American Jewish Year Book 2016

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Forum on the Pew Survey, A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews: A Further Analysis of the 2013 Survey of U.S. Jews

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Orthodox Judaism in the US: Retrospect and Prospect

      • Arnold Dashefsky, Ira M. Sheskin

      Pages 3-8

   3. A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews: A Further Analysis of the 2013 Survey of US Jews

      • Pew Research Center

      Pages 9-29

   4. The Looming Orthodox Ascendancy: Policy Implications

      • Steven Bayme

      Pages 31-35

   5. The Orthodox Paradox: Numbers, Confidence, and Anxiety

      • Mijal Bitton

      Pages 37-41

   6. Jews: The Ever Dying, Ever Renewing, People

      • Lynn Davidman

      Pages 43-47

   7. Pew’s “Statistical Narrative” of Orthodox Separateness: Limitations and Alternatives

      • Adam S. Ferziger

      Pages 49-52

   8. Don’t Underestimate the Hybridity of America’s Orthodox Jews

      • Sylvia Barack Fishman

      Pages 53-55

   9. What I Learned from the Pew Report on Orthodox Jews in America

      • Samuel C. Heilman

      Pages 57-60

   10. Re-imaging/Imagining Pew’s Portrait of Orthodoxy

       • Debra R. Kaufman

       Pages 61-64

   11. Missing from the Pew Report: Attention to Gender

       • Elana Maryles Sztokman

       Pages 65-68

   12. Insights and Questions from the Pew Report on America’s Orthodox Jews

       • Chaim I. Waxman

       Pages 69-72

   13. Response: Pew Research Center

       • Alan Cooperman, Gregory A. Smith, Becka A. Alper

       Pages 73-76

3. Review Articles

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-77

      PDF

   2. The Jewish Family

      • Harriet Hartman

      Pages 79-126

   3. American Jews and the International Arena (April 1, 2015–April 15, 2016): US–Israel Relations in a Crisis, a Hiccup, or a Healthy Alliance?

      • Mitchell Bard

      Pages 127-151

   4. United States Jewish Population, 2016

      • Ira M. Sheskin, Arnold Dashefsky

      Pages 153-239

   5. Canadian Jewish Population, 2016

      • Charles Shahar

      Pages 241-251

   6. World Jewish Population, 2016

      • Sergio DellaPergola

      Pages 253-332

The American Jewish Year Book, now in its 116th year, is the annual record of the North American Jewish communities and provides insight into their major trends. Part I presents a forum on the Pew Survey, “A Portrait of American Orthodox Jews.” Part II begins with Chapter 13, "The Jewish Family." Chapter 14 examines “American Jews and the International Arena (April 1, 2015 – April 15, 2016), which focuses on US–Israel Relations. Chapters 15-17 analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canadian, and world Jewish populations. In Part III, Chapter 18 provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, synagogues, Hillels, day schools, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. In the final chapters, Chapter 19 presents national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; Chapter 20 provides academic resources, including Jewish Studies programs, books, articles, websites, and research libraries; and Chapter 21 presents lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries.

An invaluable record of Jewish life, the American Jewish Year Book illuminates contemporary issues with insight and breadth. It is a window into a complex and ever-changing world.

Deborah Dash Moore, Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies, and Director Emerita of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan

A century from now and more, the stately volumes of the American Jewish Year Book will stand as the authoritative record of Jewish life since 1900. For anyone interested in tracing the long-term evolution of Jewish social, political, religious, and cultural trends from an objective yet passionately Jewish perspective, there simply is no substitute.

Lawrence Grossman, American Jewish Year Book Editor (1999-2008) and Contributor (1988-2015)

• US Jewry
• US Jewish Population
• World Jewish Population
• Orthodox Jews
• Jewish Family
• Canadian Jewish Population
• Domestic Jewish Communal Affairs
• International Jewish Affairs
• Academic Jewish Sources
• Major events, honorees, and obituaries in North American Jewry

“The book editors should be commended for their outstanding diligence in tracking down such diverse information, and it surely merits its description as the comprehensive ‘annual record of American Jewish Civilization’. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.” (D. Altschiller, Choice, Vol. 55 (1), September, 2017) 

• Department of Sociology and Center for Judaic Studies, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA

  Arnold Dashefsky

• Department of Geography and Jewish Demography Project, The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables, USA

  Ira M. Sheskin

Arnold Dashefsky, Ph.D. served as the inaugural holder of the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies and professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs where he is now emeritus. He is the co-author or editor of ten books, including Americans Abroad, Charitable Choices, Ethnic Identification Among American Jews, among others, as well as numerous scholarly articles. A former associate head of the sociology department, he was the founding director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, located in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut, and is the director emeritus and current senior academic consultant of the Berman Jewish DataBank

Ira M. Sheskin, Ph.D. is the director of the Jewish Demography Project of the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami and professor and chair of geography at the same institution. He has completed 43 major Jewish community studies for Jewish Federations throughout the country and was a member of the National Technical Advisory Committee of the Jewish Federations of North America from 1988 to 2003, which completed both the 1990 and 2000-01 National Jewish Population Surveys. His publications include books entitled Survey Research for Geographers, How Jewish Communities Differ, and Comparisons of Jewish Communities: A Compendium of Tables and Bar Charts.

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