US Jews
Description
This book offers an original and unprecedented in-depth analysis of the demography and identity American Jewry. It discusses crucially important issues for the understanding of the contemporary status, with an adequate historical background - which often lacks in much research work. The volume consists of both brand new chapters and partly relies on several scholarly works in the field that were published over the course of more than 40 years have been revised, updated, split and merged so to form newly conceived content.
This text provides a critical and unique approach to the major scholarly trends in American Jewish demography and sociology. It is divided into a number of parts, dealing with population trends, Jewish identification patterns, and yet more specific groups or sub-populations. Each section is preceded by a short introduction. A post-script provides a serious debate about the future of US Jewry and its position and role among World Jewry. This volume appeals to students and researchers working in Jewish Studies.
Reviews / Votes
"This book is a significant contribution for understanding the role of theology in the history of claims to Israel/Palestine. . The book will well serve courses in the histories of the region, as well as will inform general readers wanting to learn more about the ideological convergences and fissures of the three Abrahamic traditions that have long laid claim to this land." (Hannah Kosstrin, Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 45 (2), 2025)
"This is an excellent volume, It provides good historical perspective on the demography of American Jews and the manner in which Jews have adapted to American society, We owe DellaPergola much for his contributions to the study of American Jews over the past decades and for summarizing and expanding much of that research in this volume." (Ira M. Sheskin, Contemporary Jewry, May 29, 2025)
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Person
Sergio DellaPergola is Professor Emeritus and former Chairman of the Hebrew University's Harman Research Institute of Contemporary Jewry. Born in Italy 1942, in Israel since 1966. M.A., Political Sciences, University of Pavía; Ph.D., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1973. Specialist on the demography of world Jewry, issued numerous books and monographs and over 300 papers, including Israel and Palestine: The Power of Numbers (2008), Jewish Demographic Policies: Population Trends and Options (2011), Jewish Population and Identity: Concept and Reality (2018, with Uzi Rebhun), Diaspora vs. Homeland: Development, Unemployment and Ethnic Migration to Israel, 1991-2019 (2020), and since 1982 the annual chapter World Jewish Population in the American Jewish Year Book . Lectured at over 100 universities in five continents. Member of the advisory committee of the 2013 and 2020 Pew surveys on Jewish Americans and of the2012 and 2018 FRA
surveys on Perceptions of Discrimination and Antisemitism in European Union Member States . Advisor to major Israeli and international organizations. Winner of the Marshall Sklare Award for distinguished achievement by the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (1999), and the Michael Landau Prize for Demography and Migration (2013). Member of Yad Vashem's committee for the Righteous among the Nations.
Content
Part 1. Reflections on Jewish Identification.- Chapter 1. Studying Jewish Identity.- Chapter 2. The Place of Jewish Education in American Jewish Identity.- Chapter 3. US Jews and Israel: Distancing, Yet One.- Chapter 4. The Structure of Jewish Identification in the United States: 2001 Revisited.- Chapter 5. Jewish Identification Differentials in the United States and in Israel: A Structural Analysis.- Chapter 6. Demographic and Religious Dimensions of Jewish Identification in the US and in Israel: Millennials in Generational Perspective.- Chapter 7. Jewish Identification in the US and in Other Countries.- Part 2. Reflections on Jewish Demography.- Chapter 8. The Changing Conventional Jewish Family.- Chapter 9. Trends, Coherence and Inconsistencies in Intermarriage.- Chapter 10. The 52 Percent Statistics: Thoughts on Jewish Intermarriage in America.- Chapter 11. End of Jewish/Non-Jewish Dichotomy? Evidence from the 2013 Pew Survey.- Chapter 12. American Jewish Fertility.- Chapter 13. Migration and Aliya from North America.- Chapter 14. How Many Jews in the US? Was It the Demography? A Reassessment.- Chapter 15. How to Read the Pew: A US Jewish Population Estimate for 2023.- Part 3. Reflections on Particularism, Exceptionalism, Conformity.- Chapter 16. Jewish Women in Transition.- Chapter 17. American Orthodox Jews: Demographic Trends and Scenarios.- Chapter 18. Sociodemographic Aspects of Jews of Sephardi and Asian-African Origin in the United States.- Chapter 19. Two Observations on Political Choices, 1980-2020.- Chapter 20. Jews of Color: An American Dilemma.- Chapter 21. Jewish Populations, Migrations, and Identities in the Americas: The Shared and the Particular.- Chapter 22. E Pluribus Unum? E Uno Plures?.