Jewish community urged to join national faith survey
Survey backed by leading rabbis and community figures will help inform future interfaith and policy work
From opening their doors to the homeless on freezing winter nights, to running food banks that serve their wider neighbourhoods, synagogues across Britain have long been quiet engines of social good. Now, a major new research project wants to understand the values that drive this work – and it needs to hear from Jewish people across the community.
Virtues of Faith, a project run by Good Faith Partnership and funded by the Templeton Religion Trust, is exploring how faith shapes the character traits communities bring to some of society’s most pressing problems – from poverty and homelessness to climate change and social cohesion.
The project will produce reports and resources for policymakers and community leaders focused on the future of interfaith relations in the UK.
The team is now asking Jewish people – in all their diversity – to complete a short online survey, with several prominent communal voices urging participation.
Jonathan Wittenberg, senior rabbi of Masorti Judaism, said: “Leaders across civil society are keen to understand the core values of different faith communities as they strive to address the challenging issues facing us. The Jewish community has been invited to respond across its full diversity. This is an important opportunity for us to be heard and we must take it.”
Daniel Greenberg, co-founder of the Jewish Ethics Project, added: “So many of the challenges we face as a society speak to the values which we hold as individuals. By contributing to this project and drawing on core and timeless Jewish values, we can help decision-makers understand the ethical perspectives of our community.”
Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy, co-leads of Progressive Judaism, said Jewish tradition has long understood that values are not simply private beliefs, but principles shaped through “community, debate, learning and care for others”.
Ensuring Jewish voices are part of the research, they said, would help provide “a fuller picture of the diversity, depth and complexity of Jewish life in Britain today”.
The survey takes only a few minutes to complete, and all participants will be entered into a £100 prize draw.
The survey can be completed here: Virtues of Faith Survey
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