The Complexity of Ethnic Identity Among Jewish American Emerging Adults

Jewish Americans' identity salience and effects on attitudes toward diversity

Although Jewish people in the US are often racialized (i.e., perceived by others) as White, Jewish Americans vary in the extent to which they consider themselves White, and in how strongly they identify with being Jewish. Based on prior findings that identifying with a White ethnic subgroup (e.g., Irish, Italian) can reduce prejudice toward racial and ethnic minorities, we predicted that strongly identified Jewish Americans would exhibit less intergroup bias than weakly identified Jewish Americans. For the present research, we recruited participants whose religious affiliation was Jewish but who self-identified as racially White. In a preregistered correlational study, Jewish identification was associated with lower bias, whereas White identification was associated with greater bias, toward Whites relative to racial/ethnic minorities. The relationship between Jewish identification and intergroup bias was accounted for by high Jewish identifiers' perceptions that they could personally contribute to diversity in groups and organizations. Across three meta-analyzed experiments, participants whose religious minority (Jewish) identity was made salient exhibited less intergroup bias than did control participants, and in one preregistered experiment, perceived personal contributions to diversity mediated the effect of condition on intergroup bias. Implications for the forms of ethnic identity that predict more versus less intergroup bias in an increasingly multicultural society are discussed.

White Noise and Unnecessary Evil: Balancing Security and Community in Synagogues

Violent hate crimes at places of worship such as synagogues in recent years have engendered a distinctive dilemma for religious institutions: How can one ensure people’s safety and security without compromising the warm and welcoming environment that these communities seek to create? Drawing upon five interviews with Jewish leaders, this article explores how this dilemma is being negotiated by synagogues in Chicago. After presenting three key predicaments faced by synagogues as regards security, the article argues that securitization should be understood as a form of “white noise,” necessary to religious institutions’ functioning and yet necessarily invisible. Indeed, although security is now an essential feature of many synagogues, it is also at constant risk of undermining their cordial ambience through providing a reminder of one’s mortality, requiring that it be present, but in the background. Consequently, synagogues today are compelled to find a careful balance between hospitality and openness, with diverse and often paradoxical implications.

Perceived Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Mental Health: a Review and Future Directions for Social Epidemiology

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Recent literature on racial or ethnic discrimination and mental health was reviewed to assess the current science and identify key areas of emphasis for social epidemiology. Objectives of this review were to: 1) Determine whether there have been advancements in the measurement and analysis of perceived discrimination; 2) Identify the use of theories and/or frameworks in perceived discrimination and mental health research; and 3) Assess the extent to which stress buffers are being considered and evaluated in the existing literature.

RECENT FINDINGS

Metrics and analytic approaches used to assess discrimination remain largely unchanged. Theory and/or frameworks such as the stress and coping framework continue to be underused in majority of the studies. Adolescents and young adults experiencing racial/ethnic discrimination were at greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes, and the accumulation of stressors over the life course may have an aggregate impact on mental health. Some growth seems evident in studies examining the mediation and moderation of stress buffers and other key factors with the findings suggesting a reduction in the effects of discrimination on mental health.

SUMMARY

Discrimination scales should consider the multiple social identities of a person, the context where the exposure occurs, how the stressor manifests specifically in adolescents, the historical traumas, and cumulative exposure. Life course theory and intersectionality may help guide future work. Despite existing research, gaps remain in in elucidating the effects of racial and ethnic discrimination on mental health, signaling an opportunity and a call to social epidemiologists to engage in interdisciplinary research to speed research progress.