This issue of the Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging addresses issues of aging in the Jewish community. Why study aging Jews? We did so in response to two trends in the scientific study of religion, one general trend and one focused on the Jewish community in particular.
We have noticed a trend in the study of religion, spirituality and aging to pay less attention to differences in faith traditions and in ethnic (that is national origin) than in classical social scientific studies of religion. Most classical studies began with the study of a particular religious tradition (Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, for example) or comparing religious traditions (Suicide by Durkheim). These studies often focused on behaviors of a particular group or groups and asked if and how the religious belief systems held by members of those groups influenced behavior. When these studies were conducted in societies with significant ethnic (in terms of national origin) or racial diversity those characteristics were taken into account, as a single religious tradition might be expressed differently among diverse ethnic origins (so for example, comparing Irish and Italian Catholics in Zborowski’s People in Pain).
Much of the contemporary study of religion and ethnicity use much less specific categories, such as the “Judeo-Christian tradition” to cover all Jewish and Christian respondents, or treat “spirituality” as an individual characteristic totally unrelated to specific religious or ethnic affiliations. Ethnicity, rather than referring to national origin, has often come to mean racial/ethnic categories established by the Federal Government for policy purposes (white non-Hispanic, black, etc.). So, for example, all Italians and Irish respondents are grouped under the rubric of “white” or “Caucasian” rather than as distinct ethnic groups.
Using general measures of spirituality and the small number of racial/ethnic categories established by the federal government do make survey research easier, as it would be difficult if not impossible to establish standard measures for each faith tradition (and within faith tradition its various expressions) or to ask about specific religious affiliation given the large number of faith traditions and denominations that exist, especially in the United States. As survey research seems to predominate in much of the gerontological literature so does the assumption that these are meaningful categories. A privileging of survey research over other types of studies is something we have also seen occurring in the study of American Jewry, and that is the second of the two trends mentioned previously. Several national population surveys of American Jews have come to dominate much of the discussion among social scientists studying American Jewry. Much of the focus of this work is on the ways Jews, especially younger Jews, choose to identify and participate (or not) in the life of the community, support Jewish causes and marry within their faith. Aging often appears only in the context of determining if grandparents can and will influence the decisions of their grandchildren in regard to Jewish identification.
The 10 articles in this issue are meant to respond to these two trends by asking if the trends described are limiting our ability to study the role of religion in the lives of older adults. Are there systematic differences in health behaviors by religious affiliation within a single racial category? Do different religious traditions lead to the establishment of different types of institutions to serve older adults? Do we need to understand diversity within a particular religious/ethnic group in order to understand the lived experience of the older members of that group? To what extent do members of the same ethnic/religious group behave differently in different national settings? What types of research methods are needed to understand the various aspects of the experience of aging in a particular community?
The 10 articles are divided into four broad sections. The first section includes three articles examining the beliefs and behaviors of older American Jews. First we take a broad look at the older adult population in the American Jewish community (Glicksman and Koropeckyj-Cox) and then turn to a study of how belief and ritual are being modified (Address) to address concerns of a new generation of Jewish elderly. Finally, we ask if Jewish health behaviors are still distinctive among older Jews (Glicksman and Glicksman).
In the second section we examine the experience of two special populations. Isserman, Hollander-Goldfein, and Horwitz describe challenges facing Holocaust survivors in old age. Iris and Schrauf address how older Jews born in the former Soviet Union deal with dementia.
After these two sections on population, we move to issues of how Jewish-sponsored institutions respond to the needs of Jewish elderly. The first article describes the development of Jewish-sponsored nursing homes (Friedberg). The second article describes the closing of a Jewish-sponsored senior center (Peltz). The final article in the set examines the experience of older Jewish Holocaust survivors in Jewish-sponsored long-term care programs (Glicksman).
Finally we look at the issue from an international perspective. Schecter compares approaches to protecting vulnerable elderly in the United States and Israel by examining the values and norms that underpin the assumptions made in the legal system of each country. Litwin, Schwartz, and Avital examine issues of religiosity and well-being among older Israelis. This final article brings us full circle back to the discussions in the first article, providing a description of many of the same issues as they apply to a very different Jewish community.
Taken together, the articles demonstrate the diversity of experiences of older Jews and the reasons that diversity matters if we are to understand the impact that their identities as Jews have on their everyday lives. The wide range of methods used to accomplish this description points to the fact that no one method or data type captures the entire story of aging in one religious community. Most important, the articles together demonstrate the importance of understanding how specific cultural traditions, combining ethnicity and faith, influence the lives of older adults and the institutions that serve them. In that we hope this set of articles can serve as a model for the study of other faith traditions.