I don’t think anyone would take it as a sole identity. We all have multiple identities. But as identities go, it’s a pretty huge one. I certainly believe that part of the reason is that it’s a huge identifier in the general population as well, and that there’s been somewhat of a cultural leak. But honestly, I can’t totally agree with you. Given the general cultural attitude toward the identifier, I think it’s pretty rational, and for all the reasons mentioned above. Besides, they may never get to identify with the most common identifiers in the Jewish community- husband/wife, father/mother- and the family unit is HUGE in the frum community, considering that so much of our religious culture surrounds family. It’s one of the reasons why it’s shidduch crisis and not shidduch niggle or shidduch booboo- because being single and not having one’s own family unit after a certain age in the frum community can be socially isolating. So no, I don’t think it’s weird that such people would want to band together, considering that they are in effect isolated in some ways from the rest of the community.
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