Focusing on Families

Drawing on concepts from prior research that identify the various dimensions of family systems in shaping the emerging Jewish lives of young people, this chapter explores specific dimensions of family systems that contribute to and express how the young people in our study think of themselves as Jews. The chapter underlines the role of family ritual in forming and performing who people are as Jews, and how such rituals underpin the tempo of Jewish life in the UK. Unlike the other chapters in this volume which combine both quantitative and qualitative data, this chapter focuses on the multiple interviews conducted with six families purposefully selected to include a wide range of the characteristics of those who participated in the study. The chapter probes the themes that surface when these families’ stories are examined side by side. Because our data encompass a long period when study participants were being raised at home and also the first years when they were living away from home, at university, we explore the ways in which the family’s role in young people’s lives evolves when they are much less frequently present in their parents’ houses.