Abstract: This dissertation is an exploration of the ways in which Jewish youth movements create, recreate and re-envision wider Jewish communal norms relating to authenticity, or what it means to be a `real' or `legitimate' Jew. The culmination of thirteen months participant observation fieldwork within one Jewish youth movement, as well as interviews with other youth movement leaders and archival research of one prominent British Jewish newspaper, I argue that the modem Orthodox Jewish Establishment in the United Kingdom has a strong grip on the concept of authenticity. The stakes for maintaining control over the boundary between the authentic and the inauthentic are high, as British Jewry is shrinking rapidly and education has been identified as the primary means by which to secure communal continuity. Consequently, Jewish formal education often supports particular (Orthodox) interpretations of Jewish authenticity, specifically in relation to communal pluralism, appropriate gender identifications and relationships with Zionism. However, these Orthodox expectations of authenticity are often incompatible with how many young British Jews today lead their lives. Youth movements are key sites in which the battle for continuity is being waged; British Jewish youth movements aim to create informal education agendas that inspire young people to create lifelong affiliations with Judaism. I contend that informal education has the necessary flexibility to disrupt (and thus redefine) the boundaries of Jewish authenticity. Specifically, the very pillars of Orthodox authenticity (pluralism, gender and Zionism) are beginning to be (re)- constructed in new and innovative ways by some movements. It is in this space, created through the negotiation of a movement's ethos and its simultaneous obligation to, or disregard for, communal (Orthodox) expectations, that the validation of `alternative' performances of Judaism is possible. In turn, such validation helps to associate authenticity with a fluid and context- dependent belief system that is more likely to secure communal continuity than the exclusive Orthodox system currently so predominant.
Abstract: This report has been written at the request of Jewish Women’s Aid (JWA). JWA commissioned this
research to better understand several key factors influencing their work: general Jewish opinion
and knowledge about domestic violence; the ways in which current and former clients come to
JWA and how useful they find its services; and the position of JWA in the UK and in comparison to
other Jewish domestic violence charities in Israel, the USA and Canada.
The researchers determined that the best way of ascertaining information about these areas of
interest was to conduct a three- stage research project. Firstly, a literature review was undertaken
to contextualise the work JWA does in both a national and international context. This literature
review informs chapter two of this research report, which provides an overview of domestic
violence in the UK with references throughout to three countries of interest to Jewish Women’s Aid
(because of the presence of Jewish-specific domestic violence charities), namely Canada, the
United States, and Israel.
Secondly, the researchers conducted a domestic violence Jewish general opinion survey, which
yielded 842 complete responses. The survey was largely taken by women and this response rate
makes this survey, to the knowledge of the authors and JWA, the largest Jewish survey on a
women’s issue ever conducted.
This report discusses the findings from the survey; see chapter three for details, including a discussion of the methodology employed.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the researchers conducted face –to- face interviews with
twenty current or former JWA clients, who agreed to speak to them after communication from JWA
employees. Chapter four of this report gives voice to the personal suffering experienced by
women; it illuminates the ‘real life stories’ behind the statistics.
The report concludes with recommendations that JWA will be implementing to continue combating
domestic violence in all of its forms; these recommendations are based both on the findings arising
from the general survey and client interviews, and from examples of best practice from domestic
violence charities in the UK and abroad.
