Why did the social sciences become an integral part of Jewish
scholarship beginning in the late nineteenth century? What part did
this new scholarship play in the ongoing debate over emancipation
and assimilation, Zionism and diasporism, the nature of Jewish
identity, and the problem of Jewish continuity and survival. To
answer these questions, this book traces the emergence and
development of an organized Jewish social science in central
Europe, and explores the increasing importance of statistics and
other social science modes of analysis for Jewish elites throughout
Europe and in the United States.
The author locates the initial impetus for an organized,
institutionalized Jewish social science in the Zionist movement, as
Zionists looked to the social sciences to provide them with the
knowledge of contemporary Jewish life deemed necessary for
nationalist revival. In particular, the social sciences offered
empirical evidence of the ambiguous condition of Jewry in the
diaspora. Social science also charted emancipation and
assimilation, which were viewed as disintegrative agents for the
dissolution of Jewish identity, and hence as a threat to the Jewish
future. For Zionists, nationalism offered the means to reverse the
process of dissolution. Yet Zionists were not alone in turning to
the social sciences to advance their political agenda. This study
also examines the involvement of non-Zionists in Jewish social
science, focusing on the way liberal, assimilationist scholars
utilized social science data to demonstrate the continuing
viability of Jewish life in the diaspora.
Jewish social science grew out of a sustained effort to understand
and explain the effects of modernization on Jewry. Above all,
Jewish scholars sought to give the enormous transformations
undergone by Jewry in the nineteenth century a larger meaning and
significance.
General
Imprint: |
Stanford University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture |
Release date: |
June 2000 |
First published: |
2000 |
Authors: |
Mitchell B. Hart
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 28mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth
|
Pages: |
352 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8047-3824-8 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8047-3824-6 |
Barcode: |
9780804738248 |
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