It’s Complicated: How American Jewish Teens Describe Their Own Jewishness

• In Event: How Jews think about being Jewish: Three Perspectives

Abstract

Conceptions of Jewishness and criteria for membership are contingent on socio-historical location and have changed over time (Cohen 1999, Gitelman 2009, Imhoff 2016). Most studies of American Jewish experience and identity focus on adults, giving little insight into how children and adolescents understand Jewish identity and expression. This paper, analyzing data from the 2018 National Jewish Youth Serving Organization Study (N=17,576), examines how contemporary American Jewish teens describe their own Jewishness.

Study participants were recruited through email lists from fourteen North American Jewish youth groups and an anonymous link circulated on social media. Any teen in the United States and Canada between the ages of 13 and 19 years old was eligible to complete the survey. Teens who responded both that they themselves were not Jewish and that their family members were not Jewish were excluded from all analyses.

The survey instrument included an item that prompted respondents to describe themselves in relation to Jewishness. Six response options were offered, including: “I’m Jewish;” “I’m Jewish culturally, but not religiously;” “Sometimes I think of myself as Jewish, sometimes not;” “I’m Jewish and something else;” It’s complicated;” and “I’m not Jewish.” Teens who answered, “I’m Jewish and something else” or “It’s complicated” were invited to explain their response. Over 800 teens elected to elaborate on their response.

The paper will focus on an analysis of the 800 write-in responses, with attention to what teens understand as possible barriers to Jewishness. Additionally the paper will consider teen identifications in relation to: how they describe the Jewishness of their family members and close friends, languages spoken at home (English, Hebrew, Russian, and Spanish), and having had had a bar or bat mitzvah.

Authors

• Arielle Levites, Jewish Theological Seminary

• Liat Sayfan, Rosov Consulting