Jewish Americans

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Chapter 14

• Jewish Americans

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Jewish People Race, Religion or Ethnic Group?

• Jews are a subordinate group
• Unequal treatment
• Share a cultural history that distinguishes them
  from the dominant group
• Ascribed status or involuntary status
• Group solidarity
• In-group marriage

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• Jewish identity among Jews is based on a shared
  culture - thus Jews are best classified as an
  ethnic minority
• The trend in the United States among Jews has
  been toward Judaization -lessening of the
  significance of religion and an increase in
  culture as the bond among Jews

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Immigration of Jews to the United States

• First Jewish migration occurred around 1654 from
  Spain and Portugal (Refugees)
• Largest Jewish migration occurred around the end
  of nineteenth century

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• Immigration Act of 1920 reduced Jewish
  immigration
• Recent immigration has been from Israel, Soviet
  Union and Iran

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Population Figures

• U. S. has the largest Jewish population in the
  world accounting for 46 of the worlds Jewish
  population.
• Nation with the second highest Jewish population,
  Israel, is the only one in which Jews are in the
  majority, accounting for 81 of the population.
• Jewish population is highly urbanized (about 95
  live in cities).

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Are Jewish Americans a Subordinate Group?

• Yes, they fulfill the criteria
• 1. They experience unequal treatment
• 2. Jews share a cultural history that
  distinguishes them from dominant group
• 3. Jews have a strong sense of group
  solidarity
• 4. Jewish men women tend to marry one
  another

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Judaization

• Richard Schaeffer (2000) sees this as a trend -
  the lessening importance of Judaism as a religion
  and the substitution of cultural traditions as
  the ties that bind Jews.
• A Jew in contemporary America is an individual
  who thinks of himself or herself as a Jew.

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Figure 14-3 Intergroup Relations Continuum
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Anti-Semitism Past and Present

• Origins of anti-Semitism
• Blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
• Formation of negative stereotypes over the years
• Fringe-of-values theory by Gordon Allport (1979)
  and the formation of negative stereotypes

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• Jewish group identity as a means of adapting to a
  hostile environment and in-group virtues becoming
  out-group vices
• Discrimination as a source of anti-Semitism

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Holocaust

• Holocaust - state-sponsored systematic
  extermination of European Jews by Nazi Germany
• German policy and the restriction of the rights
  of Jews
• Between 1933 - 1945 two-thirds of Europe's Jewish
  population were killed

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Unites States Anti-Semitism Past

• Colonial America and anti-Semitism
• Peter Stuyvesants attempt to expel Jews from
  what is New York city today
• The 1920s and 1930s saw an increase in anti-
  Semitism

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Unites States Anti-Semitism Past

• Perpetuation of false propaganda - In the forged
  documents Protocols of the Elders of Zion
• The publications of the Protocols and
  anti-Semitism

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Differences Between Anti-Semitism in the United
States and Europe

• First - United States government never promoted
  anti-Semitic policies
• Second - anti-Semitism was not institutionalized
  in the United States
• Third - Jews did not develop a defensive ideology
  in order to survive

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Contemporary Anti-Semitism

• Anti-Defamation League
• Monitors anti-Semitic incidents
• Rise in numbers in 1990s and 2001
• American Jews and the relationship with Israel

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Contemporary Anti-Semitism

• Source of unity and identity
• Zionism - and anti-Semitism
• African Americans and Anti-Semitism
• Fewer anti-Semitic and more anti-White
  institutions

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Figure 14-4 Anti-Semitic Incidents, 1980-2002
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Position of Jewish Americans

• Declining discrimination in the business world
• Jewish MBAs and job opportunities
• Rising rapidly up the corporate hierarchy
• Higher salaries
• Declining poverty and the invisible poor

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Education

• Judaic religion and the emphasis on formal
  schooling
• Emphasis on education
• Higher educational attainment
• Prejudice at school

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Organizational Activity

• United Jewish Appeal - founded in (1939) raises
  funds for humanitarian causes
• American Jewish Committee - founded in (1906) to
  improve Jewish-Gentile relations

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• American Jewish Congress - founded in (1918) to
  improve Jewish-Gentile relations
• Bnai Brith - founded in (1843) to promote
  cultural programs (ADL)

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Political Activity

• Jewish voters and the Democratic party
• Political offices
• Politics and the New Left
• Politics and Israel

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Religious Life

• Orthodox
• Conservative
• Reconstructionist
• Reform
• Just Jewish

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The Orthodox Tradition

• Orthodox tradition
• Torah
• Life is conducted according to tradition and
  rituals
• Kashrut - food

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The Reform Tradition

• Very religious
• Changed traditions to reflect social changes
• Conservative Judaism in between Orthodox and
  Reform

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Jewish Identity

• Yiddishkait - Jewish Americans and a sense of
  peoplehood (Jewishness)
• Jewish women and Jewish identity
• Halakha

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Family

• Delayed marriage
• Single life has become increasingly more
  acceptable
• Declining birth rate, acceptability of
  childlessness and rising divorce rate
• Decline in intergenerational roles in the family
• Decline in Jewishness in daily live

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Figure 14-5 Generational Patterns by Denomination
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Role of Religion

• Judaism and religious diversity
• Traditional Jewish Law
• Religion and marginality
• The role of culture
• Maintaining a sense of peoplehood