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Židia na Slovensku po roku 1989. Komunita medzi budúcnosťou a minulosťou
Translated Title: Jews in Slovakia after 1989. The community between the future and the past
Author(s): Salner, Peter
Date: 2018
Topics: Jewish Identity, Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Festivals and Holidays, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Post-1989, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: Kniha sa zaoberá židovskou komunitou v období po novembri 1989. Úvodné časti (Úvod, Výskum, Literatúra) majú informatívny charakter. Ťažisko knihy tvoria tri kapitoly. Prvá z nich, nazvaná Komunita, sumarizuje vznik Ústredného zväzu Židovských náboženských obcí a jeho vzťahy s náboženskými obcami. Priestor dostala aj charakteristika základných pojomov, súčasné aktivity a dve dôležité inštitúcie židovskej komunity: Dokumentačné stredisko holokaustu a Židovské komunitné múzeum, ktoré pôsobí v priestoroch bratislavskej synagógy. Druhá kapitola si všíma dva historické sviatky (Pesach a Chanuka), ktoré porovnáva s prejavmi pripomienok holokaustu. Autor analyzuje spoločné a rozdielne znaky, premeny v čase, ale hlavne význam, aký majú tieto príležitosti pre súčasníkov. V kapitole Symboly autor analyzuje a prepája zdanlivo nesúvisiace fenomény, ako sú synagóga, kaviareň, židovský humor či memoriál Chatama Sofera. Záver monografie ukazuje, že pre zložité súčasné procesy sú charakteristické tri zdanlivo jednoduché pojmy: zjednodušovanie, individualizácia a najmä selektívny prístup k tradičným religióznym a sviatočným javom. V praxi to znamená prechod od kolektívnej realizácie aktivít k individuálnym prejavom, od verejného k súkromnému a v konečnom dôsledku od komplexného k selektívnemu. Predovšetkým faktor selektívnosti sa javí ako určujúci pri analýze súčasného stavu a úvahách o možných trendoch budúcnosti.
Jewish Holidays in the Time of the Corona Virus Pandemic in Slovakia
Author(s): Salner, Peter
Date: 2020
Topics: Coronavirus/Covid, Jewish Community, Jewish Organisations, Festivals and Holidays, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Other, Health
Abstract: The first wave of the new coronavirus pandemic swept through Slovakia between March 1 and May 31, 2020. During this relatively short period, four important Jewish holidays took place: Purim, Pesach, Lag BaOmer, and Shavuot. When the news of the pandemic initially broke, a large part of Slovak society viewed COVID-19 as a remote, and therefore, not entirely dangerous, threat. This attitude shifted on March 6, , when the first case of the disease was confirmed in the country. On March 9, the authorities reacted by introducing the first set of public health measures, which the Jewish Religious Community immediately relayed to its members. The policy adopted by the JRC leadership was faced with a serious religious challenge. In these conditions, the observance of holidays required a degree of improvisation. Bar a few extraordinary examples, it was impossible to fulfill all of the traditionally required customs. Factors of selectiveness, streamlining, and individualization therefore had an even greater impact than usual. Involuntary isolation brought out the importance of family ties, as well as the need for solidarity.
Renew our days as of old: Will we go back to Jewish activities and events?
Date: 2020
Topics: Health, Main Topic: Other, Mental Health, Coronavirus/Covid, Surveys, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Community
Abstract: JPR’s COVID-19 survey looks at how Jews have been impacted by the pandemic in terms of their health, jobs, finances, relationships and Jewish lives. The findings are being shared in a series of short reports looking at key policy issues, and this one focuses on the issue of how comfortable Jews feel about attending Jewish activities and events in person.

Drawing on survey responses from July 2020, it finds that whilst Jews situate themselves across the full length of the ‘comfort scale’ (running from very comfortable to very uncomfortable), there is a clear leaning towards the uncomfortable end.

Unsurprisingly, those who are uncomfortable are likely to be in older age bands and/or suffering from health conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to the virus. Similarly, those who have had the virus and continue to suffer from secondary symptoms (i.e. ‘Long COVID’) also tend to be uncomfortable about attending events in person.

However, there are some interesting exceptions. The most elderly appear to feel more comfortable than average, and the youngest age bands (those aged 16-24) feel more uncomfortable than average. Those who have had COVID-19 and recovered feel more comfortable than those who have not. And those who have experienced job losses, or have been furloughed, are rather less comfortable than those whose working loves have remained reasonably stable.

It is also very striking to see that, denominationally, the Strictly Orthodox feel most comfortable about attending in-person events, whereas non-synagogue members feel most uncomfortable. Members of other ‘mainstream’ denominations cluster together in between. However, people’s level of religiosity is actually a slightly better predictor than denomination of how comfortable they feel about attending community activities or events in person – those with strong religiosity are most likely to feel comfortable, and those with weak religiosity most likely to feel uncomfortable.

Perhaps most interestingly, there is an important relationship between how comfortable people feel about attending community activities and events in person, and their general state of mental health. Those showing signs of psychological distress feel notably less comfortable than others.

Brief details about the methodology used in the survey are contained in the report. A more detailed methodological is being prepared and will be available shortly.
The Return to Judaism in the Netherlands
Author(s): Mock-Degen, Minny E.
Editor(s): Kaplan, Yosef; Michman, Dan
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Revival, Baal Teshuvah
Revival? Rebirth? Renaissance? What happened to Polish Jews over the last four decades?
Author(s): Gebert, Konstanty
Date: 2020
Topics: Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Assimilation, Religious Observance and Practice, Post-1989
Abstract: Drawing on personal experience, the author discusses the vicissitudes of Jewish identity formation in the last two decades of Communist Poland and the first two decades which followed. He addresses the role of religion in the Jewish revival which occurred in that period, and sets it against other models of Jewish identity – Zionist, Yiddishist and assimilationist - on one hand, and the twin pressures of anti- and philosemitism in Polish society at large. This discussion is placed within the broader framework of the Polish political transformation. He finally suggests that the survival and revival of the Jewish community in Poland offers a more general lesson for the continuation of Jewish peoplehood.
Minhag Anglia: The Transition of Modern Orthodox Judaism in Britain
Author(s): Freud-Kandel, Miri
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Orthodox Judaism, Religious Observance and Practice, Religious Denominations, Jewish Law
Abstract: In certain respects the mainstream Orthodox Jewish community in Britain, fully engaged and integrated into British life, appears to offer an exemplar of a Modern Orthodox Judaism. However the term minhag Anglia may be used to capture the nature of the often unsystematic blending of Jewishness and Britishness that can characterise Anglo-Jewish practice. This paper considers whether the broadly unthinking nature of minhag Anglia precludes its ability to function as a strategy for Modern Orthodox Judaism.
On Learning from the Margins: Jewish Nonreligious Grammars within a Secular-Protestant Landscape
Author(s): Sheldon, Ruth
Date: 2019
Topics: Jewish Neighbourhoods, Religion, Religious Observance and Practice, Secularity, Main Topic: Other, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Ethnography
Abstract: This contribution to the special issue draws on ethnographic fieldwork exploring pluralities of Jewish life across adjacent urban neighbourhoods in London in order to engage with the conceptual questions and empirical omissions that are currently of concern to scholars of nonreligion. Learning from some illustrative moments in my fieldwork in which articulations of non-belief in God serendipitously arose, I first consider how marginal Jewish perspectives trouble the conceptual framing of ‘religion/nonreligion’ within (post)Protestant cultures. I then show how an ethnographic approach focused on the specific contexts in which piety or belief in God is othered can deepen understanding of the heterogeneous formations of ‘nonreligion’, even within relatively well-researched settings such as contemporary London.
Comment se construisent les espaces du culte dans les rapports de genre en islam et dans le judaïsme ?
Translated Title: How are spaces of worship constructed in gender relations in Islam and in Judaism?
Author(s): Benveniste, Annie; Boursin, Marie-Laure
Editor(s): Anteby-Yemini,, Lisa
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish - Muslim Relations, Comparisons with other communities, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Rabbis, Gender, Synagogues
Abstract: À travers un retour sur nos terrains ethnologiques respectifs, nous nous proposons de comprendre comment se construisent les espaces du culte dans les rapports de genre. Ces terrains sont situés dans la périphérie parisienne, à Sarcelles, qui a connu une concentration importante de « populations juives », émigrées d’Afrique du Nord, depuis une ou deux générations; à Marseille et dans sa périphérie, première région où les « populations musulmanes » émigrées se sont installées en métropole, qui aujourd’hui sont majoritairement d’origine maghrébine et comorienne. Mais ils sont essentiellement circonscrits par des pratiques juives et musulmanes qui peuvent être multisituées et plurielles davantage que par des sites particuliers.

Nous souhaitons entrer dans les rapports de genre autrement qu’à partir des rapports constitués, ceux qui attribuent, en particulier dans l’univers religieux, des places différentes aux hommes et aux femmes contribuant à construire des positions et des identifications sexuées, conscientes ou non. Nous interrogeons donc les positions affichées, montrant la dynamique des relations, des jeux, des non-dits, prenant en compte les interactions entre les deux positions sexuées. De même, tenant compte de la façon dont les sujets construisent l’espace du culte, nos contributions respectives portent sur une ethnologie du quotidien, privilégiant l’étude des interstices et des entre-deux établissant ainsi une comparaison entre nos deux terrains par l’analyse d’axes transversaux.
Nous entendons « espace du culte » au sens d’un espace, qui sans être nécessairement construit à cet effet, est cependant institué et clairement défini spatialement et temporellement. Nous ne restreignons pas l’espace du culte à celui de la synagogue ou de la mosquée, d’une part parce que les édifices officiels sont trop étroits pour contenir la masse des fidèles qui investissent d’autres lieux ; d’autre part, parce que dans le judaïsme, comme en islam, les femmes ne sont pas obligées de fréquenter les lieux de culte au même titre que les hommes. Nous analysons donc plusieurs types d’espace – intermédiaire, interstitiel, privé mais sacralisé par des rituels – ainsi que les modalités de leur investissement. Ceux qui sont officiellement dédiés au culte doivent leur caractère religieux à la pratique collective permettant au groupe de faire communauté le temps d’un office. Mais ces lieux sont investis aussi par des relations sociales profanes et marqués par une alternance de temps religieux et de temps ordinaires. La multifonctionnalité des espaces du culte induit des spatialités mobiles liées aux diverses temporalités. Les temporalités, dans les espaces du culte, alternent temps ordinaires et temps religieux. Il arrive que des interactions sociales liées aux temps ordinaires interviennent dans les temps religieux et inversement. Les temporalités ne sont donc pas fixes mais aussi fluctuantes que les espaces sont poreux.

Au delà des règles dogmatiques légiférant l’accès des observantes juives ou musulmanes aux espaces du culte et qui contribuent à assigner un statut différencié aux femmes, nous verrons que la position et les identifications sexuées se construisent aussi dans l’interaction à l’autre.

Dans cette contribution, nous n’avons pas cherché à neutraliser le genre des chercheures pas plus que celui des sujets. Les situations vécues ont des effets sur l’ethnologue qui l’amènent à négocier et reconstruire constamment sa posture. Elles sont décrites ici comme des situations interstitielles, « d’entre-deux » ; comme des révélateurs de la construction sociale des genres, d’enjeux de statuts et de pouvoir qui nous informent sur le contexte « minoritaire » de l’islam et du judaïsme dans la société laïque française.
Juives et musulmanes: genre et religion en négociation
Translated Title: Jewish and Muslim: Gender and religion in negotiation
Editor(s): Anteby-Yemini,, Lisa
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish - Muslim Relations, Comparisons with other communities, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Rabbis, Gender
Abstract: Cet ouvrage, issu d’une recherche originale, présente une approche comparative, qui reste encore peu étudiée, sur les pratiques religieuses contemporaines des femmes juives et musulmanes. Chaque chapitre, rédigé « à quatre mains » par un(e) spécialiste du judaïsme et l’autre de l’islam, met en lumière convergences et divergences dans une analyse croisée de thématiques communes ayant trait au féminin. Les textes posent les questions de l’accès des femmes juives et musulmanes à l’espace du culte (mosquée, synagogue) et aux textes religieux (Torah, Coran, Talmud, Hadith), à leur étude et à leur interprétation, donnant lieu à de nouvelles exégèses féminines et à l’émergence de nouvelles fonctions religieuses (imams musulmanes, femmes-rabbins et autres rôles rituels) ; les débats sur le droit de la famille (mariage et divorce) et les stratégies de contournement de certaines normes ; les problématiques liées à la sexualité, la pureté, l’homosexualité féminine, l’avortement et la reproduction médicalement assistée, dans les textes sacrés et les pratiques des femmes dans l’islam et le judaïsme aujourd’hui.
‘Marching at the Speed of the Slowest Man’: The Facilitation and Regulation of Student Autonomy in a Pluralist Jewish Day School
Author(s): Samson, Maxim G. M.
Date: 2019
Topics: Jewish Education, Jewish Schools, Main Topic: Education, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: Faith schools are often perceived as restricting students’ autonomy through inculcating a single religious ideology and compelling participation in collective worship. Based on interviews and focus groups with parents, students and senior staff, this article investigates how England’s one pluralist Jewish secondary school has, in contrast, attempted to accommodate various forms of Jewish practice and facilitate students’ agency to determine their Jewish identities as desired. It reveals that students enjoy opportunities to actively negotiate Judaism, but that their autonomy is not without limits, and issues inherent to pluralism exist in executing an ethos accommodative of diverse, personalized expressions of Jewishness.
Wieviel Wandel verträgt eine Tradition? Gesang und Gebet der jüdischen Gemeinde Belgrad in den Herausforderungen der Gegenwart.
Translated Title: How much change can a tradition handle? Singing and prayer of the Jewish community Belgrade in the challenges of the present.
Author(s): Huber, Jasmina
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Music, Religious Observance and Practice, Sephardi Jews, Jewish Music, Jewish Heritage, Liturgy, Synagogues
Abstract: Juden haben immer – auch in Zeiten des Ghettos – mit ihrer Umwelt kulturell interagiert. Dies zeigt sich auch in den musikalischen Traditionen der balkanischen jüdischen Gemeinden, die vereinzelt kaum erforscht wurden. Der Wandel des jüdischen Musiklebens im liturgischen und säkularen Raum wird hier exemplarisch am Beispiel der jüdischen Gemeinde Belgrads veranschaulicht. In dieser Stadt sind wegen ihrer bewegten Geschichte und des häufigen politischen Machtwechsels auf dem Balkan die Verschmelzung verschiedener kultureller Einflüsse zu finden, von denen die Juden, bereits geprägt von ihrer aschkenasischen und sephardischen Herkunft, betroffen waren. Mit der vorliegenden Fallstudie, in der Fragestellung wie deren methodische Durchführung und Umsetzung interdisziplinär angelegt sind, wird ein Desideratum der jüdischen Musikforschung auf dem Balkan erfüllt. Die Autorin nähert sich musikwissenschaftlich und judaistisch dem musikalischen Gut der Belgrader Gemeinde, indem sie es in ihrem kulturgeschichtlichen Kontext mit Blick auf den historischen Wandel und auf das soziale Umfeld erforscht sowie das Kernrepertoire der gegenwärtigen synagogalen Schabbatabend- und Morgengebete in der Gesamtheit ihrer musikalischen Abläufe darstellt.
Иудаизм в современной России: основные структуры и направления
Translated Title: Judaism in Russia: Past and Present
Author(s): Козлов, Семен Яковлевич
Date: 2000
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Hassidim, Chabad-Lubavitch, Religious Denominations, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Community
Abstract: This report contains a short description of Judaism as a theological, ethical and juridical system, as well as main stages of its history, of modern trends in its development, particularly, of
its traditional and reformist segments. A considerable attention is devoted to Khasidic branch
of Judaism, namely to the Khabad-Lubavich movement, because it plays an important and
ambivalent role in the Judaic communities of the post-Soviet Russia. The report demonstrates
activities of main all-Russian Judaist organizations, and analyzed their mutual relations. It is
noticed, that really religious, or, at least, practicing Jews, represent only a minor fraction in
the contemporary Russian Jewry, while the predominant part of it is composed of practically
religiously indifferent people.
Российские евреи в контексте русского мира: от религиозности к этничности и обратно?
Translated Title: Russian Jews in the context of the Russian world: from religiosity to ethnicity and back?
Author(s): Носенко-Штейн, Елена
Editor(s): Комарова, Г.А.
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Ethnicity, Diaspora, Religious Observance and Practice, Russian-Speaking Jews
Comfort and joy? Religion, cognition, and mood in Protestants and Jews under stress
Author(s): Loewenthal, Kate Miriam; MacLeod, Andrew K.; Goldblatt, Vivienne; Lubitsch, Guy; Valentine, John D.
Date: 2000
Topics: Comparisons with other communities, Main Topic: Other, Mental Health, Religious Observance and Practice, Religious Belief
Abstract: This study examined cognitive aspects of coping with stress, how these related to religiosity, and how they related to outcomes (positive mood and distress). Participants (n=126) were of Protestant or Jewish background, and had all experienced recent major stress. They were assessed on measures of religiosity, religious coping, perception of the consequences of the stressful event, attributions for its occurrence, and distress, intrusive unpleasant thoughts, and positive affect. Religiosity affected ways of thinking about the stressful situation, namely: Belief that G-d is enabling the individual to bear their troubles (religious/spiritual support), belief that it was all for the best, and (more weakly) belief that all is ultimately controlled by G-d. Religiosity affected neither the proportion of positive consequences perceived as outcomes of the event, nor the causal attributions examined. Religious background (Protestant vs. Jewish) had negligible effects on the cognitions measures. Causal pathway analysis suggested that religion-related cognitions might directly affect positive affect, but not distress. Problems of design and interpretation are discussed. The study suggests some cognitively mediated means by which religion may have comforting effects.
Faith conquers all? Beliefs about the role of religious factors in coping with depression among different cultural‐religious groups in the UK
Author(s): Loewenthal, Kate Miriam; Cinnirella, Marco; Evdoka, Georgina; Murphy, Paula
Date: 2001
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Mental Health, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Comparisons with other communities
Abstract: How effective is religious activity believed to be in coping with depression? This study assessed the perceived effectiveness of different religious activities — previously identified as important in coping — among 282 people in the UK. The mean age was 25 years, and participants were either Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, other religion, or no religion. Relative to other kinds of help for depression, religious activity was not seen as particularly helpful for depression. Religious activity was seen as less helpful by the ever‐depressed than by the never‐depressed and as less helpful by women than by men. Among religious activities, faith and prayer were seen as the most helpful. Muslims believed more strongly than other groups in the efficacy of religious coping methods for depression, were most likely to say they would use religious coping behaviour, and were least likely to say they would seek social support or professional help for depression. Other differences between groups were also observed, and comparisons with qualitative material obtained in an earlier study were made. The implications of these findings for help‐seeking are considered.
Are women more religious than men? Gender differences in religious activity among different religious groups in the UK
Author(s): Loewenthal, Kate Miriam; MacLeod, Andrew K.; Cinnirella, Marco
Date: 2002
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Religious Observance and Practice, Religious Belief, Jewish Women, Gender, Comparisons with other communities
Abstract: Are women more religious than men? Four religious-cultural groups in the UK were examined, using a short measure of religious activity developed to enable measurement comparable between different religious groups. Gender differences were examined among volunteers who were self-defined as Christian (n=230), Hindu (n=56), Jewish (n=157) and Muslim (n=87). Women (n=302) described themselves as significantly less religiously active than did men (n=226), but this effect was confined to the non-Christian groups. It is suggested that the general conclusion that women are more religious than men is culture-specific, and contingent on the measurement method used.
Krav maga and chicken soup: symbolic Jewish identities within and beyond the Jewish school
Author(s): Samson, Maxim G. M.
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Education, Jewish Schools, Jewish Identity, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Schools: Seconday / High Schools
Abstract: Faith schools may play an important role in reproducing ethnoreligious identities, yet research into Jewish schools has tended to overlook students’ personalised conceptualisations of faith. Instead, it has regularly utilised restrictive ‘indicators’ of ethnoreligious practice in order to gauge these institutions’ effectiveness in ‘strengthening’ Jewish identity and thus mitigating assimilation. In response, this article explores the ways in which students at a pluralist Jewish school negotiated and (re)shaped their Jewishness, and thus lived their identities in personally meaningful ways. Students articulated ‘symbolic’ forms of Jewishness, rooted in inclusive and often stereotypical cultural symbols rather than regular religious practice, and personalised their identities through the school’s amenability to diverse manifestations of faith. Consequently, the research illustrates the value of including young people’s perspectives of faith and faith schooling, with implications for understandings of ethnoreligious identity and practice in spaces beyond traditional religious sites such as places of worship.
Warum Patrilineare Konfessionslos bleiben, obgleich sie sich jüdisch fühlen
Author(s): Zeifert, Ruth
Editor(s): Lewicki, Aleksandra; Möller, Melanie; Richter, Jonas; Rösch, Henriette
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Intermarriage, Jewish Identity, Religious Observance and Practice
The role of Judaism in the Jewish community after the Holocaust
Author(s): Salner, Peter
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Religious Observance and Practice, Post-1989, Post-War Jewish History
Abstract: Through conflicts of opinions inside the Bratislava Jewish religious community, the author monitors changed relations toward Judaism after the Holocaust.

The current form of the community was due to Regulation 231-1945 concerning “the arrangement of the conditions of the Jewish faith members in Slovakia”. This resulted in religious, economic, and organizational centralization.

After the 1968 occupation, those who stayed behind in Bratislava concluded that due to the emigration of the young and middle generations, the community lost its future and under the newly established conditions it was losing its past too. The Velvet revolution helped to overcome passivity existing until then. An informal gathering called Jewish forum helped to build and revive the Jewish identity. The status of the present-day Judaism can be illustrated by the fact that 36.6 percent of funerals in the course of 2001–2013 were done by cremation prohibited in Orthodox Judaism. It has been a manifestation of solidarity with the “burials” of those killed in concentration camps; but it is also a kind of revolt against God who did not prevent the Shoa.

Today both individuals and families create their own model based on the traditions that they choose for themselves. Practicing such customs does not follow from Judaism, but it is an expression of one’s affiliation with the community and its traditions.
Sporen van en naar joodse rituelen : een verkenning van diverse aspecten van het joods religieus leven in België
Author(s): Vanden Daelen, Veerle
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Religious Observance and Practice, Ritual
Beit Warszawa, Jewish Music, and Shabbes
Author(s): Beliak, Haim
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Jewish Music, Synagogues, Prayer, Religious Observance and Practice, Shabbat, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Jewish Revival
Jüdische Religion in Deutschland: Säkularität, Traditionsbewahrung und Erneuerung
Translated Title: Jewish religion in Germany: Secularity, tradition preservation and renewal
Author(s): Schrage, Eva-Maria
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Organisations, Synagogues, Religious Observance and Practice, Circumcision / Brit Milah, Gemeinden, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Orthodox Judaism
Abstract: Eva-Maria Schrage untersucht in ihrer Studie, wie junge Jüdinnen und Juden ihre Religion heute leben. Zugleich geht sie der Frage nach, wie Rabbiner, Rabbinerinnen und religiöse Gemeinschaften damit umgehen, dass die Religion im Leben vieler Jüdinnen und Juden heute eine untergeordnete Rolle spielt. Die Grundlage der Studie sind sowohl narrative Interviews religiöser Führungspersönlichkeiten als auch biographische Erzählungen von Mitgliedern verschiedener jüdischer Gemeinden. In der Beschneidungsdebatte 2012 wurde erstmals in der deutschen Nachkriegsgeschichte eine religiöse Praxis des Judentums öffentlich diskutiert. Unabhängig davon gibt es innerhalb des hiesigen Judentums schon länger vielfältige Diskussionen darüber, wie man die Religion in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft praktizieren sol
Juifs d'élection: se convertir au judaïsme
Translated Title: Jews by choice: converting to Judaism
Author(s): Tank-Storper, Sébastien
Date: 2007
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Conversion, Orthodox Judaism, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Identity
Abstract:
On naît juif, on ne le devient pas? Pourtant, la conversion au judaïsme existe. Mieux, elle a été minutieusement codifiée. Même si les rabbins n'aiment guère l'évoquer. Éthique ou filiation : retraçant le processus du passage, de la première rencontre à l'immersion dans le bain rituel, Sébastien Tank-Storper montre comment ces demandes questionnent profondément la religion juive. Elles interrogent également l'exercice de l'autorité dans un univers moderne qui veut néanmoins se placer sous le signe de la Tradition et de la Loi. Car s'identifier, c'est aussi être identifié. Et faire autorité, c'est aussi accepter la subjectivité. Mais ces parcours de convertis composent d'abord et surtout un tableau vivant et pluriel du judaïsme contemporain.
Ce que devenir juif veut dire
Translated Title: What becoming a Jew means
Author(s): Tank-Storper, Sébastien
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Conversion, Orthodox Judaism, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Identity
Abstract: En affirmant que devenir juif, c’est devenir un juif pratiquant et non un juif « ethnique » ou « national », et en tentant de s’arroger le monopole sur les conversions au judaïsme, notamment en Israël, les institutions religieuses de sensibilité orthodoxe défendent l’idée qu’elles se font de ce qu’être juif veut dire : un collectif soumis à la loi. Elles entendent ainsi lutter contre ce qu’elles considèrent être une réification de l’identité juive dans une entité nationale israélienne ou contre sa réduction à un groupe ethnique ou à une identité dont l’héritage ne constituerait plus un principe structurant mais se réduirait à quelques traits discriminants.
« Dépasser l’interdit ». Le châle de prière des femmes en France au ‪ ‪xxi‪ ‪e‪ ‪ siècle‪‪
Translated Title: “Going beyond the forbidden”: women wearing prayer shawls in twenty-first century French synagogues
Author(s): de Gasquet, Béatrice
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Ethnography, Synagogues, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Jewish Women, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: À partir d’une enquête ethnographique menée dans les années 2000 dans des synagogues non orthodoxes en France, cet article interroge l’accès des femmes à un vêtement rituel longtemps réservé à la pratique religieuse des hommes. L’histoire française du port du talit (châle de prière) par les femmes donne à voir l’exemple d’une circulation internationale d’argumentaires religieux autour de l’accès des femmes au rituel, où les logiques de distinction entre courants religieux jouent un rôle au moins aussi important que les débats féministes français. Les observations montrent que dans le contexte juif français, où les synagogues non orthodoxes sont minoritaires, les femmes sont plus que les hommes contraintes à une forme d’hyper-réflexivité sur le corps qu’elles engagent dans la prière publique. Cela se traduit par des discours et des pratiques variables et ambivalents sur le talit des femmes – si certaines cessent de le percevoir comme genré, d’autres l’associent à un travestissement, et d’autres préfèrent le « féminiser » par la couleur.
Masculinité et sens des « honneurs » L’appropriation sexuée du rituel dans des synagogues non orthodoxes
Translated Title: Masculinity and Sense of “Honor”: Gendered Appropriation of Rituals in Non-Orthodox Synagogues
Author(s): de Gasquet, Béatrice
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Ethnography, Synagogues, Ritual, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Gender, Jewish Women, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: À partir d’une enquête ethnographique dans des synagogues non orthodoxes en France, cet article analyse la division sexuée du rituel dans des courants religieux récemment ouverts à la féminisation, et la manière dont la participation au rituel de la lecture de la Torah construit une subjectivité juive genrée. Faisant l’objet de codifications religieuses complexes variant d’un mouvement à un autre, l’éligibilité à ce rituel dessine des frontières de genre et d’ethnicité. Dans le judaïsme orthodoxe, seuls les hommes peuvent rivaliser entre eux pour la possibilité de représenter rituellement le peuple juif. Dans les synagogues observées, si les femmes participent au rituel, elles se l’approprient différemment ; elles sont moins nombreuses à le considérer comme un honneur que l’on est censé rechercher, dans une logique hiérarchique et communautaire, et plus nombreuses à le considérer comme un acte individuel.
Genre, rituel et politiques de l'identité juive : dispositifs de socialisation dans les synagogues non orthodoxes en France
Translated Title: Gender, Ritual and the Politics of Jewish Identity : socialization in Non-Orthodox Synagogues in France
Author(s): de Gasquet, Béatrice
Date: 2011
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Synagogues, Religious Observance and Practice, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Ethnography, Gender, Jewish Women, Conflict, Ritual
Abstract: Au carrefour des études de genre, de la sociologie des religions, et de la sociologie politique, cette recherche explore la dimension locale des conflits religieux sur le genre à partir du cas du judaïsme français des années 2000 et la fabrique organisationnelle du genre et de l'identité juive dans les synagogues non orthodoxes en France, qui se caractérisent notamment par l'ouverture du rituel aux femmes. L'approche ethnographique permet d'analyser les dispositifs de socialisation (comme l'organisation de l'espace, du rituel, de la prise de parole, de la formation religieuse, de la mobilisation pour le développement de la synagogue) qui contribuent à la production locale du genre. En particulier, cette thèse montre comment la perception de la division sexuée du travail dans l'organisation, l'appropriation des débats religieux sur le genre, la légitimité de mobilisations locales pour la participation des femmes au rituel, dépendent de la position de chaque organisation dans les concurrences religieuses. Dans une configuration où la place des femmes dans l'espace religieux est utilisée comme marqueur symbolique entre courants religieux en concurrence pour la définition de l'identité juive (configuration que l'on propose d'appeler plus généralement politisation religieuse du genre) la participation répétée au rituel et aux activités de la synagogue engendre un intérêt pratique pour le genre, qui se traduit notamment par une fierté égalitaire masculine et par une injonction féminine à la justification. Si les travaux sur genre et religion ont surtout abordé les contextes religieux conservateurs, cette recherche explore la normativité des contextes religieux égalitaires
Le balcon, les pots de fleurs et la mehitza Histoire de la politisation religieuse du genre dans les synagogues françaises
Translated Title: The balcony, the flower pots and the mehitza: history of the religious politicization of the genre in the French synagogues / El balcón, las macetas y la mehitsa: la politización religiosa del género en las sinagogas francesas
Author(s): de Gasquet, Béatrice
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Synagogues, Jewish Women, Orthodox Judaism, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: L’histoire de la séparation des sexes dans les synagogues françaises depuis le xixe siècle illustre le fait que loin d’être un invariant, la conflictualité religieuse sur le genre est liée à des moments d’autonomisation, de transnationalisation et de différenciation interne des champs religieux. À partir des années 1980-1990, l’arrangement des sexes à la synagogue est devenu un marqueur symbolique des frontières internes au judaïsme français. Le retour de la mehitza (séparation physique entre les sexes à la synagogue) est utilisé comme marqueur d’authenticité orthodoxe dans les concurrences entre Consistoire et synagogues orthodoxes indépendantes, avant que l’accès des femmes à la participation égalitaire au rituel ne devienne, en réaction, un marqueur de « non-orthodoxie » avec le développement des synagogues libérales et massorties en France. La configuration actuelle contraste avec un moment antérieur de politisation religieuse du genre au xixe siècle, où les nouveaux balcons pour les femmes dans les synagogues symbolisaient, vis-à-vis de l’État français et de la société majoritaire, la modernité religieuse juive.
Joodse continuïteit? Joden in Nederland en hun band met het jodendom
Translated Title: Jewish continuity? Jews in the Netherlands and their relationship with Judaism
Author(s): de Vries, Marlene
Date: 2004
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Jewish Continuity, Religious Observance and Practice
A musical exploration of the Sabbath morning service in Dublin's orthodox Jewish community
Author(s): Brown, Melanie
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Music, Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Liturgy, Synagogues, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: The Jewish community of Dublin has been in existence for 400 years. Nowadays, many Dublin Jews are descended from Lithuanians who settled in Dublin at the turn of the twentieth century. Most Dublin Jews are integrated into Dublin society, yet little is known of cultural practices specific to Dublin’s Jewish community. This dissertation focuses on the practice of liturgical music in Terenure synagogue, one of Dublin’s two remaining Orthodox synagogues. While music is an integral part of all synagogue services throughout the year, the musical repertoire of the Sabbath morning service has been selected as representing the music which is most commonly experienced by practicing Orthodox Jews in Dublin. Much of the music in Dublin’s Orthodox synagogue has been retained as part of a Lithuanian oral tradition. However, the Dublin Jewish community is currently undergoing a demographic shift, owing to the emigration of Dublin-born Jews coupled with migration into Dublin of Jews from a variety of social, cultural and national backgrounds. As the profile of the Jewish community changes, there is evidence of a gradual shift in the musical tradition of the synagogue. Here there is an attempt to preserve part of the Lithuanian musical tradition for the future.
Ethnographic fieldwork has been conducted among all sections of the Jewish community of Dublin in order to obtain information regarding the history, culture and identity of Dublin Jews. This has provided insight into the oral tradition which has retained the music of the Orthodox synagogue thus far. Other sources of information have included archives and further published/unpublished resources. The research has also involved recording, transcribing and analysing examples of liturgical Jewish music performed in Dublin. This has resulted in a comprehensive historical account of the Dublin Jewish community together with a discussion on Irish Jewish identity. Such material provides a background for the corpus of music which has been collected from various contributors. As well as recordings, this features six fully transcribed versions of the main sections from the Orthodox Sabbath service performed by five individuals, and a discussion on performance practice within the synagogue. It also includes examples of congregational singing which also forms a significant part of the service. Considerations are given to issues including emotion, identity, transmission, gender and the role of the congregation in the performance of music within the Orthodox synagogue of Dublin.
The findings reveal that musical performance in the synagogue assists in promoting a sense of community among those who participate. Orthodox Jewish liturgical music and the way it is disseminated whether in the synagogue or other setting also provides a link with the past, dialogue with the past being an integral part of broad Jewish culture. Prior to this, little has been documented regarding the music of the Orthodox Dublin synagogue; therefore this research provides a basis on which further study of the topic may be conducted.
Music and Religious Change among Progressive Jews in London: Being Liberal and Doing Traditional
Author(s): Illman, Ruth
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Ethnography, Jewish Music, Liturgy, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: This book analyses religion and change in relation to music within the context of contemporary progressive Judaism. It argues that music plays a central role as a driving force for religious change, comprising several elements seen as central to contemporary religiosity in general: participation, embodiment, experience, emotions and creativity. Focusing on the progressive Anglo-Jewish milieu today, the study investigates how responses to these processes of change are negotiated individually and collectively and what role is allotted to music in this context. Building on ethnographic research conducted at Leo Baeck College in London (2014–2016), it maps how theologically unsystematic life-views take form through everyday musical practices related to institutional religion, identifying three theoretically relevant processes at work: the reflexive turn, the turn within and the turn to tradition.
Jewish Practices among Contemporary Anusim
Author(s): Halevy, Schulamith C.
Date: 1999
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Heritage, Religious Observance and Practice, Anusim / Crypto-Jews / Marranos, Family and Household, Sephardi Jews
Abstract: Although occasional lists of contemporary crypto-Jewish practices specific to one region or another have appeared, the phenomenon continues to be treated as isolated to one or two locations. This paper surveys aspects of heritage observed and reported by descendents of anusim worldwide. The material was collected over the last seven years through observation, interviews, conversations and correspondence—traditional and electronic—with over three hundred informants. Places where specific customs were reported with some frequency are mentioned and sources to evaluate the connection to Judaism are also provided. Constellations of observances are illustrated with the description of three crypto-Jewish families.
European Jewish identity: Mosaic or monolith? An empirical assessment of eight European countries
Author(s): Graham, David
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Antisemitism, Intermarriage, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Perceptions of Antisemitism, Surveys
Abstract: JPR’s report, European Jewish identity: Mosaic or monolith? An empirical assessment of eight European countries, authored by Senior Research Fellow Dr David Graham, asks whether there is such a thing as a European Jewish identity, and, if so, what it looks like.

The question of whether there is a Jewish identity that is at once common to all European Jews but also peculiar to them, has intrigued scholars of contemporary Jewry since the fall of the Berlin Wall. This study contrasts the European picture with the two major centres of world Jewry, the United States and Israel, and examines the nature and content of Jewish identity across Europe, exploring the three core pillars of belief, belonging and behaviour around which Jewish identity is built.

This research was made possible by the advent of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey in 2012 examining Jewish people’s experiences and perceptions of antisemitism across nine EU Member States: Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Sweden and the UK. As well as gathering data about antisemitism, the study investigated various aspects of the Jewishness of respondents, in order to ascertain whether different types of Jews perceive and experience antisemitism differently. This study focuses on the data gathered about Jewishness, thereby enabling direct comparisons to be made for the first time across multiple European Jewish communities in a robust and comprehensive way.

The report concludes that there is no monolithic European identity, but it explores in detail the mosaic of Jewish identity in Europe, highlighting some key differences:
• In Belgium, where Jewish parents are most likely to send their children to Jewish schools, there is a unique polarisation between the observant and non-observant;
• In France, Jews exhibit the strongest feelings of being part of the Jewish People, and also have the strongest level of emotional attachment to Israel;
• Germany’s Jewish community has the largest proportion of foreign-born Jews, and, along with Hungary, is the youngest Jewish population;
• In Hungary the greatest relative weight in Jewish identity priorities is placed on 'Combating antisemitism,' and the weakest level of support for Israel is exhibited;
• In Italy, respondents are least likely to report being Jewish by birth or to have two Jewish parents;
• The Jews of Latvia are the oldest population and the most likely to be intermarried;
• The Jews of Sweden attach a very high level of importance to 'Combating antisemitism' despite being relatively unlikely to experience it, and they observe few Jewish practices;
• In the United Kingdom, Jews observe the most religious practices and appear to feel the least threatened by antisemitism. They are the most likely to be Jewish by birth and least likely to be intermarried.

According to report author, Dr David Graham: “This report represents far more than the culmination of an empirical assessment of Jewish identity. Never before has it been possible to examine Jewish identity across Europe in anything approaching a coherent and systematic way. Prior to the FRA’s survey, it was almost inconceivable that an analysis of this kind could be carried out at all. The formidable obstacles of cost, language, political and logistical complexity seemed to present impenetrable barriers to the realisation of any such dream. Yet this is exactly what has been achieved, a report made possible through an FRA initiative into furthering understanding of Jewish peoples' experience of antisemitism. It reveals a European Jewry that is more mosaic than monolith, an array of Jewish communities, each exhibiting unique Jewish personas, yet united by geography and a common cultural heritage."
Singing in Hebrew or Reading in English? An Ethnographic Analysis of Music and Change Among Progressive Jews in the UK
Author(s): Illman, Ruth
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Interviews, Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Liturgy, Synagogues, Reform/Liberal/Progressive Judaism, Jewish Music, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: This article explores the role of music in contemporary processes of change within progressive Judaism in the UK. By analyzing ethnographic research material gathered among progressive Jews in London between 2014 and 2016, it illustrates a burgeoning trend in the Western world today: the wish to combine liberal theology with religious practices that are experienced as increasingly traditional, and the important role played by music and musical forms of expression in this process. Building on theoretical insights from religious studies and ethnomusicology, three research questions are put forward related to the role of music in processes of religious change concerning the perceived relationship between language and emotions, singing as a religious practice, and embodiment as a form of “doing” Jewish. The article also analyzes and discusses the views expressed in the interview material in light of the research questions arising from the literature. As a conclusion, the ethnographic analysis is summarized in a thought-provoking quotation from the interview data, aptly capturing the theoretical implications suggested by the research: “I’m convinced that reading English that you understand is no more helpful than singing Hebrew that you feel.”
Aliens in an alien world: paradoxes of Jewish–Christian identity in contemporary Russia
Author(s): Nosenko-Stein, Elena
Date: 2010
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Christianity, Religious Belief, Religious Observance and Practice, Conversion, Ethnicity, Secularity
Abstract: For many centuries the attitude towards baptised Jews within Jewish society was extremely negative, as baptism was perceived as apostasy. This attitude persists to this day, even though many Jews have abandoned Judaism and a secular Jewish identity has emerged. After seven decades of Soviet rule, during which a new Soviet, wholly secular Jewish identity, was constructed, Jewish identity in the former Soviet Union (FSU) is based mainly on the ethnic principle. As a result of an almost total detachment from Judaism, some Soviet and former‐Soviet Jews have converted to Russian Orthodoxy. Moreover, we can see the formation of a paradoxical Russian Orthodox Jewish self‐identification in post‐Soviet Russia. This processes, its trends and peculiar features are poorly studied, a matter this paper intends to remedy.
Kaddish in a Church: Perceptions of Orthodox Christianity among Moscow Elderly Jews in the Early Twenty‐First Century
Author(s): Shternshis, Anna
Date: 2007
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Christianity, Oral History and Biography, Ageing and the Elderly, Age and Generational Issues, Jewish - Christian Relations, Religious Observance and Practice
De l’interdit à l’emphase religieuse Juifs russophones en ex-RDA
Translated Title: From the Forbidden to an Emphasis on Religion: The Migration of Russian-Speaking Jews in the Former GDR
Author(s): Michel, Karine
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Immigration, Russian-Speaking Jews, Integration, Secularity, Religious Observance and Practice, Conflict
Abstract: Le système démocratique allemand repose sur une non-séparation entre religion et État, dans des modalités différentes de celui de la laïcité française. Selon ce modèle, l’accueil des populations immigrées implique l’affiliation à une institution religieuse. C’est dans ce contexte politique qu’ont été accueillis les juifs russophones à partir des années 1990. Pour des communautés juives sur le déclin en ex-Allemagne de l’Est, cette immigration fut salutaire mais a bouleversé le fonctionnement établi. Au début des années 2000, des scissions religieuses entre jeunes et adultes caractérisaient les communautés, invitant à considérer un phénomène de retour à la religion. Sur un plan sociologique, ce phénomène ne touche qu’une petite partie de la population migrante, ce qui laisse entrevoir dans cette expressivité religieuse un schéma d’adaptation à la société allemande.
Overlapping Worlds: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women in Contemporary London
Author(s): Taylor-Guthartz, Lindsey
Date: 2016
Topics: Orthodox Judaism, Jewish Women, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Though the exclusion of contemporary Orthodox Jewish women from active roles in public worship and other central religious activities has been condemned as patriarchal oppression by feminists and lauded as freeing women for sacred domestic duties by Orthodox apologists, little research has been carried out on Orthodox women’s religious lives and self-understanding. This study uses participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and monitoring of community email lists and media to document women’s religious activities in London; to investigate the constraints that shape these activities; and to examine women’s exercise of agency and creativity within these constraints to shape a rich, changing, and sometimes contested set of spiritual opportunities. The study examines four spheres of action, defined by the intersection of two axes: communal-individual arenas and culturally sanctioned-innovative practices. Alongside culturally sanctioned activity such as synagogue attendance and observance of the sexual purity system, innovative and hitherto unknown practices such as berakhah (blessing) parties exist, besides more controversial attempts to participate in public worship, both in women-only services and mixed services (partnership minyanim). The patterns and transmission of women’s individual customs are also examined, elucidating their religious significance for women. In addition to recording new practices, the study documents two periods of accelerated change, in the early 1990s and from 2005 onwards. It suggests that Orthodox women may be divided into three permeable groups—haredi (ultra-Orthodox’), identitarian/traditionalist, and Modern Orthodox—and examines the worldviews and innovative techniques displayed by each group. Factors such as education, community pressure, and norms of the non-Jewish community combine with differing group outlooks to give a nuanced explanation of the rich variation within Orthodox women’s religious lives. The study provides a basis for cross-communal research into Jewish women’s spirituality and models the complex interplay and impact of social and personal factors on religious life.
Eating into Jewishness : food and Jewish identities in Britain, 1955-2005
Author(s): Gerson, Jane
Date: 2008
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Food, Kashrut, Ritual, Jewish Identity, Jewish Culture, Religious Observance and Practice, Shabbat, Shechita / Ritual Slaughter
Abstract: Kosher food is not necessarily the same as 'Jewish' food. The thesis explores ideas of Jewish identity in Britain in relation to food, examining the period from the end of austerity in the mid-1950s until the beginning of the twenty-first century. The period starts with Britain's emergence from the strictures of rationing and the development of an era of abundance and choice that has led, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, to a complex and ambivalent relationship between food and society. The thesis explores food in relation to the histories of diverse British Jewish communities and individuals deploying a range of evidence including oral histories, memoirs, journalism and cookery books. It studies the practice of Jewish identity and food, looking at Jewish communities ranging from the strictly Orthodox to progressive Jews. Theories of place, displacement and circuitry in the context of a global food economy are central to the thesis as are ideas of memory, myth and ritual. The first two chapters study the religious, political and social context of kosher food practice in Britain, analysing relations between the ecclesiastical authorities, the kosher food industry and consumers in which issues of class and gender are pivotal. Non-Jewish responses to kosher food are also examined. The third chapter interrogates the culinary origins of Ashkenazi and Sephardi food in Britain in the context of the globalization of the food industry, questioning how this affects the 'Jewishness' of specific culinary practices. The final chapter investigates the meaning and development of Jewish food rituals with respect to Sabbath and festival observance. The thesis suggests that despite the particularity of Jewish practice in relation to food, and the specific circumstances of the Diaspora, the Jewish practice of identity through food should not be treated as exceptional. The concept of 'Jewish' food is as problematic and as valid as the identification of any other group with a specific cuisine.
Religionens betydning for den jødiske identiteten : en undersøkelse blant 18 norske jøder
Translated Title: The significance of religion for Jewish identity: a survey of 18 Norwegian Jews
Author(s): Høeg, Ida Marie
Date: 1996
Topics: Jewish Identity, Religious Observance and Practice, Interviews, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Jews in the Netherlands and their various ties to Judaism
Author(s): de Vries, Marlene
Editor(s): Westin, Charles; Bastos, José; Dahinden, Janine
Date: 2010
Topics: Surveys, Demography, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Identity and Community
От евреев к иудеям: поворот к вере или возврат к ней?
Translated Title: From Evrei to Iudei: Turning or Returning to Faith?
Author(s): Саприцкая, Марина
Date: 2015
Topics: Outreach, Religious Observance and Practice, Jewish Revival, Jewish Renewal, Baal Teshuvah, Religious Belief, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: После крушения государственного социализма в Украине начинают происходить драматические трансформации религиозного ландшафта. В данной статье анализируется влияние религиозного возрождения на еврейское население Одессы. Рассматриваются различные стратегии поворота к вере, мотивация новообращенных, их попытки вжиться в иудаизм, те обсуждения традиции, в которые они в ходе этих процессов вовлекаются, а также влияние новой религиозности на внутри- и межсемейные взаимоотношения. Утверждается, что по большей части новособлюдающие иудеи восприняли иудаизм как новый способ быть евреем, а не как возвращение к своим семейным традициям. В целом она характеризует постсоветскую религиозность в Одессе как формирование режима «религиозной приверженности» в смысле особого состояния ума и пространства для выстраивания духовной жизни. Эта «религиозная приверженность» приводит к новым или несколько иным направлениям иудейской идентичности, уже не связанным с «полнотой» соблюдения набора правил. «Религиозная приверженность» может включать в себя полную, частичную, кратковременную или долговременную практику иудаизма, приобщение к нему в дополнение или в замещение прежних убеждений.
Народный иудаизм: варианты религиозных практик (по материалам экспедиций к евреям Украины и Молдавии, 2004–2011)
Translated Title: Folk Judaism: Variations of Religious Practices among the Jews of Ukraine and Moldova (Findings of 2004–2011)
Author(s): Каспина, Мария
Date: 2015
Topics: Interviews, Ritual, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Статья основывается на анализе интервью с евреями Украины и Молдавии, прожившими часть жизни в условиях существования традиционного еврейского уклада, а часть — в условиях активного государственного неприятия любых религиозных традиций. Рассматривается несколько вариантов «народного иудаизма». Одна из форм «народной религиозности» – это вынужденный отказ от следования заповедям иудаизма и различные варианты обхождения запретов. Второй вариант – это сознательный отказ от религиозных традиций предков, соблюдение «для камуфляжа», и минимальное взаимодействие с современным ортодоксальным иудаизмом. Третий вариант – это формирование собственных индивидуальных норм для выборочного соблюдения некоторых религиозных предписаний. Были выявлены несколько основных механизмов формирования новых еврейских «народных» религиозных практик. Это трансформация существующих галахических предписаний с помощью а) ритуального обмана; б) изменения статуса объекта; в) применения традиционных законов ритуальной чистоты к заведомо нечистому объекту.
Zur Bedeutung von Religion für jüdische Jugendliche in Deutschland
Translated Title: On the meaning of religion for Jewish youth in Germany
Author(s): Müller, Christine
Date: 2007
Topics: Jewish Youth, Youth, Teenagers, Religious Observance and Practice, Religious Belief, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland konstituiert sich seit Anfang der 1990er Jahre neu. Durch die Einwanderung von Juden aus den Staaten der ehemaligen Sowjetunion hat sich die jüdische Gemeinschaft zahlenmäßig vervierfacht und in ihrer Altersstruktur verjüngt.

Die Zukunft der jüdischen Gemeinden in Deutschland erscheint heute erstmals seit Kriegsende offen: Aufblühungs- und Niedergangsprognosen stehen nebeneinander. Mit der jungen Generation von Juden wird sich die Form der religiösen Weiterentwicklung entscheiden. Mit den Jugendlichen verbinden sich innerhalb der Gemeinden viele Hoffnungen auf religiöse Erneuerung, gleichzeitig ist über diese Generation kaum etwas bekannt.

Im Zentrum dieser Arbeit steht deshalb eine qualitative empirische Untersuchung der Bedeutung von Religion für jüdische Jugendliche in Deutschland. Dabei sollen bestehende Konstrukte, die jüdische Religion mit orthodoxer Religion gleichsetzen, aufgebrochen und stattdessen an der Bedeutung von Religion aus der Perspektive von jüdischen Jugendlichen angesetzt werden. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass traditionelle Deutungsmuster zunehmend an Relevanz verlieren und sich eine Individualisierung des Zugangs zur jüdischen Religion unter jüdischen Jugendlichen beobachten lässt.

Die Arbeit wurde mit dem Joseph-Carlebach-Preis der Universität Hamburg für herausragende wissenschaftliche Beiträge zur jüdischen Geschichte, Religion und Kultur ausgezeichnet.
Identity à la Carte: Research on Jewish identities, participation and affiliation in five Eastern European countries
Author(s): Kovács, András; Ildiko, Barna; DellaPergola, Sergio; Kosmin, Barry
Date: 2011
Topics: Affiliation and Belonging, Antisemitism, Intermarriage, Israel Attachment, Jewish Literacy, Surveys, Jewish Identity, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract:

This report describes the process and results of a research study on Jewish identity and community participation in Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, it identifies trends among Jewish adults in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania. This two-year and wide-reaching study, examined views on religious observance, Jewish identity, anti-Semitism, Israel, Jewish knowledge, and organizational affiliation among 1,270 Jews, ages 18-60.
Schweizer Judentum im Wandel Religionswandel und gesellschaftspolitische Orientierungen der Juden in der Schweiz
Translated Title: Swiss Judaism in Transition Religious change and socio-political orientations Jews in Switzerland
Author(s): Gerson, Daniel
Date: 2010
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Social Attitudes, Religious Observance and Practice
Abstract: Das interdisziplinäre Forschungsprojekt ging davon aus, dass das religiöse Leben der Jüdinnen und
Juden in der Schweiz im Kontext gesellschaftlicher Veränderungen seit den 60er Jahren des 20.
Jahrhunderts einem verstärkten individuellen und kollektiven Wandlungsprozess unterworfen ist.
Dabei wurden die Auswirkungen der Integration der jüdischen Minderheit und die aktuelle Bedeutung
von Antisemitismus erfasst. Die Position der jüdischen Religionsgemeinden als Teil der Schweizer
Gesellschaft wurde auch im Hinblick auf eine partiell erfolgte öffentlich-rechtliche Anerkennung sowie
auf das Interesse der Öffentlichkeit am Judentum hin untersucht.
Gesamtgesellschaftliche Phänomene wie Individualisierung und Säkularisierung sind als wesentliche
Faktoren vorausgesetzt und in die Analyse miteinbezogen worden.
Die Untersuchung konzentrierte sich auf Polarisierungs- und Pluralisierungsprozesse in den grössten
schweizerisch-jüdischen Gemeinschaften von Basel, Genf und Zürich, wo heute rund 70% der ca.
18’000 statistisch erfassten Jüdinnen und Juden leben. Die Auswirkungen von Mischehen (ca. 50%)
wurde für jüngste Entwicklungen des Schweizer Judentums als zentral erachtet: Sie schwächen die
traditionellen Einheitsgemeinden, die durch die soziale und religiöse Ausgrenzung von
Mischehenfamilien an Bedeutung verlieren und führen zur Bildung neuer Gemeinschaften, die beim
Umgang mit nichtjüdischen Familienangehörigen integrative Ansätze vertreten.
Anhand von Kontroversen um die Gleichstellung von Frauen im religiösen Leben und den Umgang mit
Homosexualität können Konfliktlinien zwischen den Ansprüchen einer modernen, rechtlich egalitären
Gesellschaft und den jahrhundertealten Bestimmungen des Religionsgesetzes aufgezeigt werden. Die
Vermittlung von Religion an Jugendliche wurde gesamtschweizerisch erfasst. Zudem wurden die
Auswirkungen der Auswanderung nach Israel auf das jüdische Selbstverständnis analysiert.
Mit dem Blick auf jüdische Gemeinschaften in Deutschland (Berlin) und Schweden (Stockholm) konnte
das Schweizer Judentum in den Kontext der europäischen Diaspora zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts
gestellt werden.
Als Grundlage unserer Forschung dienten schriftliche Quellen und Interviews.
Guarding the Tongue: A Thematic Analysis of Gossip Control Strategies among Orthodox Jewish Women in London
Author(s): Glinert, Lewis; Loewenthal, Kate Miriam; Goldblatt, Vivienne
Date: 2003
Topics: Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Language, Jewish Women, Religious Observance and Practice, Interviews, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This paper describes the views and experiences of Strictly-Orthodox Jewish women with respect to the metapragmatic ethos of Shmiras HaLoshon (monitoring one's talk, literally 'guarding the tongue'). Eight extended interviews were conducted with Strictly-Orthodox women and teenagers in London, and salient themes were identified, namely:

(1) Loshon Hora ('evil talk') is the prime exemplar of bad talk.

(2) Loshon Hora is the hardest (one of the hardest) things to avoid, because it is so easy to do.

(3) The perceived consequences of Loshon Hora are very serious.

(4) Great caution/various strategies are employed in order to not speak Loshon Hora.

(5) Perceived gender differences exist in proneness to speak Loshon Hora.

(6) One is reponsible for monitoring others.

(7) Young children can be(come) aware of the issues.

Subjects appeared to take this aspect of religious observance very seriously, and were taking active steps to promote observance. Social desirability bias may be an inappropriate concept for explaining our participants' behaviour. It is also suggested that the perceived importance of Shmiras HaLoshon may be important in helping to maintain community cohesion and preventing conflicts, by improving respect for privacy and reputation in a community where gossip is attractive but divisive.
Is There a Religious Revival among Hungarian Jews Today?
Author(s): Mars, Leonard
Date: 2001
Topics: Jewish Revival, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: There are about 100,000 Jews in Hungary today. Most dwell in the capital, Budapest. Few are registered with the official Jewish community and most are assimilated. Since the demise of Communism in 1989, there has been a resurgence of Jewish life. However, can we say that there is a religious revival? There are new forms of Jewish religious life, but I argue that the revival is more cultural than religious in that more Jews are prepared to acknowledge their Jewish identity. In short, Jews are 'coming out'.
(Un-)Orthodoxe Biografie: Ein Weg zur jüdischen Religion
Translated Title: (Un-)Orthodox Biography: A way to the Jewish religion
Author(s): Eulitz, Melanie
Date: 2012
Topics: Baal Teshuvah, Jewish Revival, Outreach, Immigration, Jewish Education, Orthodox Judaism, Religious Observance and Practice, Interviews, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Der Artikel hat individuelle religiöse Entwicklungen in einer jüdischen Gemeinde in Deutschland zum Thema. Er widmet sich exemplarisch einem Mitglied des ToraZentrums in Leipzig, das von der Lauder Foundation gegründet wurde. Die Migrantin konvertiert von einer säkularen zu einer streng-gläubigen Jüdin. Anhand der Analyse eines geführten narrativ-biographischen Interviews wird der Frage nachgegangen, warum und wie es zu so einer signifikanten biographischen Veränderung kommen kann. Dabei stehen der Einfluss des lokalen Zentrums und dessen orthodoxes Lehrprogramm im Mittelpunkt.
Jung, Jüdisch, Religiös. Russischsprachige Frauen und ihre individuelle „Rückkehr“ zum Judentum
Translated Title: Young, Jewish, Religious. Russian-speaking women and their individual 'return' to Judaism
Author(s): Herlinger, Edna
Date: 2013
Topics: Baal Teshuvah, Jewish Revival, Russian Emigration, Ethnography, Jewish Women, Jewish Schools, Religious Observance and Practice, Russian-Speaking Jews, Main Topic: Education
Abstract: Im Jahr 2001 eröffnete in Frankfurt/Main das erste religiöse
Lehrhaus für jüdische Frauen in Deutschland. In dem von der
Ronald S. Lauder Foundation finanzierten Internat lernen bis heute
mehrheitlich junge Frauen aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion. Diese
zum Glauben „zurückgekehrten“ Studentinnen erleben im Verlauf
ihres Studiums einen enormen religiösen Transformationsprozess,
der nicht mit dem Auszug endet. Manche dieser Frauen haben
mittlerweile Familien gegründet und sind nach Israel gezogen. Der
Artikel erörtert die Entwicklungen zweier ehemaliger
Internatsstudentinnen in beiden Ländern und geht anhand
ethnografischer Untersuchungsmethoden der Frage nach,
inwiefern das von ihnen angeeignete religiöse Normen- und
Wertesystem ihr jüdisches Selbstverständnis und Alltagsleben bis
heute prägt.