The "Draw-A-Religious Jew" Test and Students’ Religious Identities

Abstract

A quantitative arts-based study was conducted with high school juniors and seniors at a community Jewish school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This group represented a diverse mixture of students who populate the school in relation to gender, involvement in school life, and religious denominations. Students were prompted to draw a religious Jew and the images were scored based on five different markers. Of the 35 drawings, only one female was drawn. Additionally, the majority of students drew haredi Orthodox Jews, despite none being present in the study group. The article concludes by addressing the problem of how students understand the word religious, and offers suggestions for how to reframe religious identity in a way that reflects pluralism and denominational diversity.