Highlights

Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP), Greater Boston’s Jewish Federation, set out to conduct an in-depth study of the Jewish community in the Boston area. Ten years after the previous community study, CJP was interested to know the contours of the Jewish population including the size and composition, and how the community’s needs and patterns of participation in Jewish life.  To answer these questions, in collaboration with Rosov Consulting, SSRS set out to conduct the 2025 Greater Boston Jewish Community Study on behalf of CJP.

Challenge

  • Whereas previous community studies relied predominantly on telephone as a mode of data collection or relying on communal membership lists and lists of individuals with ethnic Jewish names, reaching a representative sample of Jewish households in 2025 required a different approach.
  • A specific challenge was how to efficiently reach all members of a community with low population incidence, including those least likely to take part in surveys.
  • On top of that, were the multiple complexities unique to Jewish population research, such as ensuring that respondents feel safe to answer questions about their affiliation, and including people with weaker ties to the Jewish community.

Approach

SSRS crafted a complex, stratified, address-based sample design to meet the study’s goals. This design leveraged dozens of lists of households affiliated with a broad set of Jewish organizations along with addresses not in these lists that were statistically modeled to be likely Jewish households. The sample also included thousands of households that did not meet either of these criteria. This approach allowed us to increase the likelihood of reaching Jewish households, that make up less than 8% of households in the area, while ensuring the sample represents all members of the greater Boston Jewish community. Special care was taken to ensure there were sufficient sample sizes in different areas, as well as of different groups defined by age, denomination, heritage, and social characteristics.

Results

SSRS collected data from more than 5,000 respondents living in Jewish households; that is, households in which at least one adult identifies as Jewish. Beyond the estimation of the population size and its characteristics, the study revealed the complexity of Jewish identity, the diversity of viewpoints and experiences within the community, and the needs and challenges that could be addressed by Jewish organizations.

Learn More About the 2025 Greater Boston Area Jewish Community Study >>