Young Jews Research Articles

"Yiddishists for Palestine": Diasporism and Solidarity through Twenty-First Century Yiddish Song

ABSTRACT: As many young Jews grow increasingly alienated from Zionist narratives, some have found a space for expressions of diasporism and solidarity with Palestinians in the international Yiddishist music scene. This article examines four twenty-first century Yiddish songs that refer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and express solidarity with Palestinians: "Ver Tantzt" by Black Ox Orkestar, "Dumai" by Daniel Kahn, "A shtik fun harts" by Josh Waletzky and Michael Winograd, and "Qibya" by Koyt far dayn fardakht. These songs were compiled by the authors as part of the group "Yiddishist with Palestine," an online gathering of Yiddishist activists that started during the 2021 Gaza war, discussing strategies for expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Yiddishist communal spaces. Through textual, contextual, and musical analysis, and drawing on theories of diaspora and diasporism, the article explores the various ways these songs express Jewish solidarity with Palestinians.

Emerging Adults’ Attitudes Toward Romantic Relationships: The Effects of Parental Bonding and Personal Value Preferences

This study investigates how parenting and value preferences are connected to emerging adults’ attitudes toward romantic relationships. The study was conducted in Israel among young Jews and Arabs looking for a romantic partner ( n = 1121, 40% male, age 18–30). Higher preferences for conservation versus openness to change and self-enhancement versus self-transcendence values and higher levels of parental care were associated with positive romantic attitudes. In addition, parental care was associated with higher preferences for self-transcendence versus self-enhancement and conservation versus openness to change values, and autonomy-providing was associated with higher preferences for openness to change versus conservation and self-transcendence versus self-enhancement values. Personal value preferences partially mediated the connection between parental bonding and romantic attitudes. More specifically, high levels of parental care and overcontrol lead to a higher preference for conservation values, which, in turn, lead to more positive romantic attitudes. The obtained results advance our understanding of the connections between parenting, general motivational goals, and romantic relationships among emerging adults.

Generation Enraged

Abstract How does the increasing diversification of both the Jewish and general population in Germany influence Jewish self-positioning in German society? It seems that especially young Jews no longer perceive themselves in a binary relationship to the majority society alone, but as part of a heterogeneous, post-migrant society. The journal Jalta – Positionen zur jüdischen Gegenwart [Yalta – Positions on the Jewish Present], published between 2017 and 2020, served as an important mouthpiece for the young generation's rage and desires. This study identifies and expounds upon three sets of relationships within German society that Jalta wishes to redefine: relationships within Jewish communities, relationships between Jews and the majority society, and relationships of Jews to other minorities.

Hasbara Revisited: Israel, the New Left, and Diaspora Jewry, 1967–1973

Abstract In the years between 1967 and 1973, the younger generation of Diaspora Jewry in the West was torn between its sympathy for the State of Israel and its identification with New Left politics and ideology. In response, Israel conducted a wide-ranging campaign of Hasbara—the Hebrew word for explaining the justice of the Israeli and Zionist cause—to this cohort in order to gain its support. Until now, scholarship on Israeli hasbara has not given any attention to how Israel grappled with the New Left in general and with its Jewish supporters in particular; similarly, studies of the encounter between Jews and the New Left lack any discussion of the role played by Israeli hasbara. This article connects the two, revealing the unknown history of the relationship between Israel, Diaspora Jewry, and the New Left. But it is of more than mere historical interest, as in the last decade Israel has been deeply concerned about leftists and liberals in the West (who today largely term themselves “progressives”), many of them are young Jews who have allied with pro-Palestinian forces, first and foremost the BDS movement. This article offers a possible model that could be used to mobilize these progressive Jews in support of Israel.

Beyond Jewish Identity: Rethinking Concepts and Imagining Alternatives ed. by Jon A. Levisohn and Ari Y. Kelman (review)

Reviewed by: Beyond Jewish Identity: Rethinking Concepts and Imagining Alternatives ed. by Jon A. Levisohn and Ari Y. Kelman Rebecca Shargel Jon A. Levisohn and Ari Y. Kelman, eds., Beyond Jewish Identity: Rethinking Concepts and Imagining Alternatives. Brookline, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2019. 290 pp. 1 illus. Hardcover $119. Paperback $35. ISBN: 9781644691281, 9781644691298 Beyond Jewish Identity critically interrogates the phrase “Jewish identity” and how it is used in Jewish educational discourse. The editors, Jon Levisohn and Ari Kelman, note that key Jewish educational stakeholders have treated identity as something static and possessed. Since the late 1960s, Jewish educational and communal efforts have been tasked to strengthen Jewish identity and saw Jewish identity formation as the desired outcome of Jewish education. The book’s purpose is to understand how “Jewish identity” is used, its meanings, and also new possibilities to “understand the desired outcomes of Jewish educational interventions” (vii). Most of the book’s discussion focuses on Jewish identity in the United States. This review will draw from several of the chapters authored by different scholars, many of whom are university professors. The book consists of two parts; in the first part of the book, the authors illustrate constructions of Jewish identity. Two essays treat the historical development of Jewish identity discourse in the United States. First, Jonathan Krasner illustrates the ways that identity was used between 1940 and 1980, particularly by the American Jewish Committee. Krasner recognizes the plethora of organizations involved in this endeavor, as well as the conscious use of psychological and sociological theories in the discussions of Jewish identity. He concludes the chapter by naming various forces that worked together as in a “matrix of philanthropic foundations, federations, Jewish schools, camps, Israel trips, Jewish campus organizations, service-learning organizations, youth groups and the like has become a veritable Jewish identity industrial complex” (61). In addition, Ari Kelman looks at identity in terms of the discourse regarding Jewish college students in the late 1960s and early 1970s, given the tumultuous political environments of that time. Jewish leaders considered Jewish identities as a protective force, “a bulwark against the turmoil of social and political currents” (xiii). Deducing that college students were un-prepared to face their challenges, Jewish leaders resolved to bolster Jewish education for those in K-12 settings so that young Jews would be better prepared for what they might encounter in college. Another two chapters treat contemporary populations with multiple identities. Samira Mehta examines Jews identifying with multiple religions and ethnicities. She found that “multireligious, multiethnic, and multiracial families [ . . . ] are increasingly part of the [ . . . ] American Jewish landscape,” reflecting the broader picture of increasingly diverse families in the US (34). Mehta suggests that given these hyphenated and complicated narratives it would be more productive to shift the focus from identity to practice—in other words, from who someone is to what a person does. [End Page 265] Katka Reszke’s chapter examines a diasporic community, young Poles in Poland from “Generation Unexpected,” who grew up Catholic and discovered their Jewish roots in adolescence or young adulthood. As Poland has attracted Israeli and American Jewish tourists, these young Poles encounter perplexed tourists who challenge them with whether or not they are authentically Jewish. This chapter renews the conversation around who is a Jew and also gives a perspective of Jewish identity as a process of discovering, becoming, and looking at family history. The young Polish struggle with facing their Jewishness brings forth a new lens on identity—something which is an evolving process that includes both seeking one’s roots as well as soul searching. In the book’s second section, the authors propose new directions. Tali Zelkowicz notes that stakeholders, including “lay decision-makers, professionals, policy makers, and funders, alike, look to American Jewish education to be, as Jonathan Woocher put it, ‘the guarantor of Jewish survival’” (151). She criticizes an approach based in fear and survivalism. To illustrate, she contrasts two approaches to Jewish identity work in a liberal Jewish high school. The first approach, purporting “to make Jews” (145) forces teachers to prioritize the tradition over students’ futures, which, in turn, suppresses students’ authentic questions and present concerns. Zelkowicz notes the perception that educators...

General Music Education in a Multi-Ethnic Context, on the Example of State-Run Schools in Poland between the World Wars

Abstract The paper concerns the presence and ideological identity-building function of Polish folk music in Polish state-run schools between the World Wars, and the experiences of Jewish children and teenagers in this regard. The young Polish state brought together populations from the former three partitioned territories, which included numerous national minorities. The need for bond-forming, powerfully symbolic elements supporting a collectively developed national identity was soon strongly felt. Polish folk music, with particular emphasis on its regional varieties, perfectly fitted into the ideological current of patriotic and civic youth education in both state-run and private schools. Dances and songs which children learned at music and PE lessons familiarised them with the wealth of traditions, imbuing them with pride and the love of national culture. The paper quotes examples of young Jews’ experiences in this context, as they encountered Polish folksongs and dances in state-run schools: their responses to this issue and the impact of such contacts on their identities. The source material comes from pre-WWII press, in which we hear the voices of the children themselves, reporting their experiences.

Purim Gifts from Russian Neighbors: Prewar Identity Formation and Wartime Survival among Young Jews from Soviet Vitebsk

Life under Stalinism in the 1930s challenged Jews, particularly the young, with innumerable compromises to their religious and ethnic identity, yielding unexpected responses during World War II and the Holocaust. This article analyzes how Jewish youth raised in 1930s Vitebsk in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic acquired firsthand knowledge of the language and customs of their Slavic neighbors, and how some of this cohort harnessed their experiences and understanding in their attempts to survive during the Holocaust. Bolshevik policies unique to Soviet Belarus affected its Jews in ways distinct from their counterparts elsewhere in the Soviet Union. Nationalities and religious policies as well as the Five-Year Plans and the Great Terror served as the context for this situation, shaping and distorting transmission of Jewish traditions along with changing the dynamics of the family and social relationships. Young Jews in Vitebsk learned Slavic languages and culture from their neighbors, in Soviet schools, and through other means. After the German invasion in 1941, the application of these skills and knowledge are a common thread through the survival narratives of young Holocaust survivors from Soviet Vitebsk.

Three Accounts—Two World Wars—One Town: Narratives of War and Genocide in Eastern Galicia

This article belongs to the special cluster, “Biographies of Belonging in the Holocaust”, guest-edited by Natalia Aleksiun and Hana Kubátová. This article argues for using personal accounts in reconstructing the inner lives of interethnic communities in Eastern Europe in times of crisis. Focusing on the Eastern Galician town of Buczacz as representative of numerous other such communities, it also suggests that the events of the Holocaust must be seen within the larger context of coexistence and violence since 1914. After briefly examining the relevant historiography, the article turns to a close analysis of the diary of a Polish headmaster, written in 1914–1922; the World War II diary of a Ukrainian gymnasium teacher, and recollections of the Holocaust by a Jewish radio technician, composed in 1947. All three men lived in Buczacz; all three wanted their accounts to be read by others, but they are only now being made available to the public by the author. Each provides a strikingly different perspective: that of a Polish nationalist educator whose sons were fighting to create an independent Poland; that of a Ukrainian activist who resented Polish rule and Jewish influence but felt ambivalent about wartime and genocide profiteering by fellow Ukrainians; and that of a young Jew who meticulously recorded both collaboration and rescue by his gentile neighbors and ended up fighting in a local Polish partisan unit. And yet, seen together, these personal narratives shed light on aspects of mass violence in that region largely missing from more general or nationally oriented histories.

Factors Associated with Using Telemedicine in the Primary Care Clinics during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic generated an extraordinary need for telemedicine. Objective: To identify the factors and multi-way interactions associated with telemedicine use in primary healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This population-based study included all members (2,722,773) aged ≥18 years of the largest healthcare organization in Israel who used primary care clinic services between 1 March 2020 and 31 December 2021. Individuals were classified as telemedicine users (≥1 phone/video visits or asynchronous encounters) or non-telemedicine users (only in-person encounter/s). Results: Ethnicity was the most discriminative variable associated with telemedicine use, with 85% and 52% users among Jews and Arabs, respectively. Higher odds for telemedicine utilization were observed among women, residents of urban areas, those confined to home, individuals with high level of technology literacy, residents of the central area (in Jews only), young Jews, and older Arabs. Based on decision tree analysis, the segments of the population with the lowest telemedicine use were characterized by lower primary care needs and comorbidities, as well as low technology literacy. The proportion of telemedicine use in these groups was 56% and 27% in Jews and in Arabs, respectively. Conclusion: A proactive intervention program should be applied among populations who are less likely to use telemedicine in the primary care clinics, including Arabs, Jews who live in the distant periphery, and individuals with low technology literacy.

Judah Magnes: The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist by David Barak-Gorodetsky (review)

Reviewed by: Judah Magnes: The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist by David Barak-Gorodetsky Chad Alan Goldberg (bio) Judah Magnes: The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist. By David Barak-Gorodetsky. Translated by Merav Datan. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2021. xxx + 328 pp. This superb biography of the American rabbi, Zionist, and first president of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Judah Leon Magnes (1877–1948) makes two broad contributions. First, by emphasizing the religious roots of Magnes's political thought, David Barak-Gorodetsky contributes to a wider scholarly effort to reintroduce "the question of religion's place in the Zionist story" (xv). Second, the author provides a "comprehensive conceptual study on the American aspects of the Jewish perspective on binationalism, of which Magnes was the main representative" (xxv). The first of the book's three parts, "'Mending the World,'" traces the formation of Magnes's religious and political views in the United States. Born in California, Magnes was ordained as a rabbi at Hebrew Union College in 1900 and received his doctoral degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1902. From 1906 to 1910, he served as a rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. In these years, under the influence of the rabbi and scholar Solomon Schechter, Magnes underwent a "religious evolution … beyond Reform Judaism to what would in time be known as the Conservative movement" (12). He subsequently worked to establish and then led the Jewish Kehillah of New York, an experimental attempt from 1909 to 1922 to provide the city's burgeoning Jewish population with a unified and democratic community structure. Surprisingly, Barak-Gorodetsky devotes scant space to Magnes's leadership of the Kehillah, noting only that his role as a mediator between the city's affluent, assimilated, "uptown" Jews and its poor, eastern European, Yiddish-speaking "downtown" Jews prefigured his later commitment to binationalism in Palestine (20). Barak-Gorodetsky has more to say about Magnes's Zionism, cultural pluralism, socialism, and pacifism. Magnes welcomed Zionism during his studies in Germany "because of its contribution to promoting Jewish self-respect among young Jews in Europe," and he subsequently embraced Zionism as a means of "reviving the spirit of Judaism in the United States" (26, 22). He also espoused a form of cultural pluralism similar to that propounded by the philosopher Horace Kallen. Because Magnes distinguished between religiosity and its manifestation in "formal [End Page 411] religious institutions," he was able to see "elements of the sacred" in the secular Jewish socialist and Zionist movements (48, 50). Furthermore, he understood Jewish socialism, like Zionism, as a means to "the renewal of Jewish life" (41). His pacifism likewise had religious roots in Christian pacifism and Reform Judaism's Mission Theology. Magnes's distinction between religiosity and religious institutions allowed him to criticize the latter's support for the First World War as a religious betrayal. Part Two, "'For the Sake of Zion,'" describes Magnes's political thought and practice from 1922, when he emigrated to Palestine, to 1939. As the chancellor of the Hebrew University when it opened in 1925 and its first president from 1935 until his death in 1948, Magnes envisioned the university playing a cultural and even spiritual role for the Jewish people. These years were characterized inwardly by an unfulfilled desire to achieve the closeness to God that he associated with authentic Judaism and outwardly by his involvement in the binationalist group Brit Shalom. Magnes shared with the religious philosopher and Brit Shalom member Martin Buber a "prophetic orientation for the Jewish politics of Palestine," but they "articulated [it] differently" (179). These differences stemmed in part from the influence on Magnes of William James's pluralistic ideal of a federal republic and of American reliance on political institutions and constitutionalism to "bridge political divides" (131), which informed his commitment to binationalism. Magnes's identification with the prophet Jeremiah, who advocated a "peaceful path" and preached "against the supposedly imminent danger of Jewish nationalism" but "ultimately failed to convince the kingdom of Judah to mend its ways" comes to the fore in Part Two (174, 117, 186). Interestingly, though the German sociologist Max Weber also identified with Jeremiah, Magnes's striving to bridge...

Unwelcome Guests: A History of Access to American Higher Education by Harold S. Weschler and Steven J. Diner (review)

Reviewed by: Unwelcome Guests: A History of Access to American Higher Education by Harold S. Weschler and Steven J. Diner Shira Kohn (bio) Unwelcome Guests: A History of Access to American Higher Education. By Harold S. Weschler and Steven J. Diner. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. xi + 211 pp. In 2016, the Pew Research Center reported that, globally, Jews were the most educated religious community when it came to years of formal schooling. Certainly in the United States, American Jews have demonstrated long-term investment in both secular and religious educational institutions, and scholars in fields ranging from history to sociology to religious studies have published extensively on the priority generations of American Jews placed on participating in the country's increasingly diverse educational landscape. This engagement is perhaps both most notable and fraught when it comes to higher education, given that more than half of America's Jews claim undergraduate degrees, double the national average as of the publication of the Pew study. This recent volume by the late Harold Weschler, co-written by his friend and colleague Steven Diner after Weschler's untimely passing in 2017, helps contextualize the Pew results and places American Jewish engagement with higher education within the broader realm of nineteenth and twentieth-century access to the country's colleges and universities, ultimately providing an incredibly useful reference for both scholars and lay readers curious about how Jews came to be visible minorities on campuses and the ways in which their experiences mirrored and diverged from other ethnic and religious minorities at the time. To be clear, this book does not focus on the Jewish admissions experience, but rather on how different ethnic and religious communities in America approached that process and how exclusion and access functioned in shaping subsequent waves of entering classes of undergraduates. Yet it becomes apparent early on that Jews often served as a litmus test for the level of tolerance for ethnic and religious diversity at various types of higher education institutions, whether parochial, private, or public, reflecting administrative debates over whom would be able to best exhibit the academic aptitude and, frequently, presumed social behaviors with which a given school wanted to be associated. Other than the first chapter of the volume, which examines the African American experience in the admissions process throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to underscore the ways in which race functioned as the foundational category for deciding enrollment criteria, Jews appear consistently throughout the study as aspiring applicants to a variety of institutions, from land grant public universities to the country's multiple urban commuter campuses. Because so many institutions rejected Black applicants outright or admitted minimal candidates regardless [End Page 420] of their credentials, Jews became a, if not the, visible minority seeking socioeconomic mobility through undergraduate education in regions throughout the country, though unsurprisingly concentrated in areas and institutions in which the very debates and decisions around access were hotly contested. Weschler and Diner provide invaluable statistics about enrollment throughout the volume, highlighting the degree to which young Jews applied to college in numbers far surpassing their proportional presence in the American population. The book traces, though does not explicitly draw connections to, how intertwined Jewish migration and residency patterns mirrored the proliferation of institutions of higher education. Those spatial realities shaped application volume, albeit not acceptance rates, at private colleges and universities (most prominently Harvard and Columbia) which at times limited Jewish enrollment in the interwar decades of the twentieth century into the postwar era due to concerns over Jewish "over-enrollment" on their campuses. While most other minorities, whether white Catholics or immigrant communities like Puerto Ricans, also faced limitations on their ability to gain acceptance to institutions of higher education, their smaller application numbers seldom drew the eyes and concerns of evaluators in ways that the growing numbers of Jewish students did. In a welcome but too brief chapter on the student experience for those fortunate enough to gain admission to higher education, the authors explore how Jews and other minorities experienced continued discrimination in areas such as collegiate athletics, residence halls, and social outlets like Greek life. These expressions of prejudice continue to stem from...

‘My Attitude to Sport Is Very Simple – It’s Something That Jews Just Don’t Do’

Reflecting on his childhood in post-war Manchester, Howard Jacobson claimed in 2016: ‘I never met a Jew that wanted to play a sport, and the only Jew I ever met who did was me and that sport was table tennis . . . My attitude towards sport is simple – it’s something that Jews just don’t do’. This article explores sporting participation and interest within Manchester Jewry from the 1890s through to the modern day. It begins by mapping and analysing the strong sporting culture that developed before World War Two, a time when sport was actively promoted by communal leaders and when young Jews, in particular, took it to their heart. It moves on to show how, by the time Jacobson was growing up, it had indeed lost its centrality. Yet sport had not, as Jacobson may have claimed, disappeared from Manchester Jewry. Rather, it had changed, morphing into something which sat more comfortably with a more comfortable, middle-class community who had largely left the inner city behind. As they now occupied Manchester’s margins, so too did sport move to occupy the margins of their new, changed realities.

Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina by Raanan Rein

Reviewed by: Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina by Raanan Rein Valeria Navarro-Rosenblatt (bio) Populism and Ethnicity: Peronism and the Jews of Argentina. By Raanan Rein. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2020. 296 pp. Populism and Ethnicity is a translation of Raanan Rein's book Los Muchachos Peronistas Judíos (2015). The Spanish title reminds the readers of a song, "Los Muchachos Peronistas," a Peronist march by an unknown author that transformed a popular soccer song into a political anthem. By using this reference to open his book and present his research, Rein brings to the fore an argument that drives the entire volume: Jews were part of Peronism, despite the myths surrounding the figure of Perón. Remember that in Argentinean history, the figure of Perón has defined Argentinian politics since 1945, evoking a deep commitment or profound rejection and becoming a rift within Argentine society. Jews, as members of the Argentine community, were as committed and involved as any other group of Argentinians. But, just like there were hundreds of young Jews deeply engaged, there were those who distrusted the new movement and government, those who distanced themselves from Perón when a coup d'etat overthrew his government. In Populism and Ethnicity, Rein revisits eleven myths relating to Perón's position towards Jewish-Argentinians, especially in relation to his supposed antisemitism and the Nazi influence after the Second World War. Rein refutes each of these myths through various sources that broaden the scope of the Argentinean Jewish community. He emphasizes unaffiliated Jewish Argentineans, who have been minimized or excluded from previous historical research on Jewish-Argentinean history. In his work, Rein presents two types of myths: those regarding Argentinian society's relation to Jews, antisemitism, and Nazism; and those related to how the Jewish community, Jews and Israel acted toward Perón and the regime. [End Page 318] In the first four chapters of the book, Rein deconstructs the idea that Perón was a Nazi and a fascist. He depicts him as a nationalist with authoritarian elements. His regime and persona were heterogeneous, combining diverse ideologies and political influences that shaped his movement. Rein emphasizes that neither Perón, his wife Evita Perón, nor his two governments were antisemitic. Furthermore, Perón made multiple statements against antisemitism. Rein finds the explanation to these set of myths by reminding us of the long-standing economic rivalry between the US and Argentina in contextualizing Perón's international decisions. Argentina was one of the many countries that sought to recruit scientists, technicians, and experts in general from Germany in the hopes of contributing to the enhancement of the country. As far back as the nineteenth century the Argentinean elite's preference was for northern Europeans, including Germans. Rein also explains how most of the Nazis who arrived in Argentina managed to emigrate by buying visas, and even through false documents and identities, rather than with the control or agency of Perón's government. All these elements bring nuance to the stance that Perón himself or his regime sympathized with Nazis, reminding us that depending on whose perspective we use, the history of Perón's government can look significantly different. The second part of Rein's book examines how different sectors of Jewish society engaged with the Peronist government. From intellectuals to media entrepreneurs, from unionists to businessmen, the support for Peron had several outlets, including newspapers, radio, and, later, television. In the sixth chapter he discusses the role of businessmen and Jewish unionists. Rein directs our gaze toward those working-class Jewish Argentineans, ignored and unaccounted for in previous historical research, who supported Perón from the beginning of Peronism. Additionally, Rein presents different Jewish union leaders to show the movement's openness toward ethnic groups and minorities, allowing them to be part of Peronism as Jewish-Argentines. Populism and Ethnicity reconstructs and highlights new aspects of Perón's government. Rein's emphasis on instances where the regime showed acceptance and inclusiveness toward minorities is particularly important. In Rein's words, the "Peronist ambition of protecting the rights of minorities and weak, marginal groups from the...

Leopold Cohn and the Evolution of Messianic Judaism into the Leading Missionary Movement among American Jews

Since the early days of Christianity, it was generally accepted that a person could be either a Jew or a Christian, but not both. This, however, changed in the late nineteenth century. Yitzhak Leib Josowitz was a young Jew who studied at Hungary’s top yeshivas and ordained as a rabbi. Shortly after settling in New York in 1892, he converted, ordained a priest, changed his name to Leopold Cohn, and became a missionary. Cohn promoted a relatively new missionary approach which encouraged Jews to retain their identity and traditions, but also to adopt Jesus as their messiah. This, he claimed, would not only make them better Jews, but would also win them a higher spiritual status than people who were born Christians. Cohn also convinced many Christians to donate to his mission, which he called The Chosen People. After his death in 1937 Leopold was succeeded by his son Joseph, who greatly expanded the mission’s outreach. In time the missionary approach Cohn developed was adopted by other missions and became known as Messianic Judaism. Today, the dozens of messianic missions have millions of members and one of the most active ones is Cohn’s Chosen People which continue its operation more than 125 years after its establishment.

Educational Choices for My Own Children: The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Class of 5755

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present data from the most recent wave of theLongitudinal Study of Young Jews Raised in Conservative Synagogues. Participants were part of the b'nai mitzvah class of 1994–1995 (or, the year 5755 in the Hebrew calendar) and members of Conservative synagogues in the US and Canada. Approximately 400 panel members took part in this follow-up. We explore the degree to which adolescents’ educational experiences carry weight into adulthood, specifically as parents making educational choices for their own children, with particular interest in the role of gender. Results show that respondents attribute a variety of lasting effects to their past Jewish education, particularly those receiving formal education. Correlations were stronger for females than for males. One’s past affective appraisal of one’s Jewish education appears to be associated as well, as does marital status (interfaith or not). Results are discussed in terms of the social-affective goals of Jewish education and parental decision-making.

Lonely in Lockdown: Predictors of Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties Among Jewish Young Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As individuals undergoing a developmental process characterized by identity exploration, Jewish young adults are particularly vulnerable to the disruption of social connections related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent research has demonstrated that young adults, including young Jews, have experienced higher rates of mental health difficulties than older individuals during the pandemic. Using data from a survey of Jewish young adults who applied to participate in Birthright Israel summer 2020 trips but were unable to participate due to the pandemic, we examined the factors contributing to young adults’ mental health difficulties. We found that loneliness, rather than financial worries or concerns about the health impacts of COVID-19, was the single most important driver of reported emotional or mental health difficulties. Results also suggested that simply increasing the frequency of contacts between individuals is unlikely to reduce loneliness, unless these are positive, substantial connections, such as those among members of a “social support network.” Building and rebuilding deep, meaningful social connections between Jewish young adults should be a top priority for Jewish organizations going forward.

Trends in Jewish Young Adult Experiences and Perceptions of Antisemitism in America from 2017 to 2019

Since 2016, a series of horrific acts motivated by antisemitism appear to have caused a fundamental shift in the prevalence of antisemitism in the United States. Little is known, however, about how the events during this time have affected the day-to-day experiences and concerns of American Jews. Using repeated cross-sectional data from surveys of Jewish young adults who applied to Birthright Israel, this paper analyzes recent trends in Jewish young adults’ experiences and perceptions of antisemitism. Despite the high-profile incidents during this period, there is no evidence of a major increase in experiences of antisemitic harassment among Jewish young adults—either on or off campus—between 2017 and 2019. At the same time, data show a substantial increase in concerns among young Jews about antisemitism in the United States and on college campuses, with concerns about antisemitism in the United States (but not on campus) being especially concentrated among liberal Jews. These results suggest that Jewish concerns about antisemitism are linked to broader views about the climate for marginalized populations in the United States. They also point to growing Jewish anxieties over violence, safety, and acceptance in the United States. In an era of widely disseminated antisemitic conspiracy theories, even young Jews who have no first-hand experience of antisemitic harassment have become concerned.

Coming of Age During the Holocaust: The Adult Roles and Responsibilities of Young Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau

ABSTRACT This article develops a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which teenage Hungarian Jews responded to persecution in Auschwitz-Birkenau by examining survival mechanisms through the lens of young people and their accelerated development into adults. Rejecting traditional approaches that view young people as passive victims, it argues that they employed a variety of mechanisms more commonly associated with adults for survival, rooted in their fitness to work; the strength of their individual and collective memories, emotions, and imagination; and their ability to maintain and forge family and other relationships. Building on recent trends in Holocaust research exploring the complexities of Jewish agency, this article recognizes that each young person responded in his or her own individual way to the dehumanizing environment of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As such, there was no single, standard experience of persecution or survival for young people. There are, however, common themes that deserve closer examination, based on a wide range of first-hand survivor testimonies. Exploring these themes, not only does this article recognize the actions of young Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau, but it also seeks to reconceptualize survival by acknowledging both the physical and mental ways that were the domain of adults in normal times yet became the norm for young people in their mechanisms to cope in the camp. In doing so, it advances a more humane and subjective understanding of their experiences and builds a more accurate and realistic history of survival.

Israel, apartheid, and a South African Jewish dilemma

ABSTRACT Like many diaspora Jewish communities, South African Jews are divided on the politics of Israel-Palestine. The majority, however, remain strongly Zionist and opposed to allegedly self-hating Jewish critiques of Israeli government policy and action. This article draws on a series of in-depth interviews with South Africans who identify as Jewish but situate themselves outside of what they regard as the communal mainstream. Focusing on their views about Israel and Zionism, the article reveals the often intense internal struggles provoked by their attempts to reconcile emotional connections to Israel and discomfort with the country’s politics. We show the extent to which such reactions are rooted in the rhetorical link between Israel and apartheid, which dominates global discourse about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many of these Jews reject the direct analogy but find the perceived associations between apartheid and Israel deeply unsettling. This position is generationally inflected, with those who lived through apartheid typically more disturbed by the analogy than younger Jews, whose critique of Israeli politics does not draw from a deep personal well of apartheid experience.

“Between Stalinism and the War”: Everyday Life of Jewish Youth in Western Belorussia, 1939–1941

This study focuses on the transformation of Jewish youth’s everyday life in Western Belorussia, 1939-1941. The author came to the following conclusion. In Western Belorussia, as in the rest of the Soviet regions, the crucial issue of the Sovietization policy was education of the younger generation. The impact of the Soviet youth policy measures on the Jewish children and adolescents had an impressive success. Living in rather extreme socio-political conditions, the Jewish youth, in contrast to the elder generation of Polish Jews, turned out to be very susceptible to the policy of Sovietization. The main reason for that was the wide opportunities for emancipation provided to the young Jews by the Sovietization efforts.