Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews in the US: Sub-ethnicity, Socio-demography and Identity

The distinctive sociodemographic and cultural characteristics of specific groups inside broader formations in a large and heterogeneous society have been subject of intensive scrutiny. This chapter deals with differences in the socio-demographic characteristics and Jewish identity of US Jews – focusing on the Ashkenazi versus the Sephardi-Oriental sub-populations. The comparisons mostly rely on the 1990 NJPS, and are updated to the 2020 Pew Survey. In the context of a Jewish population largely of European origin, Sephardim have constituted veteran, more locally visible minorities which reflected specific patterns of immigration to the US. In spite of the lively memory and preservation of Jewish family and cultural traditions, the US Sephardi was often characterized by intensive patterns of integration in the broader societal context and by somewhat weaker indicators of Jewish identification. The persistence of unique modes of Jewish perceptions and the resilience of particular family and social networks appear nevertheless evident from the analysis of the structure of Jewish identification modes and patterns across US Jews of different subethnic ancestries.