Aliza Bulow is an author, educator and mentor to Jewish women around the world, who founded CORE, an organization that empowers and connects Orthdox Jewish women. 

Core connects, develops and sustains women who engage in klal (the collective community) work. Core supports women in three main ways:

1) MMC (Mashpia-Mentor-Counselor) Program: Core offers 2.5 years of training to develop women who are pillars of spiritual support within our communities 2) Communities of Practice: Core connects women who share a field of Jewish service and offers continuing inspiration and education 3) Core Circles: Core supports women who facilitate Core Circles, small groups that strengthen relationships in local communities, and networks those Circles both regionally and internationally

For more information, see http://coretorah.org.

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Before founding Core she directed Ner LeElef’s North American Women’s Program for 11 years where she coached rebbetzins and provided strategic development for outreach organizations in Canada, the US and Mexico. 

Her love of Jewish texts and philosophy was developed at Michlelet Bruria, Hebrew University and Hunter College where she graduated with honors in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. In her early career, she worked for Partners in Torah and The Jewish Experience. Even before entering college, Aliza’s passion for strengthening Jews and the Jewish community led her to campaign on behalf of Soviet Jewry and build settlements in Israel while serving in Nachal. That early passion has only grown with time. Over the past four decades, Aliza has worked with hundreds of women in over 50 cities and 5 continents, strengthening the social fabric of Klal Yisroel.

A few of the terms used in this episode:

Mekarvot - Women involved in Jewish outreach

Ratzon - Will; and Bitachon – Faith

Kallah – Bride

Hashkafah - Overall religious guiding philosophy / worldview

Taharat Ha'Mishpacha – Jewish Halachic laws relating to marital relations 

Kedushah - Holiness; and Tahara – Spiritual clanliness

Chevra Kadisha - Jewish Burial Society

Kavanah - Religious understanding and purpose

In this episode we present some surprising facts about Modern Orthodoxy and the Orthodox community as a whole, based upon Nishma Research surveys between 2016 and 2024.

We explore the size and growth of the community, religious beliefs and practices, political views, the finances of living an Orthodox Jewish life, the role of women in Modern Orthodoxy, and the levels of optimism vs. pessimism among several denominations across the American Jewish community.       

Did any of this surprise you? Do you have questions or suggestions for future research or podcast episodes? Would you like a follow-up episode sharing additional factoids? Contact us at [email protected].

All of the research cited may be found at this LINK.

Dina Goldman is at the frontier of researching and understanding the Chasidish and Yeshivish communities. She has spent over a decade working in marketing and advertising within the Orthodox Jewish community. Seeing how many businesses really lack solid information that they need, she founded Mispar – The Jewish Community, a Story of Numbers, a company focused on providing rich, timely data to help businesses and non-profits make informed decisions.

Dina and her team conduct all kinds of studies, and she often uses creative methods to reach the Orthodox community … and that can be challenging. Mispar has also Orthodox Jewish research panel, giving researchers and businesses access to authentic voices within this community.

In this episode we discuss how Orthodox and Charedi businesses and non-profit organizations can better understand their customers and the public, to develop and sell products, and meet their need. We also discuss some of the really fascinating issues she has explored, such as Orthodox finances, the businesses that Orthodox people are involved in and the related challenges, Shidduchim, and lots more.

Raised in a Chasidish family, Dina now lives in Monsey with her husband and their happily blended family of four.

In the episode closing we discuss some of our political research, which can be found in our 2023 Study and 2024 Study.

Jacob Kornbluh is the senior political reporter for the Forward. Kornbluh, a member of the Hasidic community in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, covers politics with a Jewish angle and regularly interviews government officials, political commentators and security experts on issues that matter to the broader Jewish American community. He previously worked as a national politics reporter for Jewish Insider, covered the 2013 NYC mayoral race for the Yeshiva World News, and was featured by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as one of the top Jews to follow on Twitter. In this episode, we discuss his unique role in Jewish/Orthodox world reporting and some of the seminal issues he has covered, including the Orthodox world’s political views, reactions to coronavirus restrictions, secular education mandates in yeshivas, and more. ----- The Nishma Research Pesach Survey! And now, for something completely different: we’re undertaking a timely broad survey dealing with Pesach … the first such survey ever conducted. If you would like to participate in the survey, it will be online through April 9, at: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7774034/The-First-Ever-Pesach-Survey. Results will be available before Pesach at http://nishmaresearch.com/social-research.html.