ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the institutional nature of Jewish life, when combined with the patterns of suburbia, creates a situation where multiple and overlapping spaces exist. These "religious microspaces" vary down to the family and even individual level, and when uncovered, reveal a web of religious identities and meanings. The chapter explores this web as experienced in one suburb, Thornhill, a community tucked in the southeast corner of the city of Vaughan, just over the northern boundary with Toronto, Ontario. This exploration is an extension of earlier work on Orthodox Jewish suburbanization in Toronto. The challenge to students of Jewish communities is twofold. First there is the imperative to look beyond the denominational labels within the Jewish community to see institutional variety, and to understand that variety has meaning. One might say that this is a "post-denominational" perspective, but it might be more accurately described as "intra-denominational". Second is the challenge to see the spatial dimensions to modern Jewish life.
