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
Limmud NY Participants by Age: 2005 - 2010
14
32
21
8
1
13
27 25
9
2
11
3
24 2323
15
23 24
0
10
20
30
40
18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65-79 80+
Age
Proportion
2005-2008 2009 2010Mean Overall Age=39Median Overall Age=37
Limmud NY Status: Newcomers vs. Returnees, 2006-2010
64 6358
43
26
36 3742
57
74
0
20
40
60
80
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Percentage
Year
Newcomers Returnees
Limmud NY Participants by Denomination: 2005 - 2010
17
35
10
38
14
37
11
38
16
10
45
21
9
38
20
32
96
40
2932
3932
22
0
20
40
60
Orthodox Conservative Reform Other
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Limmud NY Participants by Geographic Areas: 2008 - 2010 Limmud NY
Participants by Geographic Area: 2008 & 2009 2008 2009 2010
% % %
Upper West Side 22 23 24
Upper East Side 3 3 2
Other Manhattan 13 13 12
Bronx 4 4 5
Brooklyn 9 9 10
Queens 4 2 3
Staten Island 0 <1 <1
Nassau 5 9 8
Suffolk 3 0 <1
Westchester 4 4 5
Total UJA Federation County Area 67 67 70Other NY State 4 2 2
New Jersey 10 14 13
MA & CT 4 3 4
Other States 13 11 8
Other Countries 3 3 2
TOTAL 101 100 99
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
Satisfaction Ratings by Conference Year, 2007-2010
51
35
49
1
57
29
3 37
49
29
105 7
64
20
26 9
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Very Satisfied Somewhat Satisfied Neutral SomewhatDissatisfied
Very Dissatisfied
2007 2008 2009 2010
Extent to Which Expectations Were Met
Expectation % “Very Much” and “A Great Extent”
Engage in Jewish Learning 90
Be exposed to ways of being Jewish that are different than my own
60
See how I feel about Jewish learning
54
See my friends 52
Meet new people 50
Plan to Attend Limmud NY the Following Year
28 2927
12
4
27
43
22
7
2
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Definitely Yes Probably Yes Not Sure Probably No Definitely No
2009
2010
* Common reasons why participants were unsure included cost,not sure if they would be in the NYC area
Satisfaction Ratings by Denomination: Proportion “Somewhat” and “Very Satisfied”
80
82
73
85
66
68
70
72
74
76
78
80
82
84
86
Orthodox Conservative Reform Other
Satisfaction Ratings by Age: Proportion “Somewhat” and “Very Satisfied”
96
8579 80
67
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65+
Satisfaction Ratings by Gender: Proportion “Somewhat” and “Very Satisfied”
87
76
70
72
74
76
78
80
82
84
86
88
Female Male
* One respondent identified as “Other” and was “Very Satisfied”
Participants’ Attitudes Regarding Limmud Learning Levels
3 18
86
2 21 3
17
76
0
20
40
60
80
100
2009 2010
Much too basic Too basic J ust about right
Too advanced Much too advanced
Extent to Which Learning Expectations Were Met
Expectation % “Very Much” and “A Great Extent”
Feel welcome in all sessions 87
Find sessions with content that
interested you
83
Learn something new 80
Find that sessions stimulated
conversation 76
Volunteering Before and During the Conference
22
7968
32
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Before the conference During the conference
Yes
No
Hours Spent Planning Limmud NY 2010, by Conference Planners
39
12
2
39
7
0
10
20
30
40
50
>1 hour/ week 1-4 hours 5-10 hours 11-15 hours 15+ hours
* Total number of conference planners in the survey was 43. We estimate that thisIncludes our most active volunteers, and about half of our total volunteers.
Hours Spent Volunteering at Limmud NY 2010
17
5 6
73
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
1-4 hours 5-10 hours 11-14 hours 15+ hours
* Total number of conference volunteers in the survey was 131
Extent to Which Volunteer Expectations Were Met for Planners
Expectation % “Very Much” and “A Great Extent”
Feel that others appreciated your
efforts 93
Feel informed about the overall vision of Limmud NY
74
Feel that Limmud NY has made good use of your time
74
Feel part of a Limmud NY community year round
65
Extent to Which Volunteer Expectations Were Met at the Conference
Expectation % “Very Much” and “A Great Extent”
Feel that others appreciated your
efforts 66
Feel that the volunteer process ran smoothly
58
Feel that Limmud NY made good use of your time
56
Feel more connected to the Limmud NY community as a result of volunteering
51
Participants’ Denominations, Both Growing Up and Today
2117
48
35
116
24
42
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Orthodox Conservative Reform Other
Growing up
Today
Denominations that participants who grew up “Reform” consider themselves today
5
21
5
21
5
11 11
5
16
0
5
10
15
20
25
Conse
rvad
ox
Conse
rvat
ive
Cultu
rally
Jew
ish
Just
Jew
ish
Multi
-den
omin
atio
nal
Non-d
enom
inat
ional
Post-d
enom
inat
ional
Reconst
ruct
ionis
t
Reform
Denominations that participants who grew up “Conservative” consider themselves today
13
40
3 4 5 5
12 11
14
1 105
1015202530354045
Conse
rvad
ox
Conse
rvat
ive
Cultu
rally
Jew
ish
Just
Jew
ish
Multi
-den
omin
atio
nal
Non-d
enom
inat
ional
Othod
ox
Post-d
enom
inat
ional
Reconst
ruct
ionis
t
Reform
Secula
r
Secula
r Hum
anis
t
* Grew up “Conservative” or “Conservadox”
Denominations that participants who grew up “Orthodox” consider themselves today
5 3 3 5 8 5
50
13
3 3 3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Conse
rvad
ox
Conse
rvat
ive
Hassi
dic
Just
Jew
ish
Multi
-den
omin
atio
nal
Non-d
enom
inat
ional
Orthodo
x
Post-d
enom
inat
ional
Reform
Renew
al
Secula
r
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”
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”
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”
Participants’ Jewish Educational Experiences
42
5970
58
4753
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Day School SupplementarySchool
Camp Youth Group Hillel Jewish Studies
* The overall percentage of survey respondents who had participated in Birthright Israelwas low, since most Limmud NY participants are not eligible. The total number of Birthright Israel participants among survey respondents was 17. The total number whohad participated in other Israel trips with peers was 95.
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.”
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
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
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