Jewish Youths and Jewish Identity

T he debate over Jewish identity and the definition of who is a Jew has been ongoing for many years. Much has been written regarding Jewish identity, and there are a variety of conceptions of identity and identification. 1 For sociologist Michael A. Meyer, Jewish identity falls into three basic categories. 2 His work aims to explicate a dynamic of Jewish identity in modernity that, with some variations, is universally applicable. The forces Meyer believes have shaped Jewish identity more than any others are (1) enlightenment (the ongoing process), (2) anti Semitism, and (3) the sense of Jewish people hood represented by Zion. 3 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.