Talkin’ ’bout our generations
As a landmark snapshot of Australia’s Jewish community, Gen17 will be a critical resource for planning the future of Jewish Australia.
AS a landmark snapshot of Australia’s Jewish community, Gen17 will be a critical resource for planning the future of Jewish Australia.
The survey will show Australian Jewish attitudes across the spectrum of age groups, organisations, synagogue affiliations, occupations, disposable income, birthplaces and other criteria – to Jewish education, anti-Semitism, Israel – and many other areas.
Gen17, a joint project of Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation (ACJC) and JCA, is the first national survey of the Jewish community since Gen08 in 2008.
Professor Andrew Markus, who holds the Pratt Foundation Research Chair of Jewish Civilisation, assures that nine years later, brand recognition of Gen08, and the surge in social media since 2008, will power the new survey, which rolls out from Thursday, February 16.
In Sydney, Gen17 will be spearheaded by Alain Hasson, JCA’s head of planning and projects, and Dr David Graham, JCA demographic research consultant and Institute for Jewish Policy Research senior fellow.
“Gen17 will have a richer range of questions than Gen08,” Markus told The AJN. “The focus will be more on people’s practices than on their beliefs. David Graham has analysed the Gen08 questions thoroughly and looked at surveys done by Jewish communities overseas.”
In Sydney, respondents on the comprehensive JCA database will receive a mailed survey form, while in Melbourne, there will be a smaller mail-out and more reliance on the web.
Markus said Gen17 “ambassadors” will each contact 10 people on social media, encouraging them to fill out the survey, a detailed questionnaire that has taken 18 months to prepare.
“The challenge will be not so much to make people aware of Gen17 but to encourage them to fill out the survey, which will take 30-40 minutes to complete,” he noted.
Markus said Gen17 will adopt incentives, in line with many surveys. Respondents can go in a draw for a $400 shopping voucher on a separate website, with no link back to their anonymous responses.
The survey period is open-ended, he explained, the aim being to surpass the more than 5840 surveys completed for Gen08. Responses will be weighted to demographics, to establish a clear picture of what community segments are thinking on important issues.
For Victorian Jews, this will be the fourth survey in 50 years, with two projects preceding Gen08 – in 1967 (the landmark study by Professors Peter Medding and Ronald Taft) and in 1991. It will be the second survey for NSW.
Hasson said Gen 17 “continues to build on this work [Gen08], and will provide us with new and longitudinal insights as to where our community has grown stronger and where we continue to have unmet needs. JCA is proud to be partnering with Monash University on this vital piece of community research.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Anton Block and executive director Peter Wertheim stated Gen17 would build on the Gen08 survey “which had been an indispensable source of information”.
To participate in Gen17, go to www.monash.edu/gen17.
PETER KOHN
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