The Samueli Foundation, founded by Orange County residents Henry and Susan Samueli, is proud to sponsor the 2024-2025 Orange County Jewish Community Study. Our goals for supporting this research are: 

• Giving the widest set of Orange County Jewish community members an opportunity to reflect on their needs, practices, and opinions on existing Jewish community resources and the issues that most impact their lives
• Ensuring all Orange County Jewish service and religious organizations are operating from the same, data-driven, actionable understanding of our entire community
• Demonstrating a new model for community collaboration by working in broad partnership across Orange County Jewish organizations
• Signaling our commitment to ensuring thriving, safe, joyful Jewish life now and in the future

The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies (CMJS) at Brandeis University is conducting the study in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, an innovative independent research organization. CMJS is a renowned research institute dedicated to the study of American Jewish life and religious and cultural identity. Over the past decade, CMJS has worked with more than thirty Jewish communities like ours to develop local community studies, using its cutting-edge methodology to illustrate the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors unique to each place.

Your Participation In The Survey

Starting in November, you may be contacted by letter, phone, or email with an invitation to participate in the survey. Invitation letters will have logos for NORC, Brandeis, and the Samueli Foundation. Email messages will be sent from NORC at [email protected] OR [email protected]. Phone calls will come from NORC using the phone number 312.871.4255.

The invitation you receive may be titled the “Orange County Jewish Community Study” or the “Orange County Speaks! Community Study.” These two studies are identical and you may respond to either invitation that you receive. Because this is a scientific survey with a defined sample frame, you may not receive one of these calls or emails; however, if you do, we encourage you to respond and participate in this important project.

If you have received an invitation to participate in the survey research associated with this study, any information you provide is completely confidential. Individual responses will not be shared outside of the research team at Brandeis and NORC, and you will not be asked to donate money during the survey or as a result of your participation.

Contact Information

For technical questions about completing the survey, please email NORC at [email protected] or call 888.202.1087.

For general questions about the study, please contact Mel Bordelon, Events & Hospitality Manager, Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County, at [email protected] or call 949.435.3400 x 235.

At Brandeis:

For questions about the study design and methodology, please contact [email protected] or call 781.736.2422. We invite you to visit https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/community-studies/orange-county.html for further information about the study, samples of other community studies, and additional FAQs. 

Principal investigator: Janet Aronson, Associate Director, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis
Project manager: Daniel Nussbaum, Research Associate, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis

If you have any concerns about your rights as a research participant, you may also contact the Brandeis University Human Research Protection Program (781.736.8133, [email protected]). This committee works to safeguard the interests of individuals who participate in Brandeis-sponsored research. Please include “Orange County Jewish Community Study” in any message to the Human Research Protection Program.

Study Sponsors and Leadership Team

We are deeply grateful to the 31 Orange County Jewish organizations that have partnered with us to launch this study. We extend a special thanks to the steering committee that helped shape our community study:

Leadership Team

Scott Braswell, CEO, Merage JCC

Tamy Cohen, Executive Director, OC Hillel

Rabbi David Eliezrie, Congregation Beit Meir Ha’Cohen

Erik Ludwig, CEO and President, Jewish Federation of Orange County

Lindsey Spindle, President, Samueli Family Philanthropies

Rabbi Rick Steinberg, Congregation Shir-Ha-Ma’a lot

Why Do A Community Study?

In conversations with Jewish communal and lay leaders in Orange County, a common theme emerged: while everyone is interested in working to protect and strengthen Jewish life in the County, no one has strong data to leverage about the size, characteristics, locations, or current needs of the Jewish community.

Over the last decade, many Jewish communities across America have undertaken formal demographic studies to create this data set. Orange County has never had the benefit of such a research effort, depriving the community—and particularly the organizations that serve the community—of vital information that allows for more strategic decision-making, responsive resource allocation, creative program development, and cross-organization collaboration.

A scientific demographic study of the Orange County Jewish community is a critical way to learn more about our community—from our community—and we look forward to sharing the results with you when the study is complete

Guiding Principles

Together from input at the Community Kickoff Meetings and the steering committee, the following guiding principles were developed to help shape and set expectations for the study:

• Gather actionable data about the Orange County Jewish community
• Develop a comprehensive picture of Jews in Orange County, across levels and types of engagement and identification
• Utilize an inclusive process that yields results that are useful for all Jewish community organizations in Orange County and generates new public will to support the Jewish community
• Foster collaboration and decrease siloes among Jewish individuals, leaders, and organizations across the County

Imagine what could be possible if we knew:

• How big the Orange County Jewish community is.
• What role(s) community members want Judaism to play in their lives – spiritual, social, cultural, other.
• Who feels disconnected from or under-engaged with our Jewish community – and why.
• If there are geographic areas with large Jewish populations that aren’t being reached by community programs and services.
• What Jews of all ages care about – and what differentiates younger and older cohorts in our community.
• What families with young children need to keep their kids engaged in Jewish life.
• The extent of antisemitism experienced by children and adults in our community.
• What Jewish community members are most excited and concerned about.
• How we can work together to meet the needs of the Orange County Jewish community.

Timeline