Abstract
In the first part of his article, by tracing the different stages of his academic training, the author outlines the analytic and methodological premises and goals of his work of many tens of years. Of particular significance was his exposure to the different disciplinary assumptions and institutional set-ups of universities in Europe, in Israel, and in the United States. The second part of the article develops a discussion of different narrative assumptions and expressions in the context of the recent debate about Jewish population trends in the United States. The claim is submitted that in the assessment of recent population data insufficient attention has generally been paid to two essential frameworks: the general context provided by American societal trends at large and the international context provided by other Jewish populations and communities globally. The final comments raise the question of whether or not an agreed dichotomy of what is Jewish and what is not will be possible in the more distant future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alba, Richard D., and Victor Nee. 2003. Remaking the American mainstream: Assimilation and contemporary immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bachi, Roberto. 1997. Personal recollections on the history of research in Jewish demography. In Papers in Jewish Demography 1993 in Memory of U.O. Schmelz, ed. S. DellaPergola, and J. Even, 33–37. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University.
Bellah, Robert. 1967. Civil religion in America. Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Religion in America 96(1): 1–21.
Bokser Liwerant, Judit, and Leo Senkman. 2013. Diásporas y transnacionalismo. Nueva Indagaciones sobre los judios latinoamericanos hoy. In Judaica Latinamericana—Estudios Históricos, Sociales y Literarios, eds. M. Bejarano, F. Goldberg and E. Zadoff, VII: 11–71. Jerusalem: AMILAT-Magnes.
Cassata, Francesco. 2011. Building the New Man: Eugenics, racial science and genetics in twentieth-century Italy. Budapest: Central European University Press.
Chalmer, Seth, and Steven M. Cohen. 2014. Debating the future of US Jews in earlier times. New York: Berman Jewish Policy Archive, NYU Wagner. http://bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=18927.
DellaPergola, Sergio. 1962. I matrimoni degli ebrei a Milano. Ha-Tikwà, 10: 3–4 and 8–9.
DellaPergola, Sergio. 2011. Jewish demographic policies: Population trends and options in Israel and in the Diaspora. Jerusalem: The Jewish People Policy Institute.
DellaPergola, Sergio. 2013a. World Jewish Population 2013. In American Jewish Year Book, vol. 113, ed. A. Dashefsky, and I. Sheskin, 278–358. Dordrecht: Springer.
DellaPergola, Sergio. 2013b. National uniqueness and transnational parallelism: Reflections on the comparative study of Jewish communities in Latin America. In Judaica Latinamericana—Estudios Históricos, Sociales y Literarios, eds. M. Bejarano, F. Goldberg and E. Zadoff, VII: 73–100. Jerusalem: AMILAT-Magnes.
DellaPergola, Sergio, and Eitan Sabatello. 1975. The Italian Jewish population study. In Studies in Jewish Demography; Survey for 1969–1971, eds. U.O. Schmelz, P. Glikson, S.J. Gould, 53–152. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University; London: Institute of Jewish Affairs.
Drachsler, Julius. 1920. Democracy and assimilation: The blending of American heritages in America. New York: Macmillan.
Fishman, Sylvia. 2000. Jewish life and American culture. Albany: SUNY Press.
Goldstein, Sidney, and Calvin Goldscheider. 1968. Jewish Americans: Three generations in a Jewish community. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Gordon, Milton M. 1964. Assimilation in American life: The role of race, religion and national origins. New York: Oxford University Press.
Higham, John. 1975. Send these to me: Jews and other immigrants in urban America. New York: Atheneum.
Kelner, Shaul. 2012. Tours that bind: Diaspora, pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright tourism. New York: New York University Press.
Lesser, Jeffrey, and Raanan Rein. 2006. Challenging particularity, Jews as a lens on Latin American ethnicity. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 1(2): 249–263.
Pew Research Center. 2013. A portrait of Jewish Americans: Findings from a Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
Saxe, Leonard, and Barry Chazan. 2008. Ten days of birthright Israel: A journey in young adult identity. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England.
Schmelz, U.O. 1981. Jewish survival—The demographic factors, In American Jewish Year Book, 81: 61–117. New York-Philadelphia: The American Jewish Committee and Jewish Publication Society.
Schmelz, U.O., and Sergio DellaPergola. 1983. The demographic consequences of US Jewish Population trends. In American Jewish Year Book, 83: 141–187. New York-Philadelphia: The American Jewish Committee and Jewish Publication Society.
Sklare, Marshall. 1993. The sociology of contemporary Jewish Studies. In Observing America’s Jews, ed. J.D. Sarna, 181–202. Hanover: Brandeis University Press.
The Jewish Daily Forward. 2014. Who we we now? Interpreting the Pew Study on Jewish identity in America Today. A new ebook. http://forward.com/books/?utm_content=general-general&utm_medium=jd.fo-internal&utm_campaign=&utm_source=forward.com.
Treves, Anna. 2001. Le nascite e la politica nell’Italia del Novecento. Milano: LED Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto.
Acknowledgments
Two anonymous reviewers made valuable comments to a draft. The author is solely responsible for the contents of this article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
DellaPergola, S. My Narratives: Discipline, Profession, Ideology, and Policy. Cont Jewry 34, 75–91 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-014-9120-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-014-9120-3