Secularization, Religiosity, and the Anthropology of Jewry

Buckser, Andrew

doi:10.1080/14725886.2011.580979

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Rather than experiencing religious obligations, they may participate in religious activities as part of celebrating this tradition. However, others might feel more secular, or even anti-religious [ 18 ]. Organization of the Antwerp Jewish communities Shomre Hadas The largest formal Jewish organization in Antwerp is called Shomre Hadas [ 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding how communities respond to COVID-19: experiences from the Orthodox Jewish communities of Antwerp city

Vanhamel

Meudec

Landeghem

et al. 2021

Int J Equity Health

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Background The importance of community involvement in the response against disease outbreaks has been well established. However, we lack insights into local communities’ experiences in coping with the current COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored both the impact of, and response to, COVID-19 within the Orthodox Jewish communities of Antwerp (Belgium) during the first lockdown period (March 2020 – May 2020). Methods We conducted an explorative qualitative study using a participatory approach. First, we performed a community mapping to identify relevant stakeholders. Through the active involvement of a community advisory board and based on qualitative interviews with key-informants and community members, we elicited lived experiences, attitudes, and perceptions towards COVID-19. Interviews were conducted both face-to-face and using online web conferencing technology. Data were analyzed inductively according to the principles of thematic analysis. Results Government-issued outbreak control measures presented context-specific challenges to the Orthodox Jewish communities in Antwerp. They related mainly to the remote organization of religious life, and practicing physical distancing in socially and culturally strongly connected communities. Existing community resources were rapidly mobilized to adapt to the outbreak and to self-organize response initiatives within communities. The active involvement of community and religious leaders in risk communication proved to be of great importance to facilitate the coverage and uptake of pandemic control measures while protecting essential community values and traditions. Creating bottom-up and community-adapted communication strategies, including addressing language barriers and involving Rabbis in the dissemination of prevention messages, fostered a feeling of trust in government’s response measures. However, unmet information and prevention needs were also identified, such as the need for inclusive communication by public authorities and the need to mitigate the negative effects of stigmatization. Conclusion The experiences of Orthodox Jewish communities in Antwerp demonstrate a valuable example of a feasible community-centered approach to health emergencies. Increasing the engagement of communities in local decision-making and governance structures remains a key strategy to respond to unmet information and prevention needs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding how communities respond to COVID-19: experiences from the Orthodox Jewish communities of Antwerp city

Vanhamel

Meudec

Landeghem

et al. 2021

Int J Equity Health

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“…Many participate in religious activities, but their motivation is due more to their desire to maintain cultural and familial traditions, rather than a strong sense of religious obligation [ 103 ]. For some their sense of Jewish identity is not connected to their religious faith and some are overtly anti-religious [ 106 ]. They associate via loosely structured, geographically dispersed family and social networks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving access to mental health care in an Orthodox Jewish community: a critical reflection upon the accommodation of otherness

McEvoy

Williamson

Kada

et al. 2017

BMC Health Serv Res

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BackgroundThe English National Health Service (NHS) has significantly extended the supply of evidence based psychological interventions in primary care for people experiencing common mental health problems. Yet despite the extra resources, the accessibility of services for ‘under-served’ ethnic and religious minority groups, is considerably short of the levels of access that may be necessary to offset the health inequalities created by their different exposure to services, resulting in negative health outcomes. This paper offers a critical reflection upon an initiative that sought to improve access to an NHS funded primary care mental health service to one ‘under-served’ population, an Orthodox Jewish community in the North West of England.MethodsA combination of qualitative and quantitative data were drawn upon including naturally occurring data, observational notes, e-mail correspondence, routinely collected demographic data and clinical outcomes measures, as well as written feedback and recorded discussions with 12 key informants.ResultsImprovements in access to mental health care for some people from the Orthodox Jewish community were achieved through the collaborative efforts of a distributed leadership team. The members of this leadership team were a self-selecting group of stakeholders which had a combination of local knowledge, cultural understanding, power to negotiate on behalf of their respective constituencies and expertise in mental health care. Through a process of dialogic engagement the team was able to work with the community to develop a bespoke service that accommodated its wish to maintain a distinct sense of cultural otherness.ConclusionsThis critical reflection illustrates how dialogic engagement can further the mechanisms of candidacy, concordance and recursivity that are associated with improvements in access to care in under-served sections of the population, whilst simultaneously recognising the limits of constructive dialogue. Dialogue can change the dynamic of community engagement. However, the full alignment of the goals of differing constituencies may not always be possible, due the complex interaction between the multiple positions and understandings of stakeholders that are involved and the need to respect the other’-s’ autonomy.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-017-2509-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…It is important to state at the outset of this subsection that understandings of secularization and whether the theory is relevant both to the U.S. context (Berger et al 2008 ; Voas and Chaves, 2016 ) and Judaism (Buckser 2011 ) remain highly contested. Nevertheless, two of the three elements famously identified by José Casanova ( 1994 ) as evidence of secularization should be regarded as applicable to the issues raised by the Jewish leaders in this study: privatization , pertaining to religion’s marginalization as an increasingly private rather than public matter; and decline of religion , referring to a diminution in religious belief and/or practice, in this case the latter.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The financial costs required to securitize synagogues may intensify this dynamic, and raise the additional issue of decline of religion (however, I will henceforth refer to this as just “decline of practice,” given that Judaism typically puts greater emphasis on practice than belief; see Buckser 2011 ). Such expenses are often partly swallowed by members in their dues, even if certain grants are available from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Jewish federations to pay for professional security staff and structural adaptations to buildings such as electronic security doors and bullet-proof windows.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Samson

2021

Cont Jewry

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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.

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Secularization, Religiosity, and the Anthropology of Jewry

Cited by 9 publications

References 42 publications

Understanding how communities respond to COVID-19: experiences from the Orthodox Jewish communities of Antwerp city

Understanding how communities respond to COVID-19: experiences from the Orthodox Jewish communities of Antwerp city

Improving access to mental health care in an Orthodox Jewish community: a critical reflection upon the accommodation of otherness

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

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