The State of Jewish Family Memory 2027

What the study will examine

The study asks about photograph identification, scattered digital material, family names, memorial-date records, untranscribed recordings and tested backups. It measures respondents' reports, not the accuracy of their family history.

Who should be invited

Invite adults through multiple synagogues, schools, museums, genealogy organizations and general family networks. Record recruitment channel, report the number reached where known, and disclose the share recruited through Pinkas. A convenience sample must not be described as representative of all Jewish families.

The draft questionnaire

• Are you 18 or older? (Yes / No; stop if No)
• Does your family identify its history as Jewish family history? (Yes / Partly / No / Prefer not to say)
• What best describes your role? (Main family-history organizer / Occasional contributor / Interested but not yet involved / Other / Prefer not to say)
• Of ten older family photographs chosen without selecting only familiar ones, how many could you identify every person in? (0 / 1–3 / 4–6 / 7–9 / 10 / Do not have ten / Not sure)
• Where does your family keep historical material? Select all. (Paper albums or boxes / Messaging apps / Personal devices / Shared cloud folders / Genealogy service / Dedicated archive / Other / Not sure)
• How many of your eight biological great-grandparents can you name? Skip if this framing does not fit your family. (0–8 / Not applicable / Prefer not to say)
• For relatives whose yahrzeit you observe, where are the dates recorded? (One shared record / Several personal records / Mostly remembered / Not recorded / Not applicable / Not sure)
• Does your family have recordings of relatives that have never been transcribed? (Yes / No / Not sure / No recordings)
• How concerned are you about losing digital family material in the next five years? (Not concerned / Slightly / Moderately / Very / Extremely / Not sure)
• Has anyone successfully opened a backup copy of your family material in the past year? (Yes / No / Not sure / No known backup)
• What most prevents you from organizing family history? Choose up to three. (Time / Cost / Too much material / Unclear ownership / Privacy concerns / Technical difficulty / Family disagreements / Do not know where to begin / Nothing / Other)
• How did you hear about this study? (Synagogue / Genealogical society / School / Museum or archive / Pinkas / Friend or family / Other)

Privacy and participation

The proposed questionnaire requests no names, emails, private family files, exact dates of birth or death, religious observance details, or testimony. Every question after eligibility is optional. A separate, optional contact form would be required for report updates; contact information must not be joined to responses.

Before recruitment, name the research lead, approve the consent text, choose secure collection and retention arrangements, and publish a closing date. Do not collect responses through public comments or ask partners to send family archives.

How results should be reported

• Publish fieldwork dates, recruitment method, total starts, eligible completions and exclusions.
• Predefine exclusions for duplicates and incomplete answers before looking at results.
• Show the denominator and missing responses beside every percentage.
• Suppress small subgroups and avoid releasing identifying free text.
• Distinguish self-report, exploratory associations and hypotheses; do not infer causation.
• Report sampling limitations and sponsor involvement; do not invent a margin of error for a convenience sample.
• Publish aggregate tables and a versioned methods appendix. Release no individual-level data without separate review.

Help improve the study

Archivists, researchers and community organizations can review the questionnaire and suggest accessible recruitment methods before launch.