Coming of age post B'nai Mitzvah: Community seeking, identity development, and diasporic translocal space among Jewish youth in Victoria, British Columbia
Date
2025
Authors
McIntosh, Beatrice
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Abstract
As an ethno-religious minority at the intersection of Euro-Canadian young adulthood and deep legacies of heritage and history, young Jewish adults in Victoria, BC are uniquely oriented within a complex set of transnational, transgenerational, and multiethnic dynamics. Particularly in a region which is highly secular, and in a broader cultural context with strong narratives related to multicultural nationalism, the experiences of young Jewish adults in this city are distinctive. In this study, I strive to address the questions of how, exactly, are young adults engaging with hybridized Jewish-Canadian identities, building communities which reflect this engagement, and envisioning themselves within the continuum of Jewish pasts, presents, and futures. Through qualitative methods including participant observation and semi-structured interview research within this community, I am proposing a triad model of youth Jewish engagement with heritage, culture, and identity. The model is premised on the following three pillars: Jewishness as fostered and expressed through seeking affirming Jewish community among peers, Jewish identity as consistently evolving during early adulthood, and Jewish identity and belonging as expressed through the creation of unique translocal community space. Through qualitative inquiry and interpretation, I present a viewpoint on this community which embraces internal diversity, complex and pluralized Jewish identities, and collective cultural experience.
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Jewishness, diaspora, translocal, community, identity, representation, inclusion, isolation, culture, religion