Israel Engagement in Toronto

Client: UJA Federation of Greater Toronto
Project: Undertake a broad and systematic look at Israel in the lives of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto's denizens
Year: 2015

Challenge

UJA Federation wanted to understand the role of Israel in the lives of Jews in Greater Toronto who are in some way connected to Israel and to Israelis. In particular, it wanted to know which of the interventions it supports — such as March of the Living; Birthright Israel; Onward Israel; camps, day schools, youth movements; and Masa programs — has the deepest impact, and on which demographic that impact is most seen. The Federation also wanted to establish a baseline for these findings, essentially serving as a dashboard of Israel engagement to which it could look in years to come to measure its impact. The Jewish Agency for Israel — which supported the study as well — hoped this would be a model for other communities to emulate in assessing outcomes of their own efforts.

Approach

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto was the first organized Jewish community in North America to undertake a broad and systematic look at Israel in the lives of its denizens — both adults and young adults. To conduct a study of such a robust scope, Rosov Consulting developed an approach to garner information from people representing diverse Jewish backgrounds, levels of involvement in the community, and of varying ages. Specifically, RC worked closely with 21 community organizations to send a survey to everyone on their contact lists, gathering data from 1,554 people. RC also conducted 19 focus groups, gathering even more information from 98 people. The results, compiled and analyzed in The Israel-Engaged in the Toronto Jewish Community, paint a rich picture of how Toronto Jews think, feel, and act in relation to Israel.

Results

The data gathered provide UJA Federation with a baseline against which to compare changes in the community over the coming years, and they enable community planners and educators to understand the distinct and different ways in which various age cohorts and demographic groups engage with Israel.

Of great interest was an analysis of survey responses that surfaced nine broad but distinct expressions of Israel engagement. Feedback from community professionals indicated that four of these broad expressions (image on right) are especially useful in capturing the main dimensions of Israel engagement that a plurality of community programs seeks to nurture. These expressions convey succinctly the cognitive and emotional content of what “being engaged with Israel” means in Toronto, and the distinct behavioral expression of engagement.

Other key findings gleaned from the data:

  • The under-30 age-cohort is actually the most active when engaging in personally initiated Israel-related activities, especially of a cultural sort such as watching Israeli movies, or through talking about Israel with friends.
  • The levels of personally-initiated engagement with Israel for Secular Jews is similar to those of the Modern Orthodox — and actually is significantly higher than all other denominational groups — but Secular Jews’ engagement with community events is significantly lower than other groups.
  • Which neighborhood someone lives in is a big predictor of their level and type of Israel engagement, particularly as it relates to political concern with Israel, involvement on social media, and emotional concern and activism when Israel is at war.

How UJA Federation’s Interventions Influence Participants’ Engagement with Israel:

  • Israel visits: The more often a person visits Israel, the more actively engaged they are with it. This is something of a virtuous circle: frequent visits contribute to more intense engagement which in turn results in further visits. Related, Birthright Israel has an additive effect but is not a substitute for a mix of experiences in Israel.
  • Shinshinim (young Israeli leaders who defer their army service for one year to volunteer in the GTA): While relationships that GTA denizens have with Shinshinim may not be “transformative” in the way that trips to Israel are, these relationships do constitute a more intimate and continuous part of people’s lives.
  • Jewish day schools and Youth Groups: These settings increase one’s connection to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, their knowledge about Israel, and their levels of personal and communal involvement with Israel. However, surprisingly, participating in overnight camps did not seem to enhance these relationships, except for communal involvement with Israel outcomes.
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From the Client

We had a very positive experience working under the leadership and guidance of Rosov Consulting—and the entire community took notice. The study allowed us to understand the impact of our various initiatives and set a baseline so that when we conduct similar studies in a few years we can measure if there’s an appreciable difference. Our community members have a level of pride and appreciation that their philanthropic efforts are being invested in a way that clearly is informed by rich data.

There were three primary outcomes that have had an especially deep impact on our community.

First, the results showing the lack of effective Israel engagement at camp led to important conversations with Jewish overnight camps and follow-up research to understand more deeply what was happening. We convened all of the relevant community partners; the report really galvanized the field of camping in GTA and we are working with the camps to implement changes in summer 2018 regarding redeploying shinshinim, using shlichim (other young Israelis who come to North America) for multiple summers, developing curricula, professional development, and more.

Second, we gained an understanding that no single Israel education program is the panacea for creating community deeply connected to Israel. At the same time, we learned that people who participate in more than one type of initiative have more profound and longstanding connections to Israel. In fact, there is an exponential jump between someone’s participation in the second and third Israel program. This finding really has influenced how our community thinks about Israel education; we don’t just want to fund individual programs, but help create a linked environment where people can easily engage with multiple Israel engagement experiences, be they Shinshinim, Birthright, and many others.

Finally, as a result of the study, we have served as a leader of sorts in this area. In partnership with the Jewish Agency, we convened a North American-wide gathering for communities from across North America came to learn about this process and to adapt it for themselves.

Adam Minsky
CEO,
UJA Federation of Greater Toronto