So much has changed since our last Community Study in 2014, and we are eager to obtain new data to help us move forward as a community. In 2024, Jewish Federation of St. Louis will launch a new Community Study that will generate accurate and actionable data that will inform planning and strategy for all local Jewish organizations for years to come.
The goals of the 2024 St. Louis Jewish Community Study are as follows:
- Collect data to support planning throughout the St. Louis Jewish Community
- Estimate the size of the Jewish population (individuals and households) in our region
- Describe the demographic characteristics and geographic distribution of the Jewish population in our region
- Understand how specific groups are or are not engaging in and relating to Judaism and the St. Louis Jewish community and what drives those behaviors and attitudes
- Identify unmet social service and Jewish engagement needs in the St. Louis Jewish community
- Learn about our community’s philanthropic behaviors
- Compare data to past local community studies (1995 and 2014) and relevant national studies (e.g., Pew)
To meet these goals, we are taking a “traditional+” or “hybrid” approach that combines a rigorous demographic study like we conducted in 2014 with follow-up market research studies that will allow us to dive deeper into behaviors and attitudes.
Federation is gathering input from across our community’s lay and professional leadership to ensure the end result of the study is as useful as possible to our local Jewish organizations for years to come.
To conduct this study, we are partnering with Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies for content area expertise and NORC at the University of Chicago for methodological expertise. This team has conducted over 30 Community Studies across the country.
Data collection will take place winter/spring 2024 and the study findings will be released in fall 2024.
Questions? Please contact:
At the Jewish Federation of St. Louis
Karen Sher
Vice President, Community Impact
314.442.3824
ksher@jfedstl.org
At Brandeis University Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies
Matthew A. Brookner
Associate Research Scientist
781.736.3855
mbrookner@brandeis.edu