8 | DECEMBER 23 • 2021 

ages. The site also provides a daily guide to 
Zoom events, livestreams and other online 
resources.
Truvie enhances and complements 
Jewish education for children across the 
globe by enabling one to create an online 
Jewish learning experience.
Jewish Music Stream is one of a num-
ber of platforms offering a broad choice of 
Jewish musical selections, artists and per-
formances.
Foundation for Jewish Camping serves 
as a repository and resource for the Jewish 
camping field by providing interested par-
ents and kids with an array of information 
about camping, the options and types of 
Jewish camps.
Hazon’s website affords individuals 
access to Jewish resources, texts and ways 
to become involved in addressing environ-
mental issues.
Beyond these particular platforms, con-
sumers have the opportunity to virtually 
tour Jewish museums, attend Jewish film 
festivals and participate in cooking classes, 
among hundreds of other learning oppor-
tunities.

UNDERSTANDING THE 
RISE OF INDIVIDUALISM
COVID-19 accelerated a long-existing 
trend toward individualized engagement. 
Every demographic study on American 
Jews over the past 30 years confirms the 
growing diversity of our community, con-
tributing to changes associated with person-
alized consumer selections.
Already in 1987, Stephen Hart, in his 
article on “Privatization in American 
Religion and Society” advanced this con-
cept on privatization in connection with 
American religion. Hart writes, “That is, 
within a privatized religious context, people 
can still have a vital inner spiritual life, can 
still attend church faithfully, and can even 
contribute money generously and partici-
pate in the organizational life of the church. 
Societal levels of religious belief and prac-
tice can be high. 
So, what we are talking about is not that 
privatization undermines religion, but that 
it empties religion of meanings which con-
nect us to each other or to our collective 
life in non-instrumental ways and deprives 

American society of the resources such 
meanings provide.
” 
A 2017 study on spirituality vs. religious 
affiliation conducted by the Pew Research 
Center offers some interesting insights. It 
affirms that more informal, personalized 
forms of spiritual practice increasingly 
reflect the choices people are making. 
The rise of “radical individualism” within 
American culture and practice contributes 
to these diverse and personalized expres-
sions of Judaism, especially during this 
pandemic. The study highlights, “Most 
new offerings are built on the strong foun-
dation of great innovations like artificial 
intelligence and smartphones. So, this time 
around, an innovative force with several 
times the impact of the printing press is 
rapidly ushering in an all-new age of the 
individual.
” 
Similarly, Thomas Talhelm, associate 
professor of behavioral science, University 
of Chicago, observed: “The enormous geo-
graphic footprint of the U.S. lends itself to 
the ideals of an individualistic society.
” 
Charles Lippy also posits in his book, 
Being Religious, American Style, that the move-
ment to individualized religious and cultur-
al practices is American in character and 
has been developing for some time, espe-
cially among women. The idea of “private 
devotion and home-based ritual” represents 
another derivative of this growing phenom-
enon of personalized religion.

Judaism has not been immune to these 
trends. As Steven Windmueller notes, “The 
new American Jew will cast a fundamen-
tally different image: highly individualized, 
with distinctive loyalties and discrete sets of 
interests. Individuality will be the defining 
characteristic of this new species.
” 
Elsewhere, Windmueller has argued, “We 
are no longer one community but rather 
can be described as multiple pods or com-
munities. Where once there was a shared 
consensus about the Jewish story, today 
each individual is constructing their own 
Jewish storyline. The collective mythology 
has given way to a variety of communal 
narratives.
” 
Choice and diversity are dominant 
themes in 21st-century American Jewry. 
Choice is reflected in the broader cultural 
behaviors of this generation of Americans. 
How one defines or describes one’s 
Jewishness reflects the imprint of these var-
ious social forces and the existing consumer 
mindset. 
Although holding as a steady, albeit 
struggling, collective, we have also seen a 
growing diversity of our community. This 
diversity of Jewish identity has played out 
via engagement with particular slices of 
identity and interest. People are drawn 
to film, arts, youth groups, education, 
the Holocaust and antisemitism, Israel-
Palestinian issues, the Hillel movement, 
culinary, environment, history, music, 

PURELY COMMENTARY

COVID had made 
online learning and 
gathering more 
comfortable for 
many Jews.

continued from page 7

