Abstract
This paper utilizes data from the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey to explore (1) the extent that alternate Jewish population boundaries and related concepts impact on interpretations of American Jewry and (2) tradeoffs between population size, population characteristics, and the potential dynamics of population change based on defining the population more or less broadly. The focus is on how alternative boundaries and definitions impact not only on population size, but intermarriage and Jewish child raising propensities for individuals passing through the childbearing years.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alba, Richard. 2006. “On the Sociological Significance of the American Jewish Experience: Boundary Blurring, Assimilation, and Pluralism.”Sociology of Religion 67:347–358.
BershtelSara and AllengnGraubard.1992.itSaving Remnants: Feeling Jewish in America. Berkeley, CA: The Free Press.
Breslauer, Daniel S. 2001.Creating a Judaism without Religion. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc.
Chiswick, Barry R. 2002. “American Jewry: An Economic Perspective and Research Agenda.”Contemporary Jewry 23:156–182. Chiswick, Carmel. 1998. “The Economics of Contemporary American Jewish Family Life.”Studies in Contemporary Jewry 14.
Cohen, Steven. 2001. “Response to Charles Liebman’s ‘Some Research Proposals for the Study of American Jews’”.Contemporary Jewry 22:115–119.
Davidson, Lynn. 1991.Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox Judaism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Della Pergola, Sergio. 2002. “World Jewish Population 2002. ” pp. 601–642 inAmerican Jewish Year Book 2002 vol. 102, edited by D. Singer and L. Grossman. New York: American Jewish Committee.
Fishman, Sylvia Barack. 2004.Double or Nothing?: Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage. Lebanon, NH:Brandeis University Press.
Goldscheider, Calvin. 2002. “Social Science and the Jews: A Research Agenda”Contemporary Jewry 23:196–219.
Hartman, Moshe,and Harriet Hartman. 1996.Gender Equality and American Jews. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Hartman, Harriet, and Deborah Kaufman. 2006. “Decentering the Study of Jewish Identity: Opening the Dialogue with Other Religious Groups.”Sociology of Religion 67: 365–385.
Heilman, Samuel C. 2003–2004. “American Jews and Community: A Spectrum of Possibilities.”Contemporary Jewry 24:51–70.
Hurst, Dawn S., and Frank L.Mott. 2006. “Secular Pay-Offs to Religious Origins: Gender Differences among American Jews.”Sociology of Religion 67:439–463.
Kieval, Hillel. 2003–2004. “Introduction: Jewish Experiences of America.”Contemporary Jewry 24:ix-xiii.
Klaff, Vivian. 2006. “Defining American Jewry from Religious and Ethnic Perspectives: The Transition to Greater Heterogeneity.”Sociology of Religion 67:415–438.
Klaff, VivianZ. 1998. Broken Down by Age and Sex: Projecting the American Jewish Population.Contemporary Jewry 19:2–37.
Klaff, Vivian, and Frank L. Mott. 2005. NJPS 2000/01: A Vehicle for Exploring Social Structure and Social Dynamics in the Jewish Population.Contemporary Jewry 25:226–256.
Kotler-Berkowitz, Laurence. 2006. “An Introduction to the National Jew- ish Population Survey 2000-01.”Sociology of Religion 67:387–390.
Kroll, Lynn Korda. 1994.Jewish Community Services to the Intermarried: Report of the Task Force on the Intermarried and Jewish Affiliation. New York, NY: Council of Jewish Federations.
Liebman, Charles S., and Steven M. Cohen. 1990.Two Worlds of Judaism: The Israeli and American Experience. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Liebman, Charles S. 2001. “Some Research Proposals for the Study of American Jews.”Contemporary Jewry 22:99–114.
Linzer, Norman, David Schnall, and Jerome Chanes, editors. 1998.A Portrait of the American Jewish Community. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Phillips, Bruce. 2005. “Assimilation, Transformation, and the Long Range Impact of Intermarriage.”Contemporary Jewry 25:50–84.
Phillips, Bruce. 2006. “The Legacy of Egon Mayer in the Study of American Jewish Intermarriage.”Contemporary Jewry 26:169–181.
Sarna, Jonathan D. 2004.American Judaism: A History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Semans, Maureen P., and Linda Stone Fish. 2000. “Dissecting Life with a Jewish Scalpel: A Qualitative Analysis of Jewish-Centered Family Life.”Family Process 39:121–139.
United JewishCommunities. 2003.The National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01: Strength, Challenge and Diversity in the American Jewish Population. New York, NY: The Mandell L. Berman Institute, North American Jewish Data Bank.
Waite, Linda J. 2002. “The American Jewish Family: What We Know, What We Need to Know.”Contemporary Jewry 23:35–63.
Waxman, Chaim I. 2002. “What We Don’t Know about the Judaism of America’s Jews.”Contemporary Jewry 23:72.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mott, F.L., Patel, D.B. The implications of potential boundaries and definitions for understanding American Jewry: Can one size fit all?. Cont Jewry 28, 21–57 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03020931
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03020931