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Reflections on Local Jewish Population Surveys

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Abstract

The increasing costs of representative probability samples presents challenges of inclusiveness to the local Jewish federations that pay for them: how much is the organized Jewish community willing to pay to interview Jews who live in low Jewish density areas and Jews whose Jewish status is marginal to what has long been accepted as conventional ways of being Jewish. These limitations also present a problem to social scientists interested in using local studies for academic research, because learning about Jews on the margins is essential for an understanding of social change. The experimental methodologies describe promise fruitful new directions but also raise substantive questions regarding discrepancies with established methods.

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Notes

  1. As Jacob Ukeles noted in his comment, Ron Miller, senior research consultant at the Berman Jewish DataBank, is owed a huge debt of gratitude for making these many studies accessible and useable.

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Correspondence to Bruce A. Phillips.

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Phillips, B.A. Reflections on Local Jewish Population Surveys. Cont Jewry 36, 419–425 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-016-9190-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-016-9190-5

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