.

1. Messianic Jewish Theological Institute • American Jews in 2023 • Part 3
American Jews in 21st Century
American Jews engaged, multi-cultural, innovating

2. Sarna, Jonathan. (Oct 1992). Jewish Tribalism. Moment Magazine
Tribalism: Good or Bad?

3. Jewish Tribalism v. Welcoming Stranger
• 52% of Jewish couples were intermarried in 1990
• Jews by choice (converts)
• Jews by adoption
• Non-Jewish family members
• Secular Jews
• Messianic Jews

4. How do you measure Jewishness?
How do you gauge Jewish engagement

5. Pew Research Report on American Jews in 2020
• 4,718 Jewish Americans
• November 2019 - June 2020

6. Who were the participants?
• 3,836 Jews by religion (JBR) 81%
• 882 Jews of no religion (JNR) 19%

7. American Jews in 21st Century
• Value their Jewish identity
• Engage their Jewishness di
ff
erently than previous generations
• Culturally and racially diverse
• Innovating Jewish practice & worship
• Replacing the Ashkenazi culture with a global Jewish heritage
• Replacing Tribalism with Inclusiveness
• Replacing Holocaust as a meta-narrative with the Civil Rights Movement

9. What does it mean to be a Jew?

10. Is Jewish identity important to you?
75% of American Jews said Jewish Identity is VERY important

11. Is Jewish identity important to you?
Maybe Alan Dershowitz’s
Ominous prediction
Was inaccurate?

12. Then what does it mean to be Jewish?
Culture
Ancestry
Culture, Ancestry, Religion
Religion
Ancestry, Culture
Religion, Culture
22%
21%
19%
11%
10%
4%
Pew Research (2021)

13. What is the most essential thing
about being Jewish?

15. Practicing Judaism
Holocaust

16. Do American Jews attend synagogue?

17. 12% of American Jews attend weekly
Weekly
Once
Per Month
Few times
Per year
Never
Average 12% 8% 27% 52%
Ages 18-29 17% 5% 31% 47%

18. Which synagogue do Jews attend?
Orthodox 9%
Conservative 17%
Reform 37%
Una
ffi
liated 32%
Other 4%

19. What do American Jews believe?

20. Do you believe in God?
God of the Bible Divine Being Nothing
Net Jewish 26 50 22
Jews by Religion 33 51 14
Orthodox 93 6 1
Conservative 37 50 9
Reform 18 58 21
Ages 18-29 27 49 23

21. Do you believe in God?
God of the Bible Divine Being Nothing
Net Jewish 26 50 22
Jews by Religion 33 51 14
Orthodox 93 6 1
Conservative 37 50 9
Reform 18 58 21
Ages 18-29 27 49 23
Not Atheist

22. What do American Jews do that’s Jewish?

23. Q: Christian Faith
What evidence measures a person’s Christian faith?

24. Q: Jewish Engagement
What evidence measures Jewishness?

25. What do Jews do that is Jewish ?
Eat Jewish foods (ex. Matzah ball soup) 72%
Attend a Passover Seder 62
Share Jewish culture with their Gentile friend 62
Visit Jewish Sites when traveling 57
Fast on Yom Kippur 46
Watch a Jewish Movie or TV Show 43
Mark Shabbat in a meaningful way 39
Observed Milestone (bris, bar mitzvah, wedding) 33
Attended a synagogue last month 20
Keep Kosher 17
Visited a Chabad 16

26. Q: How do American Jews
“do Jewish” in the 21st century?

27. What does Jewish look like
In the twenty-first century?

28. New Jewish cultures
• 1979 Persian Jewish immigrants
• 1990 Post Soviet Union Jewish immigrants
• 21st century Mizrachi and Sephardic Jewish immigrants
• Hispanic Jewish communities

29. Ashkenazi Jewish
Most of 20th Century
Stereotypical New York Jew
• Bagels & Lox, Corned beef
• Jewish Humor
• Yiddish sayings
• Ashkenazi shared experience
• European Jewish traditions

30. Globally Jewish
• Di
ff
erent foods
• Di
ff
erent synagogue melodies
• Di
ff
erent holiday traditions
• Di
ff
erent sayings
• Di
ff
erent shared experiences
• Di
ff
erent ways of being Jewish

31. Jews of Color
• Through intermarriage, adoption,
conversion, and globalization
• American Jews are not all
• White, European, and Ashkinazi

32. Jews of Color
15% of American Jews are Jews of Color
Beyond the Count (2021) Jews of Color Initiative https://jewsofcolorinitiative.org/research/
Ilana Kaufman, Jews of Color Initiative

34. Q: How do we re-think
what Jewish looks like in our messianic
Jewish congregations?