Attitudinal and behavioral assimilation in the Jewish community of Knoxville, Tennessee

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between attitudinal and behavioral assimilation. Fifty adult Jews living in Knox County were chosen at random and interviewed. The respondents were asked about Jewish languages spoken in their childhood homes, amount of formal Jewish education, rituals observed in their childhood homes, and length of contact with the dominant society. They then responded to questions on Mirels and Garrett's Protestant Ethic Scale.

Findings indicated that language, formal Jewish education, and generation in America and the South had no relationship to Protestant Ethic scores, although in some sub-groups a relationship appeared. Ritual behavior correlated positively with Protestant Ethic scores, and the percent of their lives the respondents had spent in the South correlated negatively with Protestant Ethic scores. Women and those who had spent under the median amount of their lives in the South were affected least by the other variables.

Conclusions are drawn and recommendations made to Jewish communal agencies in the South. These include encouraging Jewish neighborhoods and the use of a Jewish language, including men in home-centered rituals, and encouraging the confluent education model in Jewish schools.