Rethinking Jewish vitality, exploring sources of significance, affection and change in traditional Jewish ritual observance

grantor: University of TorontoJewish survival in the Diaspora has always been complicated by the challenge to 'successfully' integrate into a host culture and yet remain distinctive. Some scholars see increases in North American Jews' generation status (distance from the immigrant experience) and success as an indicator and/or determinant of perceived losses to ethnic attachment. Others emphasize the additive dimension and significance of creative reconstructions of ethnic modalities into alternate bases of ethnic commitment. Deep disagreements over style and substance keep the Jewish vitality (continuity) debate at a stalemate. While ethnicity researchers are increasingly aware of the misspecification biases inherent in our current crop of assumptions, definitions and measures, they have been slow to revise their tools. To this end, over a period of thirty months, 100 in-depth, life history oriented interviews were conducted exploring the nature of Jewish identities, specifically the vitality of traditional Jewish ritual observances (TJRO), articulated by non-immigrant members, typically parents and offspring, of Toronto-based non-Orthodox, Jewish endogamous and intermarried households. Variation was unearthed in the priorities deemed significant to ones TJRO (personal, familial, social, congregational-communal, ancestral-historical or universal-mystical) and the emotional orientations (active or passive) that accompany these expressions. Importantly, performing many TJRO was not necessarily indicative of vitality in this area and those performing little TJRO were sometimes more committed to the few ritual observances they chose to maintain. The long interview format provided ample time to explore the dynamics of people's Jewish journeys. Various factors emerged and/or were assessed as agents of change and (dis)affection. Most notably, it was discovered that generation status was not a reliable predictor of Jewish vitality, it is operationally and conceptually problematic and obscures the important effects of other potentially interacting factors like differential immigrant starting points, period, and intrafamilial processes. In addition, charges of ethnic losses owing to intermarriage were found oversimplified and misdirected in light of 5 mediating variables. Other factors were identified, implications for further research noted and policy directives suggested. It was concluded that greater awareness and respect for Jewish plurality and a democratization of legitimate claims to Jewish authenticity could function to encourage and sustain ethnic attachment.Ph.D