Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Modern Orthodox Jews in America (Paperback)

by Samuel C. Heilman (Author), Steven M. Cohen (Author) "Throughout the early generations of American Jewry, the predominant assumption was that in one way or another Jews would enter fully into the mainstream of..." (more)
Key Phrases: nonkosher friend, eating cold salads, more ritually observant, Orthodox Jews, New York, American Jews (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Far from simply vanishing in the face of modernity, Orthodox Jews in the United States today are surviving and flourishing. Samuel C. Heilman and Steven M. Cohen, both distinguished scholars of Jewish studies, have joined forces in this pathbreaking book to articulate this vibrancy and to characterize the many faces of Orthodox Jewry in contemporary America. Who are these Orthodox Jews? How have they survived, what do they believe and practice and how do they accommodate the tension between traditional Jewish and modern American values? Drawing on a survey of more than one thousand participants, the authors address these questions and many more.

Heilman and Cohen reveal that American Jewish Orthodoxy is not a monolith by distinguishing its three broad varieties: the "traditionalists," the "centrists," and the "nominally" orthodox. To illuminate this full spectrum of orthodoxy the authors focus on the "centrists," taking us through the dimensions of their ritual observances, religious beliefs, community life, and their social, political, and sexual attitudes. Both parochial and cosmopolitan, orthodox and liberal, these Jews are characterized by their dualism, by their successful involvement in both the modern Western world and in traditional Jewish culture. In painting this provocative and fascinating portrait of what Jewish Orthodoxy has become in America today, Heilman and Cohen's study also sheds light on the larger picture of the persistence of religion in the modern world.

About the Author

Samuel C. Heilman, professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is the author of A Walker in Jerusalem, The Gate Behind the Wall, The People of the Book, and Synagogue Life, the latter two of which are also published by the University of Chicago Press. Steven M. Cohen, professor of sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York, is the coauthor of numerous books and the author of American Assimilation or Jewish Revival?, American Modernity & Jewish Identity, and Interethnic Marriage and Friendship.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (October 11, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226324966
• ISBN-13: 978-0226324968
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,639,939 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars fundamentally flawed study, July 17, 2001

By	Stephen M Tolany (Thornwood, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This book presents itself as a sociological study of the Modern Orthodox Jewish population in North America. Included are discussions of this group's religious attitudes and values, its voting patterns, and its orientation towards American society and culture in general.

Unfortunately, this book's basic approach to the subject is so fundamentally flawed that you are more likely to be misinformed than to learn anything when you read it.

For one thing, the authors took almost half of their statistical data (490 responses out of 1023) from questionnaires answered by members of the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan's Upper West Side, a truly vibrant congregation with dynamic adult education and outreach programs, but obviously not representative of the rest of Modern Orthodox community in New York, or anywhere else for that matter!

But the main problem lies in the categories of religious observance Heilman builds out of thin air, and upon which he bases his arguments. Most of the discussion focuses on a middle group of Modern Orthodox Jews, which Heilman confusingly terms the "centrists," despite the fact that he uses the very same term in other places to refer to the Modern Orthodox population as a whole. To make his middle category, Heilman groups people who are completely religious but still eat cold salad with non-kosher utensils (when visiting friends' homes) together with people who turn on lights on Shabbos. Heilman excludes members of this category from the "traditionalist" right-wing group merely because they will eat cold salad on non-kosher dishes, even though that act is often completely permissible even according to the strictest interpretations of Jewish law! We can understand why, as Heilman admits, many respondents found the survey's questions problematic and wrote lengthy notes to explain their answers. (Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the book makes much use of their clarifications.)

The result of this is to create a large grouping which will necessarily appear ambivalent and divided over key issues of religious dogma and behavior. So it comes as no surprise when only 54% of this group "agree strongly" that "the Torah was revealed by God to Moses at Sinai"! And since Heilman doesn't give us any statistical breakdown within his made-up categories, it is impossible to know how many of the strictly observant do NOT feel strongly that the Torah was revealed at Sinai, and thus any useful inferences or insights that we might have drawn from the responses are lost and beyond retrieval.

Another general problem with the book: Although it is indeed true that members of the so-called Modern Orthodox community are likely to be less punctiliously observant than their "right-wing" brethren, Heilman seems to believe that all Orthodox Jews who actively engage and participate in wider American society are NECESSARILY ambivalent about basic Jewish law and theology. In many sections, he seems to confuse and lump together more strictly observant Modern Orthodox Jews with the "picturesque" ultra-right-wing Orthodox. It would seem that according to his categories, most of the theologians and scholars of Modern Orthodoxy wouldn't be considered Modern Orthodox.

The usefulness of the book is also severely limited because it doesn't even include the text of the questionnaire. (Although an appendix with the exact wording of the questions is promised in the text, none can be find anywhere in the volume!)

In conclusion, this book is simply not representative of the talents of Heilman, who is one of the world's leading sociologists of the American Jewish community.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Traditional Subculture's Blueprint For Revival, June 6, 2002

By	"[e-mail]" (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews

While this book does have some minor shortcomings--such as a restricted sample and neglect of the "ultra-orthodox" wing of Judaism--I still give it five stars, in part because the authors have done us the rare favor of delving into the subject of how a traditionalist, religious subculture can not only survive but thrive in the midst of an alien dominant culture. It was not that long ago when assimilationist Jews and non-Jews alike were confidently predicting the inevitable demise of traditionalist Judaism... Yet at the same time there were other Jews who foresaw that the assimilationist or integrationist strategy could only lead to extinction. They imported traditional Jewish rabbis from the old country to lead their communities and funneled as many of their children as possible into Jewish religious schools, which the authors regard as decisive for traditionalism's unexpected success. Consequently, their faith remained sufficiently intense and their social cohesion and collective identity sufficiently strong to maintain birth rates comfortably above replacement level, high rates of religious observance, and low defection rates, even while their more secularized counterparts saw their birth rates plunge to a level persistently below replacement and their children begin to outmarry at a high rate. Not only did traditionalists defy the integrationists'confident prophecies of doom, but they seem to be growing even more traditional; that is, judging from the sample used for this book, the younger generation is actually *more* religiously observant than their traditionalist parents... Although the literary style of this academic treatise is dry, I very highly recommend it to anyone interested in the survival of embattled or endangered subcultures...

3.0 out of 5 stars flawed but still somewhat interesting , April 11, 2009

By	Michael Lewyn (Jacksonville, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book uses a highly unscientific survey to divide a group of Orthodox Jews into "traditionalist", "centrist" and "nominally Orthodox" categories. Though the survey doesn't involve a truly random sample of Orthodox Jews (and thus does not create useful data) it still reminds us that (a) there are all kinds of ways to be Orthodox but (b) even "nominally Orthodox" Jews tend to be more observant than non-Orthodox Jews.