Comparing Perceptions of Religion Online and Offline

In my study, I'm hoping to study how the Jewish community uses meme culture, specifically memes about rituals and practices, to identify themselves among their community and among members of other communities.

From the memes I've procured so far, the overall theme has been joking and making fun of some of the traditions of Jewish culture, but in a way that seems like it's meant to relate and identify with other members of the community. This has given the impression that the particular group I'm studying views community and shared experience as important, and has a lighthearted approach to their culture. This has also suggested that while Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, the tradition has adapted to mainstream modern culture and is overall somewhat compatible with today's digital culture.

I have dubbed this week's new memes "Happy Elbow Meme" and "Pesach Mom Meme". Happy Elbow Meme is similar to the Harry

Potter meme I posted the first week, and it's joking about the conservative nature of Judaism, and the practice of not touching a member of the opposite sex until marriage, Negiah. The meme shows a Jewish boy with an expression of what appears to be frightened excitement, which I think is supposed to joke about the significance of something so seemingly trivial in the Jewish tradition.

In Pesach Mom Meme, a woman is pictured on the phone with a

deadpan expression as she's reacting to being asked to clean her house for Pesach. Pesach is the Passover festival, and as a celebration typically held at people's homes, this meme is probably joking about every Jewish mother at this time, stressing about preparing to have family over. Just like the first meme, this meme serves to joke about a relatable Jewish experience in relation to practices.

These representations are interesting because while they don't tell us much about the official rituals of Judaism, they give outsiders an inside view about how these traditions are lived by the people of the culture, and make the ancient, exclusive religion seem more relatable to the typical American experience. It reminds us that while these people are Jewish, and they adhere to specific rituals and practices, this does not change their everyday experience of the world, and may not have a huge effect on their perception of culture.

I read an excerpt from Digital Religion called "Charting Frontiers of Online Religious Communities: The Case of Chabad Jews," in which the author claims that "online groups can help a religious community consolidate its transnational religious identity while simultaneously challenging traditional community boundaries and patterns" (Campbell, 2013). This goes hand in hand with my observations so far. While each meme seems to joke about and make fun of elements of Jewish practices, it does so in a way that reinforces the established community and builds this modern narrative that I think is quickly changing the Jewish identity. This narrative is so important, as it is the window through which outsiders look to understand Judaism.

The only popular assumption/stereotype that is perpetuated through these memes would probably be the assumption that Jews are funny and good-natured. Personally, I don't think of this as a problem, and based on the fact that this stereotype is being perpetuated by Jews themselves, I doubt this would be seen as problematic to the group either. It is interesting though, as I personally have always thought Judaism was a very serious, reverent religion, and seeing it depicted in such a relatable, funny way is eye-opening.