This article examines religiosity among a sample of Jews living in Windsor-Essex County. This study uses three indicators to measure religiosity, including belief in G-d, prayer routine, and the Sabbath. The researcher interviewed fifty members of this community with an age rage between their early twenties to late eighties. The results show that the community has a somewhat moderate belief in G-d but does not pray or honour the Sabbath at comparable levels. To account for this diminished religiosity, Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart’s existential security theory will be applied. The article concludes that given the high degree of existential security derived from the sample’s high education level, there is little personal need to adhere to the major tenets of Judaism.
Cet article examine la religiosité parmi un échantillon de Juifs vivant dans le comté de Windsor-Essex. Cette étude se base sur trois indicateurs pour mesurer la religiosité, notamment la croyance en Dieu, la routine de prière et le sabbat. Le chercheur a interrogé cinquante membres de cette communauté dont l’âge varie entre 20 et 80 ans. Les résultats démontrent que la communauté a une croyance assez modérée en Dieu, mais ne prie pas ou n’honore pas le sabbat à des niveaux comparables. Pour rendre compte de cette religiosité diminuée, la théorie de la sécurité existentielle de Pippa Norris et Ronald Inglehart sera appliquée. L’article conclut qu’étant donné le haut degré de sécurité existentielle découlant du haut niveau d’éducation de l’échantillon, il n’est guère nécessaire, sur le plan personnel, d’adhérer aux grands principes du judaïsme.
This paper seeks to determine which maraji͑ al-taqlid , or sources of emulation, are followed by Iraqi Shi͑a Muslims living in Dearborn, Michigan and the reasons why they have selected these spiritual authorities. The results of the study reveal that the majority of participants have decided to follow the quietist clerics of the school of Najaf, particularly the late Ayatollah Abu al-Qasim Khu͗i and Ayatollah ͑Ali Sistani. The selection of these two prominent clerics is based on the participants’ intention to emulate the religious lifestyle described by ‘the most knowledgeable clerics’ in the Shi͑a hierarchy. However, while most participants selected these two prominent clerics, there were other expected and unexpected selections. The study is useful as it provides a glimpse into the religiosity of the community by considering their choice of spiritual authority.
In attempting to measure and compare the level of religiosity among two waves of Iraqi-Shi’a Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan, the researcher was required to interview fifty members from this diasporic community. However, attempting to conduct research with these groups proved difficult as it was believed that the researcher was either a “journalist” working for a major media outlet or, more severely, a “spy” working for a government agency and posing as a scholar. The level of suspicion initially exuded by the community proved to be a significant obstruction to this research project. In order to help dissolve the sense of suspicion that permeated the atmosphere, the researcher undertook a few unique strategies to ensure his identity and ease the fears held by the participant community.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.