JEWS WITHOUT JUDAISM - ASSIMILATION AND JEWISH IDENTITY IN THE UNITED-STATES

Objective. As Jewish Americans have become more integrated into the so cial ''mainstream,'' questions have arisen about the survival of Jewis h identity in the United States. The purpose of this research is to mo del the impact of religiosity and personal contact with other Jews upo n Jewish identification in order to cast new light on the ''Jewishness '' of the most assimilated Jews. Methods. A regression model is estima ted based on data from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. Res ults. The statistical results suggest that lower levels of religiosity and social contact are associated with a weaker sense of Jewish ident ity; that declining religiosity poses a greater threat to Jewish ident ity than declining social contact does; and that the ''base'' of Jewis h identity seems fairly impervious to the erosive impacts of declining religiosity and social contact. Conclusions. Judaism plays the centra l role in defining and maintaining Jewish identity; although close int erpersonal relations with other Jews play an important role, religious devotion is the main pillar of Jewish identity in the United States. For those who are most assimilated, Jewish identity has been transform ed from predominantly religious to predominantly ethnic.