Whither Jewish College Students?

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

This proposed session will advance the conversation about the future of American Jewry by looking at the rising generation of young adults who are typically a hard-to-find population. College years are a critical time when young people search for both meanings and connections as they begin to lead independent life and plan their future. In order to fully understand these young people; we need to understand trends and patterns in the way secularization and social mixing influence Jewish identity and Jewish connections today in an era of new communication media and technologies and social networking. This session will enrich our understanding of trends and patterns in higher educational experiences and how globalization, social media and inter-group mixing reshape Jewish identity and Jewish connections today.

Recent surveys have investigated questions about social, political and philosophical issues. These allow us to review research findings about social, political and philosophical issues drawn from the Trinity Demographic Survey of Jewish College Students, 2014 as well as the study of all American college students The Worldviews and Opinions of American College Students: An On-line National Survey 2013 and the JPR National Jewish Student Survey 2011 of British Jewish students in comparison with those of the Taglit-Birthright studies.

Sub Unit

• Social Science

Chair

• Ariela Keysar, Trinity College

Individual Presentations

• Religiosity, Spirituality and Secularity among American Jewish College Students - Barry A Kosmin, Trinity College

• From Generation to Generation to Generation: The Influence of Grandparents on the Jewish Identity of College Students - Ariela Keysar, Trinity College

• The Jewish “Talented Tenth”: The Jewish Identities of Undergraduates at Elite Institutions - Matthew E. Boxer, Brandeis University; Fern Chertok, Brandeis University