Lay perceptions of contemporary American Jewish identity in the United States

Abstract

Jewish identity is uniquely made up of related but distinct components: religious identity, ethnic identity, and cultural identity. Religious Jewish identity refers to an individual’s religious practice and observance (e.g., Orthodox, Reform). Ethnic Jewish identity refers to an identity that includes both an ancestral and socialized component (e.g., Ashkenazi, Sephardi). Cultural Jewish identity, also sometimes referred to as secular Judaism, is used colloquially to describe holding some of the values and behaviors associated with Jewish identity but not practicing the religion. Depending on the individual, Jews living in the United States may identify as all three, a combination of two, or only one of these identity components. Being that religious and cultural identity are related to many psychological outcomes, including well-being and quality of life, differences in identification with each of these components of Jewish identity may lead to differences in psychological outcomes. Different components of Jewish identity likely impact the values that an individual holds and the behaviors they practice. Research on Jewish identity within the psychology of religion is limited, and Jewish identity is often examined without fine-grained distinction, lumping these components together into one broad ‘Jewish identity.’ While each specific form of Jewish identity is a valid way to identify as Jewish, some identities may be viewed more or less favorably by other Jewish individuals, at times resulting in “identity gatekeeping” or the act of denying someone else’s identity. The present project includes three studies to further understand contemporary Jewish identity in the U.S. by: 1) conducting qualitative interviews on participants’ lay perceptions of Jewish identity (N = 29), 2) examining how different forms of Jewish identity are related to psychological outcomes, values, and behaviors in a correlational survey (N = 216), and 3) experimentally testing whether situational threat can influence identity gatekeeping towards different Jewish targets among Jews (N = 251).