Synagogue Attendance Research Articles

Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women by Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz

Reviewed by: Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women by Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz Elana Sztokman Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz. Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021. 324 pp. The religious-cultural landscape for Orthodox Jewish women has changed dramatically over the past few years, certainly in the public sphere. Women have forged new communal opportunities in scholarship, leadership, and synagogue life. At the same time, it is not clear how women experience Orthodoxy in the private sphere, what the key dynamics driving change are, and what holds women back. Women's perspectives are often glaringly absent from mainstream Jewish sociological research, and in fact, many studies about Jewish life are male-centric—from assertions about synagogue attendance as the central Jewish activity, to focus on male-dominant symbols like tefillin and kippah, to questions that only men can answer, such as, "Is it important for your wife to cover her hair?" In fact, while women's perspectives are so often absent from studies on Jewish identity, Jewish men will often define their own denominational affiliation according to the role of women around them. A synagogue's gender partition, for example, will make or break its affiliation as "Orthodox." Amid this backdrop, Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz's book, Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women, opens up a crucial and much-needed window into the real lives and identities of Orthodox Jewish women. This is the first major publication of a sociological analysis of Orthodox Jewish British women and offers a comprehensive approach to understanding Orthodox women that can and should be applied to populations elsewhere. Taylor-Guthartz's methodology combines qualitative interviews and participant observation, a quantitative survey, and a wealth of historical information on British Orthodox women, some of which has never been published before. It examines both public-formal displays of Jewishness and private-informal displays. The focus on British Jewry is also in many ways unique, although I think that the [End Page 460] commonalities between Orthodox cultures in different countries probably outweigh the specific cultural nuances and histories. And while interviewees include women of different Orthodox subcultures, the magnifying glass is mainly on Modern Orthodox women. Given the current widespread media interest in Haredi women's experiences, which may seem more dramatic or extreme than more modern religious women, it is poignant to reveal that Modern Orthodox women often experience their own dramatic arcs vis-à-vis their religious-cultural contexts, even if it may be harder to discern from external appearances alone. Taylor-Guthartz brings many compelling insights. For example, she points out that women are more likely than men to switch between denominations, an observation that renders many standard Jewish sociological analyses irrelevant while keeping women invisible. She offers several interesting reasons for this reality, and I would add that it may also reflect women's acculturation into habits of adaptivity, flexibility, compromise, relationships, and the need to see many perspectives—as opposed to men's acculturation into what Avivah Zornberg calls "sterile individualism" and their often inflexible need to be right. Denominational mobility in Britain—which has never been formally studied—has a "clear social effect" and "can be seen in the links these moves create between subcommunities. Most Jews in London have relatives who belong to a wide range of denominations and to none" (53). This alone should be a wake-up call for Jewish sociological research. Taylor-Guthartz also brings in women's voices of ambivalence, pains of invisibility, and incessant demands to give up on their own spiritual needs and desires so as not to upset their families, communities, or rabbinical leaders. She powerfully exposes women's inner turmoil, practicing in a community that constantly rejects them and sidelines them. Many interviewees describe how much they resent and even detest synagogue, especially the partition, and yet continue to participate in it. They come late and sometimes stay home entirely but continue to accept synagogue attendance as a centerpiece of communal identity. As one interviewee described, "I remember coming to Simhat Torah at Norrice Lea and crying, really crying and crying and crying. I remember being in the gallery and...

Synagogue Attendance and Civic Engagement

Synagogue Attendance and Civic Engagement

Moscow Synagogues’ Attendance in 1945–1950 According to the Head of the Religious Affairs Department in Moscow and the Moscow Region

The main topic of the article is attendance at Moscow synagogues in 1945–1950 the 1940s. The sources used to prepare the article are the documents from the collection Р-3004 «Moscow and Moscow Region Representative of the Soviet for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR» stored in the Central State Archives of Moscow. The author analyzes the data contained in the reports and other documents of the Representative about the attendance of the synagogues and other aspects of Jewish religious life in Moscow. The problems of everyday functioning of Jewish religious communities under a totalitarian regime are considered. In addition, the article discusses issues related to the sources that the Representative himself had for preparing the attendance data, a methodology that he probably used to calculate the number of believers who came to synagogues. As follows from the reports of the Representative, state measures aimed at combating religion did not lead to a drop in synagogue attendance. The decline in attendance did not begin until the 1950s.

“Our Temples Are Deserted”: The Jewish Sabbath Observance Movement in New York, 1879–1930

Jews arrived in America in the nineteenth century already less committed to Orthodoxy than they had been in previous generations. The Haskalah , or Jewish enlightenment, the spread of Socialism, and the rise of Zionism all had an impact on Sabbath observance. Additionally, America’s economic and cultural institutions, such as the six-day work week, made it extremely difficult for observant Jews to abstain from work on a Saturday. The Sabbath observance movement arose as a response to the low level of synagogue attendance, the decline in the number of families gathering for a Sabbath meal on Friday night, and Jewish men working and women shopping on Saturdays. Beginning in the 1870s, a series of Sabbath observance organizations were created, seeking to get Jewish employers to close their businesses and Jewish workers not to work on Saturdays. Key to their efforts was the establishment of employment bureaus to match Sabbath-observant employers with workers who were Sabbath-observant. Their success was quite limited. One after another the various Sabbath observance organizations failed for several reasons, including inadequate financial resources and a lack of enduring organizational strength, but mostly because of the emergence of the five-day work week and because the Jewish community was not committed to Sabbath observance.

Religious differences in self-rated health among US Jews: findings from five urban population surveys.

Research findings on religion and health among Jews are in relatively short supply. While recent studies report on the health of Israelis and the mental health of Jews in the USA, little information exists on the physical health of US Jews, especially from population surveys. In this study, data are analyzed from five urban surveys of Jews conducted since 2000: two surveys from New York (N = 4,533; N = 5,993) and one apiece from Chicago (N = 1,993), Philadelphia (N = 1,217), and Boston (N = 1,766). A strategy of two-way ANCOVA with interaction was used to test for differences in self-rated health across five categories of Jewish religious affiliation (secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox) and four categories of synagogue attendance (from never to at least weekly). Findings, adjusted for age and effects of other covariates, reveal that affiliated and synagogue-attending Jews report moderately better health than secular and non-attending Jews.

Religious behavior, health, and well-being among Israeli Jews: Findings from the European Social Survey.

This study investigates the relationship between religious behavior and health status and psychological well-being in a population sample of Israeli Jewish adults (N 1,849). Using data from the Israeli sample of the European Social Survey, measures of synagogue attendance and private prayer were examined in relation to single-item indicators of subjective and functional health, happiness, and life satisfaction and to a three-item scale tapping into the somatic dimension of well-being. Bivariately, the religious, health, and well-being measures are mostly related, and in a salutary direction, but multivariable analyses revealed that these associations are more nuanced. Specifically, after age-adjustment and controls for effects of various sociodemographic characteristics, including Israeli nativity, synagogue attendance is associated with greater happiness only, whereas prayer is associated with greater happiness and life satisfaction and higher scores on the well-being scale. Additionally, prayer is significantly associated with functional health, but in an inverse direction, suggesting its use as a coping resource in response to physical or functional challenges or impairments. These latter results are supported by supplemental analyses of the well-being indicators, which also adjust for possible exogenous or moderating effects of functional health. These findings contribute to current streams of empirical research on the putative influence of Jewish religious observance on physical and mental health and psychological well-being in Israel and the Jewish diaspora.

Religion and Happiness Among Israeli Jews: Findings from the ISSP Religion III Survey

This study investigates religious predictors of happiness in a population-based sample of Israeli Jewish adults (N = 991). Using data collected in 2009–2010 as a part of the International Social Survey Programme’s Religion III Survey, analyses were conducted on a fully recursive structural model of the effects of synagogue attendance and several religious mediators on a single-item measure of happiness. Bivariately, every religious measure (synagogue attendance, prayer frequency, certainty of God beliefs, a four-item Supernatural Beliefs Scale, and subjective religiosity) is positively and significantly associated with happiness. In the structural model, 11 of 15 hypothesized paths are significant. Of these, only subjective religiosity exhibits a significant direct effect on happiness (β = 0.15, p < .01). The other four religious indicators, however, all exert indirect effects on happiness through subjective religiosity and combinations of each other. Total effects on happiness of both synagogue attendance (β = 0.10, p < .01) and the Supernatural Beliefs Scale (β = 0.12, p < .05) are statistically significant. Analyses adjust for effects of age and other sociodemographic covariates. Results build on a growing body of population-based findings supporting a salutary impact of Jewish religious observance on subjective well-being in Israel and the diaspora.

Religious Population Share and Religious Identity Salience: Is Jewish Identity More Important to Jews in Less Jewish Areas?

Survey data from Jews find that Jewish population density is positively related to rates of synagogue attendance and most other behavioral measures of religious commitment. We ask whether, after controlling for higher rates of religious practice in more Jewish areas, Jewish population concentration has its own separate independent negative effect on Jewish identity salience. Using the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey, we present three main findings. First, the simple correlation between population share and identity salience is positive. Second, after statistically controlling several key control variables, including level of Jewish practice, the overall direct effect of population share is negative. Third, we find that respondents who were raised Jewish but no longer consider themselves Jewish are more likely to reside in low Jewish population share areas. Taken together, our second and third main findings suggest that different kinds of “assimilation” are occurring in high versus low Jewish population share areas.

The Earnings of American Jewish Men: Human Capital, Denomination, and Religiosity

This article analyzes the determinants of the earnings of American Jewish men using the 2000/2001 National Jewish Population Survey. Nonresponse to the question on earnings is analyzed. Earnings are related to conventional human capital variables, as well as Jewish‐specific variables. Except for the size of place and region variables, the standard human capital variables have similar effects for Jewish men and the general male population. Jewish day schooling as a youth enhances earnings. Earnings vary by denomination, with Jewish men who identify their denomination as Conservative earning the most, with secular and Orthodox Jews earning less. The effect on earnings of religiosity (measured by synagogue attendance) is not monotonic. Earnings are highest for those who attend about once a week, are lower for those who attend daily, and are lowest for those who never attend.

From Pork to Kapores : Transformations in Religious Practice among the Jews of Late Imperial Kiev

Until recently, studies of Jewish religious practices in Imperial Russia have focused on major movements such as Hasidism and mitnagdism as well as the challenges that Haskalah presented to traditional Judaism. Few scholars have scrutinized transformations in everyday religious practices such as the observance of Sabbath and other holidays, synagogue attendance, and liturgical practices. However, new political, social, and economic realities had generated subtle changes in religious practices even in earlier periods and it comes as no surprise, therefore, that religious practices among Jews during the tsarist period, especially in Kiev, were neither monolithic nor static. This article provides a new perspective on this topic by analyzing patterns of religious practice among Jews in one city – examining personal observance, communal practice, synagogue rites and attendance, and religious education – while providing a broader context of reform in Russia. In large urban centers like Kiev, the pressures and temptations of modern life, big-city anonymity, and the vitality and diversity of Jewish community often led to a transformation of prior belief and behavior among new arrivals. The author concludes that despite the absence of a movement for religious reform in the Russian Empire, we can nonetheless observe innovations and changes in religious life emerging out of the attempt to make observance compatible with modern urban life and a nascent Russian-Jewish identity.

What really matters in the social network-mortality association? A multivariate examination among older Jewish-Israelis.

The aim of the inquiry was to examine the social network-mortality association within a wider multivariate context that accounts for the effects of background framing forces and psychobiological pathways. The inquiry was based upon the Berkman et al. (2000) conceptual model of the determinants of health. Its main purpose was to identify the salient network correlates of 7-year all cause mortality among Jewish men and women, aged 70 and over, in Israel (n=1,811). The investigation utilized baseline data from a national household survey of older adults from 1997 that was linked to records from the National Death Registry, updated through 2004. At the time of the study, 38% of the sample had died. Multivariate Cox hazard regressions identified two main network-related components as predictors of survival: contact with friends, a social network interaction variable, and attendance at a synagogue, a social engagement variable. Friendship ties are seen to uniquely reduce mortality risk because they are based on choice in nature, and reflect a sense of personal control. Synagogue attendance is seen to promote survival mainly through its function as a source of communal attachment and, perhaps, as a reflection of spirituality as well. Other possibly network-related correlates of mortality were also noted in the current analysis-the receipt of instrumental support and the state of childlessness.

The Earnings of American Jewish Men: Human Capital, Denomination and Religiosity

This paper analyzes the determinants of the earnings of American Jewish men using the 2000/01 National Jewish Population Survey. Non-response to the question on earnings is analyzed. Earnings are related to conventional human capital variables, as well as Jewish-specific variables. Except for the size of place and region variables, the standard human capital variables have similar effects for Jews and the general population. Jewish day schooling as a youth enhances earnings. Earnings vary by denomination, with Conservative Jews earning the most. The effect on earnings of religiosity (measured by synagogue attendance) is not monotonic. Earnings are highest for those who attend only once a week.

A gender-based dynamic multidimensional longitudinal analysis of resilience and mortality in the old-old in Israel: the cross-sectional and longitudinal aging study (CALAS)

The objective was to examine gender differences and similarities in health, function, familial and non-familial social networks; longitudinal resilience in those factors; and their association with risk of mortality in Israeli men and women aged 75-94. We used the Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Aging Study (CALAS), a stratified random sample of 960 Israeli Jews aged 75-94, drawn on January 1, 1989 from National Population Registry, stratified by gender, age (75-79, 80-84, 85-89, 90-94), and place of birth (Europe/America, Middle East/North Africa, Israel), interviewed twice (Wave 1, 1989-1992; Wave 2, 1993-1995); Wave 1 values and longitudinal resilience predicted the 1999 mortality risk for those alive at both waves. Gender differences and similarities were found at Wave 1 in longitudinal resilience and in risk factors for mortality, partially supporting a gender paradox. Men were more physically active, had better cognition, gave more help to children, relied less on paid caretakers, and attended synagogue more than women, factors associated with better health and functioning. Women had poorer health and functional status and more help from children. More physical activity, synagogue attendance, and resilience in activities of daily living (ADL) were associated with lower risk of mortality for both genders. Women's risk of mortality was reduced by smoking reduction and higher cognitive vitality, and men's by emotional support and solitary leisure activity. Both men and women were resilient, yet there were differences. Gender-neutral mortality reduction programs would include physical activity, religious services, maintenance and improvement of ADL, and engaging in solitary leisure activities; for women, smoking cessation and cognitively challenging activities; and for men, maintaining or increasing emotional ties.

Leon Wieseltier's Kaddish : Mourning as a "Delirium of Study"

What does one do when the death of a parent demands reentry into an abandoned religious formalism? Raised in an orthodox Jewish home, schooled in the intricate discourse of rabbinic texts and yet long estranged from the ritualism of Jewish law, the prospect is maddening. Filial love compels a yearlong daily synagogue attendance where one recites a mourning prayer laden with myth and superstition. Kaddish is an exquisitely maneuvered headlong plunge into Judaism's expansive intellectual tradition. Thereby the current literary editor of the New Republic fulfils his duty both as a Jew and a son, while never turning his back on another imperative he so cherishes "the moral obligation to be intelligent."

Faith or fear: how Jews can survive in a Christian America

In the midst of the greatest religious expansion in American history, Jews are a shrinking minority. Intermarriage is up, synagogue attendance is down, and Jewish education is flagging. Jewish leaders spend less time instructing the young in religious traditions than in promoting liberal causes and attacking conservative Christians. But as Elliott Abrams contends in this tightly argued, insightful polemic, it is not the Christian Right that most threatens Jews today, but rather their abandonment of Judaism. From the New Deal to the present day, the politics of the Jewish majority have been increasingly both liberal and secular. This deep-seated inclination reflects the decision of 18th-century Jews to embrace an absolutist view of church-state separation - a sensible choice at a time of extreme Jewish vulnerability in a hostile Christian society. Yet paradoxically, the Jewish commitment to secular liberal values has itself become the greatest threat to Jewish continuity. Rather than attacking Christian fundamentalists, Abrams argues, Jews should follow their example. Indeed, conservative Christians are the natural allies of Jews, not their adversaries. Abrams documents how many conservative Christian leaders have swept anti-Semitism out of their churches, replacing it very often with strong pro-Israel and philo-Semitic stances, and shows how Jewish interests are more consistent with those of other people of faith than with secular liberals who want to drive religion out of public life completely. Abrams calls on American Jews to renounce their outmoded fear of Christians and their misguided faith in a liberalism that no longer serves to promote Jewish survival. Only through a genuinerenewal of religious belief, he maintains, will today's American Jews be able to pass their identity on to a new generation.

Spirituality of EMTs: a study of the spiritual nature of EMS workers and its effects on perceived happiness and prayers for patients.

There is reason to believe that traumatic events experienced on the job make emergency medical services (EMS) workers more skeptical about their spiritual beliefs. Little is known about the spiritual lives and experiences of emergency medical technicians (EMTs). No studies have measured the responses of EMTs to the spiritual needs of their patients. This study investigates whether EMS workers are less spiritual than the average U.S. citizen, and what effect this has on prayer for patients and perceived happiness. Data were collected in a major metropolitan EMS system from 125 EMTs and paramedics through a questionnaire about their beliefs and behaviors regarding their spirituality. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients (r) were used to analyze variables. The religious attitudes of EMTs were compared with those of the general population as defined in the Gallup studies. Ninety-one percent of the EMS workers interviewed and 94% of Gallup's sample of the general population said they believe in God. The findings on other measures in the EMT sample also were very similar to those defined in the general population. Of the EMTs, 60% said they never have doubted the existence of God. Eighty-four percent believe God still works miracles, and 80% of the EMTs believe in life after death. Eighty-seven percent of EMS workers pray; 62% pray for their patients, and 54% pray for their coworkers. Frequency of church or synagogue attendance is positively and significantly correlated with the degree of perceived life happiness (r = 0.226, p < 0.025 > 0.005). Frequency of prayer also is correlated positively to perceived life happiness (r = 0.182, p < 0.025 > 0.005). Emergency medical services workers are interested and willing to talk about their spiritual lives. They do have more doubts about the existence of God than does the average civilian, but are just as spiritual. Those EMTs with more active spiritual lives perceive themselves as happier. The majority of EMS workers pray for their patients.

The Influence of Church and Synagogue Attendance on the Probability of Giving and Volunteering

This paper uses the Logistic regression technique to explore the relationship between the decisions to give and volunteer and frequency of church/synagogue attendance. Our empirical results support the hypothesis that frequency of church/synagogue attendance increases the likelihood of giving and volunteering. The paper also finds that when church/synagogue attendance falls below the threshold level of once a week, frequency of religious service attendance loses its influence on individual charitable behavior. The author's findings suggest that whether an individual is a member of a church or professes to believe in a religion is not as good a predictor of individual charitable behavior as frequency of church1 synagogue attendance.

Popery, Rabbinism, and Reform: Evangelicals and Jews in Early Victorian England

In this brief paper I discuss the relation between Christianity and Jewish religious reform in early Victorian England. More specifically, I want to suggest that there was a close relation between the Evangelical critique of Judaism as a form of popery and the direction and meaning of religious reform within Anglo-Jewry. If, indeed, this was the case, then what follows has a significant bearing upon the way we interpret Jewish integration in nineteenth-century England.There were roughly 50,000 Jews in England in 1850, two-thirds of whom lived in the capital. Synagogues, like other communal institutions, were dominated by a wealthy elite. Synagogue attendance was thin, and in 1851, on census Sabbath, only 10 per cent of London Jews were found in a metropolitan synagogue. Although nominally Orthodox, the general temper of religious observance within Anglo-Jewry was relaxed.

Religion's role in the health and well-being of well elders.

AbstractWe examined the relationship between religiosity and well elders' perceived health status and sociopsychologic well‐being. A random sample of 380 residents of specialized housing units for seniors participated in a face‐to‐face structured interview. Ninety‐four percent agreed that religion was important in their lives. For those with adequate health and functional status, church or synagogue attendance was vitally important. As more symptoms were reported, personal religious practices increased, including frequency of prayer and listening to religious programs, as well as the importance of religious beliefs. Religious practices and beliefs may serve as a coping mechanism to deal with life's problems and/or as a social network and source of social support. The public health nurse's assessment of this aspect and its importance to older clients allows for the development of appropriate interventions that may mediate positive health and well‐being.

Religious involvement as the main gateway to voluntary association activity

This paper, using National Jew ish Population Survey data, seeks to show a general path to voluntary association participation. It finds thai public religious behavior (belonging to a synagogue or temple and attendance at services) is associated with participation in Jewish voluntary associations. Thence, a path is indicated either to lead ership within the Jewish community or to participation in general voluntary associations. Because this path is similar to one shown in the literature among U.S. Protestants, it is suggested that a general U.S. voluntary association path may be emerging, one that includes both the dominant religious community and minority ethnoreligious groups. The paper also examines the association between participa tion in voluntary associations and other variables, and finds certain idiosyncrasies in the American Jewish community.