Continuity and changes in contemporary Jewry: Research agendas The perspective of Sklare Awardees.

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

The second session will grapple with the most pressing research agendas the social science of Jewry should address. Among the questions to be included are:

B1) How to define, reach for, and analyze “objectively,” the “facts.” How to overcome, or make use of, the advantages and disadvantages of insider or outsider perspective?
B2) How can we best make the most advantageous use of comparative studies?
B3) How can transnationalism be incorporated into studies of contemporary Jewish life?
B4) How to facilitate the enrichment of both qualitative and quantitative studies of contemporary Jewish life, by the dialogue of these methodologies with each other?

The participants in this session represent different disciplinary studies in the social sciences, different perceptions of the most urgent research agendas, and their integration of lived realities both theoretically and methodologically with their own foci of interest.

Debrah Kaufman will consider that both lived reality and research agendas may be explored through the identity framework. Therefore, she asks what a scholar of Jewish Studies means today. How have the scope and methods changed over the past few decades? Lived reality ties into the former set of questions but opens up new possibilities. What communal/individual experiences most mark Jewish life, and what kinds of theoretical and methodological categories better define and measure it?
Sergio DellaPergola will address the eternal challenge: balancing concern for, and detached analysis of, the facts. He will develop the conflictive condition of an investigator who happens to be a Jew and is interested in contemporary Jewish Studies, that becomes inevitably a participant-observer—with all the advantages and disadvantages of that position. His own experience attests that using social theory and sophisticated analytic tools helps bridge the gap between the two.
Ariela Keysar will address the future course of research on contemporary Jewry, related to the associational and institutional spaces that may support and enhance research or the consequences of their absence.
Riv-Ellen Prell will present reflections on the impact of “lived religion” and its variations on the study of Jews in the 21st century. Qualitative studies of Jewish religious practice and “identity” are more important than ever as Jewish life worlds become more complex and diverse, yet a phenomenology of Jewish life often struggles both methodologically and conceptually.
Barry Chiswick will analyze the comparative research on Jews and others ( both majority and other minorities) in acquiring skills and in the US labor market, and testing hypotheses regarding models of discrimination and achievement.
Leonard Saxe will discuss the interplay of social scientific research and its interplay with policy issues vis a vis the Jewish community, Israel and social problems writ large. He will focus, in particular, the role of research in contributing to the Jewish communal response in the aftermath of the 10/7 war Hamas and Israel.

Sub Unit

• Social Science

Moderator

• Harriet Hartman, Rowan University

Discussants

• Debra Kaufman, Northeastern University

• Sergio DellaPergola, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Ariela Keysar, Trinity College

• Riv-Ellen Prell, --University of Minnesoa

• Barry Chiswick, GWU -- Foggie Bottom

• Leonard Saxe, Brandeis University

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 01