Areas of work
Supporting Jewish life in the UK
There are approximately 300,000 Jews living in the UK today, and a fundamental part of our mission involves understanding the nature and composition of this population. JPR plays a key role in the UK Jewish community, providing essential social statistics to organisations operating across the Jewish sector.
We conduct regular surveys of the UK Jewish population to generate up-to-date information on how Jews are living their Jewish lives, how they view their place in British society, and what they think and feel about a variety of social and political issues. We use our innovative research panel for this purpose – thousands of Jews from across the country, from young people still in school to retirees living in care homes, and ranging from the strictly orthodox to the staunchly secular, have signed up to participate in our surveys. They have done so because they want their voices to be included in the data we share every day with Jewish charities, representative bodies, NGOs and governmental organisations in the UK, Europe and across the world, and you can join them too.
We also run our community statistics programme which involves measuring fundamental sociodemographic trends, such as Jewish births and deaths, marriage and divorce, synagogue membership and Jewish school enrolment, all of which play an essential role in shaping the community’s understanding of its present and future.
And we continually monitor and analyse new sources of data on Jews in the UK, most notably the UK Census, which takes place every ten years, as well as a growing number of datasets that include religion as a key variable. Our work in the UK feeds directly into the planning processes of numerous Jewish charities and governmental organisations, and we regularly present our analysis to community bodies operating around the country.
Supporting Jewish life in Europe
1.3 million Jews live in Europe, 790,000 of whom are based in the 27 countries of the European Union, with most of the rest based in the UK, Russia and Ukraine. Building a robust understanding of the demographic characteristics of these populations and the internal dynamics of community life is essential to the future of Jewish life on the continent.
JPR monitors key demographic developments through our European Jewish Demography Unit, which exists to provide community leaders and policymakers across Europe with essential sociodemographic data to aid their planning. The Unit generates pan-European reports analysing demographic trends across Jewish communities, country-specific reports providing a detailed assessment of the Jewish population in each place, and bespoke studies for individual organisations keen to understand a specific issue of interest or concern.
We also regularly undertake research work for major European bodies, such as the European Commission and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, working with them to generate the data they need to help combat antisemitism and enhance Jewish life. We prioritise projects that have clear policy goals, so that the data we generate are used directly to inform policy at the national and pan-European levels.
JPR also houses and manages the European Jewish Research Archive – a free-to-access, online repository of all research work undertaken about Jewish life in Europe since 1990. The Archive contains over 4,000 items, covering in excess of 50 countries and written in 30 different languages, and is designed to ensure that this growing body of work is available to community leaders, donors, academics and students to help them with their work.
Understanding contemporary antisemitism
Antisemitism is one of the major issues exercising Jews across Europe and the world today. JPR’s role is to understand it empirically, from an objective scientific perspective, but always with a clear eye on the question of how to combat it.
JPR has worked closely with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights to examine the perceptions and experiences of antisemitism among European Jews, conducting two major pan-European surveys that stand at the base of the EU’s strategy to combat antisemitism and foster Jewish life. We continue to play an essential role in informing policy at both the national and European levels.
JPR also researches the attitudes of the general public towards Jews and Israel to keep fully abreast of any shifts over time, and monitors multiple data sources that help to understand how Jews are responding to contemporary antisemitic discourse and incidents. The JPR team is regularly consulted by communal, national and international bodies concerned about antisemitism, and we present our analysis at events across the world.
Conducting research for you
JPR is regularly commissioned to conduct research for charities, foundations and governmental bodies in the UK and across Europe. Our expertise in constructing and managing social research projects and our bank of existing datasets about Jews position us well to help charities answer their policy questions, and determine which issues require the gathering of new data.
Our team is also regularly invited to present our research and analysis both to organisations keen to understand a particular issue or to plan for the future, and at academic conferences. We use our extensive understanding of current sociological and demographic trends to build bespoke presentations that speak directly to the interests and concerns of every group we work with. Our clients include individual synagogues and Jewish schools, Jewish welfare organisations and educational charities, trusts and foundations, civil society organisations and governmental bodies.
If you would like to talk to us about how our work could help you or your organisation, and to find out about the costs involved, please contact us.
