Exceptionalism Debunked: What Happens When the Five Largest English-Speaking Jewish Communities are Compared?

The subjects of Jewish identity and Jewish communal vitality, how they may be conceptualised and measured, are the subjects of lively debate amongst scholars in the field of the social scientific study of Jewry (DellaPergola 2020, Pew 2021 and Zelkowitz 2013). Complicating matters further, there appears to be a disconnect between the broadly accepted claim that comparative analysis yields richer understanding of Jewish communities (Weinfeld 2020) and the reality that the preponderance of Jewish communal research focuses on discrete communities.

This paper examines the five largest English-speaking Jewish communities in the diaspora: the United States (pop. 6,000,000), Canada (pop. 393,500), United Kingdom (pop. 292,000), Australia (pop. 118,000), and South Africa (pop. 52,000). Drawing on each of the communities’ most recent Jewish communal datasets, the analysis comprises three sections: two analytical, the third conceptual.

First, common survey items from the five datasets are combined, enabling the communities to be compared on measures that are the common focus of communal reporting. These include community size predictors, Jewish literacy, communal engagement, and ritual observance. Second, using these identically worded survey items, statistical methods will be utilised to delve deeper into the forms of Jewish capital that characterise these five communities, examining whether differences between them are significant, and what might be driving these differences. Finally, by identifying questions which are unique to individual communities, there will be a brief exploration of what other Jewish communities deliberately avoid or regretfully neglect to examine.

This paper demonstrates the rich analytic value of comparative analysis and highlights practical and conceptual implications for future Jewish communal research.