Gender, Families and Transmission in the Contemporary Jewish Context

Bringing together social science researchers from France, Israel, the United States, Belgium and Switzerland, this book analyses contemporary Jewishness within the constant dialectic between faithfulness to Jewish tradition and culture and adherence to the values of modernity and democracy.

Systems of family and gender normativity have durably influenced the traditional Jewish universe, but the norms and the institutions that embody them are today shaky. Individualization – the essence of modernity – is at work in the Jewish world, as it is elsewhere, and new identities are emerging and question the transmission of Jewish identities and traditions.

The contributions here highlight the contrasting experiences of societies in the Diaspora and in Israeli society – societies that are different, yet sometimes very close because of tensions around religious and identity boundaries. As such, this book revisits the relationship to the “other” and the conditions for an “alliance” among people, a notion dear to Judaism.