O PINION
If You’re Asking American Jews if They’re
Religious, You Don’t Understand American Jews
BY RACHEL B. GROSS
IN SHELDON OBERMAN’S
children’s book “Th e Always
Prayer Shawl,” a grandfa-
ther passes on his tallit to his
grandson along with the sage
advice, “Some things change
and some things don’t.”
At public readings, Oberman
wore his grandfather’s tallit,
which had inspired the story.

When a non-Jewish author told
him that she wished she could
tell stories the way he did, he
placed the tallit on her shoul-
ders and told her, “You can! You
can do it.”
This story illustrates
how religion functions in
complex ways in the lives of
North American Jews. Was
Oberman’s tallit a religious
object? Was he using it in
religious ways?
Th e new study of American
Jews by the Pew Research
Center, too, refl ects the compli-
cated and oft en contradictory
ways that Jews employ the
concept of “religion” as well as
the way “some things change
and some things don’t” in both
American Jews’ practices and
sociological studies of them.

Like the 2013 Pew study of
American Jews, “Jewish
Americans in 2020” divides
Jews into “Jews by religion”
and “Jews of no religion.”
Jews by religion say their
current religion is Jewish.

According to Pew, 27% Jewish
adults do not identify their
religion as Jewish but consider
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM themselves Jewish ethni-
cally, culturally or by family
background. Among Jews
18-29, that number rises to 40%,
twice that of Jews ages 50-64.

Some may wring their hands
over what they see as dwindling
participation in Judaism as
a religion, as commentators
did aft er the last survey. But
what I see in this survey is
evidence of the innovative and
ever-changing ways Jewish
religion is practiced, not
grounds for panic.

Although the authors inform
us “religion is not central to
the lives of most U.S. Jews,”
the concept of religion, as most
Americans use it today, is a
modern, Protestant creation,
and Jewish practices fi t uncom-
fortably in the category. Despite
the best eff orts of Jewish
thinkers to separate religious
and cultural aspects of Jewish
practice, the boundaries have
never been clear.

Traditional understand-
ings of “religion” have rested
uneasily with Jewish realities,
which have a greater focus on
communities and practices.

Only 20% of survey respon-
dents said that their “religious
faith” provides a great deal
of meaning and fulfi llment,
perhaps because American Jews
rarely use the language of faith.

But the study does reveal
the many ways that American
Jews of all kinds create Jewish
meaning in their lives. Th ese
include practices traditionally
understood as religious, such
as attending a seder (62%), and
those understood as cultural,
such as cooking or eating
traditional Jewish foods (72%).

In my book, “Beyond the
Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as
Religious Practice,” I argue that
making sense of Jews’ practices
requires us to employ a broader
defi nition of religion. Following
religious studies scholar Robert
Orsi, religion is best understood
as meaningful relationships
and the practices, narratives
and emotions that create and
support these relationships.

Understanding religion as
relationships makes our inter-
actions with families, our
attachments to our ancestors,
our connections to communi-
ties and the narratives we use to
explain our place in the world
central to religious activity.

It lets us see Jewish religion
fl ourishing in a wide variety
of practices and in unexpected
sites — in ways that its practi-
tioners might not themselves
identify as “religious” because
of the way religion is so oft en
narrowly construed.

I applaud the authors of
this study for asking far more
questions about Jews’ everyday
practices than the 2013 study
did, as well as for noting that
cultural activities comple-
ment so-called religious ones.

Th is study fi nds that, in large
numbers, Jews eat foods they
recognize as Jewish, visit Jewish
historic sites when traveling,
read books and articles about
Jewish topics, listen to Jewish
music, and watch TV and fi lm
with Jewish themes.

What all of these activities
have in common is that they
allow Jews to place themselves
within narratives that provide
existential meaning. I wish that
the study had asked about visits
to Jewish museums, which are
increasingly important spaces
of Jewish community, or
genealogical research, a wildly
popular pastime that helps
Jews place themselves within
family and communal histories
that cross time and space.

I suggest we pay more atten-
tion to what Jews do than to
what they name as “essential”
to their identity, as the study
continues to ask, echoing
the 2013 study. Only 20% of
American Jews consider eating
traditional Jewish foods to
JEWISH EXPONENT
be essential to what being
Jewish means to them. But the
wording of the question does
not refl ect Jews’ realities.

Eating foods recognized as
“Jewish” may be a meaningful
part of a Jew’s life, but it may
be too quotidian, too easily
overlooked, to be recognized
as essential or important
according to traditional metrics
of religion. Commonplace activ-
ities such as eating foods that
remind us of our families, our
communities, and our histories
are oft en quietly fundamental
to religious identities rather
than explicitly identifi ed as
essential to them.

Likewise, the study fi nds
that large numbers of Jews own
Jewish ritual objects. Th e fact
that 24% of “Jews of no religion”
own a Hebrew-language
prayer book should give us
pause. As religious studies
scholar Vanessa L. Ochs fi nds,
American Jews unobtrusively
enact important parts of their
identities through the material
objects they have in their
homes, including items they
rarely if ever use. Oberman’s
unconventional use of his tallit
reminds us that Jews can fi nd
new and sometimes surprising
meanings in ritual objects, even
outside of traditional contexts.

Some things change, and
some things don’t. American
Jews continue to fi nd meaning
in emotional connections to
their families, communities,
and histories, though the ways
they do so continue to change.

Expanding our defi nition of
“religion” can help us better
recognize the ways in which
they are doing so. ●
Rachel B. Gross is assistant
professor and John and Marcia
Goldman Chair in American Jewish
Studies in the Department of
Jewish Studies at San Francisco
State University.

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letters@jewishexponent.com MAY 20, 2021
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