Wertheimer/Avi Chai studies the leaders: On Thursday, the Avi Chai Foundation released sociologist Jack Wertheimer’s long-awaited report on Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s.

Wertheimer first announced some of the preliminary findings of his report, “Generation of Change: How Leaders in Their Twenties and Thirties are Reshaping American Jewish Life,” at this past spring’s Jewish Funders Network conference. As I reported back then, there weren’t a lot of surprises, but rather more confirmation about what many of us suspected. 
Even though the findings aren’t all that shocking, they still leave a lot to chew on.

For the study, Wertheimer and five other well-known Jewish sociologists surveyed more than 3,000 Jews between the ages of 22 and 40 who identify as Jewish leaders and they conducted interviews with another 250. They defined “leaders” rather broadly to include anyone who runs a Jewish organization, has a Jewish project, is involved in Jewish organizations or is a Jewish thinker. They assume these people are likely to be in control of the organized Jewish community over the next several decades and to sculpt its future.

The study, which was conducted over two years, looks at the different views of these leaders based on the types of organizations with which they are involved. It divides them primarily into two categories: those involved in “establishment” organizations that deal with the more traditional agenda of the American Jewish community, such as Jewish federations,AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League, and those involved in “non-establishment” organizations, such as Jewish start-ups, social service organizations and organizations built around recreation with some sort of Jewish connection.

The report found that leaders in both groups feel a strong sense of Jewish identity and belonging to the Jewish people, and many of them share similar Jewish backgrounds. Roughly 40 percent of individuals in both categories attended Jewish day schools. Seventy-one percent attended Jewish camps, 89 percent have two Jewish parents, and an astonishingly high percentage — around 45 percent — come from homes they described as Conservative. A low percentage come from Reform homes. About 55 percent of the leaders in both groups have spent time in Israel.

This is proof that whatever Jewish identity-building mechanisms the community has invested in are working, Wertheimer told me on Thursday.

If there is one similarity between young leaders of the establishment organizations and young leaders of the start-up world, it is that they both feel a strong sense of Jewish identity and belonging to the Jewish people. But it is in the intensity of that sense of belonging and connection to the Jewish community where the differences emerge.

According to the survey, 73 percent of the young leaders in non-establishment organizations have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people, while 75 percent in the establishment organizations feel the same. On the other hand, 64 percent of the non-establishment set say they feel part of the Jewish community, as compared to 73 percent of the young leaders in establishment organizations.

The viewpoints really start to diverge when it comes to the issues of Israel, anti-Semitism, intermarriage and the value of social service. Those involved in establishment organizations feel more strongly about Israel being central to their Jewish identities (51 percent of the establishment set vs. 32 percent of the non-establishment set), more emotionally attached to Israel (62 percent vs. 55 percent), more concerned about threats to Israel’s security (43 percent vs. 23 percent) and more worried about intermarriage (35 percent vs. 17 percent).

From: The Fundermentalist blog:

It is interesting to note that while conventional wisdom loves to forecast that the Conservative movement will one day implode, so much of the current young leadership — more than 40 percent — actually come from Conservative backgrounds. “At a time when the Conservative movement is contracting, we see just how successful it was in producing a disproportionate number of people who get involved,” Wertheimer said. “I don’t think we should take that for granted.”