The Place of Jewish Education in American Jewish Identity

Sergio DellaPergola*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

The high-profile and long debated issue of future continuity for the US Jewish community is anchored to the question: Continuity of what? And for whom? One possible answer is: continuity of a Jewish community knowledgeable of and comfortable with its own particular and distinctive culture, and which activates a well-developed network of intra-group relations. The thriving presence of a Jewish community can also be assessed transnationally, looking at the strength of its links with, and impact on other Jewish communities worldwide. This chapter focuses especially on one mechanism of Jewish identity creation and transmission – Jewish education. Relying on NJPS data of the 1990s Jewish education seemed indeed to play an agreed role of mediation between the stronger existing options of self-segregation and/or community affiliation, versus the weaker options of borderline non-otherness. Follow-up of Jewish education in the US over the last 30 years points to a clear bifurcation between the rapidly growing Orthodox educational networks, and the rather stagnating non-Orthodox Jewish educational networks.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationStudies of Jews in Society
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages27-36
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

Publication series

NameStudies of Jews in Society
Volume7
ISSN (Print)2524-4302
ISSN (Electronic)2524-4310

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.

Keywords

  • Borderline non-otherness
  • Community affiliation
  • Jewish day schools
  • Jewish education
  • Jewish identity options
  • Jewish supplementary education
  • Self-segregation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The Place of Jewish Education in American Jewish Identity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this