The Politics of Religious Freedom: American Jews and the Legal Mobilization of Christian Rhetoric

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Minority religious communities have long invoked the first amendment to protect themselves against religious coercion and state incursion. But in the past decade religious freedom has become a hotly contested political battleground as the legal system is mobilized to advance—or contest—Christian nationalist agendas, interests, and worldviews. As part of a mixed-method study investigating the mobilization of rights-based rhetoric by religious individuals and institutions and the larger religious freedom landscape, this paper examines two case studies involving American Jews. In the first case, Yeshiva University vs. Pride Alliance, Jewish claimants align with a conservative Christian agenda that elevates “religion” into a protected category—but deems only conservative iterations of religion as worthy of constitutional protection. The second case study includes a cluster of cases that mobilize religious freedom rhetoric to challenge conservative Christian agendas while promoting reproductive justice; the crux of these cases is that restrictive reproductive legislation impinges on minority religious communities’ freedom because they do not account for religious minorities’ beliefs and practices. Bringing these case studies in conversation demonstrates the potential pitfalls of aligning with dominant Christian narratives, regardless of Jewish actors’ (conservative or progressive) goals. The mobilization of rights discourse by American religious minorities also sheds light on broader questions about American political culture, including battles over the role of religion in civic life and what types of religious practices and actors deserve protection.

Orit Avishai is a Professor of Sociology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Fordham University, where she is affiliated with the Center for Jewish Studies. The author of Queer Judaism: LGBT Activism and the Remaking of Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel (2023), she studies how Orthodox Jews negotiate with Jewish frameworks that regulate gender, sexuality, and desire. As part of a study of religious freedom as a locus of 21st-century culture wars, she is now writing about Yeshiva University students’ attempts to start a pride club on their campus.

Cosponsors: Department of Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Religious Studies Program, Department of Sociology

 

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