The "Draw-A-Religious Jew" Test and Students’ Religious Identities

Authors

  • Matt Reingold TanenbaumCHAT, York University (PhD 2015)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18432/R2005V

Keywords:

Jewish identity, secondary school research, charedim, gender studies, Jewish religious denominations, community day schools

Abstract

A quantitative arts-based study was conducted with high school juniors and seniors at a community Jewish school in Toronto. This group represented a diverse mixture of students who populate the school in relation to gender, involvement in school life and religious denominations. Students were prompted to draw a religious Jew and the images were scored based on five different markers. Of the 35 drawings, only one female was drawn. Additionally, the majority of students drew charedi Orthodox Jews, despite none being present in the study group. The article concludes by addressing the problem with how students understand the word religious and offers suggestions for how to reframe religious identity in a way that reflects pluralism and denominational diversity.

Author Biography

Matt Reingold, TanenbaumCHAT, York University (PhD 2015)

Matt Reingold teaches Judaic Studies at TanenbaumCHAT. He received his PhD from York University as a Wexner Fellow and a Davidson Scholar. His areas of research revolve around arts-based learning in Jewish studies and Jewish comics and graphic novels. He has published articles in the Journal of Jewish Education, Religious Education, and the Journal of Comics and Graphic Novels.

References

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School Website

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Downloads

Published

2017-03-22

How to Cite

Reingold, M. (2017). The "Draw-A-Religious Jew" Test and Students’ Religious Identities. Art/Research/International:/A/Transdisciplinary/Journal, 2(1), 89–109. https://doi.org/10.18432/R2005V