TELL May - July 2012 - Emanuel Synagogue

Survey
Services at Emanuel Synagogue
It is not surprising that the type of service attended by
the most members is ‘High Holydays, Rosh Hashanah
and / or Yom Kippur’ with nine out of ten, 90%, generally
attending.
The next most frequented service is ‘special
occasions like Bar or Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, etc’ with
61% saying they generally attend. Friday night and for
Yahrzeit is attended by just over 50% with Saturday
morning and festivals other than High Holy Days generally
attended by just under 40% of members.
In line with their more frequent attendance
younger members aged 50 years or younger are more
likely to attend Friday night services and Festivals other
than High Holy Days.
The most popular type of service is Progressive
with 77% frequenting this service at least sometimes,
with 43% for Masorti and 14% for Renewal.
About a third of you want more use of the choir.
About a quarter would like more ‘instrumental music’,
17% more ‘use of English’.
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For many of you ‘attending services more often is
not a priority’. Our challenge is to persuade you to the
contrary.
Learning and Study groups
There is generally quite widespread support for
attending learning sessions or learning more about many
of the areas offered in the survey.
Topping the list in the learning sessions are Jewish
history, 73%, Jewish values, 70%, and Israel, 64%.
In terms of learning more about topics, Israeli
themes rather than different forms of Judaism are
more popular. - ’Israeli politics and current affairs’ of
interest to 75%, ‘Israeli history’ 74% and Israeli culture’
61% . Interest in learning more about different forms
of Judaism follows the rank order of attendance levels
of the types of services with 56% interested in learning
more about Progressive Judaism, Masorti Judaism 46%
and Renewal Judaism 31%.
Weekday nights and Sundays are the most popular
www.emanuel.org.au
times for these learning sessions with the majority
indicating these times are at least ‘somewhat suitable’.
The most popular way of conducting these learning
sessions is ‘in small groups as a seminar’ with 50% saying
this method is ‘very suitable’ and a further 31% saying
it is ‘somewhat suitable’. ‘Face to face sessions’ and ‘in
larger groups as a lecture’ are also popular with more
than 70% saying they are suitable. Perhaps reflecting
the older profile of the sample, ‘by using social media
such as, Facebook or Skype’ is far less popular with only
28% saying it is suitable.
Of four activities offered, ‘attending an address by
an Israeli visitor (ie politicians, ambassadors, scholars’) is
the most popular with 74% interested. Also with majority
interest is ‘attending communal events on Israel’. Again,
possibly reflecting the age profile of responders, ‘taking
part in blogs and e-conversations” is not well supported.
Social activities
Interest in attending a list of ten social activities
was tested. The top four activities are:
Movies, plays or concerts
on Jewish themes 72%
Israeli films 66%
Movies, plays or concerts on
general themes 58%
Shabbat dinners 54%
The most popular frequency for these kinds of
functions is about every two to three months,
supported by 42% followed by once a month at
32%.
Sunday nights, weekday nights and
Sundays during the day are the most popular
times for these kinds of social activities with
59%, 56% and 54% respectively saying these are
either very or somewhat suitable.
Social Issues
The majority of members surveyed are concerned
about each of the seven social issues tested. The areas
with the greatest number very concerned are, ‘care
for the elderly’, 49%, ‘poverty’, 46%, mental illness and
depression, 44% and homelessness, 41%.
Conclusion
We will use this valuable information in our programming
decisions and strategic plan. Giving members the services
and programmes they want and need is a priority. Please
contact us if you have further suggestions or would to
join a “members committee” to help us with that task.
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