Edgardo de la Vera rediscovered his Jewish roots and religion as a student at the University of Miami. He now observes the Sabbath, attends a weekly class with an Orthodox rabbi and vows to marry within his faith.

Phyllis Levy grew up in a secular home and never learned the prayers of her ancestors. But when their only son was born, she and her husband, Phil, decided “we wanted to raise him in a way that he would understand what it was like to be Jewish.”

When Mitch Joseph was a child, his family displayed a Hanukkah bush and went caroling with friends at Christmas. But after years of studying Torah, he now keeps a kosher home, sends his children to Jewish day school and will walk, not drive, to Chabad of Plantation, Fla., for High Holy Day services.

During the 10-day period bookmarked by Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, which began Sept. 29 at sundown, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which began at sundown Oct. 8, many Jews observed the High Holy Days in more traditional ways than their parents ever did. It’s a trend, some say, that highlights a growing hunger for spiritual guidance, especially among the young.

“Before, when I used to go (to synagogue) for Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur, I thought of it as my one time to be Jewish and after that I was done for the year,” recalls de la Vera, 22. “It was an obligation, but now it has a very special meaning for me. I feel excited, I feel renewed. This is exactly where I want to be, with God and with the Jewish people.”

No one is quite sure how extensive this trend toward religiosity is. Quantifying it is difficult because levels of observance vary widely even within denominations.

Yitzchak Rosenbaum, a spokesman for the National Jewish Outreach Program, says America’s “warm, welcoming society” translated into assimilation and intermarriage for many Jews who emigrated here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1950s, however, there has been “a slow, small movement” to reconnect with both Jewish tradition and religion.

“We know that definitely there has been a trend, but how do you define it?” Rosenbaum says. “Are they doing one thing or two things, or are they totally religious and observant?”

A 2000 study by the Jewish Demography Project at the University of Miami found that the majority of U.S. Jews remain within the denominations of their childhood — 81 percent stay Orthodox, 66 percent continue Conservative and 75 percent remain Reform. More than 70 percent who grew up nonreligious stay that way, too.

If there is a movement, says project director Ira Sheskin, it comes from the Conservative middle toward both the stricter Orthodox and more liberal Reform denominations. In the 2000 study, fewer than 20 percent of those who identified themselves as Orthodox had migrated from other Jewish denominations, while more than 40 percent of those who considered themselves Reform had come from other backgrounds.

“Some people say there’s a significant trend, but the reality is that there is a bifurcation,” Sheskin says. “At the same time that we see a group of people moving toward stricter observance, we also have people moving away. We have people being totally secular or just nominally religious to being totally Orthodox.”

The number of Orthodox households, Sheskin adds, has remained stable or grown only slightly, to about 10 percent of all Jewish households nationally.

Nathan Katz, a professor of religious studies at Florida International University, counters that the 2000 survey was structured in such a way that the Orthodox were underrepresented.

“While most Reform or Conservative Jews actually join a synagogue and are therefore counted in the survey, many more Orthodox Jews do not formally join any synagogue,” Katz wrote in an e-mail, and therefore were not counted.

Most experts do agree on one thing: The movement toward orthodoxy is pronounced among the young. Citing a study from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Katz says the Orthodox community is growing at a faster clip than demographic studies show — in large part because of a high birth rate.

Decades ago, the Orthodox were known for having the highest proportion of elderly among Jews. In 2001, they had the highest proportion of children — 39 percent, twice as high as the two other denominations.