The Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ) is a cross-disciplinary organization of individuals whose research concerns the Jewish people throughout the world, founded in 1971. [1]
The ASSJ comprises primarily academics, but also policy analysts, communal professionals, and activists whose research concerns the Jewish people throughout the world. Social scientific disciplines represented include sociology, social psychology, social anthropology, demography, contemporary history, social work, political science, economics, and Jewish education. Members work throughout the world but primarily in North America, Israel, and Europe. [2]
The ASSJ encourages and facilitates contact among researchers, supports the dissemination of research, and assists in the cultivation of younger scholars. [2]
The organization publishes a journal, Contemporary Jewry , several times a year with research articles that draw on a range of social scientific fields and methodologies. [2]
Editor-in-chief: Harriet Hartman
Associate editor: Adina Bankier-Karp
Book Review Editor: Ephraim Tabory
Research Editor: Ira Sheskin
Studies of Jews in Society Published in concert with Springer Nature, Studies of Jews in Society takes a broad perspective on social science to include anthropology, communications, demography, economics, education, ethnography, geography, history, politics, population, social psychology, and sociology. Books may rely on quantitative methods, qualitative methods, or both.
The series is directed to social scientists and general scholars in Jewish studies as well as those generally interested in religion and ethnicity; academics who teach Jewish studies; undergraduates and graduate students in Jewish studies, sociologists interested in religion and ethnicity; and communal professionals and lay leaders who work in Jewish organizations and individuals. The style, while rigorous scientifically, is accessible to a general audience.
Editor: Chaim Waxman
The Marshall Sklare Award The Marshall Sklare Award is an annual honor of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ). The ASSJ seeks to recognize "a senior scholar who has made a significant scholarly contribution to the social scientific study of Jewry." In most cases, the recipient has given a scholarly address. In recent years, the honored scholar has presented the address at the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies. The award is named after sociologist Marshall Sklare.
Past recipients, fields of study, and the titles of their scholarly papers have been:
| Year | Recipient(s) | Fields of study | Scholarly papers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Sidney Goldstein | Demography | "Beyond the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey: A Research Agenda" |
| 1993 | Seymour Martin Lipset | Sociology | "Some Thoughts on the Past, Present and Future of American Jewry" |
| 1994 | Celia Heller | History | |
| 1995 | Daniel Elazar | Political Science | "The Future of American Jewry" |
| 1996 | Samuel Klausner | Sociology | |
| 1997 | Walter Zenner | Anthropology | "The Ethnography of Diaspora: Studying Syrian Jewry" |
| 1998 | Bernard Reisman | Communal Service | "Redefining Jewish Identity in North America" |
| 1999 | Sergio DellaPergola | Demography | "Thoughts of a Jewish Demographer in the Year 2000" |
| 2000 | Charles Liebman | Political Science | "Some Research Proposals for the Study of American Jews" |
| 2001 | Calvin Goldscheider | Sociology and Demography | "Social Science and the Jews: A Research Agenda for the Next Generation" |
| 2002 | Jonathan Sarna | History | "From Past to Present: Contemporary Lessons from the Study of American Judaism" |
| 2003 | Samuel Heilman | Sociology | "How did Fundamentalism Manage to Infiltrate Contemporary Orthodoxy?" |
| 2004 | Egon Mayer | Sociology | |
| 2005 | Elihu Katz | Communications | "Two Dilemmas of Religious Identity and Practice among Israeli Jews" |
| 2006 | Deborah Dash Moore | History | "On City Streets" |
| 2007 | Barry Chiswick | Economics | "The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Ph.D." |
| 2008 | Paul Ritterband | Sociology | "Smart Jews" |
| 2009 | Charles Kadushin | Sociology and Social Network Analysis | "Social Networks and Jews" |
| 2010 | Steven M. Cohen | Sociology | "The Demise of the 'Good Jew'" |
| 2011 | Riv-Ellen Prell | Anthropology | "Boundaries, Margins and Norms: The Intellectual Stakes in the Study of American Jewish Culture(s)" |
| 2012 | Leonard Saxe | Social Pychology | "Reflections on the Science of the Social Scientific Study of Jewry" |
| 2013 | Morton Weinfeld | Sociology | "If Canada and Israel are at War, Who Gets My Support? Challenges of Competing Diaspora Loyalties" |
| 2014 | Sylvia Barack Fishman | Sociology | "American Jewishness Today: Identity and Transmissibility in an Open World" |
| 2015 | Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett | Performance Studies | "The Ethnographer in the Museum: Creating the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews" |
| 2016 | Bruce Phillips | Sociology | "Beyond Policy: Reviving Jewish Demography through Local Population Studies" |
| 2017 | Judit Bokser Liwerant | Political Science | "Latin American Jews in a Transnational World: Conceptual Paths and Shifting Paradigms" |
| 2018 | Arnold Eisen | Religious Studies | "Boomers, Millennials, and the Shape of American Judaism" |
| 2019 | Harriet Hartman | Sociology | "How Gender and Family Still Matter for Contemporary Jewry" |
| 2020 | Arnold Dashefsky and Chaim Waxman | Sociology | |
| 2021 | Ariela Keysar and Barry Kosmin | Demography | |
| 2022 | Debra Kaufman | Sociology and Women's Studies | |
| 2023 | Bethamie Horowitz and Ira Sheskin | Social Psychology (Horowitz), Geography (Sheskin) | |
| 2024 | No award given | ||
| 2025 | Uzi Rebhun | Demography |
Mandell L. Berman Service Award The ASSJ presents the Mandell L. Berman Service Award periodically to communal, civic and business leaders, applied and academic researchers, and philanthropists, for distinguished commitment to the social scientific study of Jews through service or financial support.
| Year | Recipient(s) |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Irene and Eddie Kaplan |
| 2012 | Arnold Dashefsky (University of Connecticut) |
| 2013 | Rela Mintz Geffen (Gratz College) |
| 2015 | Barry Shrage (Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston) |
| 2017 | Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat |
| 2021 | Joseph Neubauer and Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer (Neubauer Family Foundation) and Alan Cooperman (Pew Research Center) |
Judit Bokser Liwerant Distinguished Early Career Award The ASSJ's Judit Bokser Liwerant Distinguished Early Career Award will be given periodically to a recent PhD (within the past ten years) whose work reflects excellence in the application of social science theories and methods to the study of contemporary Jewry.
| Year | Recipient(s) | Fields of study |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Ilana Horwitz | Sociology |
| 2023 | Matthew Boxer | Sociology |
| 2024 | Nadia Beider, Aviad Moreno | Jewish Education (Beider); Diaspora Studies (Moreno) |
Arnold Dashefsky Graduate Student Paper Award This award recognizes outstanding research on contemporary Jewry by graduate students.
| Year | Recipient(s) | Honorable mention |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Shvat Eilat, "'Just forget about it and move on': Stillbirth ruptured and repaired narratives beyond expectant futures" | Sari Alfi-Nissan, "The Light within Me: Celebrating the Self through Jewish Holidays in Israeli Public-School Education" |