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Paper short abstract

This paper focuses the role of Jewish women and the strategies both Sephardic and Askenazi mothers follow in order to guarantee the transmission of Jewish identity to their offspring and the continuity of the community, while simultaneously several integration efforts are made.

Paper long abstract

The contemporary Jewish community of Lisbon is a very heterogeneous one. It is composed by individuals of very different national and cultural backgrounds, who practice their Judaism in very diverse ways, according to several religious movements and different ethnic branches. In small-scale and fractured communities such as this one, the main threat seams to be the fear of extinction by assimilation. In this paper I intend to discuss the importance of women in Judaism specifically focusing on the Jewish women and Jewish mothers role in the family and in the community, as well as the strategies that the Jewish mothers in Lisbon (both Askenazi and Sephardi) develop to maintain and strengthen Jewish identity in their descendants, while at the same time, all efforts to a successful integration are made. The analysis was based on fieldwork witch included participant observation and qualitative interviews.