API tools faq
paste
Advertisement
jonstond2

American Jewish Sociology (Jewish Studies)

jonstond2
Jun 13th, 2018
2,535
0
Never
Add comment
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
text 229.02 KB | None | 0 0
raw download clone embed print report
  1.  
  2. Introduction
  3. Research on the Jewish population of the United States is often labeled American Jewish “sociology,” even though scholars engaged in the field are based in an array of disciplines, including social psychology, anthropology, social history, folklore, cultural studies, political science, economics, linguistics, and more. The field can be traced to the early 20th century, both to European social science and to research efforts of Progressive-era social workers striving to improve the lot of tenement-dwelling Eastern European Jewish immigrants. By the 1950s, questions of immigrant incorporation and the problems of impoverished city dwellers had given way to questions of group persistence in the wake of acculturation, suburbanization, economic mobility, and assimilation. The question, “Whither the Jews?” still looms large in contemporary public policy–focused research. Concerned about assimilation, Jewish communal agencies look to social science for answers, funding applied social research on the Jewish population. The result is a robust public policy conversation in which social scientists act as public intellectuals, and journalism and scholarship engage in dialogue. Much of this policy conversation centers on research reports which do not undergo formal peer review. Because peer review is the primary quality assurance practice for academic research, this article attempts to keep non-peer-reviewed citations to a minimum. The growth of university-based Jewish Studies in the 1970s significantly broadened research questions and disciplinary approaches. There are now rich literatures on gender, sexuality, subcultural diversity, collective memory, religious innovation, transnational connections, and more. These literatures tend to be more academically and less public policy oriented, although lines are porous. Much research speaks to both. The gamut of approaches is well represented when scholars convene at the annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies. In this article, some of the references are much-cited classics. Others are less known, but indicative of the diversity of the field. There is a growing interplay between contemporary and historical research, with historically minded social scientists and sociologically minded historians engaging common questions and evincing similar theoretical concerns (e.g., gender, race, place, memory, consumption, etc.). Early- and mid-20th-century sociological research now serves as historical source material for newer work revisiting questions of the Jewish American experience that were formerly thought of as contemporary sociology, but are now also in the domain of social history. These social histories, in turn, inform the contemporary sociology of Jewish Americans in the 21st century.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6. Broad sociological analyses of Jewish American life were common through the 1980s. Early examples include Glazer 1957 and the chapter “Judaism in America” in Herberg 1983 (cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival). These were narrative-driven, drawing on an eclectic array of data. Sklare and Greenblum 1967 marked the first analysis based on a large-scale, methodologically systematic sociological study. During the 1970s and 1980s, books in the genre focused on descendants of the 1881–1924 wave of Eastern European Jewish immigration, and asked whether they would maintain a distinctive Jewish culture in the face of social mobility, geographic dispersion, acculturation, and lowered social boundaries between Jews and gentiles. For answers, scholars looked to surveys, analyzing the relationships among sociodemographic factors and indicators of Jewish identification and practice. By the 1980s, sociologists were speaking of two camps, divided in their assessment of trends. “Assimilationists” interpreted the data as evidence that Jewish cohesion and cultural distinctiveness were eroding. “Transformationalists” argued that while older patterns were giving way, other sources of cohesion were generating new forms of Jewish engagement. Liebman 1973 and Goldscheider 1986, respectively, represent the assimilationist and transformationalist poles of this debate. Cohen 1983, Waxman 1983, and Cohen 1988 (cited under Ritual and Religious Practice) stake out middle ground. Goldscheider and Zuckerman 1984 moves beyond 20th-century American Jews to present a transformationalist account that encompasses the sweep of modern Jewish history. The assimilationist /transformationalist debate has subsided, in part because the cultural essentialism that undergirded the assimilationist argument no longer holds such sway. Whereas Liebman 1973 had argued that American Jews faced an either/or choice between mutually exclusive value systems, Fishman 2000 worked from the premise that for Jewish Americans at the millennium, the categories of American and Jewish had coalesced into one.
  7.  
  8. Cohen, Steven M. American Modernity and Jewish Identity. New York: Tavistock, 1983.
  9.  
  10. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11.  
  12. Pursues question of Jewish survival in America. Uses survey data to analyze sociodemographic effects on Jewish engagement. Argues that integration into American society has led to mass erosion of Jewish engagement alongside some innovation. Conclusion is more optimistic than body chapters.
  13.  
  14. Find this resource:
  15.  
  16. Fishman, Sylvia Barack. Jewish Life and American Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.
  17.  
  18. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  19.  
  20. Analyzes survey data. Retains interest in patterns of Jewish engagement, but breaks with earlier works’ tendency to conceptualize American and Jewish values as distinct and competing. Sees Jewish American values as American in a Jewish way and Jewish in an American way.
  21.  
  22. Find this resource:
  23.  
  24. Glazer, Nathan. American Judaism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957.
  25.  
  26. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  27.  
  28. Early example of the genre. Revised editions published 1972, 1989. Still used by some as a primer on American Jews, but taught by others as an historical document showing how mid-20th-century sociology approached the analysis of American Jews.
  29.  
  30. Find this resource:
  31.  
  32. Goldscheider, Calvin. Jewish Continuity and Change: Emerging Patterns in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
  33.  
  34. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  35.  
  36. In the assimilationist vs. transformationalist debates of 1980s, this book argued forcefully for the transformationalist perspective (i.e., continuity and change, not erosion). Presents a survey-based analysis of the persistent social structural bases of Jewish cohesion. Argues that late-20th-century American Jews were not becoming less Jewish, but differently Jewish.
  37.  
  38. Find this resource:
  39.  
  40. Goldscheider, Calvin, and Alan S. Zuckerman. The Transformation of the Jews. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
  41.  
  42. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  43.  
  44. Analyzes the structural bases of Jewish cohesion in Europe, America, and Israel from the 1700s to the 1980s. Among the most methodologically self-aware and sophisticated sociologies of Jewish modernity yet written. Elaborates the materialist theoretical underpinnings of the transformationalist argument.
  45.  
  46. Find this resource:
  47.  
  48. Liebman, Charles S. The Ambivalent American Jew. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1973.
  49.  
  50. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  51.  
  52. Argues that American Jews’ commitment to integrating into American society exists in fundamental tension with their commitment to maintaining a Jewish group identity. Explains the cultural patterns of American Jewish life as emerging from the struggle to reconcile this tension. A classic in the sociology of Jewry. Highly influential.
  53.  
  54. Find this resource:
  55.  
  56. Sklare, Marshall, and Joseph Greenblum. Jewish Identity on the Suburban Frontier: A Study of Group Survival in the Open Society. New York: Basic Books, 1967.
  57.  
  58. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  59.  
  60. Based on a decade-long community study combining surveys, interviews, and institutional analysis. The case study method allows the book to incorporate layers of context absent from other broad sociological overviews. Encapsulates themes running throughout the work of Sklare, the founding father of American Jewish sociology.
  61.  
  62. Find this resource:
  63.  
  64. Waxman, Chaim I. America’s Jews in Transition. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983.
  65.  
  66. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  67.  
  68. Uses the sociology of American Jews to refine theories of assimilation and secularization that were popular at the time in the sociologies of ethnicity and religion. Notable for reintegrating the sociology of religion when other assessments of the state of American Jews were highlighting the sociology of ethnicity.
  69.  
  70. Find this resource:
  71.  
  72. Critical Histories of the Field
  73. Sociological knowledge is produced in political and historical contexts. Several works turn analytic lenses onto the Jewish social research field itself, the people and institutions that produce and consume this scholarship, and the uses to which the research is put. Hart 2000 covers the European origins of the social science of Jews at the dawn of the 20th century. Mayer 1973 (to some degree) and Berman 2009 (to a great degree) extend the coverage to America in mid-century. Goldberg 2005 follows the field’s evolution in Israel as well. Hart 2000 and Berman 2009 serve as useful cautions to readers of social scientific research on American Jews, highlighting three points worth remembering: first, that the notion of a value-free sociology is a myth; second, that the sociological study of Jewish Americans it itself a feature of Jewish life in America, and is thus part of the very topic it tries to study; and third, that the sociology of Jewish Americans does not just describe its object of study but also helps to shape it.
  74.  
  75. Berman, Lila Corwin. Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals and the Creation of an American Public Identity. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009.
  76.  
  77. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  78.  
  79. Shows Jews looking to sociology to help them claim a place for themselves in 20th-century America. Examines how the discipline helped Jews forge new self-understandings and represent themselves publicly to others. Traces different uses of sociology at different points between the 1920s and 1970s.
  80.  
  81. Find this resource:
  82.  
  83. Goldberg, Harvey E. “Modern Jewish Society and Sociology.” In The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. Edited by Martin Goodman, 975–1001. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  84.  
  85. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  86.  
  87. Outlines the history of Jewish social studies from the 19th century to the early 21st, focused more on Europe and Israel than America. Like the present article, highlights the field’s interdisciplinary character, “like trying to map a delta over time” (p. 975).
  88.  
  89. Find this resource:
  90.  
  91. Hart, Mitchell B. Social Science and the Politics of Modern Jewish Identity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.
  92.  
  93. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  94.  
  95. Examines political and ideological forces shaping the emergence of Jewish social science a century ago. How and why did Jews come to produce social scientific knowledge about Jews? To what uses was the knowledge put? Europe-centered, with some US focus.
  96.  
  97. Find this resource:
  98.  
  99. Mayer, Egon. “Jewish Orthodoxy in America: Towards the Sociology of a Residual Category.” Jewish Journal of Sociology 15.2 (1973): 151–165.
  100.  
  101. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  102.  
  103. A critical review of the sociological paradigms shaping the sociology of American Jewry at mid-century. Reflexive treatment, holds the discipline and its practitioners up for scrutiny. Not about Orthodoxy, per se. The title is a misnomer.
  104.  
  105. Find this resource:
  106.  
  107. Readers
  108. No readers offering general overviews of the sociology of American Jews have been published since 1999. (Readers in specific sub-areas continue to appear, such as Nadell 2003 on American Jewish women’s history, cited under Gender, and Kaplan 2005 on American Jewish religion, cited under Religion.) Although the general readers published in the 20th century show their age, they remain relevant in various ways. Kugelmass 1988 offers useful methodological reflections. Sklare 1982 sets forth a research agenda that is still being vigorously pursued. At the time of their publication, both presented up-to-date portraits. Now they take on a different role as historical documentation of the sociology, anthropology, and demography of 20th-century American Jews. The same can be said for Sklare 1958. Seltzer and Cohen 1995 avoids some of the weathering effects of time by devoting less space to the contemporaneous and more to consideration of the broad sweep of Jewish American social history over the course of a century, framed around the theme of “Americanization.” The differences between sociological and anthropological approaches are on display in the readers. Farber and Waxman 1999 carries forward the tradition of Sklare 1958 and Sklare 1982, and is indicative of the continuities in the sociological and public policy research agenda around questions of the acculturation and assimilation of American-born non-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews (the majority of the Jewish American population). The anthropological approach taken in Kugelmass 1988, by contrast, shows little interest in these issues or this population and instead presents American Jews as a mosaic of distinct ethnic and religious subcultures.
  109.  
  110. Farber, Roberta Rosenberg, and Chaim I. Waxman, eds. 1999. Jews in America: A Contemporary Reader. Waltham, MA, and Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press.
  111.  
  112. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  113.  
  114. Framed around the notion that Jewish values and American values are distinctive value systems existing in tension. Chapters on intermarriage, antisemitism, interdenominational conflict, and more bring sociology to bear on issues on the public agenda of Jewish communal organizations.
  115.  
  116. Find this resource:
  117.  
  118. Kugelmass, Jack, ed. 1988. Between Two Worlds: Ethnographic Essays on American Jewry. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press.
  119.  
  120. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  121.  
  122. Ethnographic essays highlighting diverse Jewish American subcultures including Hasidim in Brooklyn, and immigrants from the Soviet Union and North Africa. Devotes substantial attention to methodological questions of how ethnographers study Jewish Americans and represent their cultures through the written word.
  123.  
  124. Find this resource:
  125.  
  126. Seltzer, Robert, and Norman J. Cohen, eds. 1995. The Americanization of the Jews. New York: New York University Press.
  127.  
  128. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  129.  
  130. Twenty-six essays organized thematically around the notion that American Jews have undergone a historical process of “Americanization.” Diverse in method and discipline, approaching the question from the vantage point of sociology, intellectual history, social history, cultural studies, and more.
  131.  
  132. Find this resource:
  133.  
  134. Sklare, Marshall, ed. 1958. The Jews: Social Patterns of an American Group. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
  135.  
  136. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  137.  
  138. Now largely of historical interest. Helped stimulate the field of sociology of American Jews. Thirty-three articles focusing on aspects of immigrant and second- and third-generation acculturation: Demography, socioeconomic mobility, institution building, religious change, social identity, intergroup relations, and more.
  139.  
  140. Find this resource:
  141.  
  142. Sklare, Marshall, ed. 1982. Understanding American Jewry. New Brunswick, NJ, and London: Transaction.
  143.  
  144. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  145.  
  146. Papers from a 1979 conference. Comprehensive assessment of the state of the field at the time. Demography, identity, religion, family, intergroup relations, and more. Sets forth a research agenda that continues in the 21st century.
  147.  
  148. Find this resource:
  149.  
  150. Journals and Book Series
  151. A number of journals specialize in the social scientific study of Jews. Most are international in scope. Contemporary Jewry has a sustained focus on America. It is among the most consistently oriented to sociology as a discipline and, while methodologically diverse, serves as an important venue for publication of quantitative work in the field. This is also true of the more globally oriented Jewish Journal of Sociology. Both publish demographic research, as does the American Jewish Year Book. Other important sources for demographic work are Papers in Jewish Demography (see Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Division of Jewish Demography and Statistics) and other publications from various research centers cited under Research Centers, Archives, and Repositories. Other journals and book series offer more interdisciplinary work in Jewish social research. Jewish Social Studies draws together work in the humanities, cultural studies, and humanistically inclined social sciences. So too does the book series Studies in Contemporary Jewry. A new addition to this field is the book series Jewish Cultural Studies. Research on the sociology of American Jews also appears regularly in journals not solely devoted to the topic. The Journal of Jewish Education regularly includes coverage of the sociology of Jewish education. Of sociology journals oriented to the discipline at large, those focusing on the sociologies of religion and ethnicity publish most regularly on American Jews. The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion is among the more prominent in this regard. Research in the sociology of Jews also finds a ready home in numerous general-interest sociology journals. Readers will notice publications from a variety of these journals cited throughout this bibliography.
  152.  
  153. American Jewish Year Book. 1899–2008.
  154.  
  155. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  156.  
  157. Published by the American Jewish Committee from 1899 to 2008. Relaunched in 2012 by Springer. Annual demographic profiles of American Jewry. Review essays addressing major Jewish communal issues of the day. Good resource for 20th-century American Jewish history.
  158.  
  159. Find this resource:
  160.  
  161. Contemporary Jewry. 1974–.
  162.  
  163. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  164.  
  165. The journal of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry. A primary venue of publication for social scientists who specialize in the sociology of Jewry. Frequently publishes thematic issues. Three issues a year. Founded 1974.
  166.  
  167. Find this resource:
  168.  
  169. Jewish Cultural Studies. 2008–. Columbus, OH: American Folklore Society.
  170.  
  171. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  172.  
  173. Launched in 2008, this book series, sponsored by the Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Section of the American Folklore Society, succeeds the section’s Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review (1987–2000). Reflects contemporary cultural studies. Thematic volumes published every one to two years.
  174.  
  175. Find this resource:
  176.  
  177. Jewish Journal of Sociology. 1959–.
  178.  
  179. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  180.  
  181. Founded 1959 by the World Congress of Jewish Studies. Tends to be more internationally oriented, both in content and in contributors.
  182.  
  183. Find this resource:
  184.  
  185. Jewish Social Studies. 1939–.
  186.  
  187. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  188.  
  189. Original series founded 1939 and published through 1988. New series revived in 1994. A humanistically oriented, interdisciplinary journal treating sociology of American Jews, among other things.
  190.  
  191. Find this resource:
  192.  
  193. Journal of Jewish Education. 1929–.
  194.  
  195. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  196.  
  197. Often includes articles on the sociology of Jewish education.
  198.  
  199. Find this resource:
  200.  
  201. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 2000–.
  202.  
  203. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  204.  
  205. Presents occasional articles on American Jews. More likely than Jewish studies journals to place Jews in comparative context with other religious groups.
  206.  
  207. Find this resource:
  208.  
  209. Studies in Contemporary Jewry. 1984–. Bloomington, IN: Oxford University Press.
  210.  
  211. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  212.  
  213. An interdisciplinary book series that regularly includes social scientific treatments of American Jews. Thematic volumes, published annually.
  214.  
  215. Find this resource:
  216.  
  217. Research Centers, Archives, and Repositories
  218. Scholars studying the sociology of Jews work from a variety of institutional homes, including universities, not-for-profit research institutes, and research departments of Jewish communal institutions. Others work independently. In the universities, Brandeis University’s Maurice & Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies (CMJS), Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Division of Jewish Demography and Statistics, and the University of Connecticut’s Mandell L. Berman Institute’s North American Jewish DataBank (NAJDB) function as centers of gravity for the field, bringing together teams of scholars, sponsoring new research, publishing findings, and convening forums for scholarly discussion. The UK-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research functions similarly outside of university auspices. Most of these centers maintain web-accessible archives of their own publications. Of the broader repositories of data and research, the aforementioned Mandell L. Berman Institute’s North American Jewish DataBank (NAJDB) is the major repository for demographic studies and community surveys of American Jews, also offering access to raw data and to survey questionnaires. Another repository, weaker in coverage of Jews but important for its broader coverage of American religion generally, is the Association of Religion Data Archives. Much social scientific research informing Jewish communal policy conversations is published as research reports released directly to the public. Unlike articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, these independently published research reports are not typically available through commercial online academic databases. The only central repository for this “gray” or “fugitive” literature is the recently-launched Berman Jewish Policy Archive which is scanning and indexing materials that had been sitting uncatalogued on private shelves. Some research reports not available at the BJPA can be accessed at the CMJS and NAJDB websites.
  219.  
  220. Association of Religion Data Archives.
  221.  
  222. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223.  
  224. Although not a major repository of surveys of Jews, its importance to the broader sociological study of American religion makes it useful to scholars looking for comparative data and translatable survey questions.
  225.  
  226. Find this resource:
  227.  
  228. Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Division of Jewish Demography and Statistics (Hebrew University of Jerusalem).
  229.  
  230. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  231.  
  232. Publisher of the Jewish Population Studies series, which includes monographs and the edited collection Papers in Jewish Demography.
  233.  
  234. Find this resource:
  235.  
  236. Berman Jewish Policy Archive. New York University.
  237.  
  238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  239.  
  240. Searchable online database of Jewish communal policy research. Extensive holdings from late 1800s to the early 21st century. Provides access to previously hard-to-acquire “gray literature” research reports.
  241.  
  242. Find this resource:
  243.  
  244. Institute for Jewish Policy Research
  245.  
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247.  
  248. London-based independent research institute specializing in the sociological and demographic studies of European Jewish communities. Provides online access to research reports.
  249.  
  250. Find this resource:
  251.  
  252. Mandell L. Berman Institute’s North American Jewish DataBank. University of Connecticut.
  253.  
  254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255.  
  256. Repository of social scientific and demographic studies of American Jews, including 1970, 1990, and 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Surveys (NJPS) and dozens of local community surveys. Provides access to research reports and data sets.
  257.  
  258. Find this resource:
  259.  
  260. Maurice & Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. Brandeis University.
  261.  
  262. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263.  
  264. Center for applied social research on American Jews. Online access to Center for Modern Jewish Studies (CMJS) and Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI) research and policy reports on sociology of Jewish education, youth, young adults, Israel experience travel, demography, and more.
  265.  
  266. Find this resource:
  267.  
  268. Demographic Profiles
  269. The United States Census gathers no information on religion and does not presently collect data identifying Jews as such. Independent organizations therefore gather their own data. Most demographic studies are conducted at the local level by Jewish philanthropic federations. A handful of nationally representative population studies have been conducted since 1970. Pew Research Center 2013 reports first findings from the most recent survey. Readers should be cautioned that the report was published before the data were released to scholars for independent scrutiny. Goldstein 1992 and Kotler-Berkowitz, et al. 2003 summarize findings from National Jewish Population Surveys conducted by the Jewish federation’s national umbrella organization in 1990 and 2000–2001, respectively. Because methodological differences between the 1990 and the 2000–2001 NJPS complicate efforts to track trends, Mayer, et al. 2002 presents an independently conducted 2001 population study designed to replicate the 1990 method. In a special issue of Contemporary Jewry (cited under Journals and Book Series) devoted to Jewish American demography, DellaPergola 2013 and Saxe and Tighe 2013 address debates around Jewish population estimates and methods, with DellaPergola using classic demographic modeling to reanalyze an array of Jewish population surveys, and Saxe and Tighe applying advanced statistical techniques to estimate the Jewish population from general surveys of the American population at large. For a general overview of demography in Jewish Studies, see DellaPergola 2005. For historical estimates of Jewish American population estimates, see the American Jewish Year Book (cited under Journals and Book Series), which has published figures almost annually since 1899. Figures from local and national population studies are available at the Mandell L. Berman Institute’s North American Jewish DataBank (NAJDB) (cited under Research Centers, Archives, and Repositories) and are compiled for cross-community comparison in Sheskin 2001. Another source is Papers in Jewish Demography (see Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Division of Jewish Demography and Statistics, cited under Research Centers, Archives, and Repositories). Books that use demographic analyses to broadly assess the state of American Jewry, such as Cohen 1983 and Goldscheider 1986 (both cited under General Overviews), are also available. On gender and demography, see Hartman and Hartman 2009 (cited under Gender). On geographic distribution and mobility, see Goldstein and Goldstein 1996 (cited under Geography, Mobility, and Place). On demography of religious denominations, see Lazerwitz, et al. 1998 (cited under Denominations). For socioeconomic profiles, see Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobility. For family demographics, see Family.
  270.  
  271. DellaPergola, Sergio. “Demography.” In The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. Edited by Martin Goodman, 797–823. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  272.  
  273. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  274.  
  275. Introductory essay on demographic research in Jewish Studies. Not limited to America or the present day. Brief primer on basic demographic concepts and methodological issues, followed by consideration of historical and contemporary demographic patterns. Ends with a short annotated bibliography.
  276.  
  277. Find this resource:
  278.  
  279. DellaPergola, Sergio. “How Many Jews in the United States? The Demographic Perspective.” Contemporary Jewry 33.1–2 (2013): 15–42.
  280.  
  281. DOI: 10.1007/s12397-013-9098-2Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  282.  
  283. Following scholarly debates over the Jewish American population size, a leading demographer of Jewish communities reassesses past studies, and sets forth, step by step, a demographer’s approach to constructing population estimates. Good primer on theoretical and methodological issues involved.
  284.  
  285. Find this resource:
  286.  
  287. Goldstein, Sidney. “Profile of American Jewry: Insights from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey.” American Jewish Year Book 92 (1992): 77–176.
  288.  
  289. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  290.  
  291. Presents findings from the second National Jewish Population Survey, conducted in 1990. More detailed than an earlier 1990 NJPS Highlights by Kosmin, et al., which first reported the survey’s findings.
  292.  
  293. Find this resource:
  294.  
  295. Kotler-Berkowitz, Laurence, Steven M. Cohen, Jonathan Ament, Vivian Klaff, Frank Mott, and Danyelle Peckerman-Neuman. “The National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01: Strength, Challenge and Diversity in the American Jewish Population.” New York: United Jewish Communities in cooperation with the Mandell L. Berman Institute–North American Jewish DataBank. 2003.
  296.  
  297. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  298.  
  299. Research report presenting findings from NJPS 2000–2001. Covers basic demographics and measures of Jewish identity. Other NJPS 2000–2001 research reports providing depth coverage of specific topics are available at the North American Jewish DataBank.
  300.  
  301. Find this resource:
  302.  
  303. Mayer, Egon, Barry Kosmin, and Ariela Keysar. “American Jewish Identity Survey 2001: AJIS Report.” New York: Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 2002.
  304.  
  305. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  306.  
  307. Research report presenting findings from the national survey AJIS 2001. Covers basic demographics and measures of Jewish identity. Conducted by team responsible for the 1990 NJPS, the AJIS uses the same method as the 1990 study, making it well suited to tracking trends.
  308.  
  309. Find this resource:
  310.  
  311. Pew Research Center. “A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Findings from a Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews.” Washington, DC: Pew Research Center, 2013.
  312.  
  313. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  314.  
  315. Research report presenting findings from most recent national population survey of Jewish Americans. Introduces distinction between Jews of religion and Jews of no religion. Designed for comparability with other Pew surveys of American religious groups.
  316.  
  317. Find this resource:
  318.  
  319. Saxe, Leonard, and Elizabeth Tighe. “Estimating and Understanding the Jewish Population in the United States: A Program of Research.” Contemporary Jewry 33.1–2 (2013): 43–62.
  320.  
  321. DOI: 10.1007/s12397-013-9099-1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  322.  
  323. Introduces cutting-edge method to Jewish demography. “Metanalysis” aggregates fifty national surveys to estimate Jewish American population size. (Same method of weighted poll-aggregation used by journalist Nate Silver to correctly forecast forty-nine of fifty state outcomes for the 2008 US presidential election.)
  324.  
  325. Find this resource:
  326.  
  327. Sheskin, Ira M. How Jewish Communities Differ: Variations in the Findings of Local Jewish Demographic Studies. New York: North American Jewish DataBank, 2001.
  328.  
  329. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  330.  
  331. National portrait presented through comparisons of dozens of local Jewish community surveys. Highlights diversity across communities. Mostly tables, minimal text. Helpful introduction explains the limitations of data sources and how to read the tables, but the interpretive work is largely left to the reader.
  332.  
  333. Find this resource:
  334.  
  335. Ethnicity and Americanization of Eastern European Jews
  336. The largest wave of Jewish immigration to the United States arrived between 1881 and 1924, bringing over two million Jews, mostly from Eastern Europe. Sociological research has focused on how these immigrants and their descendants adapted, integrated, and became American, although scholars debate what it means to become American and how this happened. Two paradigms are evident: One, dominant through most of the 20th century, conceives of Jews as one of many ethnic groups who integrate into an American mainstream. The other, more recent, imagines America as an unfolding project that Jews themselves have helped to shape, and focuses less on ethnicity and more on race, gender, the consumer economy, and the domestic sphere. Whereas the former tells a story of outsiders becoming insiders and being changed in the process, the latter tells of diverse populations swept up in a swirl of economic, social, political, and cultural transformations that thrust the country from the industrial era into the Information Age.
  337.  
  338. Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival
  339. Research on the transformation of Eastern European Jews and their descendants has understood acculturation to be a multigenerational process, measured in terms of generational distance from the immigrant experience, geographic distance from immigrant neighborhoods, and temporal distance from the era of mass migration. Wirth 1998, Howe 2005, and Weinberg 1988 offer analyses of Jewish immigrant life in American urban ghettos. Howe’s social history, written in 1976, is more comprehensive but also more nostalgic than Wirth’s, whose 1928 treatment emphasizes Jews’ efforts to escape the ghetto. Moore 1981 follows second-generation Jews who left the ghetto into their new urban neighborhoods in the 1920s and 1930s. Gans 1958 follows their children out further to new postwar-era suburbs. Both Moore and Gans consider how Jews build community in these new places, as does Herberg 1983, which argues that the spate of suburban synagogue construction reflected Jews’ desires to maintain ethnic cohesion under the guise of religion. By the 1970s numerous ethnic revival movements were underway, confounding sociologists. Would ethnic cohesion persist among the grandchildren of immigrants, or would America dissolve away differences in the melting pot? Glazer and Moynihan 1970 and Gans 1979 engage the debate. The question of whether ethnicity was a holdover from Eastern Europe or something made in America was taken up by Tuchman and Levine 1993 (cited under Food). Arguing for the latter, they showed how interethnic relations in the immigrant ghetto generated new cultural practices that later generations of Jews claimed as their ethnic heritage.
  340.  
  341. Gans, Herbert J. “The Origin and Growth of a Jewish Community in the Suburbs: A Study of the Jews of Park Forest.” In The Jews: Social Patterns of an American Group. Edited by Marshall Sklare, 205–248. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1958.
  342.  
  343. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  344.  
  345. Children and grandchildren of immigrants leave urban Jewish neighborhoods for new postwar suburbs, creating new Jewish communities there. Elegant case study by the original chronicler of the American suburb. Analyzes informal sociability, creation of formal institutions, social class, gender roles, and “child-centered” Judaism.
  346.  
  347. Find this resource:
  348.  
  349. Gans, Herbert J. “Symbolic Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures in America.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 2.1 (1979): 1–20.
  350.  
  351. DOI: 10.1080/01419870.1979.9993248Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  352.  
  353. Challenges claims of ethnic revival. Social structural bases of ethnic distinctiveness have eroded. Ethnicity no longer shapes life chances. Persists only as voluntary personal choice to identify with ethnic symbols (food, holidays, etc.). A way station on the assimilatory track
  354.  
  355. Find this resource:
  356.  
  357. Glazer, Nathan, and Daniel P. Moynihan. Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians and Irish of New York City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970.
  358.  
  359. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  360.  
  361. Ethnicity is not disappearing. Ethnics are not being melted into amalgam of unhyphenated Americans. Interest group politics foster ethnic solidarity and persistence. Controversial in its day.
  362.  
  363. Find this resource:
  364.  
  365. Herberg, Will. Protestant—Catholic—Jew: An Essay in Religious Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
  366.  
  367. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  368.  
  369. Classic. Originally published 1955. Like the joke, “Cohen goes to synagogue to talk to God; Goldstein goes to talk to Cohen.” Postwar churches and synagogues are more social than religious. Religion lets Jews maintain ethnic cohesion while sharing a common American civic religion.
  370.  
  371. Find this resource:
  372.  
  373. Howe, Irving. World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made. New York: New York University Press, 2005.
  374.  
  375. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  376.  
  377. A sociologically-minded historical portrait of the Eastern European Jewish immigrant neighborhoods, with an emphasis on Yiddish culture and the rise and fall of socialist politics. Winner of the 1976 National Book Award. Still taught in American Jewish sociology courses.
  378.  
  379. Find this resource:
  380.  
  381. Moore, Deborah Dash. At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
  382.  
  383. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  384.  
  385. Social history of the culture created by the children of immigrants in New York. Case studies of institution-building, politics, and religion. Shows Jews confronting dilemmas that would recur throughout the century, responding with solutions that subsequent generations would adopt.
  386.  
  387. Find this resource:
  388.  
  389. Weinberg, Sydney Stahl. The World of Our Mothers. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
  390.  
  391. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  392.  
  393. Rewrites the historiography of the early-20th-century Jewish immigrant experience—education, work, family, etc.—focusing on women, as Howe 2005 focused on men.
  394.  
  395. Find this resource:
  396.  
  397. Wirth, Louis. The Ghetto. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1998.
  398.  
  399. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  400.  
  401. Originally published 1928. A classic of Chicago School urban sociology. Contemporaneous analysis of a Jewish immigrant ghetto at the end of the 1881–1924 immigration wave. Theorizes the effects of social isolation and Jews’ efforts to move up and out.
  402.  
  403. Find this resource:
  404.  
  405. New Approaches to Americanization
  406. Since the 1990s, assumptions that had driven earlier scholarship on the immigration and acculturation of Eastern European Jews have been challenged on several fronts. Some studies challenge the ethnic acculturation literature’s under-theorization of race and gender. Brodkin 1998 and Goldstein 2006 (both cited under Race and Black-Jewish Relations) argue that since America is a society stratified along racial lines, immigrants do not simply become unhyphenated Americans. They reinterpret Americanization as a process of racial whitening (i.e., moving from being seen as not white to being seen as white). Prell 1999 argues that Americanization was a gendered process that differed for men and women. These differences created internal dynamics that shaped how the Americanization process unfolded. The new work insists that the categories “American” and “Jew” must be understood as intersecting with racial and gender categories, producing a diversity of Jewish acculturation experiences rather than a singular experience. Another approach challenges the under-theorization of American capitalism. Whereas literature on Americanization emphasized how work and economic mobility were related to acculturation, Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) and Heinze 1990 reinterpret Americanization as a process of learning to become modern consumers and of adapting Jewish culture to a consumer economy. Diner 2001 (cited under Food) treats consumption literally. Although focused on the culinary domain, the study suggests that each cultural domain generates its own particular dynamic of Americanization. Other cultural domains, such as dress and décor, are treated in Heinze 1990 and Joselit 1994. Like Prell 1999, they frame Americanization as a gendered process taking place in and through the domestic sphere. Other work challenges the notion that cultural adaptations have operated in one direction only (i.e., that Jewish “outsiders” changed to fit a broader culture that remained static.) An example is Most 2004, which focuses on the Jewish role in creating the Broadway musical. Breaking with the assumption that America presents itself as an accomplished fact, it shows how Jews help to invent the America that they and others inhabit. Sources cited in this section represent diverse disciplinary orientations including American studies, anthropology, cultural studies, English, and history. Methodologically, the works reinterpreting Jewish acculturation tend to embrace social history.
  407.  
  408. Heinze, Andrew R. Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass Consumption, and the Search for American Identity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990.
  409.  
  410. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411.  
  412. Americanization as a process of embracing consumer culture and expressing identity through shopping. Reinterprets the Jewish American experience in terms of a key dynamic of American capitalism. Examines consumption of clothing, home décor, leisure travel, advertising, and more.
  413.  
  414. Find this resource:
  415.  
  416. Most, Andrea. Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
  417.  
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419.  
  420. Americanization as a cultural process in which artists play a role. Jewish composers and lyricists represent dilemmas of acculturation and imagine an idealized America in their musicals. These musicals help shape how Americans have come to view themselves.
  421.  
  422. Find this resource:
  423.  
  424. Prell, Riv-Ellen. Fighting to Become Americans: Jews, Gender, and the Anxiety of Assimilation. Boston: Beacon, 1999.
  425.  
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427.  
  428. Americanization as a gendered process. Acculturation and socioeconomic mobility bred ambivalence that affected gender relations. Analyses of “Jewish mother” and “Jewish American Princess” stereotypes show status anxiety and antisemitism poisoning relations between Jewish men and women. Theoretically rich and well written.
  429.  
  430. Find this resource:
  431.  
  432. Contemporary Migrations
  433. The closing of America’s gates to mass migration in 1924 ended the large wave of Eastern European migration, but did not spell the end of Jewish immigration entirely. Smaller influxes of Jewish migrants brought refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s and Holocaust survivors (including many ultra-Orthodox Jews) after the war. The immigration of Holocaust survivors has been treated in Helmreich 1992 and Diner 2009 (both cited under Holocaust), with its role in the evolution of American Orthodox Judaism treated in Heilman 2006 (cited under Orthodoxy). Since US immigration laws were reformed in 1965, America has again been experiencing an extended period of mass immigration. Again, Jews have participated in the influx. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have immigrated, most from the former Soviet Union, Israel, Iran, South Africa, Argentina, and Canada. Smaller communities of Jews have also arrived from elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. On this immigration, and the shaping of Sephardic-American identity that embraces Jews from Morocco, Syria, Turkey, and elsewhere, see Cernea 1988. Of the post-1965 immigrations, the experiences of Russian-speaking Jews and Israelis have been studied most. This article addresses each separately.
  434.  
  435. Cernea, Ruth Fredman. “Flaming Prayers: Hillula in a New Home.” In Between Two Worlds: Ethnographic Essays on American Jewry. Edited by Jack Kugelmass, 162–191. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
  436.  
  437. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  438.  
  439. Traces the transformation of a Moroccan Jewish pilgrimage festival relocated to the United States, far from the rabbis’ tombs in Morocco where pilgrims traditionally converged. An ethnography of immigration, religion, ethnicity, and the construction of American Sephardic identities.
  440.  
  441. Find this resource:
  442.  
  443. Russian-Speaking Jews
  444. There have been four waves of Jewish immigration from Russia to the United States. The first and largest brought more than two million Jews between 1881 and 1924. The second involved Holocaust survivors. In the 1970s, a worldwide movement to free Soviet Jews enabled the immigration of tens of thousands (see Soviet Jewry). Finally, hundreds of thousands immigrated with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Orleck 2001 traces this history, analyzing the recent waves in relation to the earlier ones. Gold 1996; Kasinitz, et al. 2009; and Zeltzer-Zubida 2004 situate third- and fourth-wave Russian-speaking Jews in the context of broader sociological research on the post-1965 mass immigration to the United States. They address questions of acculturation and socioeconomic mobility in relation to the experiences of other contemporary immigrant populations. While sociologists focus on macro-level issues of immigrant incorporation, psychologists and social workers examine dilemmas of immigrant adjustment in the realms of mental health and family welfare. Here too, one can find a literature on Russian-speaking Jews, including Birman, et al. 2002. Other research situates Russian Jews émigrés in the context of contemporary studies of transnationalism. This approach treats migration not as a one-way movement that exchanges an old country for a new country, but as a population flow that generates a web of connections linking places around the globe. Friedman 2007 and Remennick 2007 analyze how Russian Jewish communities in America are shaped by material and symbolic ties with Russian-speaking Jewish communities in Israel, Western Europe, and Russia. Cross-cutting ties to many different places and communities create feelings of connection and disconnection, opening a variety of identity options. Will Russian Jewish immigrants identify with other Jewish Americans, with other Russian Americans, with neither or both? These possibilities, which are experienced as opportunities and dilemmas, are addressed in many of the works cited here, especially Friedman 2007, Zeltzer-Zubida 2004, and Markowitz 1988.
  445.  
  446. Birman, Dina, Edison J. Trickett, and Andrey Vinokurov. “Acculturation and Adaptation of Soviet Jewish Refugee Adolescents: Predictors of Adjustment across Life Domains.” American Journal of Community Psychology 30.5 (2002): 585–607.
  447.  
  448. DOI: 10.1023/A:1016323213871Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  449.  
  450. Indicative of scholarship on Russian-speaking American Jews in the psychology journals and social work literature. The citations can be followed to find more in this genre.
  451.  
  452. Find this resource:
  453.  
  454. Friedman, Kathie. “‘On Halloween We Dressed Up Like KGB Agents’: Re-imagining Soviet Jewish Refugee Identities in America.” In Sociology Confronts the Holocaust: Memories and Identities in Jewish Diasporas. Edited by Judith Madeleine Gerson and Diane L. Wolf, 236–259. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.
  455.  
  456. DOI: 10.1215/9780822389682Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  457.  
  458. Critiques transnational studies for treating group identities as presumed. Argues that Soviet Jewish émigrés show these group identities to actually be fluid. Soviet Jews negotiate hybrid identities that express connection to and distance from Russians, American Jews, Israelis, and others.
  459.  
  460. Find this resource:
  461.  
  462. Gold, Steven J. From the Workers’ State to the Golden State: Jews from the Former Soviet Union in California. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1996.
  463.  
  464. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  465.  
  466. Work, family, community, and identity among Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants during the mass exodus from the Soviet Union. Over a decade of field work traces the evolution of community life. Part of a book series on new American immigrant groups.
  467.  
  468. Find this resource:
  469.  
  470. Kasinitz, Philip, John H. Mollenkopf, Mary C. Waters, and Jennifer Holdaway. Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2009.
  471.  
  472. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  473.  
  474. Findings from landmark study of adult children of New York’s major immigrant populations (Russian Jews, Chinese, Dominicans, South Americans, and West Indians). Finds strong Russian Jewish socioeconomic mobility. Winner of the 2010 American Sociological Association’s Distinguished Book Award.
  475.  
  476. Find this resource:
  477.  
  478. Markowitz, Fran. “Rituals as Keys to Soviet Immigrants’ Jewish Identity.” In Between Two Worlds: Ethnographic Essays on American Jewry. Edited by Jack Kugelmass, 128–147. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
  479.  
  480. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  481.  
  482. Religion and immigration. How Soviet Jewish bar mitzvahs and funerals in America negotiate the boundaries and intersections of American, Jewish, Russian, and immigrant identities. Field work in Brighton Beach, the Brooklyn neighborhood housing the largest ethnic enclave of Russian-speaking Jews.
  483.  
  484. Find this resource:
  485.  
  486. Orleck, Annelise. The Soviet Jewish Americans. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2001.
  487.  
  488. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  489.  
  490. Portrait of Soviet Jewish migration to the United States, before and after arrival. First half of book covers the history of Jews in the USSR. Second half covers émigrés’ experiences in America, highlighting geographic, generational, and gendered diversity.
  491.  
  492. Find this resource:
  493.  
  494. Remennick, Larissa. Russian Jews on Three Continents: Identity, Integration and Conflict. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2007.
  495.  
  496. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  497.  
  498. Compares experiences of Russian Jewish émigrés in the United States, Canada, Israel, and Germany. Comparisons of social, economic, cultural, and identity issues highlight transnational character of a new diaspora. Characterizes encounter with host societies as “crisis of mutual failed expectations” (p. 371).
  499.  
  500. Find this resource:
  501.  
  502. Zeltzer-Zubida, Aviva. “Affinities and Affiliations: The Many Ways of Being a Russian Jewish American.” In Becoming New Yorkers: Ethnographies of the New Second Generation. Edited by Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf, and Mary C. Waters, 339–360. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004.
  503.  
  504. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  505.  
  506. Part of the Kasinitz, et al. 2009 project. Ethnic identity of young adult children of Russian immigrants in New York. Negotiating ambivalences about Americanness, Jewishness, and Russianness, and crafting eclectic identities that draw piecemeal from each.
  507.  
  508. Find this resource:
  509.  
  510. Israeli-Americans
  511. Rebhun and Lev Ari 2010 counts 250,000 Israeli émigrés and their children residing in the United States. The population began to be studied in the 1970s and 1980s. Early research examined emigration as an Israeli social problem and a stigmatized act that complicated emigrants’ adjustment to their new homes. The stigma is rooted in classical Zionist ideology, which views the ingathering of the Jewish diaspora to Israel as a national mission. In Hebrew, Jewish immigration to Israel referred to as “ascent” (aliyah) and emigration is framed as abandonment of the national cause and referred to as “descent” (yerida). Sabar 2000, Sobel 1986, Shokeid 1988, and Uriely 1994 place the stigmatization of yerida at the center of analysis. Uriely 1994, a study of motivations for leaving Israel, frames emigration as a national problem whose causes “must be sought largely in the deep folds of Jewish history and culture” (p. 230). Sabar 2000, Sobel 1986, and Shokeid 1988 examine how stigmatization fosters a “sojourner” orientation: reluctant to affirm the permanence of their emigration, emigrants plant economic roots but tend not to organize as an Israeli-American community or integrate into the extant American Jewish community. Articles in the Dashefsky 1986 volume on “Israelis Abroad” describe reciprocal reluctance on the part of American Jewish institutions to serve Israeli emigrants, so as not to legitimize their emigration. Breaking with the emphasis on stigma and sojourning, Cohen 1989 treats Israeli-Americans as a sociologist of migration might treat any other immigrant population, analyzing their incorporation into the labor market. Recent work follows in this vein. Notions of stigma and sojourning have not disappeared, but are no longer central organizing principles for research. Current scholarship on Israeli emigration, such as Gold 2002 and Rebhun and Lev Ari 2010, tends to be framed in terms of broader research conversations taking place among scholars of international migration and transnationalism.
  512.  
  513. Cohen, Yinon. “Socioeconomic Dualism: The Case of Israeli-Born Immigrants in the United States.” International Migration Review 23.2 (1989): 267–288.
  514.  
  515. DOI: 10.2307/2546261Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  516.  
  517. Census data analysis of Israeli-American labor market outcomes. Whereas earlier, nonrepresentative studies found evidence of socioeconomic success, this representative sample found polarization between a high-earning older cohort and a low-wage, low-status younger cohort. Analyzes pre- and post-migration causes of dualism.
  518.  
  519. Find this resource:
  520.  
  521. Dashefsky, Arnold, ed. Contemporary Jewry. Vol. 7. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1986.
  522.  
  523. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  524.  
  525. Special section on Israelis abroad guest edited by Paul Ritterband and Yael Zerubavel (pp. 111–180). Examines Israeli emigrants, primarily in New York. Separate articles treat labor market experience, problematic relations with local Jewish communal institutions, and representation of emigrants in Israeli literature.
  526.  
  527. Find this resource:
  528.  
  529. Gold, Steven J. The Israeli Diaspora. Seattle: University of Washington Press/Routledge, 2002.
  530.  
  531. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  532.  
  533. Rich qualitative analysis of the Israeli-American experience based on a decade of field work. Interviews give voice to emigrants. Superb literature review and analysis of alternative theoretical perspectives. Excellent for classroom use and as an introduction to the topic.
  534.  
  535. Find this resource:
  536.  
  537. Rebhun, Uzi, and Lilakh Lev Ari. American Israelis: Migration, Transnationalism, and Diasporic Identity. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
  538.  
  539. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004183889.i-176Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  540.  
  541. Comprehensive sociodemographic portrait of Israelis in America. Finds socioeconomic integration and success, integration into American Jewish community coupled with maintenance of Israeli identity. The starting point for future research on the topic.
  542.  
  543. Find this resource:
  544.  
  545. Sabar, Naama. Kibbutzniks in the Diaspora. Albany: SUNY Press, 2000.
  546.  
  547. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  548.  
  549. English translation of the Hebrew book, Kibbutz L.A. Interviews with emigrants in Los Angeles who left not only Israel but also the socialist kibbutz environment where they were raised. Nuances the study of Israeli-Americans by considering a distinct Israeli subpopulation.
  550.  
  551. Find this resource:
  552.  
  553. Shokeid, Moshe. Children of Circumstances. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
  554.  
  555. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  556.  
  557. Anthropologist’s 1980s ethnography of Israeli emigrants in New York. Stigmatization of “yerida” produces “sojourner” orientation. Cultural, social, and communal implications. Reluctance to affirm permanence of migration inhibits creation of communal institutions, integration with native-born Jews, and self-definition as Israeli-Americans.
  558.  
  559. Find this resource:
  560.  
  561. Sobel, Zvi. Migrants from the Promised Land. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1986.
  562.  
  563. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  564.  
  565. Frames emigration (“yerida”) as a threat to the Zionist dream. Interviews with Israelis preparing to emigrate examine push and pull factors. Sees “yerida” as incomparable with other emigrations, a sui generis phenomenon of diaspora’s hold on Jews.
  566.  
  567. Find this resource:
  568.  
  569. Uriely, Natan. “Rhetorical Ethnicity of Permanent Sojourners: The Case of Israeli Immigrants in the Chicago Area.” International Sociology 9.4 (1994): 431–445.
  570.  
  571. DOI: 10.1177/026858094009004003Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  572.  
  573. Theoretical elaboration of the “sojourner” orientation identified in Shokeid 1988. Introduces social class and length of time in country as mediators. Introduces concept of “rhetorical ethnicity” and relates it to Gans’ “symbolic ethnicity” (see Gans 1979, cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival).
  574.  
  575. Find this resource:
  576.  
  577. Race and Black-Jewish Relations
  578. Some early-20th-century social science defined Jews as a race and explained Jewish culture as a product of Jews’ so-called racial character. The intellectual and moral bankruptcy of scientific racism eventually delegitimized biological notions of race and prompted its re-theorization as a social construct. From this vantage point, Hart 2000 (cited under Critical Histories of the Field) and Goldstein 2006 analyze biological notions of race in the early studies. With the rise of genetic testing and DNA analysis, biological notions of race are being resurrected outside of the social sciences. Suspicious of the prospect of a 21st-century race science, sociologists have begun analyzing the implications of these new genetic discourses of racial essentialism. Tenenbaum and Davidman 2007 examines how, half a century after the Holocaust, American Jews speak easily of Jewishness as something that is “in their genes.” Although race is a social construct, it is a consequential one. In the United States, race has been the primary line of social differentiation, shaping the Jewish experience in America. Critical treatments of Jews and race in America have focused primarily on the changing categorization of Jews in America’s evolving system of racial classification and the evolving relationship between Jews and African Americans. Brodkin 1998 and Goldstein 2006 examine the fact that at different points in American history, Jews have been classified as not white, not-quite-white, or white. They analyze the causes and consequences of the whitening of American Jews, including the ambivalence this has generated. Azoulay 1997 complicates the whitening narrative in an anthropology of interracial Jewish Americans who defy the white-Jew/Black-gentile dichotomy. The rise and fall of a civil rights–era Black-Jewish alliance prompted a burst of literature on Black-Jewish relations, including Salzman and West 1997 and Staub 2004 (cited under Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism).
  579.  
  580. Azoulay, Katya Gibel. Black, Jewish, and Interracial: It’s Not the Color of Your Skin, but the Race of Your Kin, and Other Myths of Identity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997.
  581.  
  582. DOI: 10.1215/9780822382300Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583.  
  584. A Black Jewish anthropologist uses auto-ethnography and interviews with black Jews to deconstruct the categories “Black” and “Jewish.” A sophisticated meditation on race and identity. Complicates notions of American Jewishness as a form of whiteness.
  585.  
  586. Find this resource:
  587.  
  588. Brodkin, Karen. How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.
  589.  
  590. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591.  
  592. Introduces critical race theory to Jewish American studies. Americanization as gendered process of racial whitening, accomplished by defining Jews against notions of blackness and through “model minority” discourse. Aided by postwar government policies. Developed more thoroughly by Goldstein 2006. Grounded autobiographically.
  593.  
  594. Find this resource:
  595.  
  596. Goldstein, Eric L. The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race and American Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.
  597.  
  598. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599.  
  600. A meticulously researched historical treatment of American Jewishness as whiteness. Jews’ efforts to negotiate their position in America’s complex racial landscape involved defining their relationship to African Americans. Goldstein explores the ambivalences, dilemmas, and contradictions. Nineteenth century to the early 21st.
  601.  
  602. Find this resource:
  603.  
  604. Salzman, Jack, and Cornel West, eds. Struggles in the Promised Land: Towards a History of Black-Jewish Relations in the United States. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
  605.  
  606. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607.  
  608. Interdisciplinary. Twenty-two essays treat aspects of black-Jewish relations in the United States. Slavery, civil rights, black antisemitism, Jewish racism, conflict over affirmative action, collapse of the black-Jewish alliance, and more.
  609.  
  610. Find this resource:
  611.  
  612. Tenenbaum, Shelly, and Lynn Davidman. “It’s in My Genes: Biological Discourse and Essentialist Views of Identity among Contemporary American Jews.” Sociological Quarterly 48.3 (2007): 435–450.
  613.  
  614. DOI: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.2007.00084.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  615.  
  616. Although notions of a “Jewish race” have been debunked and discredited, the discourse of racial Jewishness surprisingly persists among Jewish Americans. Through in-depth interviews, the authors examine how Jews use the language of race to negotiate dilemmas of religious individualism.
  617.  
  618. Find this resource:
  619.  
  620. Antisemitism
  621. The issue of antisemitism hovers in the background of many studies of Jewish American life, especially studies of Eastern European immigrant incorporation (e.g., Moore 1981, cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival, and Goldstein 2006, cited under Race and Black-Jewish Relations) and studies of intergroup relations (e.g., Salzman and West 1997, cited under Race and Black-Jewish Relations). Prell 1999 (cited under New Approaches to Americanization) offers an innovative contribution to the first of these areas by analyzing antisemitism in a gendered context. Explicit sociological attention to antisemitism in America as a phenomenon in its own right has taken several forms. One approach treats it as an individual prejudice that, in the aggregate, has broader effects. Chanes 1999 summarizes decades of studies in this vein which have used attitudinal surveys to track the prevalence and distribution of antisemitic sentiments in the American population. It considers the gap between perceptions and reality: although surveys show antisemitic sentiments in America dropping to historic lows, Jewish fears of antisemitism remain high. Adorno, et al. 1950 is a classic in the sociology of prejudice that pathologizes anti-Jewish sentiment as one element of an “authoritarian personality.” Finding the authoritarian personality to correlate with far-right political sympathies, Adorno and his coauthors link treatments of antisemitism as an individual prejudice to treatments that conceptualize it as a phenomenon of collective politics. Social scientific inquiries into European antisemitism have typically seen it as a feature of political culture, a collective phenomenon to be analyzed through the lens of political sociology, rather than as an individual disposition to be analyzed via social psychology. Bunzl 2005 carries forward the European tradition, analyzing the political continuities and discontinuities between 19th-century antisemitism and 21st-century antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Islamophobia. Ginsberg 1999 applies the political sociology framework to the United States, arguing that American antisemitism has been shaped by Jews’ position vis-à-vis the American state. Contrast this with Chanes 1999, which contends that American antisemitism differs from European antisemitism for its lack of embeddedness in the political system. Lipstadt 1994 dissects a major form of post-Holocaust political antisemitism—Holocaust denial—situating it in the context of its broader antidemocratic agenda. Jewish Americans have organized to fight antisemitism, real and perceived. Elazar 1995 and Mittleman, et al. 2002 address the work of communal defense agencies (both cited under Jewish Organizations and Communal Governance). Bazyler 2003 (cited under Holocaust) examines legal battles to secure restitution for Holocaust victims.
  622.  
  623. Adorno, Theodor W., Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, and R. Sanford Nevitt. The Authoritarian Personality. Oxford: Harpers, 1950.
  624.  
  625. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  626.  
  627. Explains prejudice as psychological pathology, linking this to far-right politics, delegitimizing both in the process. An influential study that provided social scientific grounds for tolerance in the 1950s. Conducted by Frankfurt School luminaries under American Jewish Committee sponsorship.
  628.  
  629. Find this resource:
  630.  
  631. Bunzl, Matti. “Between Anti-semitism and Islamophobia: Some Thoughts on the New Europe.” American Ethnologist 32.4 (2005): 499–508.
  632.  
  633. DOI: 10.1525/ae.2005.32.4.499Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  634.  
  635. Critical analysis of contemporary discourse on the “new antisemitism.” Offers conceptual clarification by parsing different historical meanings of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and Islamophobia. A dispassionate analysis of an often-polemical debate. Focuses on Europe. No comparable analysis exists for the United States.
  636.  
  637. Find this resource:
  638.  
  639. Chanes, Jerome A. “Antisemitism and Jewish Security in Contemporary America: Why Can’t Jews Take Yes for an Answer?” In Jews in America: A Contemporary Reader. Edited by Roberta Rosenberg Farber and Chiam I. Waxman, 95–123. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1999.
  640.  
  641. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  642.  
  643. Survey of antisemitism in the United States: historical context and contemporary forms. Dated, but has good coverage of the perception/reality gap, whereby Jews subjectively perceive antisemitism to be a threat even as indicators show long-term declines in antisemitic attitudes and behaviors.
  644.  
  645. Find this resource:
  646.  
  647. Ginsberg, Benjamin. The Fatal Embrace: Jews and the State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
  648.  
  649. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  650.  
  651. Most research treats American antisemitism as a matter of intergroup relations, individual attitudes, or private sector policy (e.g., admissions quotas). Ginsberg argues that American antisemitism is political in nature, grounded in opposition to the political coalitions Jewish Americans participate in.
  652.  
  653. Find this resource:
  654.  
  655. Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. New York: Plume, 1994.
  656.  
  657. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  658.  
  659. A chilling history of the emergence and evolution of Holocaust denial and the anti-Jewish and antidemocratic politics that underlie it. Exposes the methods by which Holocaust deniers falsify history and sow doubt about the historical record.
  660.  
  661. Find this resource:
  662.  
  663. Holocaust
  664. Research on how the Holocaust figures in Jewish American life is one corner of a wide-ranging literature on the sociology of the Holocaust and its aftermath. This broader literature includes ambitious treatments, like Bauman 2000, that situate the genocide at the center of the sociology of modernity. It includes focused analyses of the Jewish experience under the Nazis, such as Einwohner’s sociological analysis of ghetto resistance, in Gerson and Wolf 2007. It even extends to social scientific efforts to understand the rise of fascism (e.g., Adorno, et al. 1950, cited under Antisemitism.) One line of inquiry about Jewish Americans after the Holocaust has focused on the experiences of Holocaust survivors in the United States. Helmreich 1992 celebrates survivor success in America, as a counterpoint to equally negative portrayals of survivors plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder. Other treatments of survivors’ lives in America include chapters of Diner 2009 and some contributors to Gerson and Wolf 2007. Heilman 2006 (cited under Orthodoxy) addresses the influence of survivors on American Orthodox Judaism. Another line of inquiry considers the Holocaust as a symbol, with implications for Jewish Americans’ political and religious commitments (e.g., Woocher 1986, cited under Jewish Organizations and Communal Governance), and personal identities (e.g., Kaufman 2010, cited under Identity and the Self). The general rise of collective memory studies frames much of the contemporary research agenda on Jewish Americans and Holocaust: what is remembered, by whom, and to what ends? How do commemorative practices construct memory in different ways? What are the political implications of various forms of Holocaust memory? In this genre, Levy and Sznaider 2006 adopts a global approach to contrast the different politics and histories of Holocaust memory in the United States, Israel, and Germany. Diner 2009 challenges conventional wisdom about history of Jewish American Holocaust memory. Kugelmass 1993 and Stier 2003 examine practices and politics of memorialization, including pilgrimages to Nazi death camps. Issues of memorialization are also treated in Gerson and Wolf 2007 and in Shandler 2006 (cited under Diaspora and American Diasporism). Bazyler 2003 offers a different approach to the contemporary politics of the Holocaust, one in which the stakes are not just symbolic framings of the past, but hundreds of billions of dollars in restitution payments.
  665.  
  666. Bauman, Zygmunt. Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
  667.  
  668. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  669.  
  670. A leading social theorist’s consideration of the Holocaust’s implications for our understanding of modernity, civilization, and morality. Sees the Holocaust not as a failure of modernity, but as a horrible realization of the dehumanizing potentials at modernity’s core.
  671.  
  672. Find this resource:
  673.  
  674. Bazyler, Micahel J. Holocaust Justice: The Battle for Restitution in America’s Courts. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
  675.  
  676. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  677.  
  678. A detailed accounting of the legal battles for restitution of Holocaust-era claims: bank accounts, slave labor, insurance policies, looted art. Addresses the American legal context, political conflicts within the movement, and implications for other restitution claims.
  679.  
  680. Find this resource:
  681.  
  682. Diner, Hasia R. We Remember with Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945–1962. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
  683.  
  684. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  685.  
  686. Scholarly and conventional wisdom long held that Jewish Americans ignored the Holocaust or avoided grappling with its implications until the 1963 Eichmann trial forced the issue. Diner’s award-winning history puts this myth of silence to rest, examining pre-1963 memorial efforts.
  687.  
  688. Find this resource:
  689.  
  690. Gerson, Judith M., and Diane L. Wolf, eds. Sociology Confronts the Holocaust: Memories and Identities in Jewish Diasporas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007.
  691.  
  692. DOI: 10.1215/9780822389682Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  693.  
  694. Edited volume. Reviews how sociology has approached the study of the Holocaust, and then turns primarily to consideration of post-Holocaust Jewish migration, memory, and identities. Addresses American context as well as Israel and Europe.
  695.  
  696. Find this resource:
  697.  
  698. Helmreich, William B. Against All Odds: Holocaust Survivors and the Successful Lives They Made in America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.
  699.  
  700. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  701.  
  702. Mixed-method study of Holocaust survivors in America. One hundred seventy in-depth interviews, supplemented by archival research and survey analysis. Celebratory title reflects overall tenor of the book, which sought to counteract portrayals of survivors that highlighted trauma rather than resilience.
  703.  
  704. Find this resource:
  705.  
  706. Kugelmass, Jack. “The Rites of the Tribe: The Meaning of Poland for American Jewish Tourists.” YIVO Annual 21 (1993): 395–453.
  707.  
  708. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  709.  
  710. Pilgrimages to Holocaust sites as a practice of Jewish American Holocaust memory. Ethnography of Jewish tours to Poland asks what the trips mean to Jewish Americans, and locates answers at the nexus of politics and religion.
  711.  
  712. Find this resource:
  713.  
  714. Levy, Daniel, and Natan Sznaider. The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.
  715.  
  716. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  717.  
  718. Comparative study of Holocaust remembrance in Germany, Israel, and the United States. Sophisticated treatment attends to divergent politics of memory for descendants of perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and liberators. Ties Holocaust remembrance to politics of unification in post–Cold War Europe.
  719.  
  720. Find this resource:
  721.  
  722. Stier, Oren Baruch. Committed to Memory: Cultural Mediations of the Holocaust. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003.
  723.  
  724. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  725.  
  726. Anthropological treatment of Holocaust memorialization examines how different media of memorialization—artifacts and practices—construct Holocaust memory in different ways. Rituals, museums, videotaped testimonies, art, pilgrimages.
  727.  
  728. Find this resource:
  729.  
  730. Jewish Identity/Jewish Identities
  731. Identity is a central concept in the sociology of American Jews. Over two dozen books, chapters, and articles cited here include the word identity in their titles alone. Yet the term is highly problematic, lacking an agreed-upon meaning and conceived in diverse ways, sometimes as a matter of individual thought, sometimes as a matter of individual behavior, and sometimes not as a private individual matter at all, but rather something public and social. This article will distinguish individualistic approaches to identity from collective approaches. The two literatures are generally not in conversation with one another. The choice to speak of American Jewish identity in the singular versus American Jewish identities in the plural, and the choice to qualify or not to qualify the phrase “American Jewish identity” through the addition of further adjectives (e.g., Russian American Jewish identity, feminist American Jewish identity) can tell readers much about the underlying assumptions of the research. Most of the studies presented in the section on Identity and the Self speak of American Jewish identity in the singular and without further modifiers. An example of the opposite approach can be seen in Kugelmass 1988 (cited under Readers.)
  732.  
  733. Identity and the Self
  734. If identity is thought to reside in one’s head and heart, we might expect the study of Jewish identity to be led by psychology, not sociology. Curiously, this has not been so. Herman 1977 and Horowitz 2000 present social psychological framings of Jewish identity, but these have been posed as challenges to a field whose terms have been set by sociologists. The sociology of Jewish identity has defined identity inconsistently, sometimes including behaviors alongside psychological phenomena like attitudes and feelings. Sklare and Greenblum 1967 (cited under General Overviews) even extend the concept to cover institutional analysis. Sklare’s work helped establish survey research on Jewish identity as a dominant paradigm. Himmelfarb 1982 remains an excellent summary of this literature’s basic findings. Examples of the genre include Cohen 1983 and Goldscheider 1986 (both cited under General Overviews), Cohen 1988 (cited under Ritual and Religious Practice), Lazerwitz 1973, and the identity-related sections of community demographic studies (see Demographic Profiles). For a comprehensive survey-based analysis of gender and Jewish identity, see Hartman and Hartman 2009 (cited under Gender). Since the 1990s, researchers working in qualitative methodological traditions have increasingly critiqued survey-based approaches to studying Jewish identity. Horowitz 2000 and Prell 2000 argue that surveys measure conformity with researchers’ notions of authentic Jewishness, rather than explore how research subjects themselves interpret their experience as Jews. (Charmé 2000, a meditation on Jewish authenticity, can be read against the backdrop of this critique.) Horowitz 2000, Prell 2000, and Kaufman 2010 present in-depth interviewing as a methodological alternative that allows Jews to speak about identity in their own voices. Cohen and Eisen 2000 (cited under Religion) represents an effort by a sociologist associated with identity surveys (Cohen) to incorporate the critique. Like Horowitz 2000, it combines interviews and surveys. A key finding of the interview research is the fluidity of identity over the life course. A key claim of the identity literature is that Jewish Americans enjoy freedom to choose whether and how to identify as Jews, and that the persistence of a Jewish American community depends on Jews choosing to identify Jewishly. Gans 1979 (cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival) presents the theoretical underpinnings of this idea. This notion also motivates research on Jewish identity interventions (see Utilization, Evaluation, and Impact.)
  735.  
  736. Charmé, Stuart Z. “Varieties of Authenticity in Contemporary Jewish Identity.” Jewish Social Studies 6.2 (2000): 133–155.
  737.  
  738. DOI: 10.2979/JSS.2000.6.2.133Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  739.  
  740. An effort in conceptual clarification, tracing historical roots and varying uses of the term “authenticity” in relation to Jewish identity. Written while sociologists were debating how their methodological choices implicitly made assertions about Jewish authenticity.
  741.  
  742. Find this resource:
  743.  
  744. Herman, Simon N. Jewish Identity: A Social Psychological Perspective. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE, 1977.
  745.  
  746. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  747.  
  748. An elaborate but dated effort to articulate a social psychological theory of Jewish identity. Tends to reify its concepts rather than critically interrogate them.
  749.  
  750. Find this resource:
  751.  
  752. Himmelfarb, Harold S. “Research on American Jewish Identity and Identification: Progress, Pitfalls and Prospects.” In Understanding American Jewry. Edited by Marshall Sklare, 56–95. New Brunswick, NJ, and London: Transaction, 1982.
  753.  
  754. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  755.  
  756. Distinguishes the study of “identity” from the study of “identification.” Comprehensive discussion of the various conceptual paradigms and methodological approaches in studies of Jewish identity and identification, along with a summary of key findings.
  757.  
  758. Find this resource:
  759.  
  760. Horowitz, Bethamie. “Connections and Journeys: Assessing Critical Opportunities for Enhancing Jewish Identity.” Report to the Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal. New York: UJA-Federation of New York, 2000.
  761.  
  762. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  763.  
  764. Critiques Jewish identity surveys for being too normative and static. Argues research should move from studying “How Jewish are Jews?” to “How are Jews Jewish?” Interviews with adult Jewish baby boomers trace evolution of Jewish identity over the life course.
  765.  
  766. Find this resource:
  767.  
  768. Kaufman, Debra R. “The Circularity of Secularity: The Sacred and the Secular in Some Contemporary Post-Holocaust Identity Narratives.” Contemporary Jewry 30.1 (2010): 119–139.
  769.  
  770. DOI: 10.1007/s12397-010-9024-9Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  771.  
  772. Conceptualizes identity in narrative terms. Examines how American Jews invoke the Holocaust in the construction of their Jewish identity narratives.
  773.  
  774. Find this resource:
  775.  
  776. Lazerwitz, Bernard. “Religious Identification and Its Ethnic Correlates: A Multivariate Model.” Social Forces 52.2 (1973): 204–220.
  777.  
  778. DOI: 10.1093/sf/52.2.204Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  779.  
  780. Exemplary study in the genre of survey research on Jewish identity. Seeks to bring methodological coherence to diverse approaches taken in prior studies. Decomposes Jewish identification into eight dimensions, some religious and others ethnic. Models the relationship among the eight dimensions.
  781.  
  782. Find this resource:
  783.  
  784. Prell, Riv-Ellen. “Developmental Judaism: Challenging the Study of American Jewish Identity in the Social Sciences.” Contemporary Jewry 21 (2000): 33–54.
  785.  
  786. DOI: 10.1007/BF02962401Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787.  
  788. Critiques implicit normative presumptions in survey research on Jewish identity, and shows how a methodological shift to life history interviews reframes sociological understandings of Jewish identity. Reorients identity research around the question of what meanings Jews ascribe to their Jewishness.
  789.  
  790. Find this resource:
  791.  
  792. Collective Identity, Memory, Representation, and Performance
  793. Anthropology, cultural studies, and some streams of sociology frame identity as a collective (rather than individual) phenomenon associated with collective memory, cultural performance, and collective representation. Studies in collective memory argue that we are what we remember, and that we remember not as individuals but as groups. Collective memory is conveyed through commemorative times, spaces, and media: holidays, monuments, museums, etc. Diner, et al. 2000 approaches collective identity through the lens of collective memory, showing how Jewish American self-understandings are expressed through memorializations of the Lower East Side. Kugelmass 1990, a study of a Jewish delicatessen, also considers collective commemoration of a selectively imagined immigrant past. Kugelmass treats the happenings at the deli as a cultural performance. The notion of cultural performance was popularized by anthropologist Clifford Geertz, and contends that cultures place their animating meanings on display through acts that involve people in performing these meanings to themselves and others. Heilman 1995 applies Geertzian lenses to interpret Talmud study. Shandler 2006 (cited under Diaspora and American Diasporism) does the same in his analysis of Yiddish language festivals that give non-speakers a means of expressing their identification with the language. (See the chapter “Yiddish as Performance Art,” pp. 126–154.) Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998 shows how Jews’ efforts to actually stage representations of Jewish culture at World’s Fairs had implications for Jews themselves. Berman 2009 (cited under Critical Histories of the Field) makes a similar argument about Jews’ efforts to represent themselves to others through scientific language. These approaches all conceive of identity in collective terms, raising the question of how and where individuals fit in. Some essays in Diner, et al. 2000, such as Kamil’s chapter on Lower East Side walking tours (pp. 226–240), integrate the individual and collective levels of analysis. Kaufman 2010 (cited under Identity and the Self) and Kelner 2010 (cited under Israel and American Zionism) address the issue by examining how people situate autobiographical narratives within broader collective narratives.
  794.  
  795. Diner, Hasia R., Jeffrey Shandler, and Beth S. Wenger, eds. Remembering the Lower East Side. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2000.
  796.  
  797. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  798.  
  799. A dozen essays explore how the Lower East Side came to take on symbolic importance in Jewish American collective memory. Examines the changing meanings and uses of the Lower East Side, and the contemporary upsurge in nostalgic memorial practices.
  800.  
  801. Find this resource:
  802.  
  803. Heilman, Samuel C. “The Ninth Siyum HaShas at Madison Square Garden: Contra-acculturation in American Life.” In The Americanization of the Jews. Edited by Robert Seltzer and Norman J. Cohen, 311–338. New York: New York University Press, 1995.
  804.  
  805. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  806.  
  807. Orthodox Jewish identity expressed through cultural performance. Ethnographic treatment interpreting a mass gathering to celebrate the completion of reading the entire Talmud, one page a day (daf yomi).
  808.  
  809. Find this resource:
  810.  
  811. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1998. “Exhibiting Jews.” In Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums and Heritage. By Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 79–130. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  812.  
  813. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  814.  
  815. How Jews represented themselves at World’s Fairs and international expos, and how these representations did not merely reflect identity, but actively asserted, claimed, and realized particular types of identity.
  816.  
  817. Find this resource:
  818.  
  819. Kugelmass, Jack. “Green Bagels: An Essay on Food, Nostalgia, and the Carnivalesque.” YIVO Annual 19 (1990): 57–80.
  820.  
  821. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  822.  
  823. Interprets a cultural performance of Jewish ethnic identity. An anthropological treatment of a raucous Jewish deli, where patrons celebrate Jewish success in America through excess and parody.
  824.  
  825. Find this resource:
  826.  
  827. Gender
  828. Feminist scholarship has revolutionized the sociology of American Jews, along with the rest Jewish studies. Understandings based on research that has treated men’s experiences as the totality of Jewish existence have been overturned as the experiences of women have also been placed at the center of analysis. Feminist scholarship has also highlighted other forms of marginalization, drawing attention to the experiences of other excluded groups. This has contributed to more pluralistic scholarship, less inclined to grand narrative and more attentive to the diversity of American Judaisms and Jewish cultures (in the plural). Gendered treatments of the topics covered in this article are integrated throughout its sections. Readers are advised to search the particular section of their interest to find the relevant works. Some of the studies cited adopt feminist theoretical and methodological frames. Others simply add gender to the analysis. On the Jewish American feminist movement itself, see Feminism. For a broad overview of gender and Jewish American history, see Nadell 2003. On immigration and acculturation, see Weinberg 1988 (cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival) and Prell 1999 (cited under New Approaches to Americanization). For a straightforward survey-based comparison of the socioeconomic profiles of men and women, see Hartman and Hartman 2009. Much has been written on gender and Jewish American religion. For a single-volume overview, see Prell 2007 (cited under Feminism). For specifics on gender and Jewish religious ritual, see Ochs 2007 (cited under Ritual and Religious Practice), Bilu 2003, Brettschneider 2003, and Grant 2007 (all cited under Life Cycle and Rites of Passage); Freedman 2011 and Leidner 2006 (both cited under Holidays and Sacred Time); and Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion). For feminist readings of gender and Orthodoxy, see Kaufman 1991, which examines gendered processes of conversion into Orthodoxy, and Davidman 2011, which examines the gendered processes of conversion out of Orthodoxy (both cited under Orthodoxy). Fader 2009 (also cited under Orthodoxy) and Bilu 2003 study the gendered experience of ultra-Orthodox youth, with Fader studying girls, and Bilu studying boys. Bilu 2003 is also notable for its explicit theoretical focus on masculinities. Gender also features prominently in the works cited under Sexuality.
  829.  
  830. Hartman, Harriet, and Moshe Hartman. Gender and American Jews: Patterns in Work, Education and Family in Contemporary Life. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2009.
  831.  
  832. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  833.  
  834. Drawing on the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey, this offers a comprehensive analysis of gender differences with regard to demographic patterns, socioeconomic attainment, and Jewish identity.
  835.  
  836. Find this resource:
  837.  
  838. Nadell, Pamela S., ed. American Jewish Women’s History: A Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
  839.  
  840. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  841.  
  842. How women have actively shaped the Jewish American experience. Eighteen chapters by leading scholars address the labor force, political arena, voluntary associations, domestic sphere, and religious settings. Colonial era to the early 21st century. Excellent teaching resource for sociology as well as history.
  843.  
  844. Find this resource:
  845.  
  846. Sexuality
  847. There are no sources offering broad overviews of sexuality studies and queer studies in American Jewish sociology. The closest equivalents are anthologies of writings by and for activists, of which Beck 1982 and Shneer and Aviv 2002 are notable. Kabakov 2010 focuses specifically on lesbianism in Orthodoxy. In keeping with queer theory’s subversion of boundaries, these anthologies are simultaneously primary source documents and reflexive analyses written by scholar-activists. Specifically social scientific analyses of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex Jews and the Jewish movement for gay rights is limited. Shokeid 1995, an ethnography of a gay and lesbian synagogue (cited under Synagogues and Congregations), and Schnoor 2006, a study of gay Jewish identity, are exceptions that explicitly frame their analyses in sociological terms. Brettschneider 2003, a study of coming-out rituals (cited under Life Cycle and Rites of Passage), draws heavily on social theory. Aviv and Shneer 2005 (cited under Diaspora and American Diasporism) uses a case study method in its chapter on queer politics in the United States and Israel. Dubowski 2001 is a documentary film that serves as a good companion to any of these readings.
  848.  
  849. Beck, Evelyn Tornton, ed. Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1982.
  850.  
  851. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  852.  
  853. The first book of its kind. Contributors wrestle with being doubly marginalized: by homophobia in the Jewish community and by antisemitism in the lesbian/feminist movement. “Coming out as lesbians was a crucial step toward our coming out as Jews” (p. xv).
  854.  
  855. Find this resource:
  856.  
  857. Dubowski, Sandi Simcha. Trembling before G-d. New York: New Yorker Films, 2001.
  858.  
  859. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  860.  
  861. Award-winning documentary film about the experience of gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews in the United States and Israel. Excellent teaching resource.
  862.  
  863. Find this resource:
  864.  
  865. Kabakov, Miryam, ed. Keep Your Wives away from Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic, 2010.
  866.  
  867. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  868.  
  869. Anthology of writings by lesbians and transgender Orthodox Jews about religion and sexuality in Orthodox communities. Mostly, but not entirely, autobiographical.
  870.  
  871. Find this resource:
  872.  
  873. Schnoor, Randal F. “Being Gay and Jewish: Negotiating Intersecting Identities.” Sociology of Religion 67.1 (2006): 43–60.
  874.  
  875. DOI: 10.1093/socrel/67.1.43Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  876.  
  877. In-depth interviews with gay Jewish men about the intersections or lack thereof between their Jewish and gay identities. Identifies four common patterns of identification, based on degree of integration or separation.
  878.  
  879. Find this resource:
  880.  
  881. Shneer, David, and Caryn Aviv, eds. Queer Jews. New York: Routledge, 2002.
  882.  
  883. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  884.  
  885. An anthology of writings by gay and lesbian Jews about the intersection of these identities. Mostly autobiographical. Includes some analytic chapters. Sometimes the autobiography and analysis are one in the same, sometimes not.
  886.  
  887. Find this resource:
  888.  
  889. Religion
  890. Jews in the United States are understood both as an ethnic group and as a religious community. The analytic categories of “ethnicity” and “religion” are not entirely adequate to capture the complexities of this social reality. Still, the sociologies of religion and of ethnicity each offer different theoretical lenses and frame different sets of research questions. Together, they present a richer portrait of American Jewish life than either alone does. This section presents research that approaches Jews as a religious community. Readers looking for a single source that provides an up-to-date synthesis of research on the sociology of American Jewish religion will find little to satisfy. Only Sarna 2004 and Kaplan 2005 might reasonably be recommended as starting points. Sarna 2004 is a history of 350 years of American Jewish religion. While it addresses many issues treated by sociologists of Jewish religion, it does not provide a review of the sociological literature. Kaplan 2005, as an edited volume, represents the breadth of the contemporary research agenda but does not synthesize it into a singular statement. One of the only efforts to review the sociological literature is Liebman 1982. Many of its summaries of empirical findings remain valid, some of its critiques remain salient, and some of its proposed research agenda has been addressed. The field, however, has grown immensely in the years since its publication. Some works offer general theories of American Jewish religious life. Mid-century publications like Herberg 1983 (cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival) and Glazer 1957 (cited under General Overviews) may seem dated. Cohen and Eisen 2000 offers a contemporary statement, arguing that religious individualism holds sway. Rather than make broad theoretical claims about the nature of contemporary Judaism, Goldberg 2001 highlights its diversity. Liebman 1982 and Liebman 1973 (cited under General Overviews) distinguish between a sociology of Judaism (elite religion) and a sociology of the religion of American Jews (folk religion). A Venn diagram of the two would only partially overlap. Joselit 1994 is a good introduction to the lived religion of American Jews. Kugelmass 1993, a study of Holocaust pilgrimages (cited under Holocaust), and Woocher 1986, a treatment of philanthropic rituals (cited under Jewish Organizations and Communal Governance), highlight sacred practices that emerge outside of the rabbinic tradition. Sigalow and Cadge 2013 considers the hybrid religious identities and practices of Jewish Buddhists in America. Kosmin 2010 argues that the treatment of religion is incomplete without also treating secularity.
  891.  
  892. Cohen, Steven M., and Arnold M. Eisen. The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
  893.  
  894. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  895.  
  896. The most frequently assigned book in American Jewish sociology courses. Builds on the sociological classic, Habits of the Heart, to trace religious individualism among Jewish baby boomers. Its survey and interviews find Jews selectively embracing elements of Judaism that are personally meaningful.
  897.  
  898. Find this resource:
  899.  
  900. Goldberg, Harvey E., ed. The Life of Judaism. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.
  901.  
  902. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  903.  
  904. Reader in the anthropology of contemporary Jewish religious practices in the United States and around the world. Emphasizes the diversity of subcultural practices, across countries, denominations, ethnic groups, age groups, genders, and more.
  905.  
  906. Find this resource:
  907.  
  908. Joselit, Jenna Weissman. The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950. New York: Hill and Wang, 1994.
  909.  
  910. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  911.  
  912. How did caterers become religious functionaries alongside rabbis? Americanization as process of grassroots cultural invention through consumption. Superb treatment of lived religion, gender, material culture, domesticity, foodways, holidays, and life-cycle events. Captures tensions between folk and elite. Sparkling prose.
  913.  
  914. Find this resource:
  915.  
  916. Kaplan, Dana Evan. The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  917.  
  918. DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521822041Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  919.  
  920. Emphasizes religious, rather than ethnic, dimensions of American Jewish life. Broad coverage of the history and sociology of American Jewish religion: beliefs and practices, identities and institutions, etc. Introduction highly recommended. Sets forth key concepts in the study of the subject.
  921.  
  922. Find this resource:
  923.  
  924. Kosmin, Barry, ed. Special Issue: Jewish Secularism. Contemporary Jewry 30.1 (2010).
  925.  
  926. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  927.  
  928. Special issue of Contemporary Jewry on Jewish secularism. Includes articles on secular American Jews as a population, and Jewish secularism as an identity.
  929.  
  930. Find this resource:
  931.  
  932. Liebman, Charles S. “The Religious Life of American Jewry.” In Understanding American Jewry. Edited by Marshall Sklare, 96–124. New Brunswick, NJ, and London: Transaction, 1982.
  933.  
  934. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  935.  
  936. Superb review of sociological research on American Jewish religion c. 1980. Summarizes empirical findings on religious practice: Who? How much? What correlates? Identifies data sources. Proposes research agenda. Criticizes lack of theory, lack of integration with broader sociology of religion.
  937.  
  938. Find this resource:
  939.  
  940. Sarna, Jonathan D. American Judaism: A History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
  941.  
  942. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  943.  
  944. Magisterial history not of American Jews, but of American Jewish religion, 1600s–2000s. Synthesizes institutional history, social history, biography, and sociology of Jewish religion. Covers origins and evolution of American Reform, Conservatism, Orthodoxy, and Reconstructionism, with attention to contemporary developments as well.
  945.  
  946. Find this resource:
  947.  
  948. Sigalow, Emily, and Wendy Cadge. Jewish Buddhist Encounters: Teaching through Case Studies. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University, 2013.
  949.  
  950. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  951.  
  952. Online resource created by sociologists offers teaching materials on Jewish-Buddhists and the sociology of religious hybridity. Three sections address questions about hybrid or multiple religious identities, innovations in religious practice, and institutional responses to blurred categories.
  953.  
  954. Find this resource:
  955.  
  956. Ritual and Religious Practice
  957. Ritual emerges as a category of analysis in many ways. Surveys of Jewish engagement, like Cohen 1988, treat participation in canonical Jewish rituals as both a predictor and outcome of other expressions of Jewish commitment. They have consistently found that ritual practice is positively correlated with other forms of Jewish engagement. The reviews of these findings presented by Himmelfarb 1982 (cited under Identity and the Self) and Liebman 1982 (cited under Religion) remain adequate. Another line of analysis examines how rituals are meaningful (or not) to American Jews. Sklare and Greenblum 1967 (cited under General Overviews) uses survey data to analyze patterns of Jewish ritual engagement, arguing that Jews are likely to abandon rituals that impede social integration (see pp. 57–59). Cohen and Eisen 2000 (cited under Religion) challenges the present-day applicability of Sklare and Greenblum 1967, arguing that holiday rituals have renewed appeal as a way of maintaining family ties across generations and expressing Jewish distinctiveness in a multicultural America. Whereas these studies interpret meaning by analyzing patterns across many different rituals, Heilman 1983, an ethnography of Talmud study, interprets the meaning of a single ritual as it emerges through social interactions. For more on life-cycle and holiday rituals in particular, see Life Cycle and Rites of Passage and Holidays and Sacred Time. Mid-20th-century scholarship such as Sklare and Greenblum 1967 understood Jewish ritual as a residual phenomenon of premodern European Judaism. Modernity and America were seen as challenging its relevance, leading to its widespread alteration and/or abandonment. More recent work contests this view. Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) emphasizes the vitality of ritual in the lived religion of American Jews. Eisen 1998 challenges the very narrative of modern secularization, offering an alternative account that assigns a central place to ritual’s enduring vitality. Bronner 2011 and Ochs 2007 show how Jews have lately embarked on extensive projects of ritual innovation.
  958.  
  959. Bronner, Simon J. Revisioning Ritual: Jewish Traditions in Transition. Oxford and Portland, OR: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2011.
  960.  
  961. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  962.  
  963. Edited volume on Jewish ritual innovations highlights vitality of Jewish ritual expression. Fourteen chapters treat calendar and life-cycle rituals, political rituals, transformations of existing rituals, and inventions of new rituals. Good theorization in introductory essay. Global scope.
  964.  
  965. Find this resource:
  966.  
  967. Cohen, Steven M. American Assimilation or Jewish Revival. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.
  968.  
  969. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  970.  
  971. Uses survey to construct index of ritual practice. Correlates index with numerous demographic predictors and behavioral outcomes. Index is representative of the genre, counting Passover seder attendance, Hanukkah and Sabbath candle lighting, Yom Kippur fasting, kashruth, and Sabbath observance.
  972.  
  973. Find this resource:
  974.  
  975. Eisen, Arnold M. Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
  976.  
  977. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  978.  
  979. An important work. Critiques notion that secularized belief led to changes in religious practice. Argues instead that behavior leads belief. Sees nostalgia as key motivation for contemporary Jewish ritual practice. Informs Cohen and Eisen 2000 (cited under Religion).
  980.  
  981. Find this resource:
  982.  
  983. Heilman, Samuel C. The People of the Book: Drama, Fellowship, and Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
  984.  
  985. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  986.  
  987. A dramaturgical analysis of Talmud study. Ethnography of Orthodox men’s Talmud study circles in New York and Jerusalem interprets how those engaged in sacred learning construct meaning through language, wordplay, and cultural performance.
  988.  
  989. Find this resource:
  990.  
  991. Ochs, Vanessa L. Inventing Jewish Ritual. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2007.
  992.  
  993. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  994.  
  995. Analyzes contemporary Jewish ritual innovation, particularly in the Jewish feminist movement. Considers motivation, process, and legitimization. Treats ritual forms, including narrative and material culture. Activist scholarship that uses analysis to offer guidance to would-be ritual innovators.
  996.  
  997. Find this resource:
  998.  
  999. Life Cycle and Rites of Passage
  1000. From circumcision and baby naming, to bar/bat mitzvah, weddings and funerals, rites of passage mark the Jewish life course. There is more research on individual rites of passage than on the series as a whole. Goldberg 2003 is one that considers the life cycle holistically. The edited volume Geffen 1993 tends in this direction, but without the degree of synthesis seen in Goldberg 2003. Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) offers cradle-to-grave coverage of American Jewish life-cycle folk rituals. Individually, each rite of passage finds separate treatment in the literature. Birth and early childhood ceremonies among the ultra-Orthodox are examined in Bilu 2003; bar/bat mitzvahs among diverse Jewish populations are treated in Schoenfeld 1987, Kosmin 2000, Grant 2007, and Markowitz 1988 (cited under Russian-Speaking Jews); weddings in Bronner 2011 (citied under Ritual and Religious Practice); funerals in Heilman 2001. Scholarship is not limited to timeworn traditions, but also addresses newly articulated life-cycle moments, as in Brettschneider 2003, a study of lesbian coming-out ceremonies. The transformation and innovation of rituals have been important themes in the literature. Brettschneider 2003 and Grant 2007, studies of adult bat mitzvah, are indicative (see also Bronner 2011 and Ochs 2007, both cited under Ritual and Religious Practice). The Jewish feminist movement has not only prompted much of this ritual innovation (see Prell 2007, cited under Feminism) but has also helped make gender a central focus in scholarship on life-cycle rituals. Bilu 2003, Brettschneider 2003, and Grant 2007 represent this tendency. Studies in anthropology, ethnography, and cultural studies treat rites of passage as moments of religious meaning, exploring how the rituals construct meaning. Sociodemographic studies focus less on rites of passage per se than on the statuses they inaugurate (i.e., they are more concerned with marital status than with wedding ceremonies). Some studies look to participation in life-cycle rituals for indications of the strength of Jewish ethnic community (see also Interfaith Marriage). Surveys of American Jews often ask about participation in Jewish rites of passage, enabling researchers to calculate rates, track trends, and compare subpopulations. Kosmin 2000, a sociodemographic study of bar and bat mitzvah, straddles the line between the divergent trends in these literatures.
  1001.  
  1002. Bilu, Yoram. “From Milah (Circumcision) to Milah (Word): Male Identity and Rituals of Childhood in the Jewish Ultraorthodox Community.” Ethos 31.2 (2003): 172–203.
  1003.  
  1004. DOI: 10.1525/eth.2003.31.2.172Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1005.  
  1006. Anthropology of ultra-Orthodox Jewish boys’ rites of passage: infant circumcision, first haircut, school initiation. Infants cannot perform gender identity, hence additional rituals at age three. (Israeli. There is no comparable study of America Jewish early childhood rites of passage).
  1007.  
  1008. Find this resource:
  1009.  
  1010. Brettschneider, Marla. “Ritual Encounters of the Queer Kind: A Political Analysis of Jewish Lesbian Ritual Innovation.” Journal of Lesbian Studies 7.2 (2003): 29–48.
  1011.  
  1012. DOI: 10.1300/J155v07n02_04Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1013.  
  1014. Examines the creation of a new rite of passage, a “coming-out” ceremony for lesbians and gays. Theory-rich analysis interprets the politics of the ritual through various conceptual frameworks.
  1015.  
  1016. Find this resource:
  1017.  
  1018. Geffen, Rela M., ed. Celebration and Renewal: Rites of Passage in Judaism. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1993.
  1019.  
  1020. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1021.  
  1022. Interdisciplinary edited volume with cradle-to-grave coverage of Jewish life-cycle rituals. Edited and introduced by a sociologist, but light on social science in the ensuing chapters. Written both for study and as a resource for participants in the rituals.
  1023.  
  1024. Find this resource:
  1025.  
  1026. Goldberg, Harvey E. Jewish Passages: Cycles of Jewish Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
  1027.  
  1028. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1029.  
  1030. The only single-authored volume attempting a general social scientific analysis of the Jewish life cycle and its ritual markers. Rich anthropology, broad in its global scope, deep in its coverage of different historical periods. Highly recommended.
  1031.  
  1032. Find this resource:
  1033.  
  1034. Grant, Lisa D. “Finding Her Right Place in the Synagogue: The Rite of Adult Bat Mitzvah.” In Women Remaking American Judaism. Edited by Riv-Ellen Prell, 279–301. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
  1035.  
  1036. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1037.  
  1038. Considers a new rite of passage emerging from the Jewish feminist movement. Adult bat mitzvah—its emergence, evolution, ritual structure, meaning for participants, and implications for synagogues and American Judaism.
  1039.  
  1040. Find this resource:
  1041.  
  1042. Heilman, Samuel C. When a Jew Dies: The Ethnography of a Bereaved Son. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
  1043.  
  1044. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1045.  
  1046. A moving and rich auto-ethnography of Jewish death and mourning rituals.
  1047.  
  1048. Find this resource:
  1049.  
  1050. Kosmin, Barry A. “Coming of Age in the Conservative Synagogue: The Bar/Bat Mitzvah Class of 5755.” In Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members. Edited by Jack Wertheimer, 232–266. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
  1051.  
  1052. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1053.  
  1054. Survey analysis of bar and bat mitzvahs in Conservative synagogues, with a good review of the literature on bar and bat mitzvah.
  1055.  
  1056. Find this resource:
  1057.  
  1058. Schoenfeld, Stuart. “Folk Judaism, Elite Judaism and the Role of Bar Mitzvah in the Development of the Synagogue and Jewish School in America.” Contemporary Jewry 9.1 (1987): 67–85.
  1059.  
  1060. DOI: 10.1007/BF02976671Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1061.  
  1062. Institutional analysis of American bar and bat mitzvah. Importance of bar/bat mitzvah to synagogue finances and membership rolls. Bar/bat mitzvah as a site of conflict between families and synagogues.
  1063.  
  1064. Find this resource:
  1065.  
  1066. Holidays and Sacred Time
  1067. Jewish holidays have been studied as matters of interest in their own right and as windows onto other aspects of Jewish life. Etzioni 2004, an introduction to the sociological study of holidays, is recommended as first reading. Cernea 1995, Kelner 2011, and Zerubavel 1985 frame holidays in terms of broader theoretical considerations in the sociology or anthropology of time. Researchers use many approaches to unpack meanings encoded in Jewish holidays: Cernea 1995 uses structuralist anthropology; Freedman 2011 and Cernea 1988 (cited under Contemporary Migrations) interpret cultural performances; Gereboff 2003 applies textual analysis; Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) analyzes material culture. Studies typically focus on specific holidays, although Kelner 2011 considers the calendar cycle as a whole. Passover, the most frequently studied holiday, is treated by Cernea 1995, Gereboff 2003, Joselit 1994, Leidner 2006, Kelner 2008 (cited under Soviet Jewry), and Ochs 2007 (cited under Ritual and Religious Practice). Hanukkah and Purim, which also receive disproportionate treatment, are examined in Freedman 2011, Joselit 1994, Leidner 2006, and Plaut 2012. Zerubavel 1985 looks not to the annual cycle, but to the weekly Sabbath. Freedman 2011, Joselit 1994, and Leidner 2006 devote substantial attention to gender. The role of holidays in processes of Americanization is explored by Freedman 2011, Gereboff 2003, and Joselit 1994, which focus on early-20th-century Eastern European immigrants and their descendants, and by Cernea 1988, which considers late-20th-century Jewish immigrants from Morocco. Americanization is also examined through Jewish encounters with non-Jewish holidays: Joselit 1994 and Plaut 2012 examine Christmas; Friedman 2007 (cited under Russian-Speaking Jews) treats Halloween. Gereboff 2003, Kelner 2008 (cited under Soviet Jewry), and Kelner 2011 situate holidays in a political context. Surveys of American Jewish identity commonly track participation in holiday customs like attending Passover seders and fasting on the Day of Atonement. Cohen 1988 (cited under Ritual and Religious Practice) and Sklare and Greenblum 1967 (cited under General Overviews) use demographic and Jewish educational background characteristics to predict levels of holiday observance, and use levels of holiday observance to predict other Jewish identity outcomes. Some studies in this genre, including Cohen 1988, specifically analyze holiday observance patterns in interfaith households (see also Interfaith Marriage).
  1068.  
  1069. Cernea, Ruth Fredman. The Passover Seder: An Anthropological Perspective on Jewish Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995.
  1070.  
  1071. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1072.  
  1073. Anthropology of the Passover ritual meal. Analyzes the meanings encoded in its text, customs, and material culture. Treats the reenactment of mythic history, nature vs. culture binaries on the seder plate, and more.
  1074.  
  1075. Find this resource:
  1076.  
  1077. Etzioni, Amitai. “Holidays and Rituals: Neglected Seedbeds of Virtue.” In We Are What We Celebrate: Understanding Holidays and Rituals. Edited by Amitai Etzioni and Jared Bloom, 1–40. New York: New York University Press, 2004.
  1078.  
  1079. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1080.  
  1081. An excellent theoretical overview of the sociology of holidays, written for an edited volume on the subject. The essay’s substantial treatment of Jewish holidays is integrated into the broader theoretical and comparative framework. Recommended as first reading on the topic.
  1082.  
  1083. Find this resource:
  1084.  
  1085. Freedman, Jean R. “The Masquerade of Ideas: The Purimshpiel as a Theatre of Conflict.” In Revisioning Ritual: Jewish Traditions in Transition. Edited by Simon Bronner, 94–132. Jewish Cultural Studies 3. Oxford and Portland, OR: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2011.
  1086.  
  1087. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1088.  
  1089. Analyzes satiric Purim plays as performances that represent and negotiate social conflicts. Treats issues of gender and diaspora. Considers implications of Jews’ harmonious rather than conflictual relationship with American culture. Contrasts with European Purim plays of earlier eras.
  1090.  
  1091. Find this resource:
  1092.  
  1093. Gereboff, Joel. “One Nation, with Liberty and Haggadahs for All.” In Key Texts in American Jewish Culture. Edited by Jack Kugelmass, 275–292. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003.
  1094.  
  1095. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1096.  
  1097. Holiday texts as cultural artifacts. Examines Passover haggadahs (ritual books for seder meal) published in the United States. Treats the Americanization of the haggadah as a window onto how American Jews imagine America and define their place in it.
  1098.  
  1099. Find this resource:
  1100.  
  1101. Kelner, Shaul. “The Bureaucratization of Ritual Innovation: The Festive Cycle of the American Soviet Jewry Movement.” In Revisioning Ritual: Jewish Traditions in Transition. Edited by Simon Bronner, 360–391. Jewish Cultural Studies 3. Oxford and Portland, OR: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2011.
  1102.  
  1103. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1104.  
  1105. Holidays and politics. Considers the annual holiday cycle holistically, examining how the Jewish calendar was mobilized to engage American Jews in political action. Holiday-by-holiday coverage, along with analysis of the overall effort to rethink holidays as moments for political mobilization.
  1106.  
  1107. Find this resource:
  1108.  
  1109. Leidner, Robin. “Latke vs. Hamantash: A Materialist-Feminist Analysis; A Reply to Judith Shapiro.” In The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate. Edited by Ruth Fredman Cernea, 121–126. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
  1110.  
  1111. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1112.  
  1113. Example of a new holiday ritual at American universities. Academics apply disciplinary perspectives to debate, tongue-in-cheek, the merits of Passover and Purim foods. Leidner’s brilliant sociology of gendered holiday customs is satire, not an actual study. This does not make it less true.
  1114.  
  1115. Find this resource:
  1116.  
  1117. Plaut, Joshua Eli. A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to Be Jewish. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012.
  1118.  
  1119. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1120.  
  1121. Social history. How American Jews have negotiated the “December Dilemma,” from the 1800s to the early 21st century. American Jewish Christmas rituals. Transformations of Chanukah. Chanukah-Christmas hybridization.
  1122.  
  1123. Find this resource:
  1124.  
  1125. Zerubavel, Eviatar. The Seven Day Circle: The History and Meaning of the Week. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
  1126.  
  1127. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1128.  
  1129. This broad sociological analysis of the seven-day calendar rhythm includes treatment of the Jewish Sabbath. Explores the implications of creating a temporal cycle dissociated entirely from the cycles of nature. A major work in the sociology of time.
  1130.  
  1131. Find this resource:
  1132.  
  1133. Synagogues and Congregations
  1134. For almost four centuries, the synagogue has been a primary institution through which American Jews have organized themselves. The historical evolution of the American synagogue is traced in Sarna 2004 (cited under Religion) and in the first four chapters of Wertheimer 1987. Synagogues are treated throughout the sociological literature on American Jews, but typically in a supporting role. Research in the 1950s and 1960s on acculturation of Eastern European–descended Jews addressed synagogues in the framework of broader studies of Jewish denominational change (Sklare 1955, cited under Denominations) and community formation in postwar suburbs (Gans 1958 and Herberg 1983, both cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival; Sklare and Greenblum 1967, cited under General Overviews). Later, in research on Americanization through consumerism, Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) drew attention to synagogue reception halls and gift shops. No monograph offers a general sociology of the American synagogue. Edited volumes, such as Neusner 1975, Wertheimer 1987, and Wertheimer 2000 (cited under Denominations), make some attempt. Several synagogue ethnographies shed broader light through the case study method. These ethnographies, written mostly by anthropologists, can be organized thematically in a variety of ways: Heilman 1976 and Kugelmass 1986 focus on Orthodox congregations. Prell 1989 and Weissler 1989 examine havurot, alternative worship communities that emerged out of the 1970s counterculture. Kugelmass 1986 and Shokeid 1995 examine urban Jewish subpopulations. Shokeid 1995 and Weissler 1989 focus on Jews negotiating ambivalence about the religious tradition. All share a rejection of the thesis that modernity and secularization have hollowed out religious life. Instead, they examine ways that Jews construct meaning through involvement in religious congregations.
  1135.  
  1136. Heilman, Samuel C. Synagogue Life: A Study in Symbolic Interaction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
  1137.  
  1138. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1139.  
  1140. Dramaturgical analysis of a Modern Orthodox congregation, with sanctuary and social hall as the setting, Torah scrolls and prayer shawls as props, and congregants and rabbis as actors. The ethnography examines how meaning is constructed through performance and interaction.
  1141.  
  1142. Find this resource:
  1143.  
  1144. Kugelmass, Jack. The Miracle of Intervale Avenue: The Story of a Jewish Congregation in the South Bronx. New York: Schocken, 1986.
  1145.  
  1146. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1147.  
  1148. The synagogue community in the context of urban ecology. An ethnography of elderly Jewish stalwarts who remained in the South Bronx after the white flight of the 1960s and 1970s
  1149.  
  1150. Find this resource:
  1151.  
  1152. Neusner, Jacob, ed. Understanding American Judaism: The Rabbi and the Synagogue. New York: Ktav, 1975.
  1153.  
  1154. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1155.  
  1156. With contributions from sociologists Marshall Sklare, Charles Liebman, and others, this primer considers the role of synagogues in local Jewish communities and the role of rabbis in synagogues. Questions are raised about the nature of American rabbinic authority and training.
  1157.  
  1158. Find this resource:
  1159.  
  1160. Prell, Riv-Ellen. Prayer and Community: The Havurah in American Judaism. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989.
  1161.  
  1162. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1163.  
  1164. One of the first social scientific studies to seriously investigate American Judaism as a contemporary, homegrown religious meaning system. Ethnography of a 1970s counterculture prayer community. Contrasts its informal aesthetic and democratic organization with the decorum and structure of conventional American synagogues.
  1165.  
  1166. Find this resource:
  1167.  
  1168. Shokeid, Moshe. A Gay Synagogue in New York. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
  1169.  
  1170. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1171.  
  1172. Ethnography of one of the first and largest gay synagogues in America. Treats the synagogue as an institutional framework through which congregants collectively negotiate Jewish, gender, and sexual identities.
  1173.  
  1174. Find this resource:
  1175.  
  1176. Weissler, Chava. Making Judaism Meaningful: Ambivalence and Tradition in a Havurah Community. New York: AMS Press, 1989.
  1177.  
  1178. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1179.  
  1180. Along with Prell 1989, this work introduced a focus on religious experience into the social science of American Judaism. Ethnography of a 1970s counterculture worship community. Examines the struggle to render tradition meaningful in the face of ambivalence over the authority of tradition.
  1181.  
  1182. Find this resource:
  1183.  
  1184. Wertheimer, Jack, ed. The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  1185.  
  1186. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1187.  
  1188. This edited volume offers an excellent overview of American synagogue studies. Fifteen chapters cover history, denominational patterns, urban and suburban ecology, and issues of worship, sociability, education, music, social class, gender, and conflict.
  1189.  
  1190. Find this resource:
  1191.  
  1192. Denominations
  1193. American Jewish religious diversity is expressed institutionally through organization into religious movements, streams, or denominations. The four largest are (in size order) Reform, Conservatism, Orthodoxy, and Reconstructionism. Each denomination has its own rabbinic seminaries, publishing houses, congregational unions, professional societies, national conferences, public affairs offices, and more. Sarna 2004 (cited under Religion) presents the institutional and intellectual histories of these movements in an integrated fashion. Other single-volume overviews include Neusner 1975 and Wertheimer 1993. Treatments of individual denominations abound. Orthodoxy has received the most extensive coverage. Read together, Sklare 1955 and Wertheimer 2000 bookend the trajectory of Conservative Judaism over the second half of the 20th century. Kaplan 2003 presents an overview of contemporary Reform Judaism. As individuals, American Jews will often invoke denominational labels as shorthand for describing their approach to religious practice. The shorthand is useful because denomination correlates highly with religious behavior and belief. Survey analyses, such as Lazerwitz, et al. 1998, specify these relationships. With American Jews divided by denomination, the question of interdenominational relations arises. Since the 1980s, the denominations have found themselves at odds over contentious issues of feminist reform, interfaith marriage, and the legal empowerment of Orthodoxy in Israel to the exclusion of other streams. These conflicts are made the centerpiece of Wertheimer 1993 and Freedman 2000. Each denomination also stakes out positions on matters of national political debate, including abortion, health care, gun control, and Middle East policy. Mittleman, et al. 2002 (cited under Jewish Organizations and Communal Governance) examines the denominations as actors in the American public square.
  1194.  
  1195. Freedman, Samuel G. Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
  1196.  
  1197. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1198.  
  1199. An award-winning journalist’s sociologically informed treatment of conflicts, including interdenominational conflicts, that are driving changes in American Jewish life. Good popular companion to Wertheimer 1993. Excellent for classroom use. Compelling case studies bring the controversies to life.
  1200.  
  1201. Find this resource:
  1202.  
  1203. Kaplan, Dana Evan. American Reform Judaism: An Introduction. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003.
  1204.  
  1205. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1206.  
  1207. Focusing more on Reform Judaism’s institutions than its adherents, this is a good primer on the defining trends and motivating tensions shaping Reform Jewish ideology, practice, and culture since the 1990s.
  1208.  
  1209. Find this resource:
  1210.  
  1211. Lazerwitz, Bernard, J. Alan Winter, Arnold Dashefsky, and Ephraim Tabory. Jewish Choices: American Jewish Denominationalism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
  1212.  
  1213. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1214.  
  1215. Uses national survey data to analyze sociodemographic differences among adherents of American Judaism’s various denominations. Finds that denominational preference is no longer a function of social class, but of the extent of social engagement outside of the Jewish community.
  1216.  
  1217. Find this resource:
  1218.  
  1219. Neusner, Jacob, ed. Understanding American Judaism: Sectors of American Judaism—Reform, Orthodoxy, Conservatism, and Reconstructionism. New York: Ktav, 1975.
  1220.  
  1221. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1222.  
  1223. Reform, Orthodoxy, and Conservatism each treated separately. Each section includes chapters addressing synagogues, rabbis, laity, ideology, and more. Contributors include sociologists and rabbi-scholars from the three movements.
  1224.  
  1225. Find this resource:
  1226.  
  1227. Sklare, Marshall. Conservative Judaism: An American Religious Movement. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1955.
  1228.  
  1229. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1230.  
  1231. A pioneering work that helped establish the field of American Jewish sociology. Examines the rise of Conservatism as the denomination of choice for postwar American Jews. An uncompromisingly sociological read of mid-century Conservative religious practice and ideology.
  1232.  
  1233. Find this resource:
  1234.  
  1235. Wertheimer, Jack. A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America. New York: HarperCollins, Basic Books, 1993.
  1236.  
  1237. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1238.  
  1239. Traces trends in Reform, Conservatism, Orthodoxy, and Reconstructionism that have contributed to Jewish religious polarization and internecine conflict. Considers the trajectories of the denominations, including possible splits, mergers, and coalitions. Perfectly captures the 1990s American Jewish zeitgeist.
  1240.  
  1241. Find this resource:
  1242.  
  1243. Wertheimer, Jack, ed. Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
  1244.  
  1245. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1246.  
  1247. The first comprehensive sociological study of Conservative Judaism since Sklare 1955. Draws together chapters by luminaries in American Jewish sociology, juxtaposing survey-based and ethnographic research. Assesses Conservatism’s vitality in light of cultural and demographic shifts.
  1248.  
  1249. Find this resource:
  1250.  
  1251. Orthodoxy
  1252. Since the 1970s, a subgenre of sociologies of Orthodoxy has emerged. This is ironic, considering that earlier research had written off Orthodoxy as a vestige of the Old World (for a critical review of this literature, see Mayer 1973, cited under Critical Histories of the Field). The inclination to write Orthodoxy’s epitaph was informed by a theoretical paradigm in the sociology of religion that saw modernity as inherently secularizing. As this “secularization thesis” came under attack, social scientists turned their lenses on an Orthodoxy that, they discovered, was vibrant and growing. Research now presents Orthodox Judaism as internally diverse. Heilman 1976 and Kugelmass 1986 (both cited under Synagogues and Congregations) treat integrationist Modern Orthodoxy. Bilu 2003 (cited under Life Cycle and Rites of Passage), Davidman 2011, Fader 2009, and Katz 2010 study sectarian ultra-Orthodoxy, including Hasidic movements. Although adherents speak of Orthodoxy as a traditional movement, social scientists reject this position and instead understand Orthodoxy as a modern religious movement that creates itself in dialogue with the contemporary world. Soloveitchik 1994 makes this point forcefully. Having recognized Orthodoxy’s vitality, researchers have found it a rich site for research. Benor 2012 and Kaufman 1991 study the “baal teshuvah” phenomenon, in which non-Orthodox Jews choose to embrace an Orthodox lifestyle. Davidman 2011, by contrast, studies exit from Orthodoxy. Heilman 2006 and Soloveitchik 1994 contemplate trends toward ever-increasing stringency in Orthodox ritual observance. Fader 2009 and Katz 2010 analyze the cultural boundary work that helps sustain ultra-Orthodox communities. Some research places Orthodox institutions in the center of focus, including Heilman 1976 and Kugelmass 1986, which are studies of synagogues (both cited under Synagogues and Congregations); Helmreich 2000, an analysis of yeshiva seminaries; and Fader 2009, an ethnography in children’s schools. The literature is also notable for its feminist scholarship, with Davidman 2011, Fader 2009, and Kaufman 1991, among others, treating women and Orthodoxy. Newer research draws on a wider range of methods. Benor 2012 and Fader 2009 work out of linguistics and Katz 2010 analyzes visual culture.
  1253.  
  1254. Benor, Sarah Bunin. Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012.
  1255.  
  1256. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1257.  
  1258. Conversion to Orthodoxy as a process of social and linguistic acculturation. Excellent guide to Orthodox Jewish English. Runner-up for the Jewish Book Council’s 2013 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.
  1259.  
  1260. Find this resource:
  1261.  
  1262. Davidman, Lynn. “The Transformation of Bodily Practices among Religious Defectors.” In Embodied Resistance: Challenging the Norms, Breaking the Rules. Edited by Chris Bobel and Samantha Kwan, 209–219. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2011.
  1263.  
  1264. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1265.  
  1266. Conversion out of Orthodoxy, the counterpoint to Davidman’s earlier work on conversion into Orthodoxy. Exit from a religious community enacted through private experimentation and then public presentation of changes in dress, grooming, and eating practices.
  1267.  
  1268. Find this resource:
  1269.  
  1270. Fader, Ayala. Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
  1271.  
  1272. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1273.  
  1274. Award-winning ethnography of Hasidic Judaism in America. Studies the gendered socialization of Hasidic girls to shed broader light on Hasidic notions of selfhood and the body, and the use of Yiddish and English language to negotiate Hasidic identity.
  1275.  
  1276. Find this resource:
  1277.  
  1278. Heilman, Samuel C. Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
  1279.  
  1280. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1281.  
  1282. Written by a specialist in the sociology of Orthodox Judaism, this book examines the trends in recent decades toward stricter religious observance among American Orthodox Jews.
  1283.  
  1284. Find this resource:
  1285.  
  1286. Helmreich, William B. The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 2000.
  1287.  
  1288. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1289.  
  1290. Sociology of American Jewish Orthodox religious seminaries for males, treating the institution’s history, organizational structure, and curriculum. Analyzes the yeshiva as a community, addressing the authority of the headmaster, and status attainment and deviance among students.
  1291.  
  1292. Find this resource:
  1293.  
  1294. Katz, Maya Balakirsky. The Visual Culture of Chabad. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  1295.  
  1296. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1297.  
  1298. Perhaps influenced by Judaism’s traditional injunctions against images, research on Jews has tended to ignore visual culture. Katz’s methodologically innovative work breaks with that tradition, analyzing the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic movement through its iconography.
  1299.  
  1300. Find this resource:
  1301.  
  1302. Kaufman, Debra R. Rachel’s Daughters: Newly Orthodox Jewish Women. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.
  1303.  
  1304. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1305.  
  1306. Gender, counter-secularization, and ba’alot teshuvah (non-Orthodox Jewish women who choose to become Orthodox). Feminist sociology examines how women interpret their embrace of seemingly anti-feminist Orthodox practices of gender differentiation and segregation, pro-natalism, and rituals governing sex and the female body.
  1307.  
  1308. Find this resource:
  1309.  
  1310. Soloveitchik, Haym. “Rupture and Reconstruction: The Transformation of Contemporary Orthodoxy.” Tradition 28.4 (1994): 64–130.
  1311.  
  1312. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1313.  
  1314. Argues that modernity’s destabilizing forces have changed Orthodoxy from a traditional culture loyal to parents’ practices to a modern legal culture where written law trumps lived tradition. A brilliant application of Weber’s classic sociological analysis of legitimate authority. Widely cited.
  1315.  
  1316. Find this resource:
  1317.  
  1318. Politics, Political Identities, and Collective Action
  1319. Jewish Americans define themselves collectively, organize for concerted action, assert power, and participate in political life both as individuals and as communities. Fundamental to Jewish politics, as to all politics, are issues of power. Two good introductions to Jewish American politics, therefore, are Biale 1986 and Goldberg 1996, which place questions of Jewish power—its nature, limits, and exercise—at the center of analysis. In the United States, the study of Jewish politics has focused on four major areas. The first involves participation in the American political arena. Fuchs 1956 was the first major study of Jewish American voting patterns and party identification. Maisel and Forman 2001 and Medoff 2002 present more recent data and also address office-holding and involvement in different segments of government. With Goldberg 1996, they also examine Jewish lobbying efforts. A second area, involving Jewish American connections with Jews in other countries, is covered under Transnational Connections and Identities. Most of this work addresses the role of Israel in Jewish American politics and political identity (see also Israel and American Zionism). Some scholarship also addresses relations with the global Jewish diaspora outside of Israel and new transnational political identities that present themselves as Jewish American alternatives to Zionism (see also Diaspora and American Diasporism). A third area focuses on Jewish collective action to bring about social change. This includes studies of participation in broader American social movements as well as mobilizations to effect change within the Jewish American community (see also Social Movements). The fourth area addresses the organizational politics of Jewish communal governance. Notable here is Elazar 1995 (cited under Jewish Organizations and Communal Governance), which explicitly theorizes Jewish communal organizations as a polity. The lines between the four areas are porous, with each affecting the others. (Consider, for instance, how Jewish American relations with Israel inform their participation in American politics and vice versa.)
  1320.  
  1321. Biale, David. Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History. New York: Schocken, 1986.
  1322.  
  1323. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1324.  
  1325. The last chapter (chapter 7, pp. 177–205) situates Jewish American political power in the context of Jewish political power and political theory from Antiquity to the modern era.
  1326.  
  1327. Find this resource:
  1328.  
  1329. Fuchs, Lawrence H. The Political Behavior of American Jews. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1956.
  1330.  
  1331. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1332.  
  1333. A foundational social scientific study of voting patterns and party identification. Examines Jewish American liberalism, internationalism, and the shift from socialism to alignment with the Democratic Party. Attributes Jewish American liberalism to traditional Jewish values and a history of persecution.
  1334.  
  1335. Find this resource:
  1336.  
  1337. Goldberg, J. J. Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996.
  1338.  
  1339. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1340.  
  1341. A well-written journalistic treatment of Jewish American political activity, written by the former editor of one of the major Jewish American weeklies. Engaging storytelling and broad coverage makes it well suited for undergraduate classes.
  1342.  
  1343. Find this resource:
  1344.  
  1345. Maisel, L. Sandy, and Ira N. Forman, eds. Jews in American Politics. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.
  1346.  
  1347. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1348.  
  1349. Edited volume with chapters on Jewish Americans in each branch of government, liberalism and conservatism, voting patterns, domestic and foreign affairs lobbying, women’s political involvement, and more. Includes historical list of Jews elected and appointed to office.
  1350.  
  1351. Find this resource:
  1352.  
  1353. Medoff, Rafael. Jewish Americans and Political Participation: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2002.
  1354.  
  1355. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1356.  
  1357. A primer that covers Jewish American voting patterns, office-holding (elected and appointed), lobbying efforts, and participation in protest movements. Includes primary source documents and an annotated bibliography.
  1358.  
  1359. Find this resource:
  1360.  
  1361. Transnational Connections and Identities
  1362. Jewish Americans participate in and often identify with forms of Jewish political community that transcend national borders. Through political advocacy, philanthropy, religious ritual, cultural consumption, travel, and other behaviors, they enact membership in a worldwide Jewish community. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the two primary emphases in Jewish American transnationalism have involved connections with the State of Israel and with other diaspora Jewish communities around the world. Each of these has received treatment in the literature. Each is surveyed separately here.
  1363.  
  1364. Israel and American Zionism
  1365. Research on Jewish American politics addresses Israel’s role at both individual and collective levels. For many individual Jews, Israel is an important political symbol. For Jewish communal organizations, engagement with Israel structures much political and philanthropic work. Research has traced an evolving communal relationship, from a period of strong pro-Israel activism in the decade after Israel’s 1967 Six Day War, to an extended period of Jewish American divisiveness over Israeli-related issues, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the legal establishment of Orthodoxy as the official state Judaism. Freedman 2000 and Wertheimer 1993 (both cited under Denominations) present this “from unity to division” narrative. Survey researchers have debated whether these changes in public discourse are reflected in changing sentiments among individuals, with some arguing that the surveys show declining attachment and others arguing that attachment has remained stable. Cohen and Kelman 2010 is a special issue of the journal Contemporary Jewry that represents both sides of the debate. Sasson 2013 offers the most comprehensive analysis of current situation, accounting for individual and collective forms of engagement and situating these in historical perspective. Earlier surveys of individuals’ sentiments toward Israel can be found in the Sklare and Ringer chapter in Sklare 1958 (pp. 437–450, cited under Readers), and the S. Cohen chapter in Gal 1996 (pp. 352–373). In addition to research on private sentiment, social scientists and historians have studied the activities through which Jews engage Israel. Kelner 2010 and Gal 1996 examine how culture is mobilized politically to foster particular representations of Israel. Reinharz and Raider 2005, Sasson 2013, and Gal 1996 examine philanthropic activity and political advocacy and lobbying to support Israel. Shain 2000 examines political advocacy to challenge Israel or remake it an American image, the latter theme also addressed in Gal 1996. Kelner 2010, Sasson 2013, and Waxman 1989 study direct engagements in which Jewish Americans leave the United States to place themselves in Israel, whether as temporary pilgrims (Kelner) as permanent migrants (Waxman), or both (Sasson).
  1366.  
  1367. Cohen, Steven M., and Ari Y. Kelman, eds. Special Issue: Are Israel and Young American Jews Growing Apart: Debating the Distance Hypothesis. Contemporary Jewry 30.2–3 (2010).
  1368.  
  1369. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1370.  
  1371. Special issue debating whether Jewish Americans are growing less attached to Israel. Lead articles by Cohen and Kelman (arguing for decline) and Sasson, Saxe, and Kadushin (arguing for stability). Responses from twenty scholars.
  1372.  
  1373. Find this resource:
  1374.  
  1375. Gal, Allon, ed. Envisioning Israel: The Changing Ideals and Images of North American Jews. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996.
  1376.  
  1377. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1378.  
  1379. Edited volume shows Jewish Americans identifying with a symbolic “Israel” that they have envisioned in their own American image. Traces American visions of Israel through philanthropy, liturgy, film, etc. Chapters by sociologists, social historians, and cultural studies scholars.
  1380.  
  1381. Find this resource:
  1382.  
  1383. Kelner, Shaul. Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright Tourism. New York: New York University Press, 2010.
  1384.  
  1385. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1386.  
  1387. Ethnography of state-sponsored trips to Israel for diaspora Jewish youth. Examines how tourism is deployed strategically to build state-diaspora relations and represent Israel and Middle East politics. Analyzes efforts to engineer tourism as a technology for shaping place-based Jewish identities.
  1388.  
  1389. Find this resource:
  1390.  
  1391. Reinharz, Shulamit, and Mark A. Raider, eds. American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise. Waltham, MA, and Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2005.
  1392.  
  1393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1394.  
  1395. Sociologist Shulamit Reinharz’s coedited volume fills a gap by focusing on gendered dimensions of American Zionism. Although heavy on biography, social scientists will find the organizational histories in the book’s second section more relevant. Mostly covers pre-1948 period.
  1396.  
  1397. Find this resource:
  1398.  
  1399. Sasson, Theodore. The New American Zionism. New York: New York University Press, 2013.
  1400.  
  1401. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1402.  
  1403. Argues Jewish American engagement with Israel is increasing, not declining, but the mode of engagement has shifted from mass-mobilization around consensus issues to direct engagement around diverse visions of what Israel should be. More involvement, less unity, more friction.
  1404.  
  1405. Find this resource:
  1406.  
  1407. Shain, Yossi. “American Jews and the Construction of Israel’s Jewish Identity.” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies 9 (2000): 163–201.
  1408.  
  1409. DOI: 10.1353/dsp.2000.0021Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1410.  
  1411. A political scientist and specialist in the field of diaspora studies analyzes recent Jewish American efforts to influence Israeli religious culture and reshape it along American lines. An instance of what Shain elsewhere calls “exporting the American creed abroad.”
  1412.  
  1413. Find this resource:
  1414.  
  1415. Shapiro, Faydra L. Building Jewish Roots: The Israel Experience. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006.
  1416.  
  1417. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1418.  
  1419. Religious re-socialization in an era of religious individualism. Ethnography of Orthodox-sponsored volunteer program in Israel for non-Orthodox Jewish American young adults. Analyzes curriculum’s presentation of Judaism and Israel, and influence on participants. Winner of National Jewish Book Award.
  1420.  
  1421. Find this resource:
  1422.  
  1423. Waxman, Chaim I. American Aliya: Portrait of an Innovative Migration Movement. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989.
  1424.  
  1425. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1426.  
  1427. Attachment to Israel expressed by moving there. A sociological analysis of Jewish Americans who emigrate to Israel. Examines motivations, acculturation, family separation, and return migration. Demographic profile of migrants. Also addresses Americans settling in the West Bank and Gaza. The topic awaits an updated treatment.
  1428.  
  1429. Find this resource:
  1430.  
  1431. Diaspora and American Diasporism
  1432. Zionism’s model of Jewish political community has advocated concentrating the Jewish population in a single nation-state located in the biblical land of Israel, eliminating the global dispersion of Jews. Zionism has helped revolutionize the Jewish population distribution. In the early 21st century, approximately 40% of the world’s Jews live in Israel. Still, the majority live elsewhere. In recent decades, scholars of Jewish diaspora communities have challenged Zionism’s rejection of the diaspora. This neo-diasporist scholarship has offered descriptive and prescriptive models of Jewish political community that affirm diaspora, attend to the diversity of Jewish communities around the world, and do not presume the demise, illegitimacy, or irrelevance of Jewish life outside Israel. This literature is conversant with research on non-Jewish diasporas and attends to globalization’s role in fostering Jewish diasporic connections and identities. Some works maintain Israel as a theoretical category, such as Shain 2000 and Kelner 2010 (both cited under Israel and American Zionism). Freedman 2008, Gilman 1999, and Shandler 2006 theorize diaspora in ways that do not rest on relationships with national homelands. Neo-diasporist scholarship emerging from the sociology of migration, like Sheffer 2005, emphasizes connections among co-ethnics across national borders. In contrast, neo-diasporist scholarship emerging from cultural studies and postcolonial studies deemphasizes connections with co-ethnics and instead highlights the potential for cultural innovation and critical politics at border zones where diverse groups meet. Galchinsky’s chapter in Biale, et al. 1998 (cited under Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism) provides an overview (pp. 185–211) of the intellectual tradition informing this stream of scholarship. Boyarin and Boyarin 1993 and Gilman 1999 are important theoretical interventions that offer opposing views of diaspora’s potential to live up to this promise. Studies of Jewish communities around the world, the connections among them, and the types of diasporic identities that emerge in them include Aviv and Shneer 2005, which is firmly rooted in the neo-diasporist school, and Troen 1999, which is not. The treatment of Jewish peoplehood education in Mittelberg 2011 marries neo-diasporism to Zionist nation-building, indicative of the evolution in Israeli political thought about diaspora. Kelner 2010 (cited under Israel and American Zionism) shows this evolution in practice, highlighting the neo-diasporism inherent in state-sponsored Israel trips that many presume to be an instance of classical Zionist political socialization.
  1433.  
  1434. Aviv, Caryn, and David Shneer. New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora. New York: New York University Press, 2005.
  1435.  
  1436. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1437.  
  1438. Examines cultural trends that suggest a new model of Jewish diaspora. Gone is Israel-centrism. In its place, the authors propose a multi-centered model with Jewish attachments to many places, from New York and San Francisco to Moscow and Tel Aviv.
  1439.  
  1440. Find this resource:
  1441.  
  1442. Boyarin, Daniel, and Jonathan Boyarin. “Diaspora: Generation and the Ground of Jewish Identity.” Critical Inquiry 19.4 (1993): 693–725.
  1443.  
  1444. DOI: 10.1086/448694Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1445.  
  1446. Foundational text in diaspora studies. Invokes the Jewish case to suggest diaspora as a humane alternative to nationalism and universalism. Only diaspora affirms difference without empowering groups to enforce conformity. Critiques Christian universalism. Critiques Zionism’s rejection of diaspora.
  1447.  
  1448. Find this resource:
  1449.  
  1450. Freedman, Jonathan. Klezmer America: Jewishness, Ethnicity, Modernity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
  1451.  
  1452. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1453.  
  1454. Portrays Jewish culture as one that blurs conceptual boundaries, challenges fixed categories, and embraces hybridity—all central themes in postmodern diasporist scholarship. Presents Jewish hybridity as exemplary of trends in American popular and political culture.
  1455.  
  1456. Find this resource:
  1457.  
  1458. Gilman, Sander L. “The Frontier as a Model for Jewish History.” In Jewries at the Frontier: Accommodation, Identity, Conflict. Edited by Sander L. Gilman and Milton Shain, 1–28. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999.
  1459.  
  1460. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1461.  
  1462. Critiques neo-diasporism for inverting rather than transcending nationalism’s core-periphery model. Nationalism privileges center over margins, neo-diasporism privileges margins over center. Proposes dropping core-periphery models and instead interpreting all Jewish spaces, including Israel, as frontiers where culture is created anew.
  1463.  
  1464. Find this resource:
  1465.  
  1466. Mittelberg, David. “Jewish Peoplehood Education.” In International Handbook of Jewish Education. Vol. 1. Edited by Helena Miller, Lisa D. Grant, and Alex Pomson, 515–539. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2011.
  1467.  
  1468. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-0354-4Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1469.  
  1470. Israeli sociologist of education analyzes efforts to cultivate Jewish transnational ties. Surveys field and offers a guiding philosophy for “peoplehood education.” Says Jewish peoplehood education should “build interdependence, reciprocity and mutuality while accepting multiplicity of identity.”
  1471.  
  1472. Find this resource:
  1473.  
  1474. Shandler, Jeffrey. Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language & Culture. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006.
  1475.  
  1476. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1477.  
  1478. Diasporist geography of Yiddish language. Where is Yiddishland? This “cosmopolitan utopia” offers an “alternative model of Jewish at-homeness” to Zionism’s. Instead of “amassing turf” in Israel, maps of Yiddishland “celebrate the great distances among its many outposts” (p. 49).
  1479.  
  1480. Find this resource:
  1481.  
  1482. Sheffer, Gabriel. “Is the Jewish Diaspora Unique? Reflections on the Diaspora’s Current Situation.” Israel Studies 10.1 (2005): 1–35.
  1483.  
  1484. DOI: 10.2979/ISR.2005.10.1.1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1485.  
  1486. An excellent introduction to the literature, written by a leading scholar of Jewish diaspora studies. Covers a breadth of important issues, identifying current trends. Theoretically sophisticated, it will introduce readers to key concepts in the diaspora studies literature.
  1487.  
  1488. Find this resource:
  1489.  
  1490. Troen, S. Ilan, ed. Jewish Centers and Peripheries: Europe between America and Israel Fifty Years after World War II. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1999.
  1491.  
  1492. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1493.  
  1494. This edited volume inserts European Jewry into a conversation too often focused on Israel and America alone. A snapshot of European Jewish communities and their relations with American Jews and Israel in the first post–Cold War decade.
  1495.  
  1496. Find this resource:
  1497.  
  1498. Social Movements
  1499. Jewish American political engagement is not limited to conventional political institutions and channels. Jews have also been active participants in mass movements, challenging authority and pressing for political, social, and cultural change. They have been active in these movements as Americans participating in broad-based coalitions for civil rights, fair labor practices, women’s rights, the environment, and more. At the same time, Jewish activists have also made the Jewish American community and its organizations, including synagogues, targets of their demands for change. This section includes bibliographies on Jews’ efforts to effect feminist reforms in Jewish religious and institutional life (see Feminism) and their mobilization during the Cold War to fight human rights abuses against the Jews of the USSR (see Soviet Jewry). On Jewish involvement in the labor movement, see Epstein 1950 (cited under Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobility). On Jewish involvement with America’s civil rights movement, see Race and Black-Jewish Relations, Staub 2004 (cited under Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism) and Schultz’s chapter in Nadell 2003 (pp. 281–296), cited under Gender. (Nadell 2003 also includes chapters on feminism, union organizing, and consumer boycotts.) On the gay rights movement, see Sexuality. For an assessment of Jewish environmentalism in the United States, see Jacobs 2002.
  1500.  
  1501. Jacobs, Marc X. “Jewish Environmentalism: Past Accomplishments and Future Challenges.” In Judaism and Ecology: Created World and Revealed Word. Edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, 449–480. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.
  1502.  
  1503. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1504.  
  1505. There is little sociological research on Jewish American environmentalism. Jacobs’ survey of the organizational field appears in a volume dedicated to creating intellectual foundations of a movement. Offers insight into emerging themes and dilemmas in Jewish environmentalism.
  1506.  
  1507. Find this resource:
  1508.  
  1509. Feminism
  1510. Jews have been deeply engaged in the American feminist movement. In the 1970s, a subset of these activists organized to advance feminist reform within Jewish religious and communal spheres. Fighting for equal participation in religious life and feminist reform of Jewish liturgy, ritual, and theology, the movement has revolutionized non-Orthodox Judaism and has made slower but not insubstantial progress in Orthodoxy, too. Early writings on feminist reform of American Judaism, such as Cohen 1980 and Fishman 1993, portray Judaism and feminism in essentialist terms as rival value systems in conflict. With the movement’s successes in reshaping Jewish practice, this theme has dropped out of the literature. Later scholarship, such as Prell 2007 and Weissler 2006, is less likely to speak of feminism and Judaism as fixed categories. For overviews of the history of the feminist movement in American Judaism, see Cohen 1980, Fishman 1993, and Prell 2007. The Heschel 1983 volume’s primary sources will involve readers in the substantive conversations about power, gender, and religion that launched the movement. The Prell 2007 edited volume takes stock of Jewish feminism’s accomplishments over three decades, examining them in multiple spheres and across denominations. For detailed treatment of Orthodoxy in particular, Hartman 2007 offers an entry point. On feminism in the Jewish Renewal movement, see Weissler 2006. Heschel 1983, Fishman 1993, Prell 2007, and Weissler 2006 all address liturgical reform and ritual innovation. For a case study of the controversy that such reforms generated in one congregation, see the chapter on feminism in Freedman 2000 (pp. 115–161, cited under Denominations). Nadell 1998 covers a century of debates over the ordination of women rabbis. Most writing about Jewish American feminism has focused on feminist reform of American Judaism. An exception is Pinsky 2010, which highlights Jewish participation the American feminist movement more broadly.
  1511.  
  1512. Cohen, Steven M. “American Jewish Feminism: A Study in Conflicts and Compromises.” American Behavioral Scientist 23.4 (1980): 519–558.
  1513.  
  1514. DOI: 10.1177/000276428002300405Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1515.  
  1516. Analyzes Jewish feminism’s first decade. In-depth interviews with movement leaders highlight biographical pathways to activism, strategies for reconciling conflicts between patriarchal religious tradition and modern feminism, and origins, structure, and activities of movement organizations.
  1517.  
  1518. Find this resource:
  1519.  
  1520. Fishman, Sylvia Barack. A Breath of Life: Feminism in the American Jewish Community. New York: Free Press, 1993.
  1521.  
  1522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1523.  
  1524. Early survey of feminism and American Judaism. Rebuts then-common charge that the two were incompatible. Four chapters on Jewish sociodemographic transformations associated with women’s liberation (e.g., work, marriage, childbearing). Four chapters on feminist reform of Jewish religion.
  1525.  
  1526. Find this resource:
  1527.  
  1528. Hartman, Tova. Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism: Resistance and Accommodation. Waltham, MA, and Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2007.
  1529.  
  1530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1531.  
  1532. A study of the challenges encountered by feminist reformers in Orthodox Judaism. Activist scholarship. Analyses intended to inform work of feminist reformers in Orthodox congregations and communities.
  1533.  
  1534. Find this resource:
  1535.  
  1536. Heschel, Susannah, ed. On Being a Jewish Feminist: A Reader. New York: Schocken, 1983.
  1537.  
  1538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1539.  
  1540. Compilation of primary sources, including seminal writings from movement pioneers like Adler, Cantor, Ozick, and Plaskow. A valuable snapshot of the debates and issues that drove the movement in its first decade. Excellent entry point for undergraduate classes.
  1541.  
  1542. Find this resource:
  1543.  
  1544. Nadell, Pamela S. Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women’s Ordination, 1889–1985. Boston: Beacon, 1998.
  1545.  
  1546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1547.  
  1548. Traces the century of debate (mostly in America but also Germany) over ordaining women as rabbis. Last three chapters focus on the attainment of women’s ordination in Reform (1972) and Conservative Judaism (1985), and the ongoing debate within Orthodoxy.
  1549.  
  1550. Find this resource:
  1551.  
  1552. Pinsky, Dina. Jewish Feminists: Complex Identities and Activist Lives. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010.
  1553.  
  1554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1555.  
  1556. Jews in the broader American feminist movement. Interviews with second-wave feminist activists from the 1960s and 1970s. Examines the construction of feminist and Jewish identities, and their intersections. Considers silences surrounding Jewishness in American feminism.
  1557.  
  1558. Find this resource:
  1559.  
  1560. Prell, Riv-Ellen, ed. Women Remaking American Judaism. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
  1561.  
  1562. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1563.  
  1564. Rich and varied assessment of the effects of three decades of feminist reform in American Jewish religious life, from ritual to theology to congregational leadership. Separate treatments of each Jewish religious denomination. Good reader for undergraduate courses.
  1565.  
  1566. Find this resource:
  1567.  
  1568. Weissler, Chava. “‘Women of Vision’ in the Jewish Renewal Movement: The Eshet Hazon [‘Woman of Vision’] Ceremony.” Jewish Culture and History 8.3 (2006): 62–86.
  1569.  
  1570. DOI: 10.1080/1462169X.2006.10512058Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1571.  
  1572. Case study. Examines how ideology and practice evolved after feminist reforms were successfully made. Highlights conflict and contention within the movement. A sophisticated anthropological treatment of the intersection of ideologies, organizational structures, and movement factions.
  1573.  
  1574. Find this resource:
  1575.  
  1576. Soviet Jewry
  1577. From the 1960s to early 1990s, Jewish Americans engaged in a massive and ultimately successful campaign to facilitate the emigration of millions of Jews from the Soviet Union. The movement has been scrutinized as an important case of Jewish American collective action, shedding light on diaspora politics and political culture. The first retrospective treatment of the movement published after the end of the Cold War is Friedman and Chernin 1999, an edited volume from a conference heavy with former activists taking credit and rehashing factional conflicts. Harrison 2001 offers the first scholarly monograph on the movement. Most analyses have emphasized the movement’s power politics, focusing on how Jewish American organizations worked with and against the US and Israeli governments to shape state policies. Lazin 2005 and Peretz 2006 examine confrontations with the White House on the linkage of US trade policy with Soviet human rights guarantees (the “Jackson-Vanik Amendment”), and confrontations with the Israeli government over Soviet Jews who chose to move to the United States instead of Israel (so-called “dropouts”). Galchinsky 2007 examines how Jewish Americans circumvented the United Nations to create an alternative human rights network that would not be subject to a Soviet veto. Other scholarship like Ferziger 2012, Kelner 2008, and Kelner 2011 (cited under Holidays and Sacred Time) addresses cultural dimensions and consequences of the movement. All these works focus on the American activists rather than on Soviet Jews themselves. On the movement’s consequences for the emigrants, see Russian-Speaking Jews. Beckerman 2010 is the one source that treats policy and culture, and activists in the United States, Israel, and USSR simultaneously: a broad, readable entry point into the study of the movement.
  1578.  
  1579. Beckerman, Gal. When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry. Boston: Mariner, 2010.
  1580.  
  1581. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1582.  
  1583. National Jewish Book Award winner. Beckerman, a journalist, uses his talents well to weave a compelling historical narrative. The only book to offer an integrated treatment of the movement’s American, Israeli, and Soviet branches.
  1584.  
  1585. Find this resource:
  1586.  
  1587. Ferziger, Adam S. “‘Outside the Shul’: The American Soviet Jewry Movement and the Rise of Solidarity Orthodoxy, 1964–1986.” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 22.1 (2012): 83–130.
  1588.  
  1589. DOI: 10.1525/rac.2012.22.1.83Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1590.  
  1591. Analyzes the movement’s consequences for American Jewish religion. Explores the movement’s role in shaping contemporary American Orthodox Judaism—ideology, practice, and leadership.
  1592.  
  1593. Find this resource:
  1594.  
  1595. Friedman, Murray, and Albert D. Chernin. A Second Exodus: The American Movement to Free Soviet Jews. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 1999.
  1596.  
  1597. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1598.  
  1599. The first post-movement retrospective. Edited volume by scholars and former activists adds a final round to the old factional conflicts, with rival parties claiming credit as the movement’s history is being written. Enlightening to compare the divergent accounts.
  1600.  
  1601. Find this resource:
  1602.  
  1603. Galchinsky, Michael. Jews and Human Rights: Dancing at Three Weddings. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
  1604.  
  1605. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1606.  
  1607. Situates the American Soviet Jewry movement in the context of Jewish American activism for global human rights, including efforts to confront post-Holocaust genocides and foster human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Israel.
  1608.  
  1609. Find this resource:
  1610.  
  1611. Harrison, Andrew. Passover Revisited: Philadelphia’s Efforts to Aid Soviet Jews 1963–1998. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001.
  1612.  
  1613. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1614.  
  1615. In-depth case study of one community’s activist movement (Philadelphia). Shows that factional conflicts were not as pronounced at the local level as at the national. Commissioned by former activists who opened their archives.
  1616.  
  1617. Find this resource:
  1618.  
  1619. Kelner, Shaul. “Ritualized Protest and Redemptive Politics: Cultural Consequences of the American Mobilization to Free Soviet Jewry.” Jewish Social Studies 14.3 (2008): 1–37.
  1620.  
  1621. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1622.  
  1623. The first cultural analysis of the movement, examining its consequences for Jewish American identity politics. Analyzes the use of Passover rituals as a protest tactic, and its role in framing political action as a religious imperative.
  1624.  
  1625. Find this resource:
  1626.  
  1627. Lazin, Fred A. The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American Politics: Israel versus the American Jewish Establishment. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005.
  1628.  
  1629. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1630.  
  1631. A political scientist’s study of diaspora interest group politics. Shows American Jews as an independent political force, playing high politics with the US and Israeli governments, winning some and losing some. Covers Jackson-Vanik, debate over “dropouts.”
  1632.  
  1633. Find this resource:
  1634.  
  1635. Peretz, Pauline. Le combat pour les Juifs soviétiques: Washington—Moscou—Jérusalem, 1953–1989. Paris: Armand Colin, 2006.
  1636.  
  1637. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1638.  
  1639. In French. This movement history, written by a political scientist, offers a sophisticated treatment of diaspora politics and foreign relations. Pays more attention to Israel’s role shaping the American movement than many American treatments do.
  1640.  
  1641. Find this resource:
  1642.  
  1643. Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism
  1644. Jewish Americans disproportionately align with the political left. In the 2012 US presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama garnered 69% of the Jewish vote, compared to 39% of the white vote overall. As commonly told, Eastern European Jewish assimilation to America involved shifting political identities, with early-20th-century immigrant socialism giving to way to a liberalism that persists to this day. Howe 2005 exemplifies this narrative (cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival). Nathan Glazer describes the liberalism of affluent Jewish Americans as “anomalous” because it runs counter to the typical correlation between high socioeconomic status and political conservatism (in Seltzer and Cohen 1995, pp. 133–143, cited under Readers). There is no entirely satisfactory explanation of the persistence of Jewish American liberalism. Fuchs 1956 (cited under Politics, Political Identities, and Collective Action) ties liberalism to Jewish values and to Jews’ historical experience as a persecuted minority. Levey 1996 challenges this explanation but does not dismiss Fuchs 1956 entirely. Cohen and Liebman 1997 suggests that a path toward a satisfactory explanation will come from breaking the concept of liberalism into separate dimensions and analyzing each independently. In line with the notion that Jewish American liberalism is “anomalous,” commentators, particularly on the right, have spoken of an approaching rightward turn in Jewish American political identification. Glazer raises the idea in the above-cited chapter in Seltzer and Cohen 1995. Shapiro’s chapter in Maisel and Forman 2001 (pp. 195–212, cited under Politics, Political Identities, and Collective Action) expresses skepticism at its likelihood. The presentation of political debates among Jews in the 1960s and 1970s in Staub 2004 shows that liberalism has not held as much sway among Jewish Americans as is conventionally thought. Staub 2004, Dorman 2000, and Friedman 2005 also trace the emergence, out of liberalism, of a Jewish neo-conservative movement. Only Friedman 2005 makes Jewish neo-conservatism its exclusive focus. These works also examine the shifting relationships within the Jewish American left. Dorman 2000 considers tensions that divided the socialist Old Left from the countercultural New Left in the 1960s. Staub 2004 touches on these tensions but places the New Left rather than the Old at the center of the narrative. Porter and Dreier 1973 and Staub 2004 offer primary source documents that allow the Jewish counterculture to speak in its own words. Biale, et al. 1998 traces the dilemmas of the Jewish encounter with the New Left forward to the debates of the 1980s and 1990s over multiculturalism. As to the Old Left, Epstein 1950 (cited under Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobility) is a much-cited history of the Jewish labor movement in the United States.
  1645.  
  1646. Biale, David, Michael Galchinsky, and Susannah Heschel, eds. Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998.
  1647.  
  1648. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1649.  
  1650. Treats the ambiguous place of Jews in American multiculturalism. Challenges Jews’ exclusion as “whites” from multicultural discourse. Chapters address Jews’ presence or marginalization vis-à-vis feminism, academia, American racial politics, and more.
  1651.  
  1652. Find this resource:
  1653.  
  1654. Cohen, Steven M., and Charles S. Liebman. “American Jewish Liberalism: Unraveling the Strands.” Public Opinion Quarterly 62.3 (1997): 405–430.
  1655.  
  1656. DOI: 10.1086/297806Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1657.  
  1658. Decomposes “liberalism” into constituent dimensions and uses General Social Survey data to identify which social and economic issues Jewish Americans take more liberal stands on. Tests rival hypotheses of Jewish American liberalism.
  1659.  
  1660. Find this resource:
  1661.  
  1662. Dorman, Joseph. Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words. New York: Free Press, 2000.
  1663.  
  1664. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1665.  
  1666. Companion to the documentary film, traces the intellectual trajectories of social theorists Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer, Irving Howe, and Irving Kristol as they variously engage socialism, liberalism, the New Left, and neo-conservatism. Intellectual biography as window onto changing Jewish American politics.
  1667.  
  1668. Find this resource:
  1669.  
  1670. Friedman, Murray. The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  1671.  
  1672. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511818721Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1673.  
  1674. Traces the role of prominent Jewish intellectuals and policy advisors in the rise of the neo-conservative movement. Relative lack of attention to the role of gentiles in the movement skews the portrait.
  1675.  
  1676. Find this resource:
  1677.  
  1678. Levey, Geoffrey B. “The Liberalism of American Jews: Has It Been Explained?” British Journal of Political Science 26.3 (1996): 369–401
  1679.  
  1680. DOI: 10.1017/S000712340000750XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1681.  
  1682. Reviews and assesses competing theories that attempt to account for Jewish American liberalism. Sophisticated critique of explanations centered on Jewish values, political interest, or sociological status. Exemplary theoretical work. Logical, rigorous. Forces reader to confront the limits of our knowledge.
  1683.  
  1684. Find this resource:
  1685.  
  1686. Porter, Jack Nusan, and Peter Dreier. Jewish Radicalism: A Selected Anthology. New York: Grove Press, 1973.
  1687.  
  1688. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1689.  
  1690. Primary sources from the Jewish American counterculture in the movement’s heyday. Essays, poems, and political cartoons critique conservatism in the Jewish establishment and antisemitism in the New Left, and pronounce on feminism, Zionism, militancy, and more. Introductory essay sets context.
  1691.  
  1692. Find this resource:
  1693.  
  1694. Staub, Michael E., ed. The Jewish 1960s: An American Sourcebook. Edited by J. D. Sarna. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2004.
  1695.  
  1696. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1697.  
  1698. Primary sources from the 1960s and early 1970s present multiple sides in Jewish American debates over key political issues of the era: civil rights, Vietnam, Israel, Holocaust memory, feminism, the sexual revolution, New Left radicalism, Jewish at-homeness in America.
  1699.  
  1700. Find this resource:
  1701.  
  1702. Jewish Organizations and Communal Governance
  1703. Jewish communities are not simply aggregates of individuals. Jewish Americans have organized to create thousands of institutions that act collectively. Together, these institutions form a networked system with its own structure, dynamics, and politics. Burstein 2011 analyzes Internal Revenue Service filings and identifies over 9,400 Jewish not-for-profit organizations. Synagogues and philanthropic federations, schools and community relations agencies, sports clubs and art museums—the list represents the organizational elaboration of Jewish American communal diversity. Elazar 1995 argued that through these organizations, Jewish Americans constitute themselves not just as a religious group or ethnic community, but as a polity with its own institutionalized systems for managing power relations, both internal and external. Elazar 1995 remains the most influential study of the Jewish organizational network and its political role as an agent of communal self-governance. (On the economic and philanthropic dimensions of these charitable organizations, see Philanthropy and the Jewish Non-Profit Sector). Another good overview of the Jewish organizational landscape is Mittleman, et al. 2002, an edited volume which sheds light on dynamics of power and decision-making. These topics are the explicit focus of Liebman 1979 and are also well treated in Elazar 1995. These two works offer excellent treatments of the Jewish Federation system, which is a charitable community chest akin to the United Way. For decades, Federations have played lead roles in Jewish American communal governance. Moore 1981 (pp. 149–176, cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival) and Liebman 1979 trace the emergence of Federations’ governing role. Woocher 1986 analyzes the role of religion in legitimizing Federation governance. In recent decades, Federation power has waned and independent foundations have begun filling the vacuum. This shift in power has yet to be studied in detail. Elazar 1995 briefly addresses the trend, as does Wertheimer 1997 (cited under Philanthropy and the Jewish Non-Profit Sector). For gendered treatments of communal organizations, including their politics, see Nadell 2003 (cited under Gender), the chapter on glass ceilings in Fishman 1993 (cited under Feminism), and Reinharz and Raider 2005 (cited under Israel and American Zionism).
  1704.  
  1705. Burstein, Paul. “Jewish Nonprofit Organizations in the U.S.: A Preliminary Survey.” Contemporary Jewry 31.2 (2011): 129–148.
  1706.  
  1707. DOI: 10.1007/s12397-010-9028-5Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1708.  
  1709. A long-overdue scan of the Jewish American organizational landscape. Tracks trends in American Jewish Year Book organization lists over the 20th century, and adds original contemporary data far beyond AJYB’s coverage by examining official IRS tax filings.
  1710.  
  1711. Find this resource:
  1712.  
  1713. Elazar, Daniel J. Community and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of American Jewry. Rev. ed. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1995.
  1714.  
  1715. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1716.  
  1717. Since its initial publication in 1976, Elazar’s one-of-a-kind book has been the only to attempt a comprehensive overview of Jewish communal structure and governance. It is growing dated, but will remain the indispensable organizational manual until someone writes a replacement.
  1718.  
  1719. Find this resource:
  1720.  
  1721. Liebman, Charles S. “Leadership and Decision-Making in a Jewish Federation: The New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.” American Jewish Year Book 79 (1979): 3–76.
  1722.  
  1723. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1724.  
  1725. Federation’s evolving role and structure in America’s largest Jewish community. How does Federation set priorities, make allocation decisions? Who wields power and how? What are the politics of federation-agency relations? Priorities, shifts, and controversies from 1917 to 1979.
  1726.  
  1727. Find this resource:
  1728.  
  1729. Mittleman, Alan, Jonathan D. Sarna, and Robert Licht, eds. Jewish Polity and American Civil Society: Communal Agencies and Religious Movements in the American Public Square. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
  1730.  
  1731. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1732.  
  1733. Edited volume. Chapters on advocacy and lobbying organizations, community relations, and anti-defamation groups. Also covers political activism of the Jewish religious denominations. Who has the authority to speak for Jewish Americans? Can a fractious community present a unified political voice?
  1734.  
  1735. Find this resource:
  1736.  
  1737. Woocher, Jonathan S. Sacred Survival: The Civil Religion of American Jews. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
  1738.  
  1739. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1740.  
  1741. Where to find American Jewish folk religion? Not in synagogues, Woocher claims, but in the seemingly secular Federation system. Argues that post-Holocaust Jewish civil religion sanctifies activism for Israel and for oppressed Jews as expressions of the sacred value of Jewish survival.
  1742.  
  1743. Find this resource:
  1744.  
  1745. Geography, Mobility, and Place
  1746. Social life unfolds in real places. The increased attention in recent decades to matters of place and space has been labeled the “spatial turn” in the social sciences. Research on Jewish American geographies and mobility predates this, but has developed in new directions since then. One stream of research with deep roots considers the relationship between migration and changing Jewish identities. Wirth 1998 (cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival), originally published in 1928, treated the move out of immigrant urban ghettos as a form of assimilation. A generation later, Gans 1958 (cited under Acculturation, Assimilation, and Ethnic Revival) and Sklare and Greenblum 1967 (cited under General Overviews) examined the postwar exodus from American cities and the formation of new communities in the suburbs. Moore 1994 looks beyond suburbanization to consider postwar migration from the East Coast to the Sunbelt. The most comprehensive statistical analysis of the relationship between domestic migration and Jewish identity is Goldstein and Goldstein 1996. A related line of research highlights the diversity of local and regional Jewish American cultures. Moore 1994 and Phillips 2007 treat Los Angeles, the former through social history and the latter through demographic surveys. Focusing on cuisine, Ferris 2005 (cited under Food) examines Jewish culture in the American South. Treatments of regional diversity can be as fine grained as studies of single neighborhoods, such as the ethnography of the South Bronx presented in Kugelmass 1986 (cited under Synagogues and Congregations). Sheskin 2001 shows how Jewish communities differ by presenting data from dozens of local community surveys (cited under Demographic Profiles). A newer line of research looks away from residency and migration to consider other ways that Jewish Americans engage with place. Kamil 2000, Kelner 2010 (cited under Israel and American Zionism), and Kugelmass 1993 and Stier 2003 (both cited under Holocaust) examine how Jewish Americans use tourism and pilgrimage to symbolic centers (respectively, the Lower East Side, Israel, and Auschwitz) to meditate on what it means to be Jewish in America. Gruber 2002 treats Jewish tourism in Europe (including Jewish American tourism) to raise broader theoretical questions about what we mean by “Jewish space.” Shandler 2006 (cited under Diaspora and American Diasporism) maps “Yiddishland” and engages the theoretical question of how people conceptualize Jewish space.
  1747.  
  1748. Goldstein, Sidney, and Alice Goldstein. Jews on the Move: Implications for Jewish Identity. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996.
  1749.  
  1750. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1751.  
  1752. Demographic analysis of Jewish American geographic distribution and internal migration. Where do Jews live? How has this been changing? Who moves? What are the implications of mobility for Jewish communal institutions?
  1753.  
  1754. Find this resource:
  1755.  
  1756. Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002.
  1757.  
  1758. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1759.  
  1760. Thought-provoking inquiry into the concept of “Jewish place.” Examines the palpable absence of Jews and Jewish culture in post-Holocaust, post-communist Europe. Ponders efforts to reinscribe Jewish culture onto Judenrein spaces through tourism, museums, and other memorial practices.
  1761.  
  1762. Find this resource:
  1763.  
  1764. Kamil, Seth. “Tripping down Memory Lane: Walking Tours on the Jewish Lower East Side.” In Remembering the Lower East Side. Edited by Hasia R. Diner, Jeffrey Shandler, and Beth S. Wenger, 226–240. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2000.
  1765.  
  1766. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1767.  
  1768. Tourism, nostalgia, and identity. How walking tours construct understandings of the Lower East Side, Manhattan’s Jewish ghetto during the 1881–1924 migration wave, and now a symbol of immigrant ancestors and Yiddishkeit. Author is an historian who founded walking tour agency.
  1769.  
  1770. Find this resource:
  1771.  
  1772. Moore, Deborah Dash. To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L.A. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.
  1773.  
  1774. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1775.  
  1776. Award-winning social history of postwar mass migration of Jewish Americans out of the Northeast and to the South and West. Considers mobility and migration; visions of America; new Jewish geographies; and social, religious, and political dimensions of community formation.
  1777.  
  1778. Find this resource:
  1779.  
  1780. Phillips, Bruce A. “Faultlines: The Seven Socio-Ecologies of Jewish Los Angeles.” In The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review. Vol. 5. Edited by Bruce Zuckerman and Jeremy Schoenberg, 109–137. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2007.
  1781.  
  1782. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1783.  
  1784. Uses urban theory to reconsider Jewish geography. Examines Jewish population demographics across seven Los Angeles regions. Looks to Los Angeles school of urbanism to identify geographic divisions, producing a portrait that differs from traditional Jewish geographies of L.A.
  1785.  
  1786. Find this resource:
  1787.  
  1788. Economics and Money
  1789. Three main lines of research into the economic dimensions of Jewish American life can be discerned: first, a body of work by economists and sociologists that analyzes the changing socioeconomic profile of America’s Jewish population; second, social histories examining Jewish culture in the context of American consumer society; and third, research on the economics of Jewish communal organizations, including the role played by philanthropy. Each of these is treated in turn. The discipline of economics has been underrepresented in the social scientific literature on Jewish Americans. Most studies of the economics of Jewish American life have not been conducted by economists, but by scholars from other disciplines. For overviews of how economists approach the topic, including applications of economic decision-making models to explain religious and cultural behaviors, see Chiswick 2002, which sets forth a research agenda, and Chiswick 2008, which collects twenty years of publications on the subject. For an introduction to Jewish American economic history, see Kahan 1986.
  1790.  
  1791. Chiswick, Barry R. “American Jewry: An Economic Perspective and Research Agenda.” Contemporary Jewry 23.1 (2002): 156–182.
  1792.  
  1793. DOI: 10.1007/BF02967933Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1794.  
  1795. Luminary in the field asks: What can economics say about Jewish Americans? Why so little research by economists? Sets forth a research agenda: (1) Economic analyses of the ethnic group. (2) Economics of Jewish religion. (3) Economics of communal organizations.
  1796.  
  1797. Find this resource:
  1798.  
  1799. Chiswick, Carmel U. Economics of American Judaism. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
  1800.  
  1801. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1802.  
  1803. Best survey of the topic. Notable chapters on economics of Jewish continuity and the cost of Jewish living (both reprints from Contemporary Jewry).
  1804.  
  1805. Find this resource:
  1806.  
  1807. Kahan, Arcadius. Essays in Jewish Social and Economic History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
  1808.  
  1809. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1810.  
  1811. These essays by a leading economic historian of Russia and Russian Jewry also include chapters on the economic trajectories of Eastern European Jewish immigrants in America and their descendants, from the early-20th-century mass migration through the 1970s.
  1812.  
  1813. Find this resource:
  1814.  
  1815. Socioeconomic Status and Social Mobility
  1816. As a group, Jews have attained notable socioeconomic success in America, with higher levels of education, occupational prestige, and income relative to the population at large. Social scientists have asked how such rapid upward mobility has come to pass. Chiswick and Chiswick 2008 and Chiswick 2010 provide historical overviews of the occupational patterns and socioeconomic attainment of Jewish Americans, as does Kahan 1986 (cited under Economics and Money). Scholars have debated whether Jewish socioeconomic attainment is best explained by religio-cultural values, by work-related preferences forged over centuries of Jewish history, or by structural factors in the US economy. Glazer 1958 includes a cultural-historical explanation as part of its account. Steinberg 1989 dismantles the cultural argument in favor of a structural explanation. Waldinger 1996 offers a structural account. Chiswick 1983 takes a different approach, introducing a rational-choice explanation. Breaking with cultural approaches that conceptualizing Jewish values as a uniform group characteristic, Hartman and Hartman 2011 asks whether and how different levels of commitment to Jewish values correlate with socioeconomic success. Hartman and Hartman 2011 examines differences among men and women, as do Chiswick 2010 and Chiswick and Chiswick 2008. The most extensive analysis of gender and socioeconomic attainment is Hartman and Hartman 2009 (cited under Gender). There is little attention in this literature to political dimensions of Jewish American economic attainment. A comprehensive account of Jewish class mobility would, however, need to consider the role of Jewish political organization around economic issues, in particular, the Jewish labor activism whose history is detailed in Epstein 1950.
  1817.  
  1818. Chiswick, Barry R. “The Earnings and Human Capital of American Jews.” Journal of Human Resources 18.3 (1983): 313–336.
  1819.  
  1820. DOI: 10.2307/145204Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1821.  
  1822. Why do Jewish Americans invest so heavily in education? Cultural predilections? Insurance against discrimination? Chiswick suggests it’s rational choice. Examining the relationship between education and income, he finds Jewish men receive higher rates of return on education than non-Jewish men.
  1823.  
  1824. Find this resource:
  1825.  
  1826. Chiswick, Barry R. “The Economic Progress of American Jewry: From 18th Century Merchants to 21st Century Professionals.” In Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Economics. Edited by Aaron Levine, 625–645. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
  1827.  
  1828. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195398625.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1829.  
  1830. Traces occupational distributions and socioeconomic attainment of Jewish American men and women from the colonial era to the 2000s. Full edited volume may be of interest to those looking beyond contemporary America to broader considerations of economics and Judaism.
  1831.  
  1832. Find this resource:
  1833.  
  1834. Chiswick, Carmel U., and Barry R. Chiswick. “Economic Transformation of American Jewry.” In Economics of American Judaism. Edited by Carmel U. Chiswick, 53–58. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
  1835.  
  1836. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1837.  
  1838. A brief introductory overview of Jewish American occupational distributions and socioeconomic attainment from the colonial era to the 1990s. Addresses the situations of men and women. Like Chiswick 2010, but more distilled.
  1839.  
  1840. Find this resource:
  1841.  
  1842. Epstein, Melech. Jewish Labor in U.S.A.: An Industrial, Political and Cultural History of the Jewish Labor Movement, 1882–1914. New York: Trade Union Sponsoring Committee, 1950.
  1843.  
  1844. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1845.  
  1846. A standard work on the Jewish labor movement in America, the first written in English. Epstein’s second volume continues the history through 1950.
  1847.  
  1848. Find this resource:
  1849.  
  1850. Glazer, Nathan. “The American Jew and the Attainment of Middle-Class Rank: Some Trends and Explanations.” In The Jews: Social Patterns of an American Group. Edited by Marshall Sklare, 138–146. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1958.
  1851.  
  1852. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1853.  
  1854. Combines cultural, historical, and structural explanations to account for Jewish socioeconomic advancement. Argues that Eastern European Jews came to America with middle-class values that prepared them and their children to seize opportunities presented by 20th-century expansion of white collar work.
  1855.  
  1856. Find this resource:
  1857.  
  1858. Hartman, Harriet, and Moshe Hartman. “Jewish Identity and the Secular Achievements of American Jewish Men and Women.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 50.1 (2011): 133–153.
  1859.  
  1860. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2010.01556.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1861.  
  1862. Finds that socioeconomic attainment is correlated with Jewish identity, but that the way it is correlated varies for men and women, varies depending on the nature of Jewish identity (secular vs. religious), and varies depending on the particular socioeconomic outcome being considered.
  1863.  
  1864. Find this resource:
  1865.  
  1866. Steinberg, Stephen. The Ethnic Myth: Race, Ethnicity and Class in America. Boston: Beacon, 1989.
  1867.  
  1868. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1869.  
  1870. Chapters on “The Jewish Horatio Alger Story” (pp. 82–105) and “Why Irish Became Domestics and Italians and Jews Did Not” (pp. 151–166) challenge the idea that Jewish values produced upward mobility. Makes a strong case for structural explanations over cultural explanations.
  1871.  
  1872. Find this resource:
  1873.  
  1874. Waldinger, Roger. Still the Promised City? African-Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.
  1875.  
  1876. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1877.  
  1878. Primarily focused on African Americans, but also offers insight into to Jewish socioeconomic attainment. Highlights important role of economic niches. Traces Jewish American niches from industrial-era garment industry to postindustrial concentrations in education, law, and the like.
  1879.  
  1880. Find this resource:
  1881.  
  1882. Jews in the Consumer Economy
  1883. Marx’s writings established a sociological tradition that conceptualized modernity as life in a capitalist economy. But although capitalism’s economic equation has two sides—production and consumption—Marx had more to say about the former than the latter. The same was true of Marxian social theorists until the 1970s, when students of the postindustrial economy began arguing that capitalism’s key dynamic was increasingly found on the consumption side of the equation. The modern person, in this new view, was not the worker or citizen, but the consumer. As the title of Shandler 2010 puts it, “I shop, therefore I am.” Students of Jewish American life have reconsidered Americanization, antisemitism, gender, religion, and more through the lens of consumption studies. They show how the Jewish American experience has been shaped by the ways that Jews have become consumers in a consumer economy. Heinze 1990 (cited under New Approaches to Americanization) and Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) were among the first to adopt this perspective. Both argue that early-20th-century immigrants Americanized by learning how to consume American-style. Through their consumer desires and choices they forged a distinctive Jewish American culture. Shandler 2010 traces this forward, showing how consumerism penetrates the nooks and crannies of Jewish American culture. Diner 2001 (cited under Food), a book on immigrants’ culinary acculturation, treats consumption in its most literal sense. Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) and Prell 1999 (cited under New Approaches to Americanization) highlight conflicts that arise around consumption. Joselit 1994 examines rabbis’ critiques of popular Jewish consumer culture, including the lavish bar mitzvah reception. Prell 1999 analyzes the relationship of consumption to antisemitism and misogyny, showing how a century of stereotypes from the Ghetto Girl to Jewish American Princess invoke notions of illegitimate consumption. The gendered character of consumption emerges in these two works, and also in Zollman 2006, which studies synagogue sisterhood gift shops in the 1950s. Zollman 2006 examines how the stocking of Israeli products in synagogue gift shops represented Israel in particular ways to Jewish Americans and enabled them to forge connections with the distant Jewish state. Kelner 2010 (cited under Israel and American Zionism) picks up this theme, examining souvenir purchases on tours of Israel.
  1884.  
  1885. Shandler, Jeffrey. “Di toyre fun skhoyre, or, I Shop, Therefore I Am: The Consumer Cultures of American Jews.” In Longing, Belonging, and the Making of Jewish Consumer Culture. Edited by Gideon Reuveni and Nils Roemer, 183–200. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2010.
  1886.  
  1887. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1888.  
  1889. “I shop Jewish, therefore I am Jewish.” Consumerism as a mode of Jewish expression, 1800s to 2010. Excellent introduction to the diversity and magnitude of Jewish consumer cultures. Shines a spotlight on something often overlooked in spite of its ubiquity.
  1890.  
  1891. Find this resource:
  1892.  
  1893. Zollman, Joellyn Wallen. “The Gifts of the Jews: Ideology and Material Culture in the American Synagogue Gift Shop.” American Jewish Archives Journal 58.1–2 (2006): 51–77.
  1894.  
  1895. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1896.  
  1897. Postwar synagogue gift shops as a means of engaging and educating American Jews. Shows how synagogues absorbed consumer culture to create new modes of Jewish engagement. Considers intersections of gender, consumerism, religion, denominationalism, and Zionism.
  1898.  
  1899. Find this resource:
  1900.  
  1901. Philanthropy and the Jewish Non-Profit Sector
  1902. Jewish American communal affairs are largely organized through not-for-profit institutions. Research on the economics of Jewish communal institutions have emphasized three themes: 1) the role of philanthropy in sustaining Jewish American institutions; 2) the challenges of staffing and governance in Jewish American not-for-profits (i.e., recruitment and retention, and lay-professional relations); and 3) the “high cost of Jewish living” (i.e., the financial expense that this form of communal organization imposes on families in the form of synagogue membership dues, day school and summer camp tuition, federation donations, etc.). On the cost of Jewish living, see the relevant chapter in Chiswick 2008 (pp. 107–117, cited under Economics and Money). Staffing and governance issues have been the subject of various policy reports, but few of these are peer reviewed. Interested readers are referred to the Berman Jewish Policy Archive (cited under Research Centers, Archives, and Repositories) as a starting point for research. With regard to the role of philanthropy in Jewish American communal life, several lines of research are notable. Dashefsky and Lazerwitz 2009 and Kosmin and Ritterband 1991 unpack theoretical distinctions between philanthropy, charity, and the related Judaic concept of tzedakah. They also address questions related to donors and their charitable giving: Who gives? To which recipients? Why? How? In contrast with this donor-centered approach, others adopt focus on institutions. Raphael 1979 examines how Jewish communal federations (community chests) organize fundraising and allocations. Tobin and Weinberg 2007 examines how independent Jewish family foundations give. Tenenbaum 2003 merges individual and institutional approaches for a social history of gendered philanthropy in Jewish free loan associations. For a concise overview of Jewish American philanthropy and a review of the research literature, see Wertheimer 1997.
  1903.  
  1904. Dashefsky, Arnold, and Bernard Melvin Lazerwitz. Charitable Choices: Philanthropic Decisions of Donors in the American Jewish Community. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009.
  1905.  
  1906. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1907.  
  1908. Uses National Jewish Population Survey data to profile Jewish American philanthropic giving to Jewish and non-Jewish causes. Addresses motivations among different groups of donors. Opens with a theoretical treatment of philanthropy, charity, and the related Jewish concept of tzedakah.
  1909.  
  1910. Find this resource:
  1911.  
  1912. Kosmin, Barry, and Paul Ritterband, eds. Jewish Philanthropy in Contemporary America. Savage, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1991.
  1913.  
  1914. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1915.  
  1916. Approaches philanthropy from the perspective of giving. Who gives? How and why? To whom? Chapters include theoretical overviews, Jewish identity motivators of giving, and philanthropy among selected populations including women, Orthodox, and major donors.
  1917.  
  1918. Find this resource:
  1919.  
  1920. Raphael, Marc Lee, ed. Understanding American Jewish Philanthropy. New York: Ktav, 1979.
  1921.  
  1922. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1923.  
  1924. Written when Jewish philanthropic federations were near the peak of their power, this edited volume examines how federations engage donors and volunteers, raise and allocate funds, set priorities, and interact with synagogues. The process and politics of philanthropy.
  1925.  
  1926. Find this resource:
  1927.  
  1928. Tenenbaum, Shelly. “Borrowers or Lenders Be: Jewish Immigrant Women’s Credit Networks.” In American Jewish Women’s History: A Reader. Edited by Pamela S. Nadell, 79–90. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
  1929.  
  1930. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1931.  
  1932. Social history of gender and Jewish American philanthropy, highlighting free loan societies, and women’s involvement in or exclusion from these. Considers women’s motives for participating as givers and receivers of funds. Adapted from Tenenbaum’s book, A Credit to Their Community: Jewish Loan Societies in the United States, 1880–1945 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993).
  1933.  
  1934. Find this resource:
  1935.  
  1936. Tobin, Gary A., and Aryeh Weinberg. “A Study of Jewish Foundations.” San Francisco: Institute for Jewish and Community Research, 2007.
  1937.  
  1938. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1939.  
  1940. There is minimal research on Jewish foundations and their giving. This research report is an attempt to fill part of this gap in the literature. Analysis is based on reviews of foundations’ Form 990 filings with the Internal Revenue Service.
  1941.  
  1942. Find this resource:
  1943.  
  1944. Wertheimer, Jack. “Current Trends in American Jewish Philanthropy.” American Jewish Year Book 97 (1997): 3–92.
  1945.  
  1946. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1947.  
  1948. Detailed overview of Jewish American philanthropic system at turn of the millennium. Describes institutional structures for Jewish philanthropy, assesses trends in fundraising and allocations, analyzes donor base with attention to wealthiest donors. Framed around concerns over weakening philanthropic system.
  1949.  
  1950. Find this resource:
  1951.  
  1952. Family
  1953. Because Jewish culture is often expressed in family relationships, research frequently makes reference to the family even when family is not a central focus of analysis. For instance, overviews of the sociology of Jewish Americans, such as Goldscheider 1986 (cited under General Overviews), analyze family structures to find portents of demographic change. Social histories like Joselit 1994 and interview-based studies like Cohen and Eisen 2000 (both cited under Religion) show that Jewish Americans find Jewish meaning primarily in family settings. The list could go on. Research that does place the family at the center includes studies of family structure and demographics and studies of interfaith marriage. Because the family has been the primary institution through which Jewish culture is expressed and reproduced, changes in the structure of the Jewish family have implications for the character and future of Jewish life. As the American family has changed dramatically, so has the Jewish American family. Even so, the literature generally remains traditionalist in its interest in child-rearing in heterosexual nuclear families. Alternative family structures are often framed implicitly as social problems that pose challenges to Jewish engagement and cultural reproduction. While there is consensus about the nature of changes in family structure, marriage and divorce rates, fertility, and the like, scholars disagree over the interpretation of these findings. In the 1980s and 1990s, debate centered on whether the changes were evidence of assimilation or transformation. The exchange between DellaPergola and Schmelz 1989 and Goldscheider 1989 offers an overview of the trends and their rival interpretations. Bayme and Rosen 1994, which tends to see the demographic changes as evidence of assimilation, addresses implications for Jewish communal policy. Important sources of data on Jewish American family structure include the National Jewish Population Surveys of 1970, 1990, and 2000–2001. The main reports summarizing NJPS findings include analyses of family structure. For these, see Goldstein 1992 and Kotler-Berkowitz, et al. 2003 (both cited under Demographic Profiles). For historical and international perspectives, see Cohen and Hyman 1986. For comparisons with broader trends in American family structure, see Waite 1999. For an analysis focused on gendered aspects of family structure, see Hartman and Hartman 2009 (cited under Gender). The extensive literature on interfaith marriage is treated separately (see Interfaith Marriage). Because much research privileges families composed of parents with young children, this article also includes a section on a group often ignored, the elderly (see Aging and the Elderly).
  1954.  
  1955. Bayme, Steven, and Gladys Rosen, eds. The Jewish Family and Jewish Continuity. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1994.
  1956.  
  1957. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1958.  
  1959. Policy-oriented volume treating the family as an agent of Jewish socialization. Chapters on changing demographics, followed by reflections on social issues including abortion. Papers suggest period of substantial cultural change, express fears that trends challenge Jewish family’s ability to pass along heritage.
  1960.  
  1961. Find this resource:
  1962.  
  1963. Cohen, Steven M., and Paula E. Hyman, eds. The Jewish Family: Myths and Reality. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1986.
  1964.  
  1965. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1966.  
  1967. Papers from a 1981 conference. One of the first efforts to place Jewish family structures and dynamics at the center of analysis. Interdisciplinary and of broad historical and geographic scope. Includes chapters on demography of Jewish families in the United States, France, and Israel.
  1968.  
  1969. Find this resource:
  1970.  
  1971. DellaPergola, Sergio, and Uziel O. Schmelz. “Demographic Transformations of US Jewry: Marriage and Mixed-Marriage in the 1980s.” In Studies in Contemporary Jewry. Vol. 5. Edited by P. Y. Medding, 169–200. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  1972.  
  1973. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1974.  
  1975. Two demographers systematically document that Jewish Americans’ historical patterns of high marriage rates, low divorce rates, and low intermarriage rates were in the process of being overturned. They interpret this as evidence of demographic erosion and as a harbinger of large-scale assimilation.
  1976.  
  1977. Find this resource:
  1978.  
  1979. Goldscheider, Calvin. “American Jewish Marriages: Erosion or Transformation?” In Studies in Contemporary Jewry. Vol. 5. Edited by P. Y. Medding, 201–208. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  1980.  
  1981. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1982.  
  1983. Responds to DellaPergola and Schmelz 1989. Accepts findings but disputes interpretation. Argues that with such radical structural and cultural changes, the past is no longer a reliable guide to the future. Jewish Americans are confronting demographic transformation, not erosion.
  1984.  
  1985. Find this resource:
  1986.  
  1987. Waite, Linda J. “The American Jewish Family: What We Know. What We Need to Know.” Contemporary Jewry 31.2 (1999): 151–172.
  1988.  
  1989. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1990.  
  1991. Written by a leading sociologist of the American family. Reviews literature to provide a demographic profile of Jewish American families. Comparison relative to demographics of American families at large. Marriage, cohabitation, divorce, fertility, interfaith marriage.
  1992.  
  1993. Find this resource:
  1994.  
  1995. Interfaith Marriage
  1996. Interfaith marriage between Jews and Christians in America was rare in the early 20th century and is common in the early 21st. Research on the topic abounds for a number of reasons. First, it is considered to be indicative of broader processes of Americanization, social assimilation, and cultural transformation. Second, the erosion of Jewish norms against intermarriage have sparked debate within the Jewish American community and have prompted a flurry of communal policy responses to oppose, accommodate, affirm, or adapt to the new social realities. Third, because interfaith marriage has the potential to create homes and offspring that are simultaneously Jewish and Christian, the phenomenon presents an important instance of boundary crossing and category blurring whose implications are only beginning to be understood. Much research on Jewish-Christian intermarriage focuses on how these family structures influence the Jewish affiliations of the households and children. Goldstein and Goldscheider 1966 and Lazerwitz 1995 provide detailed statistical portraits, while Mayer 1985 and Fishman 2004 adopt a mixed-method approach. Phillips 2005 uses hypothesis testing to assess different theories of intermarriage’s effects on Jewish identity. For insight into how interfaith households negotiate matters of religion, see the interview-based research in Mayer 1985 and Fishman 2004. On the outcomes of Jewish educational efforts to influence rates of intermarriage, see Saxe, et al. 2011 (cited under Utilization, Evaluation, and Impact). All sources cited here can be viewed not just as analyses of intermarriage but as participants in an evolving Jewish American conversation about intermarriage. McGinity 2009 makes this explicit, offering a history of Jewish American discourse around intermarriage. It is interesting to compare and contrast the ways that different studies frame intermarriage, from the early studies of Resnik 1933 and Levinson and Levinson 1958, which frame it as deviance and pathology, to mid-20th-century work written when the Jewish norm against intermarriage was still strong but beginning to be challenged, to the 21st-century work written after Jewish-Christian marriages had become common. To date, the extant sociological research frames interfaith marriage as heterosexual marriage. This may change in the years ahead.
  1997.  
  1998. Fishman, Sylvia Barack. Double or Nothing? Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage. Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2004.
  1999.  
  2000. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2001.  
  2002. First sociological book on the topic since Mayer 1985. Interview-based study considers effects of destigmatization of intermarriage. Shows couples’ negotiations over religion to be works in progress that continually evolve, often toward greater flexibility and syncretism. Significant treatment of gender.
  2003.  
  2004. Find this resource:
  2005.  
  2006. Goldstein, Sidney, and Calvin Goldscheider. “Social and Demographic Aspects of Jewish Intermarriages.” Social Problems 13.4 (1966): 386–399.
  2007.  
  2008. DOI: 10.1525/sp.1966.13.4.03a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2009.  
  2010. Early statistical analysis of Jewish American interfaith marriage, conducted when intermarriage was not common. The consideration of generational changes and gender gaps in intermarriage and conversion rates, and attention to religious identification of children, typify this genre of research.
  2011.  
  2012. Find this resource:
  2013.  
  2014. Lazerwitz, Bernard. “Jewish-Christian Marriages and Conversions, 1971 and 1990.” Sociology of Religion 56.4 (1995): 433–443.
  2015.  
  2016. DOI: 10.2307/3712199Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2017.  
  2018. Good summary of basic demographics and trends of Jewish American intermarriage. Replicates Lazerwitz’s earlier analysis of 1971 National Jewish Population Survey data. Assesses trends in intermarriage, conversion, and Jewish involvements of interfaith and conversionary households. More empirically oriented than theory focused.
  2019.  
  2020. Find this resource:
  2021.  
  2022. Levinson, Maria H., and Daniel J. Levinson. “Jews Who Intermarry: Sociopsychological Bases of Ethnic Identity and Change.” YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science 12 (1958): 103–130.
  2023.  
  2024. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2025.  
  2026. Revealing example of 1950s social scientific discourse around intermarriage. Psychology joins sociology to frame intermarriage as pathology—the “neurotic” result of ambivalent, guilt-laden relationships with “dominant possessive mothers.” Much cited at the time.
  2027.  
  2028. Find this resource:
  2029.  
  2030. Mayer, Egon. Love & Tradition: Marriage between Jews and Christians. New York: Plenum, 1985.
  2031.  
  2032. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4899-6086-3Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2033.  
  2034. Pioneering book-length treatment. Interviews and surveys examine how couples negotiate their religious traditions. Finds theories of assimilation fail to explain complex realities of intermarriage. Theoretically and empirically strong. Criticized as sanguine about intermarriage’s consequences for Jewish assimilation.
  2035.  
  2036. Find this resource:
  2037.  
  2038. McGinity, Keren R. Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America. New York: New York University Press, 2009.
  2039.  
  2040. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2041.  
  2042. Advances the conversation on Jewish intermarriage by historicizing and gendering the analysis. Either one would have been a valuable contribution. The combination makes this an important work on the topic.
  2043.  
  2044. Find this resource:
  2045.  
  2046. Phillips, Bruce A. “Assimilation, Transformation, and the Long Range Impact of Intermarriage.” Contemporary Jewry 25.1 (2005): 50–84.
  2047.  
  2048. DOI: 10.1007/BF02965420Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2049.  
  2050. Well-conceived analysis. Identifies four competing sociological theories of long-range impact of interfaith marriage on subsequent generations’ Jewish identification, derives hypotheses from each, and uses 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey data to test the rival hypotheses.
  2051.  
  2052. Find this resource:
  2053.  
  2054. Resnik, Reuben B. “Some Sociological Aspects of Intermarriage of Jew and Non-Jew.” Social Forces 12.1 (1933): 94–102.
  2055.  
  2056. DOI: 10.2307/2570123Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2057.  
  2058. Fascinating record of how sociology first conceptualized Jewish-Christian intermarriage. Qualitative analysis frames intermarriage as deviance, categorizing “types” of people who marry out of the faith (rebellious, adventurous, etc.). Emphasizes likelihood of marital conflict and parental opposition, and possibility of eventual accommodation.
  2059.  
  2060. Find this resource:
  2061.  
  2062. Aging and the Elderly
  2063. Jewish Americans are a graying population, disproportionately older than the American population at large (for population characteristics of the Jewish elderly, see Kotler-Berkowitz, et al. 2003, cited under Demographic Profiles). In spite of this, the Jewish elderly have received relatively little attention in the sociological literature on Jewish Americans. Contrasting this with the abundance of research on the socialization of Jewish youth, Glicksman 1991 critiques the ageism implicit in a research agenda whose “emphasis has been on the future, not the past” (p. 2). Of the empirical research on the Jewish elderly that has been conducted, most is oriented to social workers and health care providers, and appears in social work and gerontology journals. Glicksman 1991 provides a review of this literature. The most widely known studies of the Jewish elderly emerge not from the social work/gerontology literature, however, but from anthropology. In two much-acclaimed books, Myerhoff 1980 and Kugelmass 1986 (the latter cited under Synagogues and Congregations), anthropologists look to communities of elderly Jews in Los Angeles and New York as sites for research on aging in American cities. On matters associated with end of life, see Heilman 2001 and Goldberg 2003, both cited under Life Cycle and Rites of Passage.
  2064.  
  2065. Glicksman, Allen. “The New Jewish Elderly: A Literature Review.” New York: American Jewish Committee, 1991.
  2066.  
  2067. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2068.  
  2069. Wide-ranging review of literature covers demographics, health and well-being, work and voluntarism, social engagement, ethnic and religious life, and more.
  2070.  
  2071. Find this resource:
  2072.  
  2073. Myerhoff, Barbara. Number Our Days. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980.
  2074.  
  2075. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2076.  
  2077. A rich portrait of the daily struggles and small triumphs of the members of a Jewish senior center in Venice, California. Ethnography at its best, written by an acknowledged master. Also made into an Academy Award–winning documentary short.
  2078.  
  2079. Find this resource:
  2080.  
  2081. Food
  2082. The study of food-related folkways (or “foodways”) has enriched understandings of Jewish immigrant acculturation, ethnicity, religious norms and practice, and more. Diner 2001 shows how, for early-20th-century immigrants, Americanization involved changes in ways of eating and cooking. Joselit 1994 (cited under Religion) and Heinze 1990 (cited under New Approaches to Americanization) situate these changing foodways in the context of immigrants’ entry into America’s consumer economy. Tuchman and Levine 1993 situates changing foodways in the context of intergroup contact in immigrant neighborhoods. Important to immigrant acculturation, food is also significant to the maintenance of ethnic identity among the American-born. Kugelmass 1990 and Diner, et al. 2000 (cited under Collective Identity, Memory, Representation, and Performance) show how Jewish Americans use nostalgia-laden encounters with ethnic foods and restaurants to affirm a mythic American rags-to-riches story. Cohen and Eisen 2000 (cited under Religion) arrives at similar conclusions through different methods. Plaut 2012 (cited under Holidays and Sacred Time), a treatment of the Jewish American custom of eating Chinese food on Christmas, shows how Jews use food to maintain group boundaries. Research on Jewish immigration from North Africa (Cernea 1988, cited under Contemporary Migrations) and the former Soviet Union (Markowitz 1988, cited under Russian-Speaking Jews) has shown how foodways help maintain distinctive subcultures within the Jewish American population. Ferris 2005 shows foodways sustaining Jewish American regional subcultures. Gilman’s chapter in Bronner 2011 (pp. 341–359, cited under Ritual and Religious Practice) on controversies over kosher slaughter treats foodways in relation to the politics of Jewish inclusion and exclusion. Food-related analyses have informed studies of Jewish religion. Eisen 1998 (cited under Ritual and Religious Practice) considers how modern Jews encounter and adapt the kosher dietary laws. Similarly, whereas Cernea 1995 interprets the symbolic system encoded in the ritual Passover meal, Leidner 2006 invokes lived experience to playfully interpret Chanukah and Purim food rituals (both works cited under Holidays and Sacred Time).
  2083.  
  2084. Diner, Hasia R. Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
  2085.  
  2086. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2087.  
  2088. Americanization as process of negotiating specific cultural domains, here food. Negotiation occurs not only through behavioral adaptation but through efforts to simultaneously imagine America and reimagine the old country. Comparative perspective situates Jews in relation to contemporaneous European immigrant groups.
  2089.  
  2090. Find this resource:
  2091.  
  2092. Ferris, Marcie Cohen. Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.
  2093.  
  2094. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2095.  
  2096. Foodways: the folkways and cultures surrounding the production, preparation, presentation, and consumption of food. Methodologically innovative approach to regional diversity, analyzing intersection of foodways, gender, race, and place. A study in diaspora hybridity, with recipes.
  2097.  
  2098. Find this resource:
  2099.  
  2100. Tuchman, Gaye, and Harry Gene Levine. “New York Jews and Chinese Food.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22.3 (1993): 382–407.
  2101.  
  2102. DOI: 10.1177/089124193022003005Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2103.  
  2104. How did American Jews come to embrace Chinese food as a symbol of their own identity? This study of interethnic contact in Jewish and Chinese immigrant neighborhoods explains the emergence of an indigenous American Jewish culture, not imported from the old country.
  2105.  
  2106. Find this resource:
  2107.  
  2108. Jewish Education
  2109. Jewish education in America is a communal enterprise of substantial scope, taking place in settings as diverse as classrooms and summer camps, reaching every age group from preschoolers to the elderly, and employing personnel from teenagers to professionally trained educators with advanced degrees in Jewish Education. From a social scientific perspective, Jewish education has proven interesting primarily as an institution of socialization and cultural reproduction. It has also been studied as an organizational field that reflects broader dynamics in Jewish American communal life. The subsections offer entry points into two genres in the research literature: studies of the settings where Jewish education takes place (see Educational Settings), and studies of the ways that Jewish education functions (or fails to function) as an agent of social reproduction (see Utilization, Evaluation, and Impact). A third area of research blends the sociology of education with the sociology of work and occupations, and focuses on Jewish education as sector of employment. Robinson, et al. 1999 is one example of this; it examines the prospects for greater professionalization of the field. There are several sources that offer good overviews of the field of Jewish education. Goodman, et al. 2008; Kelman 1992; and Miller, et al. 2011 are all edited volumes whose chapters cover the gamut of issues in Jewish educational research. The first two are efforts in translational research, framing findings so that Jewish educators will be able to use them in practical contexts. Miller, et al. 2011 is targeted primarily to other educational researchers. Wertheimer 1999 synthesizes the research literature to offer an overview of the state of the field at the turn of the millennium.
  2110.  
  2111. Goodman, Roberta Louis, Paul A. Flexner, and Linda Dale Bloomberg, eds. What We Now Know about Jewish Education: Perspectives on Research for Practice. Los Angeles: Torah Aura, 2008.
  2112.  
  2113. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2114.  
  2115. A ready reference written to bridge research, policy, and practitioner worlds. Over fifty chapters on learners, educators, curriculum, and educational contexts, each surveying research literature and drawing implications for practice. Updates Kelman 1992.
  2116.  
  2117. Find this resource:
  2118.  
  2119. Kelman, Stuart L., ed. What We Know about Jewish Education: A Handbook of Today’s Research for Tomorrow’s Jewish Education. Los Angeles: Torah Aura, 1992.
  2120.  
  2121. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2122.  
  2123. Edited volume translating Jewish educational research literature to encourage its use by practitioners. A key reference found on the bookshelves (and desks) of Jewish educators across North America.
  2124.  
  2125. Find this resource:
  2126.  
  2127. Miller, Helena, Lisa D. Grant, and Alex Pomson, eds. 2011. International Handbook of Jewish Education. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Verlag.
  2128.  
  2129. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-0354-4Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2130.  
  2131. Two volumes, 1,300 pages, seventy chapters. Comprehensive. Cross-disciplinary. Good representation of the social sciences alongside chapters on educational philosophy, curriculum, teaching and learning. Covers diverse educational settings and approaches, populations, and issues. Contributors are a who’s who of Jewish educational researchers.
  2132.  
  2133. Find this resource:
  2134.  
  2135. Robinson, Bill, Adam Gamoran, and Ellen B. Goldring. “Towards Building a Profession: Characteristics of Contemporary Educators in American Jewish Schools.” In Abiding Challenges: Research Perspectives on Jewish Education. Edited by Yisrael Rich and Michael Rosenak, 449–475. Tel Aviv: Freund Publishing House and Bar-Ilan University Press, 1999.
  2136.  
  2137. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2138.  
  2139. Part of a broader study of Jewish educational leadership and the structure of work and careers in Jewish education. Considers efforts to professionalize the field, addressing barriers, comparing with broader efforts to professionalize American education, and suggesting strategies.
  2140.  
  2141. Find this resource:
  2142.  
  2143. Wertheimer, Jack. 1999. “Jewish Education in the United States.” In American Jewish Year Book. Edited by David Singer and Ruth Seldin, 3–115. New York: American Jewish Committee.
  2144.  
  2145. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2146.  
  2147. State of the field, with historical background. Contemporary focus on changes in formal Jewish schooling (curriculum, students, personnel, programs); growth of informal and experiential education (camps, Israel experience); and shifting landscape of organizational stakeholders, partners, and funders. Comprehensive.
  2148.  
  2149. Find this resource:
  2150.  
  2151. Educational Settings
  2152. Research abounds on Jewish schools, camps, and the many other settings for Jewish American education. Much of the research is oriented to educators and policymakers and addresses educational quality and outcomes. The most common form of Jewish schooling in America is the synagogue-based religious school (also known as Hebrew school, Sunday school, or supplementary school). Contemporary research on synagogue-based religious schools proceeds from Schoem 1989 and its critique of the institution as an educational failure. Reimer 1997 and Wertheimer 2009 search for models of success in the hope of promoting educational reform. Acknowledgment of the shortcomings of supplementary schooling has led to communal interest in other forms of Jewish education, including private Jewish day schools, summer camps, and educational travel programs. Pomson and Schnoor 2008 presents an ethnography of a Jewish day school. Sales and Saxe 2004 examine Jewish summer camps. Prell 2007 takes a historical approach to examine how camps came to be seen as agents of Jewish socialization in the first place. Kelner 2010 and Shapiro 2006 (both cited under Israel and American Zionism) offer similar considerations of the history of educational travel programs in Israel, as part of their ethnographies of contemporary programs. Kelner 2010 focuses on short-term tours; Shapiro 2006 considers a long-term volunteer program. Cohen 2008 offers a broad survey of “Israel experience” educational travel. Kelner 2010, Prell 2007, and Shapiro 2006 represent a smaller stream of research that is less policy-oriented and more likely to view Jewish educational settings as windows onto Jewish American culture. Other works in this vein include Heilman 1983 (cited under Ritual and Religious Practice), an ethnography of adult Talmud study; Helmreich 2000 (cited under Orthodoxy), a study of the Orthodox yeshiva; and Kugelmass 1993 (cited under Holocaust), a study of Jewish American youth pilgrimages to Holocaust sites in Poland.
  2153.  
  2154. Cohen, Erik H. Youth Tourism to Israel: Educational Experiences of the Diaspora. Clevedon, UK: Channel View, 2008.
  2155.  
  2156. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2157.  
  2158. Broad overview of educational travel programs in Israel for diaspora Jewish youth. Covers history, goals, educational philosophies, participants, staff, impact, etc. Draws together Cohen’s decades of research on the topic.
  2159.  
  2160. Find this resource:
  2161.  
  2162. Pomson, Alex, and Randal F. Schnoor. Back to School: Jewish Day School in the Lives of Adult Jews. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008.
  2163.  
  2164. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2165.  
  2166. Ethnography of a Jewish day school. Indicative of trend in Jewish educational research to shift attention beyond focus on students. This book examines impacts on parents’ Jewish identity and involvement. Schools educate and engage parents, too.
  2167.  
  2168. Find this resource:
  2169.  
  2170. Prell, Riv-Ellen. “Summer Camp, Post-war American Jewish Youth and the Redemption of Judaism.” In The Jewish Role in America: An Annual Review. Vol. 5. Edited by B. Zuckerman and J. Schoenberg, 77–106. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2007.
  2171.  
  2172. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2173.  
  2174. Social history. Jewish education and the rise of “child-centered” American Judaism 1950s. How postwar Jewish Americans, concerned for the Jewish future after the Holocaust, embraced summer camps as a way of instilling Jewish commitments in their children.
  2175.  
  2176. Find this resource:
  2177.  
  2178. Reimer, Joseph. Succeeding at Jewish Education: How One Synagogue Made It Work. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1997.
  2179.  
  2180. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2181.  
  2182. This ethnography considers the gamut of synagogue-based Jewish education, including supplementary religious schooling for children, adult education, and family education. Raises fundamental questions about the relationship between education and enculturation.
  2183.  
  2184. Find this resource:
  2185.  
  2186. Sales, Amy L., and Leonard Saxe. “How Goodly Are Thy Tents”: Summer Camps as Jewish Socializing Experiences. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2004.
  2187.  
  2188. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2189.  
  2190. Presents findings of large-scale multi-method study of Jewish American summer camps. Collects basic statistics for a portrait of the field, and examines how camps create immersive Jewish environments through ritual, language, sacred time, counselor-camper relationships, and more.
  2191.  
  2192. Find this resource:
  2193.  
  2194. Schoem, David L. Ethnic Survival in America: An Ethnography of Jewish Afternoon School. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989.
  2195.  
  2196. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2197.  
  2198. One of the first ethnographic treatments of synagogue-based supplementary schooling. A searing critique of the most widespread form of Jewish education. A community for whom Judaism is low-priority creates an educational model that reflects and reproduces this lack of commitment.
  2199.  
  2200. Find this resource:
  2201.  
  2202. Wertheimer, Jack, ed. Learning and Community: Jewish Supplementary Schools in the Twenty-First Century. Waltham, MA, and Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2009.
  2203.  
  2204. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2205.  
  2206. Edited volume pairs researchers with educational practitioners to study successful supplementary schools. Chapters consider curriculum, learning, students, educators, and institutional contexts, with an eye toward understanding “how some supplementary schools manage to deliver a reasonably effective Jewish education” (p. xvi).
  2207.  
  2208. Find this resource:
  2209.  
  2210. Utilization, Evaluation, and Impact
  2211. Who enrolls in Jewish educational programs? Why? How do the programs influence Jewish identity? Which programs show the most impact? How much Jewish education is needed to produce such effects? Research on such questions is often sponsored by communal organizations seeking to increase enrollment and to improve educational effectiveness. Findings sometimes appear in academic journals but more typically are released as research reports published by the researchers and/or their sponsors. Many of these reports are accessible at the Berman Jewish Policy Archive (cited under Research Centers, Archives, and Repositories). Empirical analyses of the effects of Jewish schooling on adult Jewish commitment date back to the 1970s. Himmelfarb 1977 represents a methodologically rigorous, early study in this genre. Dashefsky and Lebson 2002 reviews the literature, as does Cohen 2007 to a briefer extent. Cohen 2007 also revisits the question with new data. The literature, despite problems identified in Dashefsky and Lebson 2002, is generally consistent in finding that Jewish education is associated with greater adult Jewish commitment when the educational contact hours pass certain thresholds and when the education is supported by Jewishly engaged households. The effects, however, are not necessarily large. While Cohen 2007 and chapters in Wertheimer 2007 address impacts of schools and other types of formal and informal educational settings, a sizeable subfield of impact research has focused on educational travel programs to Israel, also known as “Israel experience” programs. Chazan 1997 reviews the impact studies, as does Cohen 2008 (cited under Educational Settings). Saxe, et al. 2011 assesses Israel experience programs’ long-term effects using a quasi-experimental method that avoids methodological shortcomings of earlier impact studies. On the question of how such effects do, and do not, come about, see Kelner 2010 and Shapiro 2006 (both cited under Israel and American Zionism). Studies of educational utilization range from descriptive surveys, such as Schick 2009, a census of Jewish day schools, to analyses of motivations for enrolling in various types of Jewish education. Wertheimer 2007 includes several chapters that exemplify the latter approach.
  2212.  
  2213. Chazan, Barry. “Does the Teen Israel Experience Make a Difference?” New York: Israel Experience, 1997.
  2214.  
  2215. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2216.  
  2217. Reviews research on Israel experience education. Commissioned by a foundation promoting Israel experience programs. Although an advocacy piece, the review is solid: research has consistently found positive short-term impacts. Readers should be cautioned, however: little of the literature surveyed underwent peer review.
  2218.  
  2219. Find this resource:
  2220.  
  2221. Cohen, Steven M. “The Differential Impact of Jewish Education on Adult Jewish Identity.” In Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice. Edited by Jack Wertheimer, 34–56. Waltham, MA, and Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2007.
  2222.  
  2223. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2224.  
  2225. Latest in Cohen’s four decades of research on the subject. Good brief review of past findings in the research literature. Argues that different types of Jewish education are effective to different degrees, and that combinations can amplify effects.
  2226.  
  2227. Find this resource:
  2228.  
  2229. Dashefsky, Arnold, and Cory Lebson. “Does Jewish Schooling Matter? A Review of the Empirical Literature on the Relationship between Jewish Education and Dimensions of Jewish Identity.” Contemporary Jewry 23.1 (2002): 96–131.
  2230.  
  2231. DOI: 10.1007/BF02967931Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2232.  
  2233. Reviews twenty studies, 1970s to 1990s. Better at summarizing individual studies than synthesizing across them. Still, clearly shows weaknesses of literature: inconsistent controls for confounding factors and inconsistent outcome measures.
  2234.  
  2235. Find this resource:
  2236.  
  2237. Himmelfarb, Harold S. “The Non-linear Impact of Schooling: Comparing Different Types and Amounts of Jewish Education.” Sociology of Education 50.2 (1977): 114–132.
  2238.  
  2239. DOI: 10.2307/2112374Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2240.  
  2241. One of the few studies on Jewish educational impacts published in a general sociology journal. Grounded in broader sociological conversations on school effects. Methodologically rigorous. Finds threshold effects rather than direct linear correlations between amount of schooling and adult religious commitment.
  2242.  
  2243. Find this resource:
  2244.  
  2245. Saxe, Leonard, Benjamin Phillips, Theodore Sasson, et al. “Intermarriage: The Impact and Lessons of Taglit-Birthright Israel.” Contemporary Jewry 31.2 (2011): 151–172.
  2246.  
  2247. DOI: 10.1007/s12397-010-9058-zSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2248.  
  2249. Birthright Israel is a state-sponsored Israel experience program with over half a million participants. This article addresses the program’s effects, to date, on propensity to marry in or out of the faith. Ongoing Birthright evaluation research from the Saxe, et al. team is available online.
  2250.  
  2251. Find this resource:
  2252.  
  2253. Schick, Marvin. A Census of Jewish Day Schools in the United States, 2008–2009. New York: AVI CHAI, 2009.
  2254.  
  2255. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2256.  
  2257. Third in a series of censuses tracking the Jewish day school field in America: presents the number of schools and students, with data broken down by geography, grade, denomination, school size, etc. Descriptive, not analytic.
  2258.  
  2259. Find this resource:
  2260.  
  2261. Wertheimer, Jack, ed. Family Matters: Jewish Education in an Age of Choice. Waltham, MA, and Hanover, NH: Brandeis University Press, 2007.
  2262.  
  2263. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2264.  
  2265. Edited volume. Chapters address educational utilization and impacts. Qualitative studies of parental decision-making and communal discourse. Quantitative studies of differential enrollment patterns and educational effects. Mostly focused on day schools, supplementary schools, and preschools.
  2266.  
  2267. Find this resource:
Advertisement
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment
Advertisement
Public Pastes
Advertisement
We use cookies for various purposes including analytics. By continuing to use Pastebin, you agree to our use of cookies as described in the Cookies Policy.  OK, I Understand
Not a member of Pastebin yet?
Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!