Jewish Teen-Age Culture

Abstract

Viewed in historical terms, the image which Jewish teen-agers have of their milieu represents a decisive break with the past. The sense of uniqueness, of special destiny, seems to be fading. Jewish life is conceived of as middle class, nonideological, and entirely consonant with the dominant modes of American life. The younger teens have even less sense of being differentiated from the mass of Amer ican teen-agers than have the older teen-agers. If there is any significant difference between Jewish teen-age culture and the dominant models, it is that the Jewish version is somewhat less cultistic and less sharply set off from adult life. With respect to two touchstones of Jewish life—the scholarly tradi tion and the cohesion of family life—counterimages have developed among Jewish teen-agers. And, except among Orthodox children, the attitude toward religion shows a not unexpected downward arc toward indifference and secularism. It is significant in Jewish culture in the older teen years that it is largely college-oriented. Although their attitudes hardly differentiate these teen-agers from their non-Jewish peers, they tend to live in a vast, self-enclosed Jewish cosmos with relatively little contact with the non-Jewish world. Social life is characterized by extraordinary zeal and singular lack of privacy. Marriage, particularly for girls, is a prime value. Jewish teen-age culture is predominantly urban in environ ment. Small-town residence encourages one vein of Jewish teen-age contraculture. Other veins are Orthodoxy and critical intellectualism.—Ed.