Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition by Carmel Chiswick (review)

In Judaism in Transition, Carmel Chiswick, Research Professor of Economics at George Washington University, uses economic concepts to demystify recent developments in American Jewish life. Chiswick distinguishes between her understanding of the “Great Tradition” of foundational Judaic belief over millennia and “Small Traditions” in particular communities. Historically, “each Small Tradition faced the same basic problem of how to preserve the Great Tradition for future generations” (201). American Judaism represents a particular, evolving “Small Tradition.” The concept of scarcity illuminates American Jewish lifestyle choices: Jews on every income level have limited quantities of time, money, and personal energy; what they choose to spend on religion competes with other possible choices. The popular phrase “the high cost of being Jewish” refers not just to direct financial costs but also to indirect costs in scarce personal time and energy.

Chiswick explains that in America’s pluralistic open environment, Jewish religious rules are often experienced as expensive. American Jews–especially in liberal wings of Judaism that reject the concept of religious obligations–fulfill Jewish expectations “only if the benefits were seen to be large, while low benefit rules might be obeyed if the cost was low” (8). Passover Seder attendance is perceived has having large benefits and low personal cost, as a yearly activity that enjoys popular general social approval. In contrast, observance of kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) carries a high cost socially, perhaps professionally, and financially. American Jews also weigh their children’s educational choices, assessing direct and indirect cost against perceived benefits.

Chiswick explains how Jewish education–both formal and informal–creates “Jewish human capital” that enhances a person’s participation in Judaism’s religious, communal, and cultural life. In addition to the cognitive information about Jewish history, laws, and folkways imparted in the classroom, synagogue attendance and Jewish summer camps often add the dimension of learning traditional Jewish liturgies and songs and Hebrew as an ethnic language–an important part of Jewish human capital. Feelings of connection to the modern State of Israel also increase Jewish human capital. As Chiswick notes, in economic terms, Jewish communal scholarships for Jewish schools, camps, or Israel trips comprise another example of Jewish financial capital being devoted to the creation of Jewish human capital. The Jewish calendar year, with its cycle of holidays, also helps build Jewish human capital through home-based ceremonies and synagogue attendance. Chiswick explains that observing Jewish holidays is “an occasion to build Jewish memories, to practice Jewish skills, and to acquire Jewish experiences,” and also to gain access to the foundational stories of Jewishness and participate in the Jewish “Great Tradition” (91).

However, when acquiring Jewish human capital is perceived as conflicting with acquiring general human capital, these two are experienced as being anticomplements rather than complements. For example, should a Jewish child attending public school spend after school hours at mandatory Little League practice or Hebrew school? In the workplace, religiously observant Jews may find that kashruth observance removes them from informal but critically important information sharing over restaurant meals. In the home, a non-Jewish spouse may prefer his children to attend church school as well as synagogue school.

One contemporary complement success story is the sharing of Jewish human capital between American and Israeli Jews. As Chiswick notes, accelerated Israeli modernization over the past two decades has lessened the cultural divide between America and Israel and facilitated the sharing of cultural materials. American Jewish individuals and institutions have become increasingly familiar with Israeli Hebrew in all its guises–modern street Hebrew, professional vocabulary, slang, music, literature, art and culture–thereby increasing American Jewish human capital. In turn–although Chiswick does not fully develop this theme–American values and norms are similarly imported into Israel and internalized into Israeli lives and values.

In this ambitious book, illustrated with tables and graphs, Chiswick effectively lays out the economic framework which serves as the scaffolding of American Jewish life. She also valiantly attempts to reach back over time...