Matthew Boxer's guest appearances

Matthew Boxer

Jewish History Matters

Rachel Harris

Marc Dollinger

Jonathan Sarna

Jeffrey Veidlinger

Joshua Shanes

James Loeffler

Susannah Heschel

Steven Weitzman

Hasia Diner

Laura Arnold Leibman

Ran Abramitzky

Sarah Abrevaya Stein

Benjamin Netanyahu

Robert Alter

David Biale

OwlTail

Join our community on Facebook | Join our mailing list Matthew Boxer joins us to talk about contemporary American Jewish communities, why gathering population data matters, what we can learn from these kinds of studies, and how examining a range of communities from across the U.S. helps us to understand the varieties of American Jewish life between smaller and larger communities. We discuss how community studies are put to practical use, how it relates to trends in Big Data and quantification, and how all this contributes to our broad understanding of American Jewry and the American Jewish experience. Read about the community studies conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies: Community Studies homepageRecent studies conducted Collier County, FL Nashville Boston Seattle Buffalo  Janet Krasner Aronson, Matthew Boxer, and Leonard Saxe, “‘All Politics is Local’: Challenges in the Study of Local Jewish Communities,” Contemporary Jewry 36 (2016): 361–380Other Cohen Center and SSRI projects American Jewish Population Project Birthright Israel studies   Other important Jewish community and population studies: Pew Research Center, “A Portrait of American Jews” (2013)National Jewish Population Survey (2000)National Jewish Population Survey (1990)National Jewish Population Survey (1971) Other major figures, topics, and books discussed: Pierre Bourdieu  Sociology is a Martial Art, 2002 collection of Bourdieu’s essays  Ferdinand Tönnies  Tönnies, “Society and Community“ Originally in German, Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887) On Tönnies: Arthur Mitzman, “Tönnies and German Society, 1887–1914: From Cultural Pessimism to Celebration of the Volksgemeinschaft,” Journal of the History of Ideas 32, no. 4 (Oct.–Dec. 1971): 507–524 Also: Robert Thomas Schechtman, “Community and Utopia: The Discourse of Gemeinschaft and the Search for a New Modernity in Germany” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California–Berkeley, 2008)  Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish CenturyJacob Rader Marcus, To Count a People: American Jewish Population Data, 1585–1984 (1990) Matt Boxer is an assistant research scientist at Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute based there, and he also teaches at Brandeis’ Hornstein Jewish professional leadership program. His research focuses on local and national Jewish population studies, and he will soon finish the manuscript for his first book, which will examine the effects of local Jewish Community size on Jewish identity.  The Cohen Center is a multidisciplinary research institute focused on the study of contemporary Jewish life. They and the SSRI oversee a series of studies, among them the local Jewish Community surveys we’ll discuss today. These studies provide estimates on the size and character of Jewish communities all over the US, helping the communities to understand the wants needs and interests of the people they serve to develop strategic plans as systematic assessments of resource allocation for programs and services. Recent studies include Collier County, Florida, Nashville, Pittsburgh Seattle and elsewhere. The Cohen Center also is the home for other research projects like the American Jewish population project, which aims to determine a population map of American Jewry and then also manages the assessment of the Birthright Israel program. Today Matt and I are going to focus on these communities studies that Matt and his team have been developing what we can learn from them and also the question of Jewish life in smaller communities.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/JewishHistoryMatters/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join our community on Facebook</a> | <a href="https://www.jewishhistory.fm/join-our-mailing-list/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Join our mailing list</a> Matthew Boxer joins us to talk about contemporary American Jewish communities, why gathering population data matters, what we can learn from these kinds of studies, and how examining a range of communities from across the U.S. helps us to understand the varieties of American Jewish life between smaller and larger communities. We discuss how community studies are put to practical use, how it relates to trends in Big Data and quantification, and how all this contributes to our broad understanding of American Jewry and the American Jewish experience. Read about the community studies conducted by the <a href="http://brandeis.edu/cmjs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies</a>: <ul><li><a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/ssri/communitystudies/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Community Studies homepage</a></li><li>Recent studies conducted <ul> <li><a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/ssri/pdfs/communitystudies/CollierCountyJewishCommStudy.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Collier County, FL</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/ssri/communitystudies/nashvillereport.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nashville</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/ssri/communitystudies/bostonreport.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Boston</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/ssri/pdfs/SeattleCommunityStudy082815.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Seattle</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/ssri/pdfs/BuffaloReport.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Buffalo</a></li> </ul> </li><li><a href="http://bir.brandeis.edu/bitstream/handle/10192/35272/AllPolticsLocalCJTitle.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Janet Krasner Aronson, Matthew Boxer, and Leonard Saxe, “‘All Politics is Local’: Challenges in the Study of Local Jewish Communities,” Contemporary Jewry 36 (2016): 361–380</a></li><li>Other Cohen Center and SSRI projects <ul> <li><a href="http://ajpp.brandeis.edu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">American Jewish Population Project</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/researchprojects/birthright/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Birthright Israel studies</a></li> </ul> </li></ul> Other important Jewish community and population studies: <ul><li><a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pew Research Center, “A Portrait of American Jews”</a> (2013)</li><li><a href="http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=307" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Jewish Population Survey (2000)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=305" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Jewish Population Survey (1990)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=304" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Jewish Population Survey (1971)</a></li></ul> Other major figures, topics, and books discussed: <ul><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieu" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pierre Bourdieu</a> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sociology-Martial-Art-Political-Writings/dp/1595585435/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1519004371&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=sociology+martial+art+bourdieu&amp;linkCode=ll1&amp;tag=jewishhistory-20&amp;linkId=d70bb8cd7f3251150ee5a35786278e73" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sociology is a Martial Art</a>, 2002 collection of Bourdieu’s essays</li> </ul> </li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Tönnies" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ferdinand Tönnies</a> <ul> <li>Tönnies, “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=MOx34MBcHDMC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA16&amp;dq=society+and+community+tönnies&amp;ots=Kbo5xdHS2N&amp;sig=n8ooZHqE3X58gD7GsDMfSObWp0c#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Society and Community</a>“</li> <li>Originally in German, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=4eoVAwAAQBAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA1&amp;dq=ferdinand+tönnies+gemeinschaft+gesellschaft&amp;ots=KVkygPs5cv&amp;sig=6pv2g7SFRHRd_zj4eQ9JmA2nmJI#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft</a> (1887)</li> <li>On Tönnies: <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2708974?casa_token=qGJaoC1WcDAAAAAA:w-v6hGscL8vJlWFsV0bzm-GfSwbcJTDxlIzwTDkW7Q_WNjYuaZT4hKFiUwVp8p5jXBsbV6oU2_SPm0TpckIpo8tJ6cHmhXc5I6WNU4uqape-PYRE-A4&amp;seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Arthur Mitzman, “Tönnies and German Society, 1887–1914: From Cultural Pessimism to Celebration of the Volksgemeinschaft,” Journal of the History of Ideas 32, no. 4 (Oct.–Dec. 1971): 507–524</a></li> <li>Also: <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/304693668/93BF3660263A4B05PQ/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Robert Thomas Schechtman, “Community and Utopia: The Discourse of Gemeinschaft and the Search for a New Modernity in Germany”</a> (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California–Berkeley, 2008)</li> </ul> </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691127603/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;linkCode=ll1&amp;tag=jewishhistory-20&amp;linkId=367ef547b5ca1d993acf0bca9e074f8b" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish Century</a></li><li><a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/to-count-a-people-american-jewish-population-data-1585-1984/oclc/246715269&amp;referer=brief_results" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jacob Rader Marcus, To Count a People: American Jewish Population Data, 1585–1984</a> (1990)</li></ul> Matt Boxer is an assistant research scientist at Brandeis University’s <a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies</a> and the <a href="http://www.brandeis.edu/ssri" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Steinhardt Social Research Institute</a> based there, and he also teaches at Brandeis’ Hornstein Jewish professional leadership program. His research focuses on local and national Jewish population studies, and he will soon finish the manuscript for his first book, which will examine the effects of local Jewish Community size on Jewish identity.  The Cohen Center is a multidisciplinary research institute focused on the study of contemporary Jewish life. They and the SSRI oversee a series of studies, among them the local Jewish Community surveys we’ll discuss today. These studies provide estimates on the size and character of Jewish communities all over the US, helping the communities to understand the wants needs and interests of the people they serve to develop strategic plans as systematic assessments of resource allocation for programs and services. Recent studies include Collier County, Florida, Nashville, Pittsburgh Seattle and elsewhere. The Cohen Center also is the home for other research projects like the American Jewish population project, which aims to determine a population map of American Jewry and then also manages the assessment of the Birthright Israel program. Today Matt and I are going to focus on these communities studies that Matt and his team have been developing what we can learn from them and also the question of Jewish life in smaller communities.

8: Jewish Community Studies with Matthew Boxer