Most Jewish Diaspora youth say the Holocaust has shaped their worldview but does not play a role in their Jewish identity, a survey found.
The survey, based on questionnaires completed by 60,000 Jewish teens aged 15 to 17 from more than 20 countries over 12 years, will be presented Tuesday during a conference at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, “Representing the Holocaust: New Perspectives.”
More than 90 percent of the teens, who were on youth group Israel trips, said the Holocaust has an influence on their worldview — more than a third indicated it was a “very important” influence.
By contrast, however, most of the teens did not believe the Holocaust and rising anti-Semitism today play a role in the formation of their Jewish identity. Only 21 percent of the youth indicated that they are Jewish in relation to the Holocaust. A series of other determining factors was more prominent in determining their Jewish identity, such as family, 96 percent; birth, 90 percent; religion, 72 percent; and culture, 67 percent.
“The Shoah is very important and really influences our worldview, but this fact doesn’t explain why we’re Jewish,” according to Erik Cohen of Bar-Ilan University’s Churgin School of Education, who compiled the research. “We are not Jewish because of the Shoah, even if it does have an influence on us.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
