European Jewry: A Changing Reality
European Jewry has undergone significant change in recent years. Most dramatically, for the communities that lived under Communist rule, the period since the fall of the Berlin Wall has brought about a new environment of freedom and openness, enabling a widespread renewal of interest and participation in Jewish activities. Technological advancements have similarly created new possibilities, and EU membership has only served to further expand people’s horizons, allowing tremendous freedom of movement and opportunity. In Eastern Europe and beyond, this rapidly-changing context is serving to alter affiliation patterns, individual beliefs, practices and identities in a whole variety of ways. More and more Jews appear to be constructing their Jewish identities from the growing menu of Jewish choices that are available to them, thereby creating a remarkably fluid notion both of what Jewish life is, and what it ought to be. Identity is no longer fixed, permanent and one-dimensional, but rather multi-faceted, complex and “á la carte.” The ultimate impact of all these developments is not yet known, but what is clear is that European Jewish communities are contending with them in a host of interesting and thought-provoking ways.
Building a Shared Understanding of Jews in the New Europe
In September 2008, JDC-ICCD launched a major research project examining contemporary Jewish identity in Europe. Entitled Identity á la Carte, it focuses on 18-55 year-old Jews, and investigates how they understand and experience their Jewish lives, how they feel about core Jewish issues and how they relate to the realities of the new Europe.
The project is currently being implemented in nine significant Eastern European Jewish communities: Budapest (Hungary), Warsaw (Poland), Wroclaw (Poland), Krakow (Poland), Riga (Latvia), Bucharest (Romania), Oradea (Romania), Timisoara (Romania) and Sofia (Bulgaria). Providing high-quality, up-to-date and comparable data, Identity á la Carte will be the largest and most ambitious survey ever conducted on European Jewry, and will generate new and important insights for leaders seeking to better understand this demographic, and enhance Jewish life across the continent.
To date, we have completed over 1,000 face-to-face interviews with Jews residing in the selected Eastern European communities. These interviews investigate subjects’ Jewish self-perception and self-definition, the strength, content and relative significance of their Jewish identities and attitudes towards and involvement in public and private Jewish activity. In order to gain a broader picture, we are also examining respondents’ connections with local (non-Jewish) community life, their social and political values and their assessments of future prospects and challenges. Our focus on 18-50 year-olds is designed to shed light on a demographic that is at a critical phase in its decision-making about Jewish involvement and engagement. Understanding this group is therefore pivotal to assessing current and future communal needs.
As well as painting a fuller portrait of contemporary Eastern European Jewry—itself of considerable value—Identity á la Carte is also generating locally-specific, policy-relevant data of real importance to lay leaders and professionals. Specifically, it will provide communal policy-makers with a clearer understanding of key demographics (young singles, couples and middle-generation families), enabling them to make more thoughtful and effective interventions and investments on the ground. To ensure maximum impact and utility, follow-up events and seminars are already in planning phase to guarantee that JDC Europe’s senior staff team, local partners, academics and journalists all have access to the study’s findings and opportunity to explore its implications. We will be releasing initial findings in the summer of 2009.
Identity á la Carte reflects the input and expertise of some of the top international specialists in Jewish sociology and demography. We are working with Professors Sergio DellaPergola, (Hebrew University, the leading Jewish demographer in the world today), Barry Kosmin (Trinity College and former Executive Director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London, UK) and Erik Cohen (Bar Ilan University, and a specialist in French Jewry), as well as two community-based demographers: David Graham (Board of Deputies, UK, former JPR Fellow in European Jewish Demography) and Chris Kooyman (Joods Maatschappelijk Werk, Netherlands, and expert in Dutch Jewry). The academic specialist leading the Eastern European segment of the project is Professor András Kovács of the Central European University (Budapest), the world’s top authority on the sociology of Eastern European Jewry. Their expertise is accompanied by that of Ipsos, a well-known research consultancy with an international reputation and extensive European operation, which is managing interviews and data collection.
