Bernard Lazerwitz is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Bar Ilan University, Israel. His previous work includes Pathways to Suicide: A Survey of Self-Destructive Behaviors (with Ronald Maris) and Americans Abroad: A Comparative Study of Emigrants from the United States (with Arnold Dashefsky, Jan DeAmicis, and Ephraim Tabory). J. Alan Winter is Professor of Sociology at Connecticut College. He is the author of Continuities in the Sociology of Religion: Creed, Congregation and Community; Clergy in Action Training (with Edgard W. Mills and Polly S. Hendrick); and is the editor of The Poor and Vital Problems for American Society (with Jerome Rabow and Marc Chesler). Arnold Dashefsky is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut. His previous work includes Ethnic Identification Among American Jews (with H. M. Shapiro), among others.

List of Tables and Figures

American Jewish Society in the 1990s: An Introduction
Barry A. Kosmin and Sidney Goldstein

Foreword
Andrew Greeley

Preface

PART I

1. Denominations in American Religious Life

Chapter Preview

2. A Sociohistorical Overview of American Jewish Denominations

The First Jewish Denomination: Reform Judaism
The Counter Reformation: Orthodox Judaism
The Centrist Denomination: Conservative Judaism
Denominational Development in Historical Retrospect
Denominational Differences: Homosexuality as a Case in Point
The Social Psychology of American Jewish Denominationalism

PART II

3. A General Description of the Adherents of American Jewish Denominations

The Two Surveys
The Population of Interest
Characterisitcs Associated with Differing Denomiational Preferences
Demographic and Socioeconomic Concomitants of Denominational Preferences
Religious and Jewish Community Involvement: 1971 and 1990
Consequential Dimensions of Denominational Preference
Jewish Denominations within the Context of America's Denominational Structure

4. The Components and Consequences of Jewish Involvement

The Models

5. Jewish Denominational Switching: Permeable Boundaries among Jews in the United States

Denominational Switching among American Jews
Concomitants of Denominational Switching

6. Denominational Preferences and Intermarriage: Permeable Boundaries between Jews and Non-Jews

Intermarriage and Denominational Preference
Intermarriages Before and After 1970
Variables Associated with Intermarriage
Raising Jewish Children
Jewish Community Size and Intermarriage

PART III

7. A Look toward the Future: Jewish Fertility, Births, and Denominational Preference

Jewish Religiosity and Fertility
A Fertility Projection: A Look at the Future

8. Summation, Conclusions, and Recommendations

Summary of Major Findings
The Challenge of Americanization
Recommendations for the Denominations
Closing Comments

Appendix A. Methodology of CJF 1990 National Jewish Population Survey
Joseph Waksberg

Appendix B. Total Sample Errors and the Comparison of the 1971 and 1990 Surveys

Appendix C. Model Indices Cited in Chapter 4

Appendix D. Computation of the Projection in Chapter 7, Table 7.2

Notes

References

Subject Index

Name Index