Modernity offers people choices about who they want to be and how they want to appear to others. The way in which Jews choose to frame their identity establishes the dynamic of their social relations with other Jews and with non-Jews—a dynamic complicated by how non- Jews position the boundaries around what and who they define as Jewish. This volume seeks to uncover these processes, historically as well as in contemporary behaviour, and to find explanations for the various manifestations, in feeling and action, of 'being Jewish'.
Boundaries and borders raise fundamental questions about the difference between Jews and non-Jews in modern life. At root, the question is how 'Jewish' is understood in social situations where people recognize or construct boundaries between their own identity and those of others. The question is important because this is by definition the point at which the lines of demarcation between Jews and non-Jews, and between different groupings of Jews, are negotiated. Collectively, the contributors to this volume expand our understanding of the social dynamics of framing Jewish identity.
The volume opens with an introduction that locates the issues raised by the contributors in terms of the scholarly traditions from which they have evolved. Part I presents four essays dealing with the construction and maintenance of boundaries, two showing how boundaries come to be etched on an ethnic landscape and two which question and adjust distinctions among neighbors. Part II focuses on expressive means of conveying identity and memory, while in Part III the discussion turns to museum exhibitions and festive performances as locations for the negotiation of identity in the public sphere. Part IV features a dialogue between observers of the paradoxes of Jewish heritage revival in Poland, and the perception of that revival by Jews and non-Jews.