East Bay Jewish Community Study - Jewish Federation of the ...

Nearly 40 percent of Jewish residents say that providing children with a Jewish education is a
very important aspect of being Jewish; among those with young children, this number climbs to
49 percent. Almost one-third of parents are already providing their children with a Jewish
education; an additional 22 percent are interested in doing so. 21
Residents who feel that they are very involved in the Jewish community are more than twice as
likely to already be providing a Jewish education for their children. Residents with a strong
sense of belonging to the Jewish people and those who report that being Jewish is very
important to them are slightly less likely than very involved Jews to already be providing their
children with a Jewish education
Parents of bar and bat mitzvah-age children are most likely to have their kids in an education
program (40 percent). Those with children younger than five are most likely to be either
interested in providing their children with a Jewish education later (24 percent) or not at all
interested (39 percent).
Figure 68: Age of Children and Jewish Education
Are you currently providing your children with a formal Jewish education (IF NO) How interested are you in providing
your children with a Jewish education **
100
80
Not too interested
Somewhat interested
Already providing
Not at all interested
Very inteterested
60
40
20
0
23
24
14
Children
age 0 to 5
52
39
39
16
44
27
40
21
21 21
5 5 8
Children age
6 to 10
17
42
Children age
11 to 15
58
38
Children age
16 to 18
**Question asked only of parents
21 The sample size among these parents is too small to determine exactly who they are.
71