East European Jews In Lakesville example essay topic

Marshall Sklare and Joseph Green blum Jewish Identity of the Suburban Frontier In Jewish Identity of the Suburban Frontier, the author tries to explain what is the Jewish identity of the suburban frontier to the readers. Sklare used the data that was collected from 1957-1958 of Lakesville to publish the book in 1967. These data could be really relevant but since the years had past by, the statistics and data had changed. In Jewish Identity of the Suburban Frontier, Sklare points out a lot of interesting facts among the Jews and how they assimilate and how the survive as a group in the open society. Assimilation may not be a good idea for the Jews. According to a famous rabbi named, Jacob David Wilowsky, he told an audience in New York City that the Jews who migrated to the United States are sinners.

This may be ironic but this holds true and important to the Jews. Jews who migrated to the United States had to assimilate or to join the "melting pot" in order to fit into society. In order to do so, they must educate themselves again and find a job that will support their family. This gives little or no time for them to practice their religion because they are focused more on their future. As they join the melting pot, their education and wealth increases. Most Jews in Lakesville were rather rich.

They afforded to buy mansions and establish many Jewish organizations and institutions. The school system played an important role of Lakesville. It reputed to be among its most desirable features, constituted an inducement for Jewish families and traditionally oriented toward education to move into the community. Lakeville's Elementary schools reflect the ethnic, religion and class composition of their neighborhood and its high school serves the local community and some neighboring areas. The high school draws its students from the graduates of Catholic Parochial schools as well from the public school. The school system brings together diverse economic, religious and ethnic groups.

For example: children of low income Italian Catholic families from the small community to the southeast of Lakesville, native American Protestants in modest circumstances from central Lakesville and the children of affluent Jews and Gentiles from the preferred residential areas all went to the same school system. In order to understand the Jewish identity of Lakesville, we have to find out what the community is made of in the area. The majority of the people who lives in Lakesville are the Jews from Germany and Eastern Europe. The majority of the population are the men as well as women, are between 30 to 49 years old. The median age of men who lived in Lakesville are located in the 43.1 years of age; for women it is 37.6 years of age. What I find really interesting is the mean number of children per respondent in Lakesville.

According to statistics, the mean number of children is 2.2 and ironically it is the same number of the ZPG also known as Zero Population Growth. The rate of ZPG may have been different for the Jews in Lakesville during 1967, but it may turn up to be quite important and explain why the Jewish community is slowly disappearing. Education plays an important role to the Jews' income. It creates this stratification system between the German and Eastern Europe Jews in receiving their income.

In contrast to East Europeans, many of the Germans who enrolled in college did not complete their education, their parents were generally much better off than were the parents of East European. The East Europeans who completed college usually worked in the professional and technical occupation and would obtain a higher income compared to the Germans who usually worked as managers and sales workers. These East European would not likely to stay in Lakesville for a period of years compared to the Germans because East European Jews in Lakesville have a tendency to think they can obtain a better career and life from another place. Jews increasingly conceive of themselves in terms of constituting a religious group. Thus contemporary life as well as hoary tradition magnifies the religious component in the Jew's Jewishness. To be a member of a group with a long tradition means that the individual must define his stance in respect to that tradition.

For Jews, they must follow the sacramental tradition. There are Jews who are home observant and are not home observant. For the ones who are home observant, they follow many traditions. If they were very traditional, they would celebrate Passover, Sabbath, lighting the candles during Hanukkah, being cautious of what they can eat and not eat on specific holidays, and attending their synagogues on a weekly or monthly basis. This would create their Jewish identity and to determine how much Jewishness a Jew would have. Jewish parents also have an important role in the Jewish identity.

The Jewish parents must teach their children their religion or their heritage / tradition would disappear. Synagogues play an important role to the Jewish community in Lakesville. These synagogues are not just only places where people worship but it is an institution where the Jews gather and associate with each other. Synagogues and temples are divided into different Jewish religions. For example, there are the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative synagogues / temples. The most popular one is the Solomon Schechter Synagogue.

This synagogue has more Conservative Jews than the others. Most of the members that participate in this synagogue have a lower income level compared to the other synagogues that are in Lakesville. The second popular one is the Isaac Mayer Wise Temple. Almost all members in the Isaac Mayer Wise Temple think of themselves as Reform Jews.

Synagogues are not only just affiliated with adults, but they have special programs for young children. Jewish parents send their children to Sunday Schools so their children can have a better opportunity of learning their religion and heritage. This cannot all be done in the synagogue but the leaders would rent school space so the children could use the facilities there. Synagogues in Lakesville tries very hard to get members to participate in their services but many people may think one synagogue would cost too much just to attend. The Jews will then have to consider which synagogue is appropriate for them and their children. When they finally decided which synagogue or temple they would like to participate in, they have to question themselves if they and their children can be affiliated with it.

Jewish parents would like their children to learn more about the religion, therefore the question is when their children should attend Sunday School and Hebrew School. If the parents are more home observant, it is likely for the parents to send their children at an earlier age. If they are not, the children are likely to attend Sunday School at a later age. The main importance is if their child enjoys the synagogue that they are with. If they are not, parents are likely to take them out and bring them to other synagogues or temples. This is where the leaders of the synagogues and temples take their role.

In order for their synagogue to have more members, they must satisfy the needs of the children and parents. Parents would like their children to learn about their heritage and religion if they never received the knowledge themselves. Israel, also known as the Jewish homeland, has a major impact to the Jews in Lakesville. If the country is taken over by the Arab nations, the majority of the Jews in Lakesville will have a sense of loss of Judaism.

Ways of helping Israel could be either raising money, influencing United States policy, and could perform additional actions. Conservative Jews are most likely to support this while Reform Jews care much less. There are organizations where Jews would get together to associate with each other. These organizations do not necessarily belong to the synagogue but the Jewish community starts them.

This gives an opportunity for the Jews to meet new friends. Often of the times, Jews stay in contact with their Jewish friends but not with non-Jews that they were familiar in the past. This creates a Jewish identity in the Lakesville and makes them grow stronger in their community. However Jews are staying strong in Lakesville, parents fear of intermarriage.

Intermarriage is a serious issue for the Jews because the Jewish population would tend to decrease and their tradition or heritage would tend to disappear into society. Although most Jewish parents reject that the son or daughter is going to marry a non-Jew, they would still have to accept it. In order to be a "good" Jew, they have to satisfy their needs of their children but they would also try to convert their daughter-in-law or son-in-law into a Jew so their grandchildren would follow the Jewish heritage and tradition. In conclusion, there are many positive signs of Jewish survivalism: a new mood of Jewish affirmation, the establishment of a Jewish day school, the teaching of Hebrew at the high school, the organization of new congregations, the strengthening of existing congregations and the building of adequate facilities, the character of friendship ties, the support for the Soviet Jewry and the involvement with and support of Israel. On the other hand, there are negative signs, most obviously the rise in intermarriage. The book was rather interesting because it gave me a sense of how the Jews feel about survivalism but on the other hand, it gave too much data and statistical information (to some it might be relevant) that were too complicated to understand.