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TA’AM YISRAEL RESEARCH STUDY
CFJE established the program to confront the lack of continuation of formal Jewish education by post-bar/bat mitzvah students. It believed that the program would create the learning environment and generate the enthusiasm to inspire these pre-adolescents to continue Jewish involvement in study, teen activities, and an Israel connection in their adolescent years. The study tracked four cohorts of Ta’am alumni—1998, 2000, 2002, and 2005—in the years after their trip. These years were chosen because they represented different developmental levels, and together they represented sizeable cohorts which provided accessibility to an adequate and representative sample. The study was conducted by Professor Barry Chazan, CFJE Educator-in-Residence, with Professor Lynda Crawford, Scientific Advisor. “Whereas most studies want to jump immediately to conclusions about how to make people more Jewish, we were concerned with the more modest question of what these young people do in their adolescent years,” says Professor Chazan. “The results are very impressive, particularly when compared to national averages.” Taam alumni continue on a “quite involved Jewish trajectory” in the critical adolescent years, Dr. Chazan adds. Some of the study’s key findings: • 85% of Ta’am alumni received some sort of Jewish education during their post Ta’am years; 68% took courses in Hebrew in Chicago metropolitan public high schools; 82% of those in college took Jewish studies courses. These numbers are significantly higher than the available national figures in these areas which have indicated that approximately 80% of young Jews stop Jewish studies at age 13. • 40% of Ta’am alumni indicate some to extensive involvement in Jewish youth groups. This is more than twice the national average which is estimated by several major Jewish teen organizations as less than 20%. • 67% of Ta’am alumni say they would definitely send their children on Ta’am or on a high school trip to Israel. 55% regarded themselves as intensely to somewhat involved with Israel. • 89% of Ta’am alumni cited visiting Israel as an important Jewish value. In addition, 21.3% of the Ta’am participants indicated that they had already returned on a second trip to Israel since Ta’am, and 18.5% of the last cohort (2005) indicated their intention to return on a specific teen educational peer summer program or Birthright Israel within the next 2-3 years. This means that almost 40% of Ta’am alumni either have already returned to Israel or intend to return on an organized peer educational program within the next three years. One disclaimer: It is not known if the Ta’am group was more Jewishly involved before they went on Ta’am or if they came from more Jewishly identified families than non-Ta’am participants. Therefore, the research is not able to say that Ta’am made them feel more Jewish. What it does say, however, is that Ta’am alumni retain core Jewish links and express positive identity values as to their future life. It also suggests that there is more than one right age to go to Israel; it now seems clear that going to Israel at different ages has different effects, but going to Israel universally has a positive effect. “What ‘causes’ things in life is ultimately a very complicated question,” says Dr. Chazan. “This study does say that a powerful Israel experience in the critical pre-adolescent period is followed by ongoing Jewish education and involvement throughout adolescence. That’s important news.” Click here to read the full Research Project Summary. Click here for more information on Ta’am Yisrael.
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The Community Foundation for Jewish Education is a support foundation of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago |
