holocaust. Although this Jewish community is not a community of Holocaust survivors, the dichotomy Jewish-German takes various shapes within the community and surfaces in the narratives of the individual members. These narratives reflect the uniqueness of each individual in the community. While this is a truism, this individual uniqueness is a key element in Gescher LaMassoret, whose membership consists of people from various countries who have various native languages. Furthermore, the community comprises members of Jewish descent as well as Jews of conversion who are of German, non- Jewish parentage. Due to the aftermaths of the Holocaust and the fact that Gescher LaMassoret houses a vast internal diversity, the creation of this community which lacks any tradition happens through mixing and meshing the life-stories and other narratives of the members, which flow into the collective narrative of the community. On the surface, the narratives of the individual members seem in conflict, they even contradict each other, which means that the narrative of the community is in constant tension. However, under the dissimilarities on the surface of the individual narratives hide similarities in terms of shared values and attitudes, which allow for enough overlaps to create a community by way of braiding a collective narrative, which offers the members to experience a 'felt ethnicity.'
Global Affinities: Portuguese Marranos (Anusim), Traveling Jews, and Cultural Logics of Kinship
Author(s): Leite, Naomi
Date: 2011
Topics: Jewish Populations and Ethnicities: Anusim / Crypto-Jews / Marranos, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Ethnography, Jewish Community, Jewish Identity, Jewish Peoplehood, Diaspora and Relations Between Diaspora Populations, Globalisation, Tourism and Jewish Heritage Tours, Jewish Populations and Ethnicities: Sephardi, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: This dissertation explores issues of identification, relatedness, and belonging on a global scale, through an ethnographic study of Portugal’s urban Marranos (descendants of fifteenth-century forced converts to Catholicism) and foreign Jews who travel from abroad to meet them. Although not Jewish according to Jewish law, given centuries of intermarriage, Marranos are nonetheless widely considered to be part of “the Jewish family,” “lost brethren” who should be welcomed back to the Jewish people. Many Jews view them within the metanarrative of Jewish destruction and survival, the “eternal spark” that remains despite the Inquisition’s attempted elimination of Judaism from the Portuguese landscape. However, for numerous local reasons the present-day Marranos are not welcomed by Portugal’s tiny normative Jewish community. As a result, the urban Marranos, who feel strongly that they are Jews by descent, turn to foreign Jewish travelers as sources of educational, spiritual, and material assistance in their bid to join
the Jewish world and attain recognition as Jews in the present. Based on two years of fieldwork in Marrano organizations in Lisbon and Porto and traveling alongside Jewish tourists and outreach workers, the dissertation undertakes a processual analysis of the constitution of ancestral Jewish identity and of the role of transnational, cross-cultural affective ties in affording a sense of global Jewish belonging. The primary questions driving this work are, first, how and why do far-flung people come to feel that they are related to one another, and what terms do they use to characterize and think through that feeling of relatedness? Second, to what extent are their perceptions of essential connection disrupted or transformed by face-to-face contact? By interrogating the cultural logics of kinship writ large—the language and conceptual frameworks people use to articulate and make sense of their feelings of relatedness to
one another—and then examining how those logics play out “on the ground,” this study provides a fine-grained ethnographic analysis of the mechanisms through which global and ancestral imaginings become concretized in social interaction. Ultimately, I argue, physical proximity remains the productive sphere for identification and belonging, even as global interconnection provides new opportunities for encounter.
Identity, Assimilation and Revival: Ethno-Social Processes within the Jewish Population of the Former Soviet Union / זהות, התבוללות ותחִיה: תהליכים אתנו-חברתיים בקרב האוכלוסיה היהודית בברית המועצות לשעבר
Author(s): Khanin, Ze'ev; Chernin, Velvl
Date: 2007
Topics: Assimilation, Demography, Care and Welfare, Jewish Revival and Renewal, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Intermarriage, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Jewish Community, Jewish Identity
Abstract: Drs. Khanin and Chernin address basic questions regarding Jewish life in the FSU states at present and in the future. A major issue they focused on was this: under current socio-economic and political circumstances in Eastern Europe, many intermarried Jews together with their non-Jewish partners choose to maintain ties with Jewish communities and to take advantage of their educational, information, cultural and welfare services. Consequently, most local Jewish leaders regard this group as a target population for their communal activity. Accordingly, such activity is directed in fact at all those to whom the Israeli Law of Return applies, and sometimes even to those are not included in this category (4th generation members married to non-Jewish spouses, for example).

Some of the questions raised by the center’s researchers were:
1. How significant is the size of this group?
2. Can it be regarded as a human reservoir for Jewish activity?
3. Does this activity contribute to the formation of Jewish or semi-Jewish identity among offspring of mixed-married couples and among the non-Jewish members of their families, and to the evolution of behavioral models that can be interpreted as “post assimilatory” behavior?
In order to address these questions, a vast and diverse body of data was amassed. The authors did not relay only upon existing data but set out on an empirical exploration. They have conducted interviews in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Sertov, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Birobidjan, Tomsk, Petrozavodsk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhni Novgorod, Kazan, Vladimir, Riazen, Tula, Rostov, Piatigorsk, Nalchik, Kiev, Daniepropetrovsk, Odessa, Zaporozhieh, and a number of towns in Belarus and Latvia.

The compelling findings of the research indicate an interesting variety of sub-populations in the vast group called “FSU Jewry”. Specific planning based on the distinctive characteristics and the features of each group can serve as the basis for well-tuned action plans aimed at the strengthening of the Jewish future of each specific sector.


ד"ר חנין וד"ר צ'רנין מעלים במחקרם שאלות יסוד אודות הקיום היהודי בארצות חבר העמים לשעבר, כיום ובעתיד. נושא מרכזי שבו התמקדו היה זה: בתנאים החברתיים-כלכליים והפוליטיים הקיימים במזרח אירופה בימינו, מעדיפים רבים מבני נישואי תערובת, הן בן הזוג היהודי הן בן הזוג הלא-יהודי, ועמם בני המשפחה המעורבים, להיות קשורים לקהילות יהודיות ולהסתייע בשירותיהן בתחומי החינוך, המידע, התרבות והרווחה. עקב כך, רוב המנהיגים היהודיים המקומיים רואים בקבוצה זו "קבוצות יעד" לפעילות הקהילתית. בהתאם לכך, פעילות זו מופנית בפועל לכל זכאי חוק השבות הישראלי, ולעתים אף לאוכלוסיה החורגת מגבולות המוגדר בחוק זה (כגון בני הדור הרביעי לנישואי תערובת).

במחקרם, שאלו החוקרים את השאלות הבאות:
א. עד כמה משמעותי הוא היקפה של קבוצה זו?
ב. האמנם ניתן לראות בה עתודה לפעילות יהודית?
ג. האם פעילות זו תורמת לעיצוב זהות יהודית או כעין-יהודית אצל צאצאי נישואי תערובת ובני משפחה לא-יהודיים של בתי אב מעורבים, ולבניית דגמי התנהגות חברתית שניתן לפרשם כ"בתר-התבוללות"?
כדי להשיב על שאלות אלו, נאספו נתונים מרובים ומגוונים. החוקרים לא הסתפקו בנתונים קיימים, אלא יצאו לשטח כדי לבדוק את הנתונים באופן ישיר. הם ערכו ראיונות במקומות אלו: מוסקבה, סנט פטרבורג, יקטרינבורג, סמרה, סרטוב, נובוסיבירסק, אירקוטסק, חברובסק, בירוביג'אן, טומסק, פטרוזבודסק, צ'ליאבינסק, ניז'ני נובגורוד, קאזן, ולדימיר, ריאזן, טולא, רוסטוב, פיאטיגורסק, נלצ'יק, קייב, דנייפרופטרובסק, אודסה, זאפורוז'יה, וכן כמה ערים בביילורוסיה ובלטביה.

ממצאי המחקר מצביעים על מגוון מעניין של אוכלוסיות-מִשנה בתוך הקבוצה הגדולה המכונה 'יהדות חבר העמים'. תכנון ממוקד, המתבסס על מאפיינים ייחודיים של כל קבוצה, עשוי להוות בסיס לתכניות פעולה ממוקדות, שתכליתן חיזוק עתידו היהודי של כל מגזר ספציפי.
Jewishness in Postmodernity: The Case of Sweden
Author(s): Dencik, Lars
Date: 2005
Topics: Jewish Identity, Postmodernity, Religion, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Religious Belief, Values, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: Dencik examines Sweden's Jewish community through the lens of postmodernity and concludes that the Jews of Sweden manifest their Jewish identities in a variety of ways including: a strong Jewish self awareness, increased activity in Jewish culture, granting new meanings to traditional Jewish practices, as well as many others.
Getting in Touch: 18-35 Project Report. 
Author(s): Wise, Justin
Date: 2006
Topics: Young Adults / Emerging Adulthood, Single / Unmarried Jews and Dating, Synagogues, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Denominations: Reform/Liberal/Progressive, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Interview-based study of 18-35 year olds within the UK Reform Movement
Lost Jews: The Struggle for Identity Today
Author(s): Klein, Emma
Date: 1995
Topics: Intermarriage, Jewish Status (Who is a Jew?), Marriage, Assimilation, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Law: Jewish Law / Halacha, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: Against a background of continuing erosion of Jewish numbers, the book investigates the many facets of Jewish identity by throwing the spotlight on people of part-Jewish descent, on born Jews on the fringes of Jewish life and those who have sought alternative affiliations. Emma Klein also calls for a response from religious and lay leaders to parochial communal attitudes and the anomaly of the definition of Jewish status in Jewish law which may be seen to contribute to the erosion.
Beyond Belonging: The Jewish Identities of Moderately Engaged British Jews -- Highlights of the UJIA Study of Jewish Identity
Author(s): Kahn-Harris, Keith; Cohen, Steven M.
Date: 2004
Topics: Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Interviews, Policy, Surveys
Abstract: Many observers and policy-makers in Jewish life conceptually divide the population into two large segments: the affiliated and the unaffiliated, or the engaged and unengaged. While seem- ingly straightforward and intuitively appealing, dividing the population into two parts implicitly connotes an exaggerated distinction between the Jewishly more active and Jewishly less active. For Jews in Britain and in almost any other policy-relevant context within the English-speaking Jewish world, the population may be fruitfully divided into three segments, according to levels of Jewish engagement. Rather than seeing the world as divided statically into two blocs, one imagines the population more dynamically moving between at least three regions on the Jewish identity spectrum.

Unlike the less engaged, the moderately engaged report a significant number of points of Jewish involvement (such as congregational membership, Jewish friendship ties and holiday celebration). That said, their Jewish involvement is not so extensive as to indicate a major commitment either to traditional religious piety or to significant leadership in the organized Jewish community. From a Jewish communal policy point of view, the moderately engaged constitute a critical, if not the most critical, Jewish popu- lation segment for Jewish educational intervention on the population-scale.

This study relies upon both qualitative (depth interviews) and quantitative (social surveys) research methodologies.
Beyond Belonging: Jewish Identities of Moderately Engaged British Jews in the UK
Author(s): Cohen, Steven M.; Kahn-Harris, Keith
Editor(s): Cohen, Stuart; Susser, Bernard
Date: 2007
Topics: Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Interviews, Surveys
Abstract: A shortened version of the report of the same name.
Beyond the Synagogue: Report of the Working Group of the “Missing” Generation.
Author(s): Bronzite, Sarah; Clifton, Ruth; Goodman, Deborah; Lachman, Yonni; Loewe, Harriet; Pinto, Linzi; Sieff, Adrian
Date: 1995
Topics: Young Adults / Emerging Adulthood, Synagogues: Membership, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement, Denominations: Reform/Liberal/Progressive
Abstract: Report of a working group set up by the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, on the needs of young adults in Reform synagogues. They are termed the 'missing generation' due to their absence from synagogue life.
Synagogue Membership in the United Kingdom in 2010
Author(s): Graham, David; Vulkan, Daniel
Date: 2010
Topics: Synagogues, Synagogues: Membership, Denominations, Denominations: Statistics, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: This report marks the first occasion that the synagogue membership survey, carried out by the Board
of Deputies approximately every five years, is published jointly with the Institute for Jewish Policy
Research (JPR).
Synagogue membership data are of particular interest to community leaders and planners because
they provide the only consistent indicator of patterns of Jewish affiliation over time. No other survey
regularly reports on the denominational structure of the Jewish community in the UK. The data are
also unique in providing a consistent indicator of Jewish belonging – a measure of proactive
attachment and commitment to Jewish communal life.
Despite the continuing decline in synagogue affiliation over the last generation, the synagogue, as an
institution, nevertheless continues to be the principal arena of formal affiliation to the Jewish
community.
The data presented here reveal a dynamic picture of communal change in the UK, charting changes in
the religious make-up of the community. We have sought to provide as functionally relevant a measure
of synagogue membership as possible within the limits of the data that we were able to obtain.
Trends in British Synagogue Membership 1990-2005/06 
Author(s): Hart, Rona; Kafka, Edward
Date: 2006
Topics: Synagogues, Synagogues: Membership, Denominations, Denominations: Statistics, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community: Affiliation, Engagement and Involvement
Abstract: The key indicators of Jewish congregational engagement such as synagogue membership, participation in services, and volunteering, are declining in many sectors of the Jewish community. This study examines synagogue membership to delineate a developmental account of this trend across the UK and to report on differences between regions and groups. To what extent does community demography explain synagogue membership patterns?