What does it mean to be Jewish today?

Janet Krasner Aronson (et al)

Research Summary

This research is about how US Jews engage with Judaism today. It shows the importance of considering different dimensions of Jewish life and identity. The key finding is that ‘cultural Jews’ (who do not regularly practice Jewish rituals or join with synagogues) still feel strong connections to the Jewish community. The research suggests a new way to understand Jewish identity.

Researchers

Janet Krasner Aronson (et al)

Research Institution

Brandeis University

What is this about?

• Judaism
• How Jewish people identify as Jewish
• Jewish communities in the US

What was done?

Survey data on the Greater Boston Jewish community were used. Fourteen measures of behaviour were analysed, to identify a series of types of Jewish identity.

Main findings and outputs

• You cannot (as many studies do) really typify Jews as ‘religious’ or ‘unreligious’. It isn’t that simple.
• Instead, you have to consider different factors of Jewish identity and how they interact, especially as increasing numbers of Jews do not affiliate to any denomination such as Orthodox or Reform.
• (From related studies) 62% of US Jews report that their Jewish identity is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture – only 15% name it as mainly religion.
• Formal affiliation with Jewish institutions, particularly synagogues, is not necessarily as strong a marker of Jewish identity as it is often considered. It does not appear to translate into bringing Judaism into the home or developing emotional connections to the Jewish community.
• But ‘cultural’ Jews, though less likely to be members of synagogues, feel far more connected to the local and worldwide Jewish communities and to Israel.

Relevance to RE

The research can certainly be of use in developing teachers’ knowledge of contemporary Judaism. It also opens up wider questions, that can be discussed as part of RE lessons in order to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of religion as a conceptual category: what are some of the different forms that religious identity takes? Can you be religious without participating in worship or rituals? Can you even be religious without believing in God?

Generalisability and potential limitations

The survey analysis methodology sets out to be generalisable and has evidently been applied with great care. Whether the findings would be repeated in the UK is an open question. The analysis is very detailed, much more so than can be reflected here – those interested are strongly encouraged to refer to the original article.

Find out more

The original article is Janet Krasner Aronson et al, A New Approach to Understanding Contemporary Jewish Engagement, Contemporary Jewry (2019) 39:91–113. It can be freely accessed via the link below.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-018-9271-8