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When non-Orthodox Jews becomefrum(religious), they encounter much more than dietary laws and Sabbath prohibitions. They find themselves in the midst of a whole new culture, involving matchmakers, homemade gefilte fish, and Yiddish-influenced grammar.Becoming Frumexplains how these newcomers learn Orthodox language and culture through their interactions with community veterans and other newcomers. Some take on as much as they can as quickly as they can, going beyond the norms of those raised in the community. Others maintain aspects of their pre-Orthodox selves, yielding unique combinations, like Matisyahu's reggae music or Hebrew words and sing-song intonation used with American slang, as in \"mamish(really) keepin' it real.\"Sarah Bunin Benor brings insight into the phenomenon of adopting a new identity based on ethnographic and sociolinguistic research among men and women in an American Orthodox community. Her analysis is applicable to other situations of adult language socialization, such as students learning medical jargon or Canadians moving to Australia.Becoming Frumoffers a scholarly and accessible look at the linguistic and cultural process of \"becoming.\"

2009 Choice Outstanding Academic Title The ultra-Orthodox yeshiva, or Jewish seminary, is a space reserved for men, and for a focus on religious ideals. Fundamentalist forms of piety are usually believed to be quite resistant to change. In Yeshiva Fundamentalism , Nurit Stadler uncovers surprising evidence that firmly religious and pious young men of this community are seeking to change their institutions to incorporate several key dimensions of the secular world: a redefinition of masculinity along with a transformation of the family, and participation in civic society through the labor market, the army, and the construction of organizations that aid terror victims. In their private thoughts and sometimes public actions, they are resisting the demands placed on them to reject all aspects of the secular world. Because women are not allowed in the yeshiva setting, Stadler's research methods had to be creative. She invented a way to simulate yeshiva learning with young yeshiva men by first studying with an informant to learn key religious texts, often having to do with family life, sexuality, or participation in the larger society. This informant then invited students over to discuss these texts with Stadler and himself outside of the yeshiva setting. This strategy enabled Stadler to gain access to aspects of yeshiva life in which a woman is usually unable to participate, and to hear unofficial thoughts and reactions which would have been suppressed had the interviews taken place within the yeshiva. Yeshiva Fundamentalism provides an intriguing — and at times surprising — glimpse inside the all-male world of the ultra-orthodox yeshivas in Israel, while providing insights relevant to the larger context of transformations of fundamentalism worldwide. While there has been much research into how contemporary feminism has influenced the study of fundamentalist groups worldwide, little work has focused on ultra-Orthodox men's desires to change, as Stadler does here, showing how fundamentalist men are themselves involved in the formulation of new meanings of piety, gender, modernity and relations with the Israeli state.

The internal tensions and conflicts central to Haredi Lithuanian yeshivas in contemporary Israel are described with a focus on the rabinical authorities' attempts to respond to these difficulties and the changes the Haredi community is experiencing as a result.

Orthodox by Design, a groundbreaking exploration of religion and media, examines ArtScroll, the world's largest Orthodox Jewish publishing house, purveyor of handsomely designed editions of sacred texts and a major cultural force in contemporary Jewish public life. In the first in-depth study of the ArtScroll revolution, Jeremy Stolow traces the ubiquity of ArtScroll books in local retail markets, synagogues, libraries, and the lives of ordinary users. Synthesizing field research conducted in three local Jewish scenes where ArtScroll books have had an impact-Toronto, London, and New York-along with close readings of key ArtScroll texts, promotional materials, and the Jewish blogosphere, he shows how the use of these books reflects a broader cultural shift in the authority and public influence of Orthodox Judaism. Playing with the concept of design, Stolow's study also outlines a fresh theoretical approach to print culture and illuminates how evolving technologies, material forms, and styles of mediated communication contribute to new patterns of religious identification, practice, and power. Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in the scholarship category, Jewish Book Council

This rich exploration of kosher Orthodox foodways and their meanings demonstrates the inadequacy of limited or simple definitions of Orthodox Jewishness and offers insight into the religious diversity in American communities.

No detailed description available for \"Strictly Kosher Reading\".

Jewish law forbids carrying objects between private or public areas on the Sabbath. However, rabbinic authorities deemed carrying permissible within a physical enclosure called an eruv . This book explores the rabbinic debates surrounding the creation of such enclosures in North American cities and examines the evolution of American Orthodox communities from the late nineteenth century through the 1960s. The earliest debates reflect a community with low religious observance and weak ties to local government that relied on European rabbis for authority. By the mid-twentieth century, these rabbinic disputes reveal an established, religiously observant community forming its own traditions.

In this book, Marta T. Topel utilizes anthropological research to analyze both macro and micro social processes among secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel. She covers such complex issues as the tensions between the two groups and the radicalization of Israeli Jewish Orthodoxy in the last thirty years. The book also delves into micro social processes such as the long and tortured journey of Israeli religious dissidents and the role of non-governmental organizations in helping these dissidents adapt to secular society. In addition, she discusses the symbolic and ritual paraphernalia that dissidents must become familiar with in order to be successful in their new lives as secular Jews. Jewish Orthodoxy and Its Discontents approaches the phenomenon of religious dissidence within the Jewish Israeli Orthodoxy through the lens of the inverse phenomenon: religious conversion to Jewish Orthodoxy. This outlook is based on theoretical ground as both events constitute a radical change of the ideology of both the social actors and the social structures they have abandoned.

Modern Orthodoxy is a sect of Judaism which aims to combine a high level of commitment to Jewish observance with immersion in modern society. Alumni of Modern Orthodox parochial high schools have varying degrees of commitment towards religion. This study was designed to better understand the factors that lead adolescents towards internalizing traditional Orthodox beliefs. Previous studies on religion in general are lacking in quality and depth, using superficial factors such as church attendance to attest to religious commitment. Studies on Modern Orthodox Jewish teens are limited in quantity, with very few studies published on this population. This study focused on 1341 students from 18 Modern Orthodox high schools in the United States using the JewBALE 2.0 to collect the data. The design evaluated the relationship between spirituality and self-esteem, spiritual struggle, religious homogeny between parents and adolescents, and gender. Factors such as mental health, positive Judaic studies experience, and relationships with Judaic studies teachers were examined as potential mediators. The data indicated that students with high levels of spirituality would also have high levels of self-esteem and religious homogeny with their parents, as well as high levels of agreement with the Orthodox communal norms. Positive relationships with teachers and experiences in Jewish studies classes mediated the otherwise negative relationship between spirituality and disagreement with communal norms. Females were more likely to have high levels of spirituality than males. This study is important for those who want to better understand the factors involved in helping students enrolled in Jewish Modern Orthodox high schools achieve high levels of spirituality.

This study focuses on the tension between the national, public, and social restrictions that apply to the Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) in Israel and the way that Jews from a variety of religious streams understand Shabbat as leisure time that allows for a subjective choice of practices and self-realization. Jewish law provides clear rules and instructions for behavior on Shabbat, including a prohibition on different types of melacha (different kinds of creative activity), with the goal of “remembering” and “keeping” the Sabbath. While in Israel there are many Jews who do not follow these laws, they also make Shabbat special in other ways. Since Israel is a Jewish state, there is no clear separation between religion and state; today there are laws, regulations, expectations, and customs relating to Shabbat in the public sphere. To understand the diversity of views of Israelis about Shabbat, qualitative interviews were conducted with 66 secular, religious, formerly religious, traditional, and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, aged 25–50. Analysis of the survey data shows that Israeli Jews have a variety of perspectives regarding Shabbat, and do not describe Shabbat being structured and experienced as collective, homogeneous, and restrictive. Among the interviewees, religious and secular alike, Shabbat is described as a time full of variable subjective content, based on free choice and free from other obligations. On the one hand, even the religious and Ultra-Orthodox prioritize the individual and their family, sometimes more than religious faith or halachic obligation. On the other hand, even for those who do not keep the Shabbat halachically, resting on Shabbat forms an organizing principle for the weekend, lending this time its unique quality.