262 Lynn Davidman
Hall has written, the termlived religionis not “confined to what people do,” (1997: ix)
but rather, it is about “meaning and ritualization” (1997: x).
This chapter unpacks the meaning of “lived religion,” through a case study of
twenty-eight Jews who do not belong to synagogues. By focusing on Jews who do
not participate in the institutional Jewish religious life of synagogues, this sample se-
lects for those who create and maintain their Jewish identities through practices that
fall outside of traditional Jewish ritual but that elucidate some of the modes of lived
religion among Jews. These Jews have largely been invisible in studies of American
Jewish life because they are not representative of the approximate majority of American
Jews, most of whom join synagogues at some point in their adult lives, particularly
when their children are young (Cohen and Eisen 2000). Their invisibility is also shaped
by their not fitting into any institutional model. It is precisely this factor, however,
that makes them interesting as an example of lived religion. Jews, in general, may pro-
vide an especially fascinating exemplar of lived religion because within contemporary
American Judaism, one does not have to belong to a community, believe in God, or
even do any practices to consider oneself Jewish. Jewish identity and Jewish practice in
contemporary America does not necessarily take the form of participation in recogniz-
able rituals of religious observance. American Jewish identities are constructed along
a continuum and through various combinations of religion and ethnicity. The con-
struction of ethnic Jewish identities is a particularly important part of American Jewish
practice for those Jews who choose not to join religious institutions. The study of lived
religion can fruitfully be applied to their various attempts to create these identities that
are on the slippery slope of religion and ethnicity. This chapter highlights the ways
some American Jews construct themselves as Jewish outside institutional frameworks.
It reveals that for some Jews religious practices and ethnic identities are experienced
as distinct, whereas for many others, there is blurring of “purely” ethnic identifications
with historically religious practices.
Sociologists of American Jewish life, like their peers who study Christians, have
focused on institutional participation and adherence to officially sanctioned beliefs
and practices. Over the past three decades, statistical studies have dominated the field
although some qualitative studies have emerged as well.^1 This is because Jewish feder-
ations, concerned with the policy implications of the information gleaned, often fund
quantitative researchers, who can give them facts about the beliefs and practices of
large numbers of Jews. These studies have inquired into rates of ritual observance and
levels of faith among the Jewish population. They have revealed that most American
Jews celebrate the High Holy Days, Hanukkah, and Passover; that the majority of Jewish
parents circumcise their sons and that few light Sabbath candles, keep kosher, or attend
synagogue regularly (Cohen 1991). The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey has re-
vealed many interesting statistics about the contemporary American Jewish community
including: There are 6.8 million Jewishly identified people in the United States; 72 per-
cent of Jews by birth^2 are married to other Jews (either by birth or by conversion); Jews
(^1) Some of the major quantitative studies include Cohen and Horenczyk 1999, Goldscheider
1986, Goldstein 1996, and Heilman and Cohen 1989; see also Dashefsky et al., Chapter 18,
this volume. Some of the ethnographic studies include Cohen and Eisen 2000; Davidman 1991;
Heilman 1996; Horowitz 1998, 1999; Kaufman 1991.Contemporary Jewry21: (2000) discusses
the merits of qualitative research in this field.
(^2) All data on “Jews” cited from this study will be referring to Jews by birth.