Earlier this week I sent out a “special edition” of Marc’s Remarks (so today’s will be very brief). I wanted it to be timely and to share about the successes of the Food for Thought Festival. We will soon be adding all the photos, videos of speakers, and audio of the various events on the Festival website. For a sneak peek, click here for photo highlights, and I encourage you to watch Dr. Stephen Trachtenberg’s address at Limmud PDX.

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You often read in the media the importance of data. Yes, I often mistake the plural of “anecdote” as data, yet I realize it takes more than a few shared comments to fully understand the reality of any situation. 

Our community completed a formalized demographic study four years ago. In it we learned that our Jewish population had grown substantially to 47,500 people, we have greater geographic dispersion, and Jewish communal connections are not as previously thought.

I am pleased to inform you that the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, along with 10 national organizations and over 30 other local Jewish Federations, are collaborating on a special intergenerational survey of the American Jewish community. The focus of the study is to better understand people’s attitudes, activities and plans. The survey covers all four adult generational groups (Millennials, Gen X-ers, Baby Boomers and WWII/Greatest generation) - so if you’re over 18, we hope you will participate.

Please click here to take the survey. With this specialized Portland link, the researchers will be able to track responses and collect data specifically from our community. Not only will this help us in our communal efforts, but also provide a way to compare our results to the broader national sample. Please note all responses are confidential.

I think you will find the survey interesting and quick – and I am confident it will be a helpful new resource. Please also forward on to others.

This national survey was created by Dr. David Elcott, the Henry and Marilyn Taub Professor of Practice in Public Service and Leadership at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Stuart Himmelfarb, CEO and co-founder of B3/The Jewish Boomer Platform.

Thank you for your participation in the survey – it will help both locally and nationally.

Shabbat shalom and enjoy Lag b’Omer.

Marc