Equal rights for women worshipers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem may be one of the top headlines of 2013, especially for Jewish media, but the journalists who are covering this and other stories do not rank it as one of the most significant issues facing Israel.

That finding is one of the many surprising results of “Reporting Jewish: Do They Have the Tools to Succeed?” a research survey of more than 120 journalists for Jewish media being done by the iEngage Project.

“The headlines in the news may not be what journalists themselves think is important,” said Alan Abbey, Director of Media and Internet Services at the Shalom Hartman Institute, who is conducting the research. “Even the Iranian threat, while considered very important, does not rank as number one in the results.”

Ranked in order of importance, according to survey results of journalists for Jewish media in the US, Canada and Israel, the four top issues facing Israel are:

• Social and economic imbalances within Israel
• Iranian nuclear threat
• Ultra-Orthodox and Haredim impact on Israeli society
• Government non-recognition of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism

Equal rights for women worshipers at the Kotel was ranked seventh out of eight issues in importance and below the mean ranking of issues.

Further analysis of the data and other results are under way and will be released in the final report, which is scheduled to be unveiled at the 2013 convention of the American Jewish Press Association in June.