Why the Jewish College Student Survey Matters to You

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For all its hype, the Pew report missed a lot of college-aged Jews, and therefore might have missed a lot about us. Two professors from Trinity College in Connecticut, Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, hope to get the true picture of who we are and what we want by creating an online survey accessible here that they hope will reach as many Jewish students as possible.

New Voices editor Derek M. Kwait interviewed Professors Kosmin and Keysar via email about their goals for the survey and what it means for us.

Please define “college student.” Is a 22 year-old Jew who never went to college ineligible to participate in the survey? Is a middle-aged Jew just starting college now eligible?

The survey is primarily aimed at current American college students since it is a comparative study with our 2013 national student survey and a 2012 U.K Jewish Student survey.

Older students are eligible, although we expect most of the students to be 18-22.

Similarly, how are you defining Jews?

The respondents decide if they are Jewish or not. This is the wording of the introduction:

We would like you to complete this survey if you consider yourself to be Jewish in any way, such as by religion, culture, ethnicity, parentage or ancestry.

We wish to cast the net wide in order to capture a full spectrum.

As in our previous studies, we prefer to let the respondent self-identify, to empower him/herself to be part of the Jewish community. As we know from other studies, Jews do not like to be told how to be Jewish. And the issue of “who is a Jew” is very sensitive.

Why is it important for young Jews to participate in this survey?

Young adults are under-represented in most surveys of Jews, which are directed to households reached by landline telephones. Ours is geared to the younger generation because it is online – the medium is the message.

It is important for many young Jews to participate. It increases the chances that diverse opinions will be expressed and that the survey will better represent the diversity of young people today.

The powers that be will listen to young people if they are willing to give their views and communicate their opinions. So we need lots of students to participate – there is power in numbers.

Please encourage your readers to participate in the survey by following this link
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