Becoming a parent can be the most thrilling and the most challenging of times. And in the months and early years following that pivotal moment of new parenthood, mothers and fathers often discover a new openness to bringing Jewish experiences into their lives.

That's why UJA-Federation's Beginning Jewish Families Task Force, founded in 2008, commissioned a study to learn how to best reach out to young Jewish families. Now the task force, part of the Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal (COJIR), has published the summary report, Jewish Early Engagement in New York.

The study researched five communities as potential pilot sites for enhanced Jewish programming for new parents: Downtown Manhattan, Brownstone Brooklyn, Southern Brooklyn, Northern Westchester, and Staten Island.

The report found that Jewish institutions could benefit from more viral marketing and publicity for their programs, and that there was a need for a Jewish parenting website.

The study also recommended the need to better use social media and listservs that parents already subscribe to. The report found that for par...