Daniel
Elazar's Characterization of Jewish Involvement in the US
Integral Jews (5-10% of the Jewish population)
- Jewishness is the central factor of life
- expressed through traditional religion, ethnic nationalism or
intensive
involvement in Jewish affairs
- families are linked and Jewishness is intergenerational
Participants (10-12%)
- Take part in Jewish life in a regular way but whose rhythm of
life follows larger
society
- Judaism is major avocational interest
- likely to be officers in organizations, participate in adult
education, fund raising
for Jewish causes, lobbyists for Israel, regular synagogue attenders
Affiliates (25-33%)
- members of Jewish organizations but not particularly active
- affiliated with synagogues but irregular attenders
Contributors and Consumers (25-33%)
- periodically use the services of Jewish organizations as needed
- occasionally contribute financially to Jewish organizations
- identify as Jews but are minimally associated
Peripherals (20%)
- recognizably Jewish but wholly uninvolved in Jewish life
- no particular desire to use Jewish institutions or contribute to
organizations
Repudiators and Converts-Out (5-10%)
Source: Daniel Elazar, Community and Polity: The Organizational
Dynamics of American Jewry, revised
and updated ed. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1995)..