ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses recent trends toward a more familial approach to the understanding of Judaism and highlights some scholars of Jewish families’ persistent call for more in-depth qualitative exploration of Jewish families. We then describe the American Families of Faith Project, our two-decade national research effort that includes in-depth interviews with 30 Jewish families from three major branches of Judaism: Conservative, Orthodox, and Reform. The bulk of the chapter presents findings and shares first-person quotations from members of Jewish families around 13 domains: religious identity, balancing religious continuity and agency, religious exploration among youth, parent–youth religious conversations, religious sacrifices made by youth, sources of religious commitment, religious firmness and flexibility, how religion unites and divides families, relational reconciliation processes, relational struggles, relational benefits from religious ritual and tradition, regular family prayer, and Shabbat practices and family processes.
