DISRUPTION, SOCIAL LOCATION AND INTERPRETIVE PRACTICES: THE CASE OF WAYNE, NEW JERSEY.

The article presents a case of disruption, social location and interpretive practices in Wayne, New Jersey. Wayne's lack of social integration as a community is related not only to this highly fragmented and decentralized ecology, but also to the rapid growth in population and high turnover of residents in recent years. Social segregation did much to prevent these isolated incidents from erupting into an overt conflict between Christians and Jews. In fact, before the school board election incident, which is the subject of this paper, there was a prevailing belief in the tolerance and brotherhood of the community by all parties. The school board issue shattered this belief. The current article, thus, examine the interpretive responses made by the Jewish residents of Wayne, New Jersey, to religious allegations that arose in the course of a school board election. The most significant results were as follows: the positive relationship between Jewish participation-identification and increased enthnocentrism was stronger among those Jewish residents who did not discuss the issue with Gentiles, and likewise the negative relationship between cross-ties and increased ethnocentrism was stronger for the low discussion group.