Fieldwork in Search of the Past: Identity and the American Jewish Experience

Abstract

The relationship between fieldwork at home among American Jews, professional interests, and ethnic self-identity is explored, particularly regarding how a style of research is chosen. The problems investigated emanated from humanisitic concerns and from a personal bent toward immigrant history and first generation adjustment rather than toward the cultural present. The anthropologist/native in studying the diverse origins and early experiences of Jewish immigrants and their children thus finds greater subjective value in understanding the past than in investigating the increasingly monolithic quality of contemporary American Jewish culture. The shape of this research develops as much from his native experiences as from his professional orientation.