Religious Stability and Ethnic Decline: Emerging Patterns of Jewish Identity in the United States

Publication Date: January 1998

Publisher:

Author(s): Steven M. Cohen

Research Area: Culture and religion

Keywords: American Jews; Identity Formation; Youth

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Building on the distinction between religiosity and ethnicity, this study explores emerging patterns of Jewish identity in the United States. Specifically, it asks: how are the levels of key dimensions of Jewish identity changing? To do so, it focuses on how younger adult Jews differ from their elders, on the assumption that age-related variations point to recent and future trends in Jewish identity. In other words, it assumes that as younger Jews differ from their elders today, so too will American Jews of the future differ from Jews of the present.