Migration, Time, and Religioethnic Identification Among U.S. Jews1

Abstract

This article examines changes between 1985―1990 and 1995―2000 in relationships between migration and religioethnic identification among U.S. Jews. The results of multivariate analyses of the 1990 and 2000 National Jewish Population Surveys show that Jewish background characteristics have lost their significance as determinants of internal migration and, especially, migration across state boundaries. Concurrently, migration no longer constitutes a serious threat to group continuity and erstwhile negative effects on major religious and social behaviors have disappeared. When the two surveys were integrated into one data set, it was found that time enhances the inclination of Jews to move and strengthens their religious and ethnic commitments (though not their commitments to informal Jewish networks). The results are discussed in reference to three competing perspectives of migration-identification relationships—selectivity, disruption, and heightening—and in the wider theoretical context of religious and ethnic processes in the contemporary United States.