Religious Population Share and Religious Identity Salience: Is Jewish Identity More Important to Jews in Less Jewish Areas?

Religious identity salience is an internal phenomenon and is therefore less subject to monitoring and sanctioning by others, were seek to determine whether religious identity salience responds to changes in population share in the same way as more visible aspects of religious commitment. If low Jewish identity salience is the same as assimilation it would be important to know whether Jewish population share has a separate negative effect on Jewish identity salience over and the positive effect of Jewish population share on Jewish practice. Being Jewish and remaining Jewish is a matter of great importance and discussion within American Judaism. Religious identity salience refers to the self-described importance of religion to an individual. The controls for the presence of other religious groups have no influence on Jewish identity salience. Non-practicing Jews in less Jewish areas have higher Jewish identity salience than those in more Jewish areas.