UC Riverside

Jews have faced increasing levels of anti-Semitism in the past five years both in the United States and abroad. Given this increase, it has become increasingly important to understand the factors that may impact Jewish identity. Recent work in social psychology has posited that the identity process exists within an embedded social structure and that factors at all three levels of this structure – macro, meso, and micro – likely impact identity. This research investigates meso-level and mico-level factors in Jewish identity verification and identification. Results show that factors at both of these levels are related to both Jewish identity verification and identification. The data show that community support at the meso-level is positively related to both Jewish identity verification and identification. Similarly, the proportion of Jews in one’s close others is important in both of these identity processes. Anti-Semitism is shown to relate to increases in Jewish identity verification and identification.