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A Genesis of Jewishness: Collective Memory, Identity Work, and Ethnic Boundary Making Among Jews in Toronto

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A Genesis of Jewishness: Collective Memory, Identity Work, and Ethnic Boundary Making Among Jews in Toronto A Genesis of Jewishness: Collective Memory, Identity Work, and Ethnic Boundary Making Among Jews in Toronto by Joshua Harold A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology University of Toronto © Copyright by Joshua Harold 2020 A Genesis of Jewishness: Collective Memory, Identity Work, and Ethnic Boundary Making Among Jews in Toronto Joshua Harold Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology University of Toronto 2020 Abstract Recent decades have seen exceptional growth in research investigating the social, political, and cultural lives of Jews in Canada, and for good reason. The Jewish experience in Canada is one that is often characterized as achieving the goals of multiculturalism, that is, retaining a rich and meaningful ethnic and cultural identity while integrating into the political and economic mainstream. Yet, absent from much of the work done on Jewish life in Canada is research into how Jews make sense of their Jewishness in a multicultural context. In this dissertation, I examine the group-making projects of Jews in Toronto by analyzing how collective memory informs what it means to be Jewish and how it is mobilized in the production and maintenance of ethnic boundaries. This dissertation is comprised of three interrelated studies that explore significant aspects of contemporary Jewish life in Canada, namely organizational participation, residential patterns, and the boundaries of Jewish otherness. Data come from qualitative interviews with Jews living in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area who approximate the diversity of Toronto’s Jewish population and identify with a range of Jewish denominations, including no affiliation at all, and express their commitment to Jewish principles and practices in various ways. In the first study, I ii consider overnight Jewish summer camps as an important site for the production of ethnic boundaries in the Jewish community and explore the boundary work of camp participants. In the second study, I examine Jewish residential patterns in Toronto and identify four collective memory schemas which serve as prominent scripts that shape the Jewish residential landscape in Toronto. In the third study, I attend directly to the issue of Jewish otherness and examine how a fragmented collective memory around the Holocaust and State of Israel delineate boundaries of inclusion and separateness. iii To Suzanne and River with all my love iv Acknowledgments I am grateful to the many people who supported my journey through the Ph.D. program. The time I have spent in the Sociology Department at U of T has been some of the most challenging and rewarding years of my life. The opportunity to study and work alongside the many people who make up the department’s vibrant academic community is something I never believed I would have the chance to do and I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity. I am particularly grateful to my advisor, Eric Fong, for his guidance, support, and patience throughout my dissertation work. He has been a constant source of encouragement and has provided countless opportunities for my intellectual growth over the years. I have benefited in so many ways from his mentorship and collaboration, his generosity of time, and his thoughtful engagement with this work. I am also grateful to my other committee members, Shyon Baumann and Dan Silver, for their support and comments on my work at various stages in the writing process. Their work has served as a model of excellence in scholarship to me since I started my graduate studies and I am fortunate to have learned so much from them. To all three of you – thank you! This dissertation would not have been possible without the unwavering support of my wife, Suzanne. I am extremely fortunate to have a partner in life who motivates me to pursue new opportunities, encourages me to meet challenges head on, and is always willing to help me realize my goals. v Table of Contents Acknowledgments............................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................1 1.1 Canadian Jewish Studies ......................................................................................................1 1.2 Collective Memory and Ethnic Boundaries .........................................................................3 1.3 Overview of the Dissertation ...............................................................................................5 1.4 References ............................................................................................................................8 Chapter 2 Jewish Summer Camps and the Boundary Work of Camp Participants .......................13 2.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................13 2.2 The Liminality of Jewish Summer Camps.........................................................................15 2.3 Boundaries as a Cognitive Process ....................................................................................18 2.4 Data and Methods ..............................................................................................................20 2.5 Organizational Schemas of Jewishness .............................................................................22 2.6 Post-liminal Boundary-work ..............................................................................................24 2.6.1 Keeping Kosher .....................................................................................................24 2.6.2 Shabbat Observance ...............................................................................................27 2.6.3 Attachment to Israel ...............................................................................................31 2.7 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................35 2.8 References ..........................................................................................................................37 Chapter 3 Collective Memory Schemas and Jewish Residential Patterns .....................................41 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................41 3.2 Collective memory and residential patterns .......................................................................43 3.3 Data and methods ...............................................................................................................45 3.4 Collective memory schemas and spatial boundaries .........................................................46 3.4.1 Cultural trauma schema .........................................................................................47 vi 3.4.2 Ritual belonging schema ........................................................................................50 3.4.3 Grounded community schema ...............................................................................52 3.4.4 Fortitude/empowerment schema ............................................................................55 3.5 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................57 3.6 References ..........................................................................................................................60 Chapter 4 The Holocaust, Israel, and the Boundaries of Jewish Otherness ..................................65 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................65 4.2 Otherness, Jewishness, and the Making of Jewish Otherness ...........................................68 4.3 Data and methods ...............................................................................................................73 4.4 Findings..............................................................................................................................74 4.4.1 Uniqueness in Holocaust Remembering ................................................................76 4.4.2 Universalism in Holocaust Remembering .............................................................79 4.4.3 The Fragility of Israel ............................................................................................83 4.4.4 The Power of Israel ................................................................................................87 4.5 Conclusion and Discussion ................................................................................................90 4.6 References ..........................................................................................................................93 Chapter 5 Conclusion .....................................................................................................................98 5.1 Boundary Making in Organizational, Spatial, and Temporal Context ............................100 5.2 A Note on Comparative and Group-centered Approaches ..............................................102 5.3 Directions for Future Research
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