Jewish Identity of European Jews in Comparative Perspective: An Unprecedented Insight into the Jewish Lifestyles, Priorities, and Self-Understandings of Jews in Europe, Israel, and the USA

To date, patterns of Jewish identity have been imperfectly documented. While major surveys of Jewish identity have been carried out in the USA and Israel, the European picture of Jewish identity remained largely unmapped. We aim to rectify this situation. This paper builds on a major treatise about the subject of Jewish identity in the framework of the European Jewish Demography Unit/Institute for Jewish Policy Research elaborated by Sergio DellaPergola and L. Daniel Staetsky. 2021. The Jewish identities of European Jews: what, why and how.

In 2018 the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) sponsored a survey of twelve European Jewish communities. The FRA survey built the largest sample of European Jews ever created in a social scientific exercise: 16,359 Jews participated from twelve EU Member States which, together, are home to about 80% of all Jews in Europe. The survey documented the various ways in which Jews understand themselves (as a religion or ancestral group – terms we choose to describe as the ‘What’ of Judaism), their values and priorities in terms of Jewish identity (e.g., the status of antisemitism, Israel and religion – we relate to it as the ‘Why’ of Judaism) and the variety of lifestyles and religiosities of Jews (Haredi, Orthodox, Traditional or Secular – the ‘How’ of Judaism). In 2013-2015, the Pew Research Center surveyed Jewish populations of the USA and Israel, thereby creating a comprehensive picture of Jewish identity in these two communities. These surveys included many questions that are similar or identical to the 2018 FRA survey, allowing a direct comparison between Jewish identities of American, Israeli and European Jews on a scale and with detail previously unachievable.

Resultsץ In this presentation a panoramic picture of the patterns of Jewish identity (namely the WHAT, WHY and HOW of Judaism) across 90% of the world’s Jewish population is presented. We find remarkable amount of consistency concerning ways in which Jews in these very different contexts define themselves and what is important to them, express their Jewishness and keep Jewish rituals