Deck 14: Jewish Americans: Quest to Maintain Identity

Question 1

Which of the following statements is true of the Jewish people in the United States?

A) Jewish Americans experience fair treatment from non-Jews.
B) Jewish men and women rather marry outside the group than one other.
C) Jews share a cultural history with the dominant group.
D) Jews have a strong sense of group solidarity.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The immigration acts of the 1920s resulted in ________.

A) an increase in the influx of Jews
B) a decrease in the influx of Jews
C) a repatriation of Jews from Eastern European countries
D) a ban on the entry of all Jews

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Around the end of the nineteenth century, which of the following statements is true of the greatest migration of Jews to the United States and the great European migration?

A) They were identical in all respects.
B) They were both simultaneous.
C) They both resulted in the immediate merger of immigrants with the earlier settlers.
D) They both had very few immigrants returning to Europe.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

As the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union improved in the late 1980s, U.S. immigration officials ________.

A) completely stopped further entry of all Jewish immigrants into the country
B) allowed unrestricted entry of all Jewish immigrants into the country
C) began to scrutinize requests for entry to see whether refugee status was still merited
D) started to restrict settlement of refugees in urban areas but allowed it in rural areas

Question 5

If Michelle is a Reform Jew, she ________.

A) cannot sit with men together in Reform congregations
B) can participate in the reading of the Torah
C) can remarry without seeking a divorce
D) cannot observe the Sabbath

Question 6

In Israel, ________ defines who is a Jew and extends Israeli citizenship to all Jews.

A) kashrut
B) Aliyah
C) the Law of Return
D) the pass laws

Question 7

Precise data are lacking for the number of people of Jewish background migrating recently to the United States. Which of the following is a reason behind this?

A) The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services do not identify an immigrant's religion.
B) The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services do not release information about immigrants' religions.
C) The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services receive false information from the immigrants about their religions.
D) The number of recent Jewish immigrants has been low enough to be negligible.

Question 8

In 1654, the Jews of Sephardic origin, immigrating to the United States, ________.

A) were explorers seeking new lands and adventure
B) were refugees expelled from their countries of residence
C) were religious preachers with intentions to introduce their religion to the natives
D) were refugees escaping the Holocaust in Germany

Question 9

Ann was born into a Christian family and was very recently converted to Judaism after her marriage. Which of the following conditions is necessary for Ann to be eligible for an Israeli citizenship?

A) Her conversion must be performed by an Orthodox rabbi.
B) Her husband must give up Yiddishkait.
C) She must immigrate to Israel after her conversion.
D) She must start wearing a yarmulke.

Question 10

The Sephardic Jews were originally from ________.

A) North Africa
B) Switzerland and Austria
C) Spain and Portugal
D) Sweden and Norway

Question 11

________ are Jewish laws pertaining to permissible and forbidden foods.

Question 12

Before the beginning of the Christian faith to the present time, anti-Semitism has followed the struggle of ________.

A) Jews
B) Gentiles
C) East Asians
D) Muslims

Question 13

Ethan's religious restrictions forbid him from wearing clothes that mix linen and wool. He must constantly wear a yarmulke, day and night. He is most likely a ________.

A) Protestant
B) Gentile
C) Reform Jew
D) Hasidic Jew

Question 14

The state-sponsored persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators is known as ________.

Question 15

One difference between Jewish and non-Jewish European immigrants to the United States at the end of the nineteenth century was that ________.

A) Jews were much more likely to stay in the United States
B) Jews were much more likely to return to Europe
C) Jews were much more likely to immediately merge into the older American settlements
D) Jews were much more likely to be moneylenders

Question 16

Which of the following accurately represents the Diaspora?

A) the exile of Jews from Palestine
B) the immigration of Jews to Israel
C) the status of being between two cultures at the same time
D) the increasing rates of intermarriage in the Jewish American community

Question 17

The fringe-of-values theory has been used to explain the stereotypes created throughout history toward Jews and ________.

A) governance
B) money
C) religion
D) education

Question 18

The stereotype about Jews being obsessed with money can be explained by ________.

A) the countersignalling theory
B) the social comparison theory
C) the fringe-of-values theory
D) the world systems theory

Question 19

Which of the following is the basis of Jewish identity?

A) race
B) religion
C) nationality
D) ethnicity

Question 20

The term Judaization refers to the trend in recent years of the ________.

A) increasing importance of Jewish cultural traditions
B) lessening importance of the Jewish religion
C) heightening of Zionism
D) decreasing assimilation of American Jews

Question 21

The ________ says that prejudiced people believe they are society's victims.

A) world systems theory
B) fringe-of-values theory
C) scapegoating theory
D) riff-raff theory

Question 22

In the mid-fourteenth century, Jews were less likely to die from the bubonic plague that wiped out a third of Europe's population. This was because ________.

A) of Jewish social conditions and religious prohibitions.
B) of Jewish connections with the devil who protected them from the plague.
C) Jews had poisoned the wells of non-Jews, which made Gentiles more susceptible.
D) Jewish communities exterminated Gentiles.

Question 23

Holocaust revisionists are those people who ________.

A) survived the Holocaust
B) deny the legitimacy of the state of Israel
C) claim that the Holocaust did not happen
D) lobby worldwide to raise awareness of the Holocaust

Question 24

Which of the following terms refers to the night in Berlin on November 9, 1938, when ninety Berlin Jews were murdered, hundreds of homes and synagogues were set on fire or ransacked, and thousands of Jewish store windows were broken?

A) Yiddishkait
B) Diaspora
C) Appelplatz
D) Kristallnacht

Question 25

The exile of Jews from Palestine several centuries before Christianity is called the ________.

A) Diaspora
B) Judaization
C) sovereignty movement
D) Zionism resolution

Question 26

Jewish Americans who expressed that they should ignore the struggle of other Jews in the Middle East did so because, according to them, ________.

A) Jews were freer in the United States than have been in perhaps any other country
B) major wars in the Middle East reminded the world of Israel's vulnerability
C) Palestinian uprisings built strong pro-Israeli front among the Western powers
D) Jewish Americans were immigrating to Israel

Question 27

A historian publishes a book claiming that the Nazis did not authorize the annihilation of European Jews and that reports of the number of Jews murdered during the Nazi regime are grossly exaggerated. This historian is a ________.

A) Holocaust revisionist
B) Zionist
C) philosemite
D) Holocaust critic

Question 28

Who among the following is most likely to minimize the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust?

A) a Holocaust survivor
B) a Holocaust revisionist
C) a Zionist
D) a Holocaust critic

Question 29

Which of the following is suggested by the scapegoating theory?

A) A person divides the global economic system between nations that control wealth and those that provide natural resources and labor.
B) A parent pushes his or her children to higher levels of achievement than their own.
C) A person transfers the responsibility for failure to some vulnerable group.
D) A person uses race-neutral principles to defend the racially unequal status quo.

Question 30

In recent years, which of the following has reported an increasing number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States?

A) political conventions
B) military bases
C) college campuses
D) church meetings

Question 31

Which of the following statements is true of education among Jews?

A) Graduate schools founded by Jews are nonsectarian.
B) Few Jews receive formal Jewish education.
C) Jews believe it is not appropriate to introduce Judaic studies at elementary schools.
D) The Judaic religion is against education or formal schooling.

Question 32

Following Kristallnacht, Jews ________.

A) of Poland, Germany, and Austria alone were invited to immigrate to the United States by the government
B) desiring to immigrate were turned back by government officials in the United States and elsewhere
C) escaping aboard the liner St. Louis were massacred on arrival in Cuba
D) organized systematic persecution and annihilation of European Gentiles

Question 33

Members of the Jewish community expressing concern about Jewish education are disappointed with its highly secularized nature because ________.

A) the Jewish sociocultural experience has been avoided altogether
B) Jewish religious teaching has been overemphasized
C) secular schooling is not contributing enough to Judaization
D) the members themselves are not highly educated

Question 34

Which of the following terms refers to groups of young people who champion racist and anti-Semitic ideologies?

A) redskins
B) anarchists
C) neo-colonialists
D) skinheads

Question 35

Who among the following people is most likely to be a neo-Nazi?

A) Miriam, who supports the creation of the state of Israel
B) Warren, who opposes all forms of aggression
C) Jane, who actively opposes fascism and fascists
D) Graham, who supports racism and homophobia

Question 36

Which of the following terms refers to the Jewish religious yearning to return to the biblical homeland?

A) Diaspora
B) Judaization
C) Intifada
D) Zionism

Question 37

Which of the following is the name of the forged document that claimed that Jews throughout the world planned to conquer all governments through the means of Communism?

A) The Passion of the Christ
B) Proclamation of Unlimited National Emergency
C) Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
D) The Magna Charta

Question 38

If Daniel's political affiliation aligns with that of the majority of the Jewish voters, he will most likely support the ________ Party candidate in the present presidential elections.

A) Republican
B) Democratic
C) Green
D) Libertarian

Question 39

Which of the following best expresses Zionism?

A) the championing of racist and anti-Semitic ideologies
B) the substitution of cultural traditions as the tie that binds Jews
C) the twentieth-century movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine
D) the Jewish attitude toward death and the afterlife

Question 40

Which of the following examples of ingroup virtues becoming outgroup vices was experienced by Jews in the United States?

A) For Christians to observe Sabbath on Sunday is being orthodox; for Jews to observe Sabbath on Saturday is being reformist.
B) For Gentiles to take interest in the repayment of loans is justifiable; for Jews to do the same is a punishable crime.
C) For Christian men to marry Jewish women was acceptable; for Christian women to marry Jewish men was intolerable.
D) For Gentiles to prefer Gentiles as friends is understandable; for Jews to choose other Jews as friends suggests clannishness.

Question 41

Which of the following statements is true of Jewish religious life?

A) Jews who have not participated in Jewish religious life are not considered Jews.
B) The presence of a religious tradition is an important tie among Jews.
C) All American Jews are affiliated with a synagogue or temple.
D) Jewish identity and participation in the Jewish religion are one and the same.

Question 42

The detailed set of religious restrictions governing food preparation that Jews are expected to follow is called ________.

A) yarmulke
B) kashrut
C) mitzvah
D) shadchan

Question 43

Which of the following is true of Reform Judaism?

A) Circumcision for males is mandatory.
B) Women cannot be ordained as rabbis.
C) Divorce granted by rabbinical court alone is acceptable for remarriage.
D) Children of Jewish men and non-Jewish women are recognized as Jews.

Question 44

Which of the following statements is true of current American Jewish family lives?

A) The intensity of family interaction has increased.
B) Yiddishkait has become central to the lives of Jews.
C) There is more socializing across generation lines.
D) Financial success has taken precedence over child raising.

Question 45

Examine two theories that provide explanations for the negative stereotypes associated with Jews.

Question 46

Lily identifies as a Hasidic Jew. Which of the following holds true for her?

A) She must wear garments that mix linen and wool.
B) She must adhere to kashrut.
C) She must wear a yarmulke, even while sleeping.
D) She must undertake a lifetime of study of the Torah.

Question 47

Which of the following books of the Old Testament accurately represent the Torah?

A) the books telling the history of the Israelites
B) the first five books
C) the poetic and "Wisdom" books
D) the books of the biblical prophets

Question 48

The term Yiddishkait refers to ________.

A) a Gentile who marries a Jew
B) the support for Israel and its occupied territories
C) the sense of Jewishness
D) a Jew who has assimilated the characteristics of Gentiles

Question 49

________ Jews are the least likely to object to Jewish-Gentile marriages.

A) Conservative
B) Orthodox
C) Reform
D) Hasidic

Question 50

As identified by the American Jewish Committee, which of the following is a problem endangering the identity of the Jewish family?

A) Childlessness has become socially unacceptable.
B) More Jews marry earlier than members of other groups.
C) There is no presumption of the permanence of marriage.
D) Matchmaking groups are not supportive of the single way of life.

Question 51

Which of the following statements is true of the Judaic faith?

A) The three major sects of Judaism embrace a philosophy based on the Torah.
B) The Judaic faith is divided into five similar factions with distinct roots.
C) The exact number of followers of the three major groups is recorded in the Talmud.
D) The Orthodox faith and the Conservatives faith are at either end of the Judaic continuum.

Question 52

Jewish denominations are associated with class, nationality, and other social differences. Which of the following group members are the wealthiest and have the best formal education?

A) Conservative Jews
B) Reform Jews
C) Orthodox Jews
D) Reconstructionists

Question 53

Which of the following statements is true of the Jewish language(s)?

A) The use of Hebrew texts in Jewish day schools has decreased.
B) A measure of Jewishness is the ability to speak Yiddish.
C) Jews across the world are united by the single spoken language, Yiddish.
D) Fluency in Yiddish has been associated with the Orthodox.

Question 54

Reconstructionism is an offshoot of ________ Judaism.

A) Orthodox
B) Conservative
C) Reform
D) Hasidic

Question 55

Hannah and her family are contemporary American Jews and celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas with the same enthusiasm. They exemplify Jewish individuals accommodating themselves to two cultures and are representative of ________.

A) marginality
B) functionality
C) absolute assimilation
D) mixed status

Question 56

Describe the political beliefs and activity of Jewish Americans.

Question 57

The term shadchan is another name for ________.

A) an Israeli citizen
B) a non-Jew
C) a marriage broker
D) a former rabbi

Question 58

Jewish law covering obligations and duties is termed as ________.

A) Yiddishkait
B) halakha
C) shadchan
D) kashrut

Question 59

The concept of peoplehood is used to describe ________.

A) the commandments of Jewish behavior
B) a shared feeling of Jews as a group
C) the status of living in two distinct cultures simultaneously
D) an offshoot of the Conservative movement

Question 60

In the United States, which of the following has led to more conservative patterns of religion?

A) small Orthodox families
B) immigration of Reconstructionist Jews to the United States
C) repulsion toward the moderation of Reform Jews
D) conversion to orthodoxy by other Jews

Question 61

Explain how Reform Judaism has altered Orthodox rituals.

Question 62

What is the significance of Israel in the lives of Jewish Americans?

Question 63

Discuss the traditional practices of Orthodox Judaism, and explain why an Orthodox Jewish life can be demanding.

Question 64

Compare the largest migration of Jews to the United States with the great European migration. How was the influx of Jews affected by the immigration acts of the 1920s and Nazism in Europe?

Question 65

Specify the factors that give rise to the conclusion that the Jewish family today no longer is the main transmission agent of Jewish values, identity, and continuity.