Jews without Judaism? Assimilation and Jewish Identity in the United States

Publication Date: January 1996

Publisher: Southestern Social Science Association; Southestern Social Science Association

Author(s): Robert P. Amyot; Lee Sigelman

Research Area: Culture and religion

Keywords: American Jews; Identity formation

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

In Social Science Quarterly 77, 177-189. The Purpose of this research is to model the impact of religiosity and personal contact with other Jews upon Jewish identification in order to cast new light on the Jewishness of the most assimilated Jews. The research is based on data from the 1990 NJPS. The statistical results suggest that lower levels of religiosity and social contact are associated with a weaker sense of Jewish identity; that declining religiosity poses a greater threat to Jewish identity than declining social contact does; and that the "base" of Jewish identity seems fairly impervious to the erosive impacts of declining religiosity and social contact.