Bagels, schnitzel and McDonald's—‘fuzzy frontiers’ of Jewish identity in an English Jewish secondary school
2004; Routledge; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0141620042000232292
ISSN1740-7931
Autores Tópico(s)Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
ResumoAbstract Using data gathered during a case study of the 'culture' of a Jewish secondary school, this article explores the indeterminate boundaries of Jewish identity. By examining the mechanisms that control what and who comes into the school, and what is approved and disapproved of in the school, a picture emerges of what and who is counted as 'Jewish'. There is detailed consideration of the admissions policy, the rules about kosher food, the explicitly religious symbols in use, the importance of Israel and the contested issue of McDonald's. Sometimes the boundaries are very clear‐cut, but in some cases there is ambiguity and disagreement that make the frontiers of English Jewish student identity decidedly fuzzy. Notes A number of writers have used spatial terms to discuss questions of identity. See, for example, Brah (1996 Brah A (1996) Cartographies of Diaspora (London, Routledge) [Google Scholar]), Clifford (1997 Clifford J (1997) Routes (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press) [Google Scholar]) and Gilliat‐Ray (2000 Gilliat‐Ray S (2000) Religion in Higher Education (Aldershot, Ashgate) [Google Scholar]). There is also a vast range of literature dealing with culture and identity. For a particularly helpful discussion in the context of an ethnographic study of Southall, see Baumann (1996 Baumann G (1996) Contesting Culture (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press) [Google Scholar]). Personal communication from Marlena Schmool, Director of the Community Research Unit, Board of Deputies of British Jews, 23 August 2000. This figure is slightly higher than the 266,740 reported in the 2001 census results, which have provided data on religious identity in Britain for the first time. The analysis of the census data is only just beginning. The first two are Yiddish, meaning 'synagogue' and 'to drag'. Yom Tov is Hebrew for 'a good day' and is the word for a festival. There is a great deal of literature about Jewish education which stresses the importance of learning Hebrew and the major Jewish texts in order to provide a 'language' with which students can 'write' their Jewish life. See, for example, Chazan (1983 Chazan, B. (Ed.) (1983) Studies in Jewish Education (vol. 1) (Jerusalem, The Magnes Press) [Google Scholar]), Kelman (1992 Kelman, S. L. (Ed.) (1992) What We Know About Jewish Education (Los Angeles, CA, Torah Aura Productions) [Google Scholar]) and especially Rosenak (1995 Rosenak M (1995) Roads to the Palace (Oxford, Bergahn Books) [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). For a recent discussion of the contested nature of Jewish symbols of identity see Cooper (2000 Cooper, D. (2000). Promoting injury or freedom: radical pluralism and Orthodox Jewish symbolism. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 23(6): 1062–86. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The relationships between gender, education and Jewish identity have been explored recently. See Hartman and Hartman (2003 Hartman, H and Hartman, M. (2003). Gender and Jewish identity. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 18(1): 37–60. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). I remain surprised at how little interest this issue raised at Mount Sinai. This is something of a contrast to recent published research about Asian identity, where religion is emerging as a key factor for second‐ and third‐generation young people. See, for example, Gilliat‐Ray (2000 Gilliat‐Ray S (2000) Religion in Higher Education (Aldershot, Ashgate) [Google Scholar]), and Jacobson (1998 Jacobson J (1998) Islam in Transition: Religion and Identity among British Pakistani Youth (London, Routledge) [Google Scholar]). Additional informationNotes on contributorsLynne Scholefield ** St Mary's College, Waldegrave Road, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham TW1 4SX, UK. Email: scholefl@smuc.ac.uk * St Mary's College, Waldegrave Road, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham TW1 4SX, UK. Email: scholefl@smuc.ac.uk
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