From Day School to High School: An Exploratory Study on Jewish Adolescent Girls’ Identity Development

ABSTRACT

What does it mean to be a Jewish girl today and how do Jewish adolescent girls navigate their identity? The study that I undertook is exploratory and designed to understand how three girls, who are recent day school graduates, experience the process of identity development as they begin high school. While the sample is small, the study reveals new directions for looking at Jewish girls and questions that need to be asked when researching their lives. It concludes with a few suggestions for thinking about how to conduct future research with Jewish girls.

KEYWORDS:

• Girls
• adolescents
• identity development
• teens

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ An exception to this rule exists. A few scholars who have conducted research on Jewish girls include Benjamin (2010), (Benjamin & Gordon, 2008), Borish (2019), Clark (2000), Fader (2009), Catlett, Crabtree-Nelson, & Proweller(2015, 2016), Klapper (2005), Prell, and others.

² While this does not speak to the experience of Jewish girls who are not White, Jewish girls of color are marginalized in other ways since they are typically precluded from the research on Jewish girls.

³ A 2019 report, Counting Inconsistencies: An Analysis of American Jewish Population Studies, with a Focus on Jews of Color, reveals that the population of Jews of color is larger than previously understood though estimates of the population are still unclear (Kelman et al., 2019).

⁴ The 2003 National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) assessed patterns of religious engagement, belief, and fidelity among a nationally representative sample of 3,290 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 in the United States, and their parents. The study also included 80 oversampled Jewish families, which did not reflect national population rates. This brought the total number of cases to 3,370.

⁵ Conservative Jews observe some traditional Jewish practices, but adapt them to fit into modern lifestyles.

⁶ Orthodox Jews adhere to traditional Jewish laws and practices. Jews who identify as modern Orthodox adapt traditional Jewish practices into modern lifestyles.

⁷ According to halacha (Jewish law), Jews are forbidden from carrying things during Shabbat since it is considered “work.”

⁸ Names are changed to protect anonymity.

⁹ This touches on arguments regarding essentialism, and whether there is indeed an “essential” Jewish look.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cheryl Weiner

Cheryl Weiner, MPH, is a PhD candidate at Lesley University. E-mail: [email protected]