Diaspora, tradition, and progress: Archaeology of Alexandria, Virginia’s German Jewish community

Abstract

This article seeks to develop a formal framework for studying the American Jewish diaspora archaeologically, using Alexandria, Virginia’s turn of the 20th century community as a case study. Moving beyond simple ethnic markers and tacking among several analytical scales, this approach explores how material culture and space both reflected and helped create new social identities. A few themes emerge for studying the Jewish diaspora in the U.S.: the need to understand the racial ideologies of a particular time and place and how these shaped people’s lives; the importance of nuancing strict definitions of kosher practice that leave little room for individual choices, regional constraints, and social pressures; and the importance of looking beyond simple correlations between economic position and consumer goods. These themes provide merely one path forward and studies of other places and times will yield more avenues for archaeologically studying the Jewish diaspora.