What Does it Mean to be a Jew? Israeli and American Teens Share their Perspectives

The following post originally appeared on the blog of Gateways and Tents, the partnership between Temple Shaaray Tefila of New York and Congregation Ohel Avraham of Haifa.

This past Sunday morning, the American and Israeli teen cohorts met for the first time via Skype. We spent an hour introducing ourselves to each other and learning about each other’s families and interests. The groups found that they had a lot in common—from their shared interest in dance, music, theatre, and sports, to their shared quest to define their own authentic Jewish identities.

One Israeli teen asked the American group: “So, are you secular?” At first, the American teens weren’t sure how to respond. The meaning of the words “secular” and “religious” are very different in Israel and in North America. For most Israelis, the words religious and secular denote a binary choice—between those who lead halachicly observant lives and those who don’t. In North America, it’s possible to see oneself as both religious (in that a Jew might observe some Jewish holidays) and simultaneously see oneself as secular (in that he or she might spend money on Shabbat).

One American teen responded to the question by explaining that he’s not strictly secular, and he’s not strictly religious either. He explained that he goes to synagogue on most holidays and attends Shabbat services a few times a month, and that he’s active in his Jewish youth group—practices that might be called “religious.” At the same time, he eats non-Kosher food, uses electricity on Shabbat, and spends his free time watching TV or hanging our with friends, rather than engaged in Jewish study—practices that might be called “secular.”

The American teens then asked the Israeli teens if they had all celebrated a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. The Israelis all nodded their heads vigorously. When the Americans clarified their question—Did you read from the Torah on your Bar/Bat Mitzvah?—the Israelis changed their answers: most of the boys had read from the Torah, and had done so in an Orthodox synagogue; most of the girls had only had a party.

And despite their having not read from the Torah on their Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the Israeli teens are in many ways more deeply engaged in Jewish life than the American teens. They study Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) in school. They live on streets with names like Ehad HaAm Road and Abba Hillel Silver Road. They speak, read, and write in Hebrew. Although they don’t wear a Kippah or belong to a synagogue, they engage in Jewish life in countless subtle ways. (For a thought-provoking exploration of this topic, see the film The Transparent Kippah.)

So the question arises: What does it mean to be a Jew?

After this first meeting, my sense is that the Americans and the Israelis have very similar definitions of their Jewishness, even though each uses different language to describe it. Whether “secular,” “religious,” or somewhere in between, both groups are living liberal Jewish lives and wrestling to define exactly what that means.