The Jewish Web: A Conceptualisation of Jewish Identification

Abstract

This thesis explores the conceptualisation of a Jewish web as a less prescriptive means of understanding Jewish identification. Based on five months of ethnographic fieldwork among secular Jews living in London, this thesis argues that the flexibility embodied within the concept of Jewish web means that divergent forms of Jewish identification, which occupy a space in-between Jewishness and non-Jewishness, can be incorporated within the same concept without being regarded as being less authentic. It explores the mechanisms and processes of identification of secular Jews living in London and how processes of Othering, cultural memory, religiosity and other social practices contribute to the construction of a collective sense of being and affliction to a Jewish collective. By focusing this research on secular Jews, this thesis aims to contribute to a relatively understudied aspect of Jewish identification.