Melton draws unaffiliated into community

By PAUL HAIST

article created on: 2010-10-15T00:00:00

The director of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School in Portland has identified data demonstrating that participation in the Melton program can be associated with increases in Jewish engagement, leadership and philanthropy.

Sarah Liebman said she found that participants in the two-year program of study increased their annual gift to the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland by 258 percent by the time they graduated from the program.

For example, the average individual annual gift for members of the 2009 graduating class grew from $136 in 2007 to $258 in 2009.

Liebman pointed out that this increase in giving came during the worst of what has now been dubbed the Great Recession.

By polling Melton students Liebman also learned “virtually all of our affiliated students found us through word of mouth and our unaffiliated students found us through advertising in the Jewish Review.”

She explained that by “affiliated” she meant students who are members of or donors to local Jewish organization such as a congregation, the Mittleman Jewish Community Center or the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.

Knowing that each edition of the Review is distributed to approximately 8,000 households through the mail and in street boxes and that there are approximately 3,000 households here that maintain a membership in a Jewish organization or donate to a Jewish organization, she concluded that some 5,000 readers of the Jewish Review neither have a membership in a Jewish organization or contribute to a Jewish organization.

“If the Review enables us to reach unaffiliated Jews, Melton classes can engage them in Jewish living, learning, leadership and giving,” said Liebman.  “That could be extremely positive for the Review, Melton, federation and our whole community.”

Liebman found that 87 percent of Melton graduates report that they take part in more Jewish communal activities after their Melton participation and 84 percent say they have become more aware of their Jewish identity.

Likewise, 87 percent report increased Jewish observance in their homes and the same percent feel more a part of the Jewish community.

Liebman likened the apparent relationship between Melton, the Jewish Review, individual Jewish identity and philanthropy to “a circle of Jewish life.”