Dr. Gary A. Tobin knows how to make a point- even if it's not always easy to hear what the well-known demographer and President of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco has to say. Tobin challenges traditional ways of thinking about Jewish communal life. He tackles hot topics like the increasing trend of megagifts being donated outside of the Jewish community, antisemitism in America's educational system, new ways of looking at intermarriage and conversion to Judaism, and the need to embrace today's growing number of racially and ethnically diverse Jews. ...more

In Living Color

Jewish Living Magazine
July 2008

Raising a biracial Jewish daughter, a mother finds herself answering many questions: from her child, from total strangers, and from her own heart.

"Mommy, you became Jewish when you had me."

That's how Mae, my eight-year-old daughter, explains it, and she's right. Sort of. Mae was seven months old when her father walked out and I became a single mom. At that point in my life, I'd never been so far from Judaism. I was firmly planted in motherhood, but it would take me a while to see that I needed my religious roots to unfold. ...more

Lead Players on a Global Stage

Forward 50
November 12, 2004

The year's Forward 50 list of the Jewish community's most influential members includes rabbis and entertainers, activists and philanthropists, artists and community leaders. They don't share a single perspective or a common approach to their work -- in fact, one notable figure isn't even Jewish -- but they have all made their mark on Jewish life in America.

One of the deans of American Jewish social research, Gary Tobin has been raising eyebrows for the past decade with his maverick liberal views on conversion, adoption and racial diversity within the Jewish community. This year the San Francisco-based scholar, 55, raised eyebrows yet again by launching a partnership with the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies. So far the partnership has produced two major Tobin studies, both pro bono: one on American attitudes toward Israel, the other on anti-Israel trends on campus. Meanwhile, Tobin's own Institute for Jewish & Community Research, founded in 1997 after he left his tenured post at Brandeis University, continues to produce important new religious data. A study of professional development in Jewish organizations, released this fall, showed a deep rift between volunteers and staff and documented the persistent glass ceiling facing women staffers. Another, released in October, found that the fastest growing religious group in America is, the election results notwithstanding, people with no religious identity at all....the entire article