The Changing Family Pattern and the Persistence of Tradition in the Jewish Community: A Case Study

Publication Date: September 1974

Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America

Author(s): Egon Mayer

Research Area: Culture and religion; Social conditions

Keywords: Social Patterns; Family; Jewish Continuity

Type: Report

Coverage: New York United States

Abstract:

The author argues that the popular sociological opinion that Jewish survival is inevitably bound to the continuity of the traditional form of the Jewish family must be critically reevaluated. To that end he presents the results of a recent survey of families in Boro Park, an Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. The author concludes from this data that while the Orthodox family pattern has changed significantly from the expected traditional pattern, its basic values are being successfully perpetuated by what sociologists would call a functional alternative.