Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County President Lee Livingston and director of allocations Laura Safran read suggestions from community leaders for dealing with various issues facing the Jewish community at a Feb. 22 meeting to discuss the results of a demographic survey.
Photos by Debra Rubin
Advertisement
March 3, 2009
Members of the Middlesex Jewish community have acted quickly on results of a demographic survey released last month, pinpointing areas of concern and vowing to form committees by the end of this month to tackle those concerns.
More than 100 attendees convened by the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County met for four hours Feb. 22 at the East Brunswick Jewish Center to discuss and analyze the information and come up with a plan to act on the findings.
Among the top concerns targeted by participants were the need for outreach and marketing to the community and services to a growing senior population.
Jewish education also emerged as a priority, including how to make day school education more affordable in tough economic times, as well as adult education, preschool education, and informal education.
Above all, perhaps, participants identified the need for more communication and collaboration among various Jewish institutions.
The results of the phone survey, conducted by Dr. Ira M. Sheskin of the University of Miami, were first released in a series of meetings conducted in Middlesex County by Sheskin Jan. 8-12.
Sheskin said at the Feb. 22 meeting that “today this community moved from the old model” as various suggestions and issues were raised.
“The fact that we had 100 leaders and no one left early really stood out,” he told NJ Jewish News. “Everyone stayed and was engaged from the first moment they got here.”
Organizers said they were surprised by the range of institutions, denominations, and communities that took part.
“It was very impressive,” said Gail Zucker, a director of consulting for United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for Jewish federations in North America. Zucker was assigned to help the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County cull data from the survey and come up with a plan of action.
One of the items that stood out for Zucker was the need “to do things to build the community as a community through more community-wide events.”
Demographic committee chair Seth Gross said committees will meet throughout the spring and summer to develop a plan of action, which he expected to be drafted by the end of the year.
Demographic committee chair Seth Gross jots down some ideas from his group during the Feb. 22 community meeting.
Dr. Ira Sheskin, director of the Jewish Demography Project at the University of Miami, discusses the Middlesex survey with Dorothy Rubinstein, director of the Jewish Community Center of Middlesex County.
“Finding out what these issues are will help us as the community drafts a plan of action for the next three to five years,” he said.
The survey provided a wellspring of information. While federation officials were aware of an unusually high number of Jewish seniors living in Monroe’s retirement communities, the study confirmed that a majority of the county’s seniors live in Monroe. In addition, the survey conveyed the scope of the residents’ need for health care and other aging-related services. Of particular concern were transportation and in-home health care.
The surveyed also reported that while home religious practice and connection to Israel were among the highest of any of the 44 communities Sheskin had previously surveyed, synagogue membership is only average. Conference participants spoke of a need to come up with a coordinated effort to increase affiliation.
Similarly, the survey found relatively low levels of familiarity with and perception of Jewish agencies and day schools in Middlesex.
The nation’s financial crisis has also affected Middlesex’s Jewish community, which the survey found was wealthier than most surveyed communities and the county as a whole, but still contained pockets of poverty. Various participants expressed concern that day schools and synagogues are being adversely affected by the weakening economy.
Michael Wasserman of Highland Park, who had been a 30-year member of the Rutgers Hillel board, acknowledged he came with relatively low expectations for identifying areas of mutual concern and formulating a plan of action.
“I didn’t see how anything could really happen, yet it did happen,” he added. “Somehow we got a consensus even from a group that was so diverse. People were able to identify both the strengths of the community and its needs and what they would do differently. It was wonderful to see the community cared enough to come together to do this.”
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
--TOP--
