Fixity and flux: A critique of competing approaches to researching contemporary Jewish identities (original) (raw)
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Toward an Understanding of Jewish Identity: A Phenomenological Study
Journal of Counseling Psychology, 2005
To begin mapping the landscape of contemporary Jewish identity from a phenomenological perspective, the authors conducted a qualitative analysis of semistructured interviews of 10 Jewish adults in the northeastern United States. Coding resulted in 6 universal themes (dynamic nature of self-identification, early formative experiences, desire to increase religious practice, generativity, feeling marginalized, and awareness of discrimination). Most of the other 18 typical and variant themes reflected a congruence between cultural identification and religious observance. Whereas only the religiously unaffiliated participants expressed shame or embarrassment about being Jewish, the observant Jews described a sense of pride, the importance of Jewish marriage, and a connection to Israel. The Conservative and Orthodox Jews were most clear about their identity as Jews; they discussed the importance of Jewish texts, heritage, values, search for meaning, and relation to God. All but the most Orthodox participants valued interpersonal relations with Gentiles; for them, Jewish identity predominates regardless of the social context.
Decentering the Study of Jewish Identity: Opening the Dialogue With Other Religious Groups
Sociology of Religion, 2006
While social science research in Jewish studies is important for the particular knowledge it conveys about and for Jews, it also raises more general questions about the complicated and sometimes ambivalent nature of contemporary ethnic and religious identity in the sociological study of reli~on and ethnicity. This article focuses on Jewish identity asa way of raising questions about the relationship between religiosity and ethnicity; the dialectical nature of assimilation; and the methodological implications raised by defining identity subjectively or objectively for both qualitative and quantitative research. Our aim in sharing these explorations is to raise questions about the ways in which particularistic concerns and explorations of one group can deepen andlor provoke similar explorations in other contemporary religious and ethnic groups and vice versa.
Reframing the study of contemporary American Jewish Identity
Contemporary Jewry, 2002
The 30-year enterprise of studying American Jewish identification and involvement in Jewish life has been based mainly on sociodemographic surveys. These surveys have tracked the activity levels of Jewish individuals in terms of ritual practice, cultural and educational involvements and institutional affiliations, philanthropic giving, and friendship networks, but they have not looked directly at Jewish identity as understood in the psychological sense. The bulk of the research about American Jewish identity during this period has centered on the question, How Jewish are American Jews, whether in comparison to other American ethnic groups (in terms of structural distinctiveness), in comparison to Jews of prior generations, or in comparison to an idealized way of being Jewish. Yet it is more apparent than ever that the important issues about the nature of contemporary American Jewishness fall along a different frontier. A new question has emerged. How are American Jews Jewish? In what ways, if any do they connect to Jewishness and Judaism? American Jewry is more diverse and dispersed than before, and the Jewish group in America today is characterized by a degree of integration and social acceptance that contrasts sharply to the situation 50 years ago or to Europe in the 18 century. In this new environment no one is either forced to be Jewish or to escape from being Jewish. The dynamic of acceptance versus rejection or belligerence regarding one’s Jewishness has been replaced by a dynamic of finding Jewishness to be meaningful or remaining indifferent to it. Jewish continuity of the group as a whole has come to depend on the individual’s commitments and decision-making. For this reason, in addition to looking at Jewish practices and involvements in Jewish life, it is essential to examine the subjective, inner experience of being Jewish.
Connections and Journeys: Shifting Identities among American Jews
Contemporary Jewry, 1998
Although most American Jews have some Jewish background, this fact does not necessarily assure that a person’s Jewishness will be a central or meaningful component of his or her identity. Under what circumstances does Jewishness become a dynamic element in an individual’s life, rather than merely a fact of upbringing or background? How does a person go about devising a Jewish identity or “claiming” Jewishness? In this paper I argue for the importance of probing the meaning and centrality of Jewishness in a person's life, as a corrective to the over reliance of socio-demographic studies for studying the patterns of Jewishness among contemporary American Jews. The case material is drawn from the first phase ( in-depth interviews) of the Connections and Journeys Study, collected in 1996.
This study provides insight into two less well understood aspects of the identities of American Jews. First, it portrays a more multifaceted view of the varieties of Jewishness that currently exist, moving our understanding beyond denomination or mere "affiliation." Second, it examines the factors that influence Jewish identity formation over the life course through age 50, and introduces the notion of the journey as a needed conception beyond a static identity. The study included in-depth interviews (n=87), a series of six focus groups, and a statistically representative survey of American-born Jews (n=1500) , conducted between 1996-1998 in the Greater NYC area.
The Social Self: Toward the Study of Jewish Lives in the Twenty-first Century
Contemporary Jewry, 2016
This article reviews the conceptual frameworks that have underscored the social scientific study of Jewish identity and experiments with a methodological and analytical approach that aims to respond to contemporary social trends. Beginning with a historical account of the concept's emergence in the study of American Jews, we consider the ways in which scholars and their research subjects have co-constructed the concept of Jewish identity. Based on our analysis of qualitative interviews with fifty-eight post-boomer American Jews, we propose that Jewish identity be understood primarily as a relational phenomenon that is constructed through social ties, rather than as a product of individual meaning-making or assessments of social impact. We set our exploratory findings in conversation with some of the most influential and widely cited qualitative studies of Jewish identity in the past to examine the implications of that conceptual shift for scholars and scholarship on Jewish identity in the 21st century. Keywords Identity Á Constructivist theory Á Jewish Á Post-boomer Á Narrative Á Qualitative Á American Á Social science He was the kind of guy who was always telling you what kind of guy he was.
Beyond Jewish identity: rethinking concepts and imagining alternatives
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies
or utra-Orthodox world eschews the term altogether, and it is less common in the Modern Orthodox community than it is in liberal Jewish communities. Still, there are important patterns and trends. Since the late 1960s, the phrase has grown in popularity and stature, often appearing as an almost self-reflexive rationale for many Jewish educational and communal efforts. "It's Official," trumpeted a headline reporting on a study by Steven Cohen and his colleagues of Jewish summer camps (Cohen, Miller, Sheshkin, & Torr, 2011), "Jewish Camp Strengthens Jewish Identity" (Fishkoff, 2011). The popularity of the phrase left us feeling more and more uncomfortable with the range of experiences, meanings, self-conceptions, expressions, and affinities to which it seemed to refer. The more popular it grew, it seemed, the less well-defined it appeared to become. As our sense of this development deepened, we were gratified to learn about other scholarly voices that expressed concern with or critical perspectives on the phrase, its meaning and its utility