Abstract
This paper reacts to the Sasson–Kadushin–Saxe and Cohen–Kelman papers on distancing of American Jews from Israel. I argue that the problem with both of these papers is that they utilize data from a consumer panel. These data are clearly not a random sample of American Jews. I further argue that data from local Jewish community studies have much to say about the issue, revealing that distancing is occurring to different degrees in different American Jewish communities.
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Notes
The 1990 and 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Surveys also provide time series data on emotional attachment to Israel. I ignore this evidence here because it is addressed elsewhere in this volume in an article by Laurence Kotler-Berkowitz and Jonathan Ament.
References
Sheskin, Ira M. 1985. Survey research for geographers. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers.
Sheskin, Ira M. 2009a. American Jewish demography, implications for US-Israel relations. In US-Israel relations in a new era: issues and challenges after 9/11, ed. E. Gilboa, and E. Inbar, 91–107. New York: Routledge Press.
Sheskin, Ira M. 2009b. Local Jewish community studies as planning tools for the American Jewish community. Jewish Political Studies Review 21: 107–135. www.jcpa.org
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Sheskin, I.M. A Geographical Approach to an Analysis of the Distancing Hypothesis. Cont Jewry 30, 219–226 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-010-9051-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-010-9051-6