Leonard Saxe

Dear Friends,

With the chagim past and the fall semester in full swing, it is an intense period at the Center and Institutes. Along with sharing our latest Taglit-Birthright Israel study, I want to provide a brief update on our major projects and forthcoming reports.

Today, we are releasing our latest report of the Jewish Futures Project. The study follows 2,000 Jewish young adults who were applicants to Taglit in its early years. The report focuses on participant and non-participant applicants from 2001-2006. The results are stunning. As the "Birthright Israel generation" marries and establishes their own families, we continue to find that Taglit participants are nearly 50% more likely to inmarry, are more highly attached to Israel, and more likely to belong to a Jewish congregation. The report details a host of interesting findings and several papers based on the findings will be completed shortly.  

The Jewish Futures project, and our other studies of the "Birthright Israel generation," are part of an expanding and maturing program of research. JData continues to flourish and we are also making important progress on our socio-demographic studies of the U.S. Jewish population. In addition, we are engaged in a number of other efforts ---- on Jewish and Israel studies at universities and on programs to address poverty and human service needs in the Former Soviet Union. The results of these studies will be available shortly.

My colleagues and I continue to be appreciative for your interest and support of our work. As always, we welcome your comments.

Best wishes,