New York

Like many other single Jewish women her age in Manhattan, Deborah Feldman hates dating.

“I won’t do it,” she says emphatically.

But unlike her peers, she has no interest in marriage. That’s because, at 25, she’s already been married (engaged at 17), divorced and has a 5-year-old son.

“I’m still celebrating the fact that I’m sleeping in my own bed,” she says.

In the last decade, study after study has shown that Jewish culture — films, music, books — rather than traditional institutions like synagogues or day schools, has become an increasingly important part of American Jewish identity. 

As if to drive home that point, a glittering array of newly built cultural institutions — from the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, which opened in 2005, to the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, unveiled in 2010 — have become landmarks for all American Jews. 

Within the next few months, consumers will probably see a small symbol — a series of Jewish stars within a white circle — next to the familiar OU or OK or other familiar kosher certification heksher marks on kosher foods in groceries.

The symbol is the sign of Magen Tzedek, a “comprehensive ethical certification” that this week officially announced its certification standards and started accepting applications from interested food producers and processors.

For much of Mindy Davids’ life, summer meant one thing: Jewish overnight camp.

Starting out as a camper and moving up to counselor, Davids spent 12 consecutive summers at three different Reform movement camps.

Now the director of religious school and educational innovation at Manhattan’s Temple Shaaray Tefila, she says: “I’m in this business primarily because of informal Jewish education experiences.”