Dis/Believers Praising God: Liberal American Jewish Motivations for Kaddish Saying

• In Event: Sociology of Religion Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Religious Symbolism

Abstract

Among the most well-known of Jewish mourning rites in American popular culture, the tradition of “saying kaddish” holds within it a contradiction for many in the US today. Following a death in the family, many contemporary liberal Jewish individuals—including a growing number among them who are deists, agnostics or atheists—continue a centuries old practice of publicly proclaiming the glory of God’s name on a regular or irregular basis. In some ways persistent liberal Jewish engagement with Jewish mourning traditions goes against the general grain. Jewish Americans stand at the vanguard of the movement away from traditional religiosity. Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of Jewish Reconstructionist communities—involving years of “observant participation,” 59 in-depth interviews, and 115 responses to the Mourning in and around Jewish Reconstructionist Communities Survey—this paper views participants’ stated motivations for engaging in the religious rite of saying kaddish. It finds that those interviewed and surveyed were much more likely to explain their religious practice as due to religious socialization, community, structure, therapeutic function, and feelings of comfort and connection than religious rationale or obligation – whether religious or familial. Implications of these findings regarding contemporary liberal Jewishness are discussed.

Author

• C. Lynn Carr, Seton Hall University