Abstract
The issue of whether the current state of American Jewry offers grounds for predicting an optimistic or pessimistic future has been argued for many decades. In this volume of the American Jewish Year Book, the debate is presented as formulated by two well-known scholars more than three decades ago: Steven M. Cohen and Charles Liebman.
Steven Bayme and David Singer, authors of the Foreword of the original publication by the American Jewish Committee, wrote as follows:
For several decades, serious scholars have predicted that increased intermarriage, declining birthrates and widespread assimilation would bring about the weakening, perhaps even the disappearance, of American Jewry. More recently, however, these dire predictions have been challenged by new studies pointing to a vibrant Jewish community, working confidently for a secure Jewish future.
This assessment is as true today as it was in 1987 when it was first published.
The first section of this chapter presents Steven M. Cohen’s original “Reason for Optimism.” The second part of this chapter presents the late Charles S. Liebman’s “A Grim Outlook.” In a surprising reversal, in the third section of this chapter, Steven M. Cohen offers a contemporary update that more resembles the original essay by Liebman than his own 1987 statement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
After the essays in this chapter were completed, and the text was about to be submitted to the publisher, allegations of sexual harassment and abuse of power concerning female colleagues and students against Steven M. Cohen became public, Prof. Cohen immediately offered a statement to The Jewish Week (July 19, 2018):
I recognize that there is a pattern here. It’s one that speaks to my inappropriate behavior for which I take full responsibility. I am deeply apologetic to the women whom I have hurt by my words or my actions. I have undertaken a critical and painful examination of my behavior. In consultation with clergy, therapists and professional experts, I am engaged in a process of education, recognition, remorse and repair. I don’t know how long this teshuva process will take. But I am committed to making the changes that are necessary to avoid recurrences in the future and, when the time is right, seek to apologize directly to, and ask forgiveness from, those I have unintentionally hurt.
The contributors to this volume have different views about how to interact with Prof. Cohen’s work. Many think this pattern of behavior has disrupted and harmed the scholarly community. After consultation with many contributors to the Forum, it was decided to continue with publication as originally planned, believing that the issues addressed are of critical importance to the present and future direction of the American Jewish community. The editors believe that we should separate a scholar’s academic contributions from his or her personal behavior. The publication of the contributions to this Forum should not be regarded as overlooking his actions or the seriousness of the claims about his behavior. Prof. Cohen is no longer a member of the Year Book’s Academic Advisory Committee.
- 2.
Arthur Hertzberg has written: “Wherever freedom has existed for several generations without a break, the Jews have never in the last two centuries settled down to be themselves. Even in Central and Western Europe in the nineteenth century ... the rate of falling-away was disastrous. In the third and fourth generation it began to approach one-half. Today in America we are reaching the stage of the great-grandchildren of the Russian Jewish immigrants of . . . a century ago, and all the indices of disintegration are beginning to rise. Freedom ... in America ... is resulting in large-scale attrition . . . continuity is most severely endangered by the very plentitude of freedom which is its most devout wish” (Being Jewish in America [New York: Schocken, 1979], p. 208). See also Arthur Hertzberg, “Assimilation: Can Jews Survive Their Encounter with America?” Hadassah Magazine 65 (August–September 1983): 16; Herbert Gans, “Symbolic Ethnicity: The Future of Ethnic Groups and Cultures in America,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 2 (January 1979): 1–20; Nathan Glazer, “On Jewish Forebodings,” Commentary 80 (August 1985): 32–36.
- 3.
Charles Silberman, “The Jewish Community in Change: Challenge to Professional Practice,” Journal of Jewish Communal Service 58 (Fall 1981): 4–11; “No More Mountain Overhead: Federations and the Voluntary Covenant,” paper presented at the General Assembly, Council of Jewish Federations, 1983; A Certain People: American Jews and Their Lives Today (New York: Summit Books, 1985).
- 4.
Calvin Goldscheider, Jewish Continuity and Change: Emerging Patterns in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986); The American Jewish Community: Social Science Research and Policy Implications (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986); Calvin Goldscheider and Alan Zuckerman, The Transformation of the Jews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
- 5.
For development of this position, see Steven M. Cohen, American Modernity and Jewish Identity (New York: Tavistock, 1983) and American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988).
- 6.
See Hertzberg’s review of Silberman’s A Certain People in New York Review of Books, Nov. 21, 1985, pp. 18–21.
- 7.
U.O. Schmelz and Sergio DellaPergola, “Some Basic Trends in the Demography of U.S. Jews: A Re-examination,” unpublished manuscript, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1986.
- 8.
Goldscheider, Jewish Continuity and Change and American Jewish Community.
- 9.
Response to a question at a conference of American Jewish and Israeli leaders, Sodom, Israel, December 1985.
- 10.
Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 5; see also Steven M. Cohen and Samuel Heilman, Cosmopolitan Parochials: Orthodox Jews in Modem America, forthcoming.
- 11.
Charles Liebman, “Leadership and Decision-making in a Jewish Federation: The New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies,” American Jewish Year Book 1979 (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1979), pp. 3–76; Jonathan Woocher, Sacred Survival: The Civil Religion of American Jews (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986).
- 12.
Feldstein, The American Jewish Community in the 21st Century: A Projection (New York: American Jewish Congress, 1984).
- 13.
Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival?
- 14.
Fred S. Sherrow, “Patterns of Religious Intermarriage,” Ph.D. diss., Department of Sociology, Columbia University, 1971; Fred Massarik and Alvin Chenkin, “United States National Jewish Population Study: A First Report,” American Jewish Year Book 1973 (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1973), pp. 264–306; Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 2. Goldscheider reports a narrowing in the Jewish identity patterns of mixed-married and in-married couples among younger age groups (Jewish Continuity and Change, pp. 24–28).
- 15.
U.O. Schmelz and Sergio DellaPergola, “Population Trends in U.S. Jewry and Their Demographic Consequences,” American Jewish Year Book 1983 (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1983), pp. 141–187; Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival?
- 16.
Steven Huberman, “Jews and Non-Jews: Falling in Love,” Journal of Jewish Communal Service 55 (March 1979): 265–270; Bernard Lazerwitz, “Jewish-Christian Marriages and Conversions,” Jewish Social Studies 54 (Winter 1981): 31–46; Egon Mayer, “Jews by Choice: Some Reflections on Their Impact on the Contemporary American Jewish Community,” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly, Dallas, 1983, Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 2.
- 17.
Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 4.
- 18.
Schmelz and DellaPergola, “Population Trends in U.S. Jewry”; Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 2.
- 19.
Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 4.
- 20.
Steven M. Cohen, Ties and Tensions: The 1986 Survey of American Jewish Attitudes Toward Israel and Israelis (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1987), pp. 8–17.
- 21.
Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 4.
- 22.
Cohen, Ties and Tensions, pp. 8–17.
- 23.
Cohen, American Assimilation or Jewish Revival? ch. 4.
- 24.
Bruce A. Phillips, personal communication.
- 25.
Steven M. Cohen and Paul Ritterband, “The 1986 Jewish Population Study of Queens and Long Island,” unpublished manuscript, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, New York, 1987.
- 26.
Morris Axelrod et al., A Community Survey for Long Range Planning: A Study of the Jewish Population of Greater Boston (Boston: Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, 1967); Sidney Goldstein and Calvin Goldscheider, Jewish Americans (Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall, 1968); Floyd J. Fowler, 1975 Community Survey: A Study of the Jewish Population of Greater Boston (Boston: Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, 1977); Harold Himmelfarb, “The Study of American Jewish Identification: How It Is Defined, Measured, Obtained, Sustained, and Lost,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 19 (March 1980): 18–60; Harold Himmelfarb, “Research on American Jewish Identity and Identification,” in Marshall Sklare, ed., Understanding American Jewry (New Brunswick, NJ.: Transaction Books, 1982); Steven M. Cohen, Interethnic Marriage and Friendship (New York: Arno, 1980); American Modernity and Jewish Identity; American Assimilation or Jewish Revival?.
- 27.
Gary Tobin and Julie Lipsman, “A Compendium of Jewish Demographic Studies,” in S.M. Cohen et al., eds., Perspectives in Jewish Population Research (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1984); Gary Tobin and Alvin Chenkin, “Recent Jewish Community Studies: A Roundup,” American Jewish Year Book 1985 (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1985), pp. 154–178.
- 28.
Sergio DellaPergola and Nitza Genuth, Jewish Education Attained in Diaspora Communities: Data for 1970s (Jerusalem: Hebrew University, Institute of Contemporary Jewry, 1984).
- 29.
Cohen and Ritterband, “1986 Jewish Population Study of Queens and Long Island,” separate computer tabulations.
- 30.
Steven M. Cohen, Attitudes of American Jews Toward Israel and Israelis (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1983); “From Romantic Idealists to Loving Realists: The Changing Place of Israel in the Consciousness of American Jews,” in W. Frankel, ed., Survey of Jewish Affairs 1985 (Rutherford, NJ.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985); Ties and Tensions.
- 31.
Steven M. Cohen, The 1984 National Survey of American Jews: Political and Social Outlooks (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1984).
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Steven M. Cohen and Leonard J. Fein, “From Integration to Survival: American Jewish Anxieties in Transition” Annals, July 1985, pp. 75–88.
- 34.
Goldscheider, Jewish Continuity and Change.
- 35.
Steven M. Cohen, “Outreach to the Marginally Affiliated: Evidence and Implications for Policymakers in Jewish Education,” Journal of Jewish Communal Service 62 (Winter 1986): 147–157; “The Self-defeating Surplus,” Moment, June 1987.
- 36.
Charles Liebman, “Jewish Accommodation to America: A Reappraisal,” Commentary 64 (August 1977): 57–60.
- 37.
Charles Liebman, “Leadership and Decision Making in a Jewish Community: The New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies,” American Jewish Year Book, 1979 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1979), pp. 3–76.
- 38.
I don’t mean to suggest that wife abuse is the moral equivalent of mixed marriage. I would rather that my son marries a non-Jew than batter his wife. But given current standards of morality I had some difficulty in identifying a form of behavior that is almost universally condemned in American society.
- 39.
Bruce Phillips, Border Cities: Three Jewish Communities in the American West (forthcoming).
- 40.
Trends 11 (Spring 1986). Trends is a newsletter published by the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) for federation leaders.
- 41.
See Charles Liebman, “The Sociology of Religion and the Study of American Jews,” Conservative Judaism 34 (May/June 1981): 17–33 and the literature cited therein (pp. 18–19) for the development of this point. See also Steven M. Cohen, American Modernity and Jewish Identity (New York: Tavistock, 1983).
- 42.
Rosalyn Bell, “Houston,” Hadassah Magazine, October 1986, p. 30.
- 43.
Connecticut Jewish Ledger, November 6 and 13, 1986.
- 44.
A very helpful discussion of this phenomenon is found in Milton Gordon’s chapter “The Nature of Assimilation” in his book Assimilation in American Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), pp. 60–83. I am not suggesting that American Jews have followed the pattern of assimilation that Gordon suggests. They have not.
- 45.
See, for example, his statement in “Will There Be One Jewish People By the Year 2000?” in Perspectives (National Jewish Resource Center), June 1985.
- 46.
Schindler’s explanation of the Reform movement’s decision begins with the statement that “Reform is unalterably opposed to intermarriage, even as are the Orthodox and Conservative religious communities ... we resist intermarriage with every resource at our command” (ibid., pp. 47–48). Someone like myself, who questions the accuracy of that statement, is led to believe that it was offered to convince non-Reform representatives of Reform’s noble intentions. Thus it seems reasonable to me to conclude that when Schindler formulates his defense of the patrilineal-descent decision in terms of the Jewish tradition or the requirements of Jewish survival he is offering this defense as an apology rather than as a sincerely held conviction.
- 47.
Calvin Goldscheider and Alan Zuckerman, The Transformation of the Jews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
- 48.
Connecticut Jewish Ledger, July 31, 1986, p. 2.
- 49.
Ibid., Aug. 7, 1986, p. 2.
- 50.
Charles Liebman, “The Debate on American Jewish Life: A ‘Survivalist’ Response to Some Recent ‘Revisionist’ Works,” Studies in Contemporary Jewry, W (forthcoming).
- 51.
New York: Summit Books, 1985.
- 52.
Dan Oren, Joining the Club: A History of Jews and Yale (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).
- 53.
David Lodge, Changing Places (London: Martin Secker & Warburg, 1975).
- 54.
Calvin Goldscheider, Jewish Continuity and Change (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), p. 152.
- 55.
Cohen, American Modernity, p. 156.
- 56.
See, for example, Steven M. Cohen, Ties and Tensions: The 1986 Survey of American Jewish Attitudes Toward Israel and Israelis (New York: Institute on American Jewish-Israeli Relations, The American Jewish Committee, 1987). The results were presented to the Association of Jewish Studies meetings in Boston, Dec. 14–16, 1986. In the discussion that followed Cohen’s presentation, some members of the audience noted that these findings confirmed their own observations.
- 57.
Ibid.
- 58.
Steven M. Cohen, “Outreach to the Marginally Affiliated: Evidence and Implication for Policymakers in Jewish Education,” Journal of Jewish Communal Service 62 (Winter 1985): 149.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Ibid., p. 148.
- 61.
The widespread celebration of the bat mitzvah service (the equivalent for girls of the bar mitzvah service for boys) in Conservative as well as Reform synagogues has probably resulted in lengthening the period during which parents remain affiliated with a synagogue.
- 62.
Chaim Waxman, “The Limits of Futurology: Conflicting Perspectives on the American Jewish Community,” in William Frankel, ed., Survey of Jewish Affairs, 1986 (forthcoming).
- 63.
Deborah Lipstadt, “From Noblesse Oblige to Personal Redemption: The Changing Profile and Agenda of American Jewish Leaders,” Modern Judaism 4 (October 1984): 304–305.
- 64.
Liebman, “Leadership and Decision Making,” describes the impact of these changes on the policies of the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.
- 65.
- 66.
- 67.
- 68.
- 69.
- 70.
References
Cohen, S.M. 2006. A tale of two Jewries: The “inconvenient truth” for American Jews. New York: Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation. https://www.bjpa.org/search-results/publication/2908.
———. 2014. What is to be done? Policy responses to the shrinking Jewish middle. Stanford: Berman Jewish Policy Archive at Stanford University. https://www.bjpa.org/search-results/publication/21551.
Cohen, S.M., and A.M. Eisen. 2000. The Jew within: Self, family and community in America. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Fishman, S.B., and S.M. Cohen. 2018. Family, engagement, and Jewish continuity among American Jews. Jerusalem: Jewish People Policy Institute. http://jppi.org.il/new/en/article/english-raising-jewish-children-research-and-indications-for-intervention/english-family-engagement-and-jewish-continuity-among-american-jews/.
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.
Redman, T.C. 2008. Data driven profiting from your most important business asset. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cohen, S.M., Liebman, C.S. (2019). The Quality of American Jewish Life. In: Dashefsky, A., Sheskin, I. (eds) American Jewish Year Book 2018. American Jewish Year Book, vol 118. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03907-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03907-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03906-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03907-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)