2: Pew Research Center’s “Who is a Jew?” sidebar to its “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” survey, 2013.

2: Pew Research Center’s “Who is a Jew?” sidebar to its “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” survey, 2013.

The classic question—Who is a Jew?—was systematically explored by the Pew Research Center before it embarked on its massive “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” survey in 2013. Pew’s exploration of that question can be read in its entirety in the survey’s sidebar.

This excerpt and graph together encapsulate how Pew addressed and answered the question, “Who is a Jew?”

Suggested Activity: Ask students to consider what it means to be a Jew. Who gets to decide? What criteria should be considered? How do students define or describe their own Jewish identity? Then, have students consider how Pew answered the question “Who is a Jew?” before turning that question on Englander’s story. In “The Gilgul of Park Avenue,” how is Jewish identity decided, and how does that coincide with or differ from students’ own ideas or the ideas of the Pew Research Center?

Source: “A Portrait of Jewish Americans” survey sidebar. Pew Research Center, Washington, D.C. (2013). http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-cul...