Abstract
My Sklare Award presentation focuses on the practice and outcomes of our research, discussing some of the less common research methods that we used and reviewing their discoveries. Opting for open-ended questions allows respondents to identify their religious identification in their own words. Replicating our research design repeatedly enables the exploration of societal trends, e.g., the rise of the Nones among American adults. Investing time and research capital on a longitudinal study of the bar/bat mitzvah class of 5755, tracking the development of Jewish identity from adolescence through adulthood, we addressed a critical research question: When do shifts in identity formation occur? The longitudinal design allows us to identify early signs of behavior that become apparent and consequential later. By collecting qualitative alongside quantitative data, we obtain personal stories that complement and explain the survey results. Collaborating with scholars from multiple disciplines and countries helps us understand hard and soft secularism across cultures. I highlight four main findings. First, polarization of the Jewish community upsets many of the young people we studied, with one telling us, “We are all Jews.” Second, a Jewish None is not an empty vessel. Despite the erosion in religious observance that Sklare documented, Jewish peoplehood has endured and even intensified among members of the bar/bat mitzvah class in their thirties. Third, the decline in religious identification increases the rate of mixed marriage, and vice versa. Fourth, Jewish identity is fluid, and tracking its development from adolescence to adulthood allows us to better understand that complexity.
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Notes
A subsequent validity check based on cross-samples of 3,000 respondents in 2002 found no statistical differences between the patterns of responses according to the two question wordings (Kosmin and Keysar 2006).
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Keysar, A. We are all Jews. Cont Jewry 42, 203–213 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-022-09428-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-022-09428-z