In late 2024, a research team set out to understand the unmet needs of unaffiliated Jewish families with school-aged kids. Conducted by Sense Worldwide (SWW), the research was commissioned by the Emergent Strategy Team at the Jim Joseph Foundation, inspired by a stark reality: Hebrew school enrollment has plummeted in the last several decades. While the research project was known as “Reinventing Hebrew School,” the clearest takeaway was simple: families today want individualized and varied opportunities to engage in Jewish life.

Even as many congregations have worked to improve their Hebrew school, with many making real strides toward positive outcomes, the findings show that for Jewish families like those in our study, even a reimagined Hebrew school isn’t the answer.

Illustrative. Ashok SInha/Adobe Stock

Understanding the audience

Through a literature review, a series of expert discussions and ethnographic interviews with families, the researchers were able to learn about families who are Jewish but, according to them, are not served by Jewish communal institutions. To be clear, these unserved Jewish families — about 70% of American Jews — aren’t a monolith. They are diverse in terms of upbringings, family makeup, socioeconomic status and sense of Jewish identity. But the research does show that they tend to fall into three broad groups:

1. Those who reject Judaism outright. They’ve opted out for a variety of reasons, and no version of Hebrew school (or other program for that matter) will bring them back.
   
2. Those who are open to traditional affiliation but have not affiliated. For some, barriers to congregational engagement like cost and location are too much to overcome; yet a fun, innovative and engaging Hebrew school remains appealing. Many new offerings like Your Jewish, Jewish Kids Groups, Makom, Fig Tree and redesigned congregational programs have emerged from a flurry of innovation in the space. These efforts are working to serve these kinds of families.
   
3. Culturally Jewish families who want something entirely new from their Jewish experience. This is the biggest group. As parents reconsidering Judaism after disconnecting from it, they reject the inflexible, closed and ritual-oriented version of Judaism they remember from their childhoods and don’t know what to replace it with; or they are parents newly considering Judaism, but they don’t feel welcomed by Jewish institutions. Often, Judaism is but one of multiple identities for these families, so Jewish engagement competes with other activities; dedicating two of their kids’ afternoons every week to Hebrew school, for example, feels unfeasible and undesirable. The Jewish experiences they do describe wanting are modern, personalized, positive, relevant, and include and reflect their lived experience.

For this last group, even a fully reimagined Hebrew school still feels like the past, not the future. They want and need something entirely different.

What’s next?

By speaking with families of this majority Jewish population, the researchers in essence came to “feel” the parents’ experiences of day-to-day life. The subject matter experts and inspiring individuals with whom the researchers spoke also may have unlocked a new, exciting and admittedly unknown vision of the future of Jewish family life. Here’s how the researchers framed a key learning from this group:

“To truly create something groundbreaking for [these families], we need to see, think and act differently to what is currently happening in the Jewish education space. This challenge is greater than Judaism alone. It is also about childhood, parenting, complex cultural identities and the wider cultural relevance of Judaism. Limiting ourselves to purely Jewish perspectives could mean risking cognitive entrenchment and limiting our thinking. We spoke to a diverse mix of experts to introduce unusual and unexpected perspectives into the project. This allowed us to look at our challenge differently, consider alternative points of view and challenge our assumptions to unlock new possibilities for what our solution could be.”

The research uncovered an opportunity bigger than elementary-age education alone. Rather than focusing on reinventing Hebrew school — an education strategy — the real opportunity is for an integrated family strategy. This shift directly reflects the diversity of the needs, desires and pain points of the majority Jewish population. There are five major opportunity areas for creating new Jewish family experiences that would reach this audience:

Main character energy: Since young parents and children are increasingly influenced by cultural content (at the tip of their fingers), creators need to develop and champion Jewish archetypes and stories that are resonant and impactful, stretch the imagination of what it means to have a Jewish experience, and fit seamlessly into mainstream culture. Parents want inspiring stories and content to share with their children that makes Judaism modern relevant and cool.

Step by step: Judaism shouldn’t just be an educational experience for kids, it should be a lived experience for families. There need to be more holistic, family-wide approaches to engagement that are integrated into important moments of family life and through which families learn and live simultaneously. These approaches should align with the parents’ version of Judaism and should be easy to adopt in incremental steps

What to Expect, Jewish Edition: A couple that is expecting or just had their first child is experiencing a moment when we can demonstrate how meaningful, valuable and supportive Judaism can be in their lives—that it truly offers guidance in this next chapter. These are times when parents who had little or no past Jewish engagement might explore and be open to raising their child(ren) in a modern Jewish home.

Bnei mitzvah 2.0: Many families want a relevant and meaningful bnei mitzvah experience outside of institutional frameworks. Leaders need to fundamentally rethink this important lifecycle event and develop creative new approaches that families deeply connect to.

Afterschool care: Day-to-day, if Judaism is a vehicle to provide convenient, high-quality afterschool care with an “and Jewish” bonus, parents will feel supported in a very concrete way. This is an example of meeting parents where they are and meeting their needs.

I share this research and areas of opportunity because it has major implications for anyone who cares about creating, supporting and sustaining meaningful Jewish engagement and learning — for as many people as possible. By more fully understanding the myriad types of people who make up the “Jewish families” audience, communal leaders and funders will be better positioned to design Jewish experiences that meet the needs, desires and lifestyles of an increasing number of these families. The challenging and fun part of solving for this is to consider all the places and opportunities that have yet to be uncovered and pursued.

Dan Ostrower is the founder of 3rd Horizon LLC.