Survey paints colorful picture of North County Jews

Toward the end of 2024, as we geared up to make Jewish Healdsburg a reality, we thought it would be a good idea to get a sense of who exactly we’d be serving here in northern Sonoma County, and what those people wanted from a Jewish cultural and religious organization.

So, we conducted a survey. Sixty-two people responded. The results were interesting.

Most respondents were from Healdsburg and Cloverdale, with small numbers from Geyserville, Windsor, and Santa Rosa as well. Just less than 80 percent of respondents live here full-time.

Nearly all respondents to the survey identified as either culturally Jewish, Reformed, Conservative, or Jew-ish, which we take to mean that they are not technically Jewish but curious enough that they’re eager to participate.

None of the respondents to our survey identified as Orthodox.

Those who responded to the survey said the top four social gatherings they’d be interested in attending were community events such as holiday celebrations (88.7 percent), small-group get-togethers such as Shabbat dinners (67.7 percent), lectures on spiritual and cultural issues (66.1 percent), and volunteering or mitzvah work in the community (also 66.1 percent).

Of the Jewish holidays that respondents said they’d like to come together and celebrate, Hanukkah came in first with 91.8 percent, followed by Passover (78.7 percent) and Rosh Hashana (68.9 percent).

This means the majority of Jews in North County are interested in celebrating some of the largest Jewish holidays with Jewish Healdsburg.

Overall, survey respondents said they hoped to get several things out of participation in our group. Most (74.6 percent) said they want to make new friends, while slightly fewer (72.9 percent) said they want to engage more with their Jewish identity. A smaller number (57.6 percent) said they are excited for the opportunity to come together with others and practice Jewish rituals.

This data is invaluable to Jewish Healdsburg, and we’ll be leaning on it in the coming months to inform some of our programming decisions.

Thank you to all who participated, and stay tuned for more analysis from the data we’ve obtained.