Limmud NY 2010: Results of Evaluation Survey

1. Limmud NY 2010: Results of Evaluation Survey Prepared by Annie Schiff, Insight Fellow, Limmud NY Demographic data prepared by Pearl Beck, Ph.D. April 2010

2. Demographics Prepared from registration form data by Pearl Beck, Ph.D.

3. Limmud NY Participants by Age: 2005 - 2010 Mean Overall Age=39 Median Overall Age=37

4. Limmud NY Status: Newcomers vs. Returnees, 2006-2010

5. Limmud NY Participants by Denomination: 2005 - 2010

6. Limmud NY Participants by Geographic Areas: 2008 - 2010 Limmud NY

7. Evaluation Survey Prepared by Annie Schiff, Insight Fellow, Limmud NY

8. Methodology and Response Rate • Online survey sent to all 2010 Limmud NY participants during March 2010 (6 weeks after conference) • 37% of Limmud 2010 participants who received the survey responded

9. Overall Satisfaction

10. Satisfaction Ratings by Conference Year, 2007-2010

11. Extent to Which Expectations Were Met

12. Plan to Attend Limmud NY the Following Year • * Common reasons why participants were unsure included cost, • not sure if they would be in the NYC area

13. Satisfaction Ratings by Denomination: Proportion “Somewhat” and “Very Satisfied”

14. Satisfaction Ratings by Age: Proportion “Somewhat” and “Very Satisfied”

15. Satisfaction Ratings by Gender: Proportion “Somewhat” and “Very Satisfied” * One respondent identified as “Other” and was “Very Satisfied”

16. Learning Experience

17. Participants’ Attitudes Regarding Limmud Learning Levels

18. Extent to Which Learning Expectations Were Met

19. Volunteer Experience

20. Volunteering Before and During the Conference

21. Hours Spent Planning Limmud NY 2010, by Conference Planners • * Total number of conference planners in the survey was 43. We estimate that this • Includes our most active volunteers, and about half of our total volunteers.

22. Hours Spent Volunteering at Limmud NY 2010 * Total number of conference volunteers in the survey was 131

23. Extent to Which Volunteer Expectations Were Met for Planners

24. Extent to Which Volunteer Expectations Were Met at the Conference

25. Participant Characteristics

26. Participants’ Denominations, Both Growing Up and Today

27. Denominations that participants who grew up “Reform” consider themselves today

28. Denominations that participants who grew up “Conservative” consider themselves today * Grew up “Conservative” or “Conservadox”

29. Denominations that participants who grew up “Orthodox” consider themselves today

30. What are 1-2 additional words to describe your Jewish identity? • About observance • “observant”, “open/modern orthodox”, “orthoprax”, “halakhic”, “kosher home” • About gender-egalitarian observance • “traditionally egalitarian”, “halachically egalitarian”, “egalitarian, semi-observant” • About a process rather than a label (-ing words) • “striving, seeking”, “evolving Jew”, “undecided”, “involved, concerned, growing”, “fluctuating”, “expansive, yearning”, “trying hard”, “coming back home”

31. What are 1-2 additional words to describe your Jewish identity? • About Israel • “Israeli”, “Zionist”, “American Zionist”, “Zionist and spiritual”, “born and raised Israeli Jew”, “pluralist zionist”, “mesorati” • About learning • “learner”, “intellectual halachic”, “text-based”, “book-oriented” • About ethnicity and culture • “culturally identifying”, “Sephardic/Mizrahi/Observant”, “Sephardic, Multicultural”, “southern, diasporist”, “Roots, family”

32. What are 1-2 additional words to describe your Jewish identity? • Other • “Traditional semi-observant perpetual questioner” • “Progressive but respectful” • “committed, often bored” • “affiliated, dues payer” • “enthusiastic, epikorus” • “child of survivors” • “tikkun olam” • “ahavat israel v hashem” • “PROUD, ETHICAL” • “part of [it] in my own way”

33. Participants’ Jewish Educational Experiences • * The overall percentage of survey respondents who had participated in Birthright Israel • was low, since most Limmud NY participants are not eligible. The total number of • Birthright Israel participants among survey respondents was 17. The total number who • had participated in other Israel trips with peers was 95.

34. Feedback

35. Strengths and Positive Experiences • Diversity and interaction • “Just amazing. My wife and I are very different religiously, but we both found the experience enriching. We have championed this with our congregation and friends.” • “I love the fact that there were so many differentiations of ages among the participants and that kids felt so comfortable there” • “The tisch was amazing harmony, togetherness of all kinds of jews (including those adorable and tolerant chassidim whose phenomenal hats completed the skyline), and deep vignettes interspersed.” • “My study partner in the Chavruta was a Hasid. I am secular. I see the Bible as a collection of stories, laws poetry and history written by different people at different time periods, yet we learned from each other.”

36. Strengths and Positive Experiences • Variety • “Memorable to me is… the great diversity of things that I did. For example, attending a very academic presentation by a JTS professor, seeing Israeli short films, attending a play, going to a program on the origins of certain prayers, learning about a splinter group of chasidim, studying a piece of Talmud.” • Volunteerism • “The hundreds of hours it took to make it happen (I know; I’ve done similar conference planning) showed and paid off.” • “It was clear that the organization is almost completely run on volunteers, and there is a strong culture of volunteerism – so it felt like something I should do to be part of the community and not just taking from it. The culture of volunteering at Limmud is quite impressive!” • Great facility

37. Areas of Improvement • Alternatives to text study • “Premise of all programs was ‘text’ and/or ‘god.’ What about those jews who have made a decision that a rich jewish life can be led without these elements.” • Programmatic areas to strengthen • Arts and performance • Film festival • Current events, big issues, politics • Social justice, connection to MLK Day • Meditation and yoga • Opportunities to be physically active • More time off between sessions and for meals • Food needs more variety and protein

38. Areas of Improvement • Diversity • “I'd like to see more people from Reform roots, I felt ‘outnumbered’ by those more observant than I, and felt that the curriculum/programming was more formal/traditional than my own practice.” • “A major highlight was the LGBTQ meetup time… I think that Limmud's diversity tended in other areas to feel more like tokenism or ‘let me explain my minority Judaism to you mainstream Jews’ and that was somewhat off-putting.” • “More of a[n] intro on ‘not making assumptions’ around people’s gender, sexual orientation is needed. People tended to assume heterosexuality when really in a space like Limmud, those things should be respectfully asked.” • Could better represent Sephardic Jews, Jews of Color, Russian Jews, centrist and traditional Orthodox Jews, and those not from the Upper West Side