While many of these boys still identified with Adam, some chose the snake. The girls tended to see Adam and Eve as equally guilty for the fall. While some still identified with Eve, a large group of girls would have preferred to play the part of God. Dr. Charme argued that the religious and ethical significance Biblical stories have for children is influenced by which character a child identifies with. Further, gender plays a significant role in the process of identification.
Gender issues manifest themselves in a variety of ways for Jewish children.
For example, when Dr. Charme asked 13 year old boys and girls to explain why the area near the Kotel, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, is divided unequally between a men's side and a woman's side, their responses were to a large extend related to gender. The Jewish American girls were more likely to see the arrangement as unfair and suggest various ways to rectify it. Influences on Jewish American and Israeli children's views and attitudes toward religious Orthodoxy, religious services and intermarriage between Christians and Jews, are not limited to gender. For more information, please contact Stuart Charme , Department of Philosophy and Religion , Rutgers University-Camden.