'''Gary Tobin''' was a demographer and researcher on the Jewish community. Tobin's work focused on Jewish demographics, diversity, and philanthropy.
== Early life == Tobin was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended the University of California at Berkeley for an urban planning doctorate.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |last1=Goldberg |first1=J.J. |author-link=J.J. Goldberg |date=July 14, 2009 |title=He Took Our Measure, and Dreamed Bigger |url=https://jewishjournal.com/obituaries/article/he_took_our_measure_and_dreamed_bigger_20090714/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090728024745/https://jewishjournal.com/obituaries/article/he_took_our_measure_and_dreamed_bigger_20090714/ |archive-date=July 28, 2009 |access-date=10 November 2021 |work=The Forward}}</ref>
== Teaching == After finishing his graduate degree in 1974, Tobin returned to St. Louis to teach at Washington University.<ref name=":0" /> In 1982, Tobin turned from teaching to demography, studying the demographics of the St. Louis Jewish community.<ref name=":0" /> For the next 14 years, Tobin directed Brandeis University's Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies in Boston, Massachusetts.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |last1=Gordon |first1=Tracy |date=July 14, 2009 |title=Jewish demographer Gary Tobin dies at 59 |url=https://religionnews.com/2009/07/14/gary-tobin-a-controversial-jewish-scholar-and-leader-who-studied-the-growth/ |access-date=10 November 2021 |work=Religion News Service}}</ref>
== Research ==
In 1994 Tobin founded the Institute of Jewish & Community Research (IJCR). His wife Diane worked with him as graphic designer, editing and publishing IJCR's reports.<ref name=:3 /> Tobin was president of the IJCR, located in San Francisco, California.<ref name=":2">{{cite news |last1=Dell |first1=Michael |title=Among America's Mega-Donors, Many Jews, but Few Gifts to Jews |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/among-americas-mega-donors-many-jews-but-few-gifts-to-jews |access-date=10 November 2021 |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=February 24, 2004}}</ref> A 1998 article described the goals of the think tank as focusing on "Jewish philanthropy, synagogue life, and leadership development".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Katz |first1=Leslie |title=New S.F. think tank may scope out Jewish future |url=https://www.jweekly.com/1998/10/30/new-s-f-think-tank-may-scope-out-jewish-future/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=Jewish News of Northern California |date=October 30, 1998}}</ref>
In 1995, Tobin explored reasons for Jewish donation and charity strategy in "American Jewish Philanthropy in the 1990s", a report he co-authored. The report suggested that specificity was key in soliciting donations, and that the idea of "Jewish continuity" in particular lacked support from donors.<ref>{{cite news |title=Continuity catch-phrase lacks passion, new study says |url=https://www.jweekly.com/1995/06/16/continuity-catch-phrase-lacks-passion-new-study-says/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=Jewish News of Northern California |date=June 16, 1995}}</ref>
In 1999, Tobin and Diane published a report titled "Study of Ethnic and Racial Diversity of the Jewish Population of the United States". The report relied on a questionnaire they sent to Jews of color. They later published it in book form as ''In Every Tongue: The Racial & Ethnic Diversity of the Jewish People''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Esensten |first1=Andrew |title='We are not alone!' Jews of color react to landmark new survey |url=https://jweekly.com/2021/08/13/we-are-not-alone-how-a-new-study-validates-the-feelings-of-many-jews-of-color/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=Jewish News of Northern California |date=August 13, 2021}}</ref>
In 1999, Tobin wrote the book "Opening the Gates: How Proactive Conversion Can Revitalize the Jewish Community".<ref name=":0" /> The book suggested that one way to navigate American Jewish demographic decline would be encouragement that non-Jewish spouses convert. He suggested that the campaign could bring in millions of new Jews, largely into the Reform, Conservative, or Reconstructionist denominations. Such a campaign would largely result in conversions not accepted by the Orthodox, a matter Tobin found unconcerning.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaplan |first1=Dana Evan |title=Contemporary American Judaism : transformation and renewal |date=2011 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780231137294 |pages=169–171}}</ref>
In Spring 2003, Tobin published a study on large donations from the wealthiest Jews in the United States between 1995 and 2000. The study evaluated 188 gifts of over $10 million made by 123 of these wealthy individuals. Tobin found that non-Jewish institutions received most of these donations. This occurred in part because Jewish groups and the federation system lacked the structure to take in this sort of large donation, suggested Tobin.<ref name=":2" />
In 2005 the Tobins published "The Uncivil University", a report that said that anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment had taken root within universities in the United States and that universities had violated public trust by allowing this climate to develop.<ref name=:4 />
A 2005 study of Tobin's said that 10 percent of American Jews were black, Latino, Asian or mixed race.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Spence |first1=Rebecca |title=Ilana Kaufman: black, Jewish and challenging ideas about the face of federation |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2014/12/02/ilana-kaufman-black-jewish-and-challenging-ideas-about-the-face-of-federati/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=J. |date=December 2, 2014}}</ref>
== Personal life == Tobin met his wife Diane while speaking at a San Francisco conference. At the time, she was the JCCSF president and living in the city. A few years later, Tobin relocated to San Francisco to join Diane. They married in 1991 and had five children.<ref name=:3 />
Tobin and his wife Diane adopted their son Jonah in 1997. The experience of raising their black son within the Jewish community led the Tobins to found the nonprofit Be'chol Lashon (Hebrew for "in every language") in 2000.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wisniewski |first1=Rachel |title=Why You Probably Won't Have Racial Microaggressions At This Jewish Summer Camp |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2021/09/16/1037373865/why-you-probably-wont-have-racial-microaggressions-at-this-jewish-summer-camp |access-date=10 November 2021 |work=NPR |date=16 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref> The nonprofit aimed to celebrate Jewish ethnic and racial diversity through programs like a northern Californian Jewish summer camp for Jewish children of color.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Staff |first1=J. |title=Be'chol Lashon's executive director resigns after 10 months on job |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2021/11/08/bechol-lashons-executive-director-resigns-after-10-months-on-job/ |access-date=10 November 2021 |work=The Jewish News of Northern California |date=November 8, 2021}}</ref> This was unusual, as most American Jewish institutions concentrated on Jews of European origin.<ref name=":4">{{cite news |last1=Harris |first1=Ben |title=Gary Tobin, head of S.F.-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research, dies at 59 |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2009/07/08/gary-tobin-head-of-s-f-based-institute-for-jewish-community-research-dies/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=Jewish News of Northern California |date=July 8, 2009}}</ref>
The Tobins were friendly with Capers Funnye, a black Chicago rabbi.<ref name=:4 />
Tobin died on July 6, 2009, to cancer, leaving behind his wife, six children, and a grandson.<ref name=":0" /> He was in a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and was age 59.<ref name=":1" />
== Views ==
Tobin advocated for an open form of Jewish relational and institutional life. He criticized mainstream institutions for what he saw as a gloomy, alarmist insularity. His research findings convinced him that mainstream Jewish pessimism was turning away Jewish community members.<ref name=":0" /> Tobin advocated greater openness to converts and heightened awareness of diversity within Judaism.<ref name=":3">{{cite news |title=Community mourns pioneering thinker Gary Tobin |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2009/07/10/community-mourns-pioneering-thinker-gary-tobin/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=Jewish News of Northern California |date=July 10, 2009}}</ref> This view was among his more controversial, one that he placed against the more common view of Jewish institutions as bulwarks against assimilation. Tobin said in a 2008 JTA op-ed:"No number of day schools or summer camps is going to turn back the clock on religious freedom and competition....It is time for Jews to join every other group in America and quit obsessing about who is being lost and start acting on who might come in".<ref name=:3 /><ref name=:4 />
While Tobin supported a liberal view on Jewish life, he held hard-line positions on Israel and antisemitism.<ref name=":0" />{{Clarify|date=February 2025}}
Tobin fiercely criticized the 2000 National Jewish Population Survey, saying that the study severely undercounted American Jews due to methodological flaws<ref name=:4 /> and calling it "utter nonsense".<ref name=:6>{{cite news |last1=Wakin |first1=Daniel J. |title=A Count of U.S. Jews Sees a Dip; Others Demur |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/09/us/a-count-of-us-jews-sees-a-dip-others-demur.html |access-date=12 December 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=October 9, 2002}}</ref> He estimated that over a million more Jews were present in the United States than the 2000 Survey suggested.<ref name=:4 /> Tobin stated that the NJPS undercounting occurred due to Jews who do not declare themselves Jewish out of concern for antisemitism, due to under-weighing of West Coast Jews, and as a result of an overly-strict definition of Jews excluding self-described cultural or ethnic Jews.<ref name=:6 />
== Influence and legacy ==
The ''Forward'' named Tobin in its 2004 list the Forward Fifty. The ''Forward'' highlighted both Tobin's "maverick liberal" positions on conversion and racial diversity on the one hand and on the other hand his work with the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a group founded after 9/11 to oppose radical Islam's spread.<ref name=:4 />
Tobin knew Gershom Sizomu and helped Sizomu enter the rabbinic studies program of American Jewish University.<ref name=:5>{{cite news |last1=Pine |first1=Dan |title=Ugandan Jews and politics get native rabbi fired up |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2011/05/27/ugandan-jews-and-politics-get-native-rabbi-fired-up/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=Jewish News of Northern California |date=May 27, 2011}}</ref>
In 2010, a hospital in Mbale, Uganda was built and dedicated after Tobin with the name the Tobin Health Center. The hospital construction was part of the Abayudaya Community Health and Development Project organized by both the Abayudaya Executive Council and Be’chol Lashon.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pazornik |first1=Amanda |title=S.F. researchers legacy lives on in new Ugandan health center |url=https://www.jweekly.com/2010/07/23/s-f-researchers-legacy-lives-on-in-new-ugandan-health-center/ |access-date=11 December 2021 |work=Jewish News of Northern California |date=July 23, 2010}}</ref> Sizomu said of the facility, "There, people are treated, so malaria is not a threat now. Infections can be easily handled".<ref name=:5 />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite web|url = http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/debate_proactive_conversion|title = The Debate On 'Proactive Conversion'|first= Eric |last=J. Greenberg|publisher = The Jewish Week|date = May 21, 1999|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021170551/http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/debate_proactive_conversion|archive-date=October 21, 2012}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tobin, Gary}} Category:2009 deaths Category:American demographers Category:Jewish American anti-racism activists Category:American anti-racism activists Category:Date of birth missing Category:20th-century American Jews Category:21st-century American Jews Category:Brandeis University staff Category:Washington University in St. Louis faculty Category:Jews from Missouri Category:Jews and Judaism in St. Louis Category:Activists from St. Louis Category:Educators from St. Louis