Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: One of the main dilemmas facing American Jews is how to balance being Jewish enough without becoming too Jewish. Jews often struggle with the simultaneous experience of being too Jewish (and therefore not properly or fully assimilated) and not Jewish enough (because they and others often identify true Jews with Orthodox ritual practice). This struggle concurrently accepts and resists the notion of "Jew" and "American" as separate but related categories. In this paper, I explore how Jewish Americans, especially women, use objects in their homes to make claims on "authentic" Jewish identity regardless of their degree of ritual practice; acquiesce to hegemonic understandings of appropriate Jewish identity; and strive to create new meanings from ethnic objects. I gathered ethnographic data from nine Jewish households in Chicago through extensive interviews and tours of homes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Based on an ethnographic study of young adult Jews in a Southern community, this paper examines the behavioral choices made by young adult Jews when enacting their Jewish identities in public settings. Although few of the subjects of this study have experienced any anti-Jewish behavior expressly directed at them, almost all experience a feeling of unease living in an environment in which a public Christian identity is normative. This unease is grounded in the historical persecution of Jews (and the “never again” credo with which many post-Holocaust generation Jews have been raised), and in direct experience with their neighbors’ and co-workers’ ignorance about Judaism and Jewish life. However, as I argue, part of that unease also comes from their ‘hyper-visibility’ as Jews in a Christian community, and their concerns about whether their own brand of Jewish identity is the “right” one for their “ignorant” neighbors to use as a model.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A significant contribution of sociology to our understanding of the Jewish American community is that victimization is a social process. Questions such as those raised by Richard Rubin in his (2002) book entitled, Confederacy of Silence: A True Tale of the New Old South, give new understanding to why and how previously victimized communities enter into the binary world in which Jewish Americans in the Mississippi Delta (Southern United States) choose between being white and being Jewish. Either designation, however, enables the group to both internalize and forget past history. Forming the basis of inquiry for this paper were several orienting questions: What does it mean for there to be recurring themes of victimization within the Jewish American community? And, lastly, in what ways do recurrent Holocaust themes help us understand the culture of victimization that has become a real portion of contemporary Jewish identity. This paper builds on the notion of the internalization of the Nazi Holocaust and seeks to investigate the realm of victimization in the Jewish American community by engaging in an analysis of Jewish American short stories written between 1946-1995 and augmenting that discussion with interviews that were conducted with Jewish Americans in Southern Jewish communities between September, 2001 and August, 2002.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Today’s Jewish, American teenagers are highly assimilated to the dominant Christian culture. With the drastic rise of interfaith marriage, the decline of Jewish “ghettos,” and the decline of the proportion of Jews in the population, Jewish teenagers are maturing in a largely Christian context with many non-Jewish contacts. This article examines how the decline of exposure to Jewish life affects syncretism or the accepting of different religious forms among American, Jewish youth. Data from the National Study of Youth and Religion show that Jewish teens are less immersed in the life of their religion than are other teens, Jewish teens are more supportive of syncretism than are other religiously-affiliated teens, the lack of exposure to religious life explains some of the differences in syncretism between Jewish and non-Jewish teens, and Jewish teens who are highly immersed in the Jewish religion are less supportive of syncretism than are other Jewish teens. Jewish teens tend not to stress the uniqueness of Judaism, demonstrating their high levels of assimilation and suggesting that the future of Judaism as a distinctive religious form in the United States may be in jeopardy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper aims to address how Jewish adolescents themselves label, describe, and understand their identities. Specifically, I look to see how Jewish adolescents integrate the traditionally Jewish practices in which they engage with their perceptions of what it means to be Jewish. In order to pursue the growing number of ways in which adolescents can identify with Judaism, I examine how Jewish adolescents respond to the burgeoning label, “culturally Jewish.” I use both quantitative and qualitative data from the National Study of Youth and Religion to compare that category with the more traditional “religiously Jewish” so that I can test the validity, importance, and relevance of the “culturally Jewish” classification. I also examine the rejection of belief and practice in tandem with continued cultural identity. Upon its successful completion, this project will speak to the broader sociological issues of how minority groups maintain identity in the United States, how adolescents participate in their own identity formation, and how practices engage with ideologies.