Table Of ContentAmerican Jewish Year Book 120
Arnold Dashefsky
Ira M. Sheskin Editors
American
Jewish Year
Book 2019
The Annual Record of the
North American Jewish Communities
Since 1899
American Jewish Year Book
Volume 119
Series Editors
Arnold Dashefsky, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA
Ira M. Sheskin, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
Produced under the Academic Auspices of:
The Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life,
University of Connecticut
and
The Jewish Demography Project at The Sue and Leonard Miller
Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, University of Miami
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11193
Arnold Dashefsky • Ira M. Sheskin
Editors
American Jewish Year Book
2019
The Annual Record of the North American
Jewish Communities Since 1899
Editors
Arnold Dashefsky Ira M. Sheskin
Department of Sociology Department of Geography
Center for Judaic Studies University of Miami
and Contemporary Jewish Life Coral Gables, FL, USA
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT, USA
ISSN 0065-8987 ISSN 2213-9583 (electronic)
American Jewish Year Book
ISBN 978-3-030-40370-6 ISBN 978-3-030-40371-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40371-3
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This Volume is Dedicated to the Memory
of Sidney Goldstein, z”l1
Dean of demographers of American Jewry,
regarded by all as a gentleman and a scholar,
and above all else,
a mensch to all who knew him.
1 See addendum in Chap. 15, Sect. 3 for the obituary of Sidney Goldstein.
The Publication of This Volume Was Made
Possible by the Generous Support of
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut
(Interim Dean Davita Silfen Glasberg and Dean Juli Wade)
Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of
Connecticut (Sebastian Wogenstein, Interim Director and Avinoam Patt, Director)
The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies (Haim
Shaked, Director) and its Jewish Demography Project (Ira M. Sheskin, Director);
and The George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies (Haim Shaked, Director)
College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami (Dean Leonidas Bachas
and Senior Associate Dean Kenneth Voss)
The Fain Family Endowed Chair at the University of Miami (William Scott
Green, Senior Vice President and Dean of Undergraduate Education)
Mandell “Bill” Berman (z”l) and the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation
We acknowledge the cooperation of:
Berman Jewish DataBank, a project of The Jewish Federations of North America
(Mandell Berman (z”l), Founding Chair; Laurence Kotler-Berkowitz, Director).
The Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (Leonard Saxe, President)
We acknowledge the contributions of the men and women who edited the
American Jewish Year Book from 1899 to 2008
Cyrus Adler, Maurice Basseches, Herman Bernstein, Morris Fine, Herbert
Friedenwald, H. G. Friedman, Lawrence Grossman, Milton Himmelfarb, Joseph
Jacobs, Martha Jelenko, Julius B. Maller, Samson D. Oppenheim, Harry Schneiderman,
Ruth R. Seldin, David Singer, Jacob Sloan, Maurice Spector, Henrietta Szold
vii
Academic Advisory Committee
Sidney (z”l) and Alice Goldstein, Honorary Chairs
Carmel U. Chiswick, Research Professor of Economics at George Washington
University and Professor Emerita of Economics at the University of Illinois
at Chicago
Lynn Davidman, Robert M. Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish
Studies and Professor of Sociology at University of Kansas
Sylvia Barack Fishman, Ph.D., Editor, HBI (Hadassah Brandeis Institute)
Series on Gender and Jewish Women; Emerita Professor of Contemporary Jewish
Life and Culture at Brandeis University. Recipient of the 2014 Marshall Sklare Award
Calvin Goldscheider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Ungerleider Professor
Emeritus of Judaic Studies, and Faculty Associate of the Population Studies and
Training Center at Brown University. Recipient of the 2001 Marshall Sklare Award
Alice Goldstein, Research Associate Emerita, Population Studies and Training
Center, Brown University
Sidney Goldstein (z”l), G. H. Crooker University Professor Emeritus of
Sociology, Brown University. Recipient of the 1992 Marshall Sklare Award
Harriet Hartman, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Rowan
University and Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Jewry. Past President of the
Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ). Recipient of the 2019
Marshall Sklare Award
Samuel Heilman, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Harold Proshansky
Chair in Jewish Studies at the Graduate Center, and Distinguished Professor of
Sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York. Recipient of the
2003 Marshall Sklare Award. Former Editor of Contemporary Jewry
Debra R. Kaufman, Professor Emerita of Sociology and Matthews Distinguished
University Professor at Northeastern University
Shaul Kelner, Associate Professor of Sociology and Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt
University
Barry A. Kosmin, Research Professor of Public Policy & Law and Director of
the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College,
Hartford, Connecticut. Former Director of the North American Jewish DataBank
ix
x Academic Advisory Committee
Laurence Kotler-Berkowitz, Senior Director of Research and Analysis and
Director of the Berman Jewish DataBank at The Jewish Federations of North America
Deborah Dash Moore, Professor of History and former Director of the Frankel
Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. Recipient of the 2006
Marshall Sklare Award
Pamela S. Nadell, Professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's & Gender
History, American University; Chair, Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies
Collaborative; Past President, Association for Jewish Studies; America’s Jewish
Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today (W.W. Norton, 2019)
Bruce A. Phillips, Professor of Sociology and Jewish Communal Service at
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. Recipient of the
2016 Marshall Sklare Award
Riv-Ellen Prell, Professor Emerita of American Studies and past Director of the
Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Minnesota. Past Chair of the Academic
Council of the American Jewish Historical Society. Recipient of the 2011 Marshall
Sklare Award
Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun
Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and Chief Historian of
the National Museum of American Jewish History. Recipient of the 2002 Marshall
Sklare Award. Past President of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)
Leonard Saxe, Klutznick Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies, Director
of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, and Director of the Steinhardt
Social Research Institute at Brandeis University. Recipient of the 2012 Marshall
Sklare Award. President of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of
Jewry (ASSJ)
Morton Weinfeld, Professor of Sociology and Chair in Canadian Ethnic Studies
at McGill University. Recipient of the 2013 Marshall Sklare Award
Preface
Readers of the Year Book may find more than an occasional reference in the recent
past to Charles Dickens’ famous quote about the “best of times,” and the “worst of
times” (see, for example, Kosmin 2015 and Chap. 4 in this volume) to describe the
current situation facing Jews both in the USA and Israel.
Consider that American Jews witnessed, during 2018–2019, mass shootings in
Pittsburgh, PA (Tree of Life—Or L’Simcha on October 27, 2018), and in Poway,
CA, near San Diego (Chabad of Poway on April 27, 2019). Furthermore, the Anti-
Defamation League (ADL) reported that “anti-Semitic incidents remained at near-
historic levels in 2018 with 1879 incidents reported…The 2018 total is 48% higher
than the number of incidents in 2016 and 99% higher than in 2015” (ADL 2019).
Likewise, in Canada, it was reported that Jews were the “most targeted minority
group in Canada for the 3rd consecutive year” (Lazarus 2019). Statistics Canada
reported that “the number of incidents dropped to 345 from 360 in 2017.” There was
a reported decline in hate crimes against Muslims, which fell 50% (to 173), and
blacks, which declined by 15% (to 283).
If these reports herald among the “worst of times,” what suggests the “best of
times”? Consider that in the USA, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey
between February 14 and 19, 2019, among US adults to assess how warmly the
overall public views various religious groups in the USA (including atheists) on a
“feeling thermometer,” which has a range of 0 (“coldest and most negative”) to 100
(“warmest and most positive”). Of all US religious groups, Jews received the warm-
est score with a mean thermometer rating of 63, followed by Catholics and Mainline
Protestants, each with a score of 60 (Pew Research Center 2019, p. 60).
In contrast, nearly a century ago, Bogardus (1928) asked about 2000 Americans
to rate 40 different ethnic groups on a “social distance scale,” from “7: would
exclude from my country” to “1: to close kinship by marriage.” The most favored
groups were British, Americans, and Canadians, followed by northern Europeans,
and then southern and eastern Europeans. Jews were in the middle; and at the bot-
tom of the social distance scale, were people of color. The dramatic difference
between 2019 and 1928 in the position of Jews helps us to understand why intermar-
riage for Jews has increased (see Phillips 2018).
xi
