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Cont Jewry (2010) 30:227232
DOI 10.1007/s12397-010-9048-1
Chaim I. Waxman
Received: 5 November 2009 / Accepted: 4 June 2010 / Published online: 12 August 2010 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2010
Abstract Although the arguments of both CohenKelman and SassonKadushin-Saxe are well presented and are based on careful analyses of the data each utilized, the CohenKelman thesis is more convincing because there is a variety of evidence supporting it and because its argument with respect to connectedness with Israel ts within a larger framework of patterns of American Jewish identity and identication.
Keywords Young American Jews Jewish identity Identication American
ethnic groups
Steven Cohen and Ari Y. Kelman argue that younger, non-Orthodox Jews have signicantly lower and declining attachments to Israel. Their argument is based largely on analyses of data from the 2007 national survey of American Jews. Ted Sasson, Charles Kadushin, and Len Saxe argue, based largely on their analysis of American Jewish Committee studies over a 13 year period (19942007), that there has not been a signicant change in the patterns of connection of young American Jews to Israel, and that in every decade connections to and support for Israel tend to increase with age.
Both arguments are well presented and both are based on careful analyses of the data utilized. On that basis per se, I am somewhat reminded of the Rabbi of Anatevka and am tempted to say that they are both correct. Obviously, however, that cannot be so because the positions are so opposite of one another. In their response to Sasson and colleagues, CohenKelman attempt to narrow and dene their disagreements with SassonKadushinSaxe by emphasizing that their distancing hypothesis applies to only a segment of the non-Orthodox American Jewish population and not to any of
C. I. Waxman (&)
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Beyond Distancing: Jewish Identity, Identication, and Americas Young Jews
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228 C. I. Waxman
the Orthodox, and they suggest that the distancing phenomenon is particularly prevalent among the intermarried. The CohenKelman thesis is stronger and more convincing because it is consistent with ndings in my own research over the past several decades.
An analysis comparing the identication patterns of Jewish baby boomers with those of their elders, based on the 1990 National...