What Do American Jews Teach Their Children?

What Do American Jews Teach Their Children?

There's a fascinating article on the English-language side of Y-net about a recent piece of research into what American Jewish summer-campers think their Judaism means:

In comparing the participants of three of the major streams of Judaism, he found that those attending Orthodox camps were significantly more likely to select symbols related to Jewish religious practice, to the Holocaust, to Israel and to discrimination, while participants in Conservative camps were most likely to select universal values such as democracy, co-existence, olerance, ecology, humanism and peace. He attributed this to the Conservative Movement's emphasis on universal values within a Jewish context. Participants in Reform camps were more likely to select items related to Jews' accomplishments in the non-Jewish world (such as wealth and success).

This comment, however, was the most fascinating of all (to me):

"Interestingly, those at the Reform camps were also most likely to select
the symbol of Anne Frank, indicating a somewhat difference attitude towards the
Holocaust than that of the Orthodox campers, who were more likely to select
Auschwitz as symbolic of their Jewish identity," said Cohen.

The idea that the Holocaust is central to Jewish identity is much more American than Israeli; the distinction between the Orthodox teenagers and the Reform ones, however, is revealing, if it's really there and not merely a quirk of the research methodology. Auschwitz is central to the murder of the Jews; Anne Frank is a single sort-of-uplifting story (except for it's end, of course, lest we forget). It's like comparing a continent with a beautiful statue on it.

Originally posted by Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations