EDITORIAL ESSAY: CHANGING AGENDAS IN THE SOCIOLOGICAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY OF DIASPORA JEWS

In this paper I reflect on the changes in Jewish society around the globe that I have observed during the four decades since 1972 when I first began working as a scholar and researcher in Jewish social science.  The focus is on why and how in the Jewish Diaspora and even in Israel the output, research agendas and concerns of Jewish sociology and demography have changed over this period and, in particular, over the past two decades.  The changes have come about as a result of political and social forces as well as the influences of academic fashion and imbalances in disciplinary recruitment.  Since the United States is by far the largest diaspora Jewish population centre, has the most sophisticated and best resourced communal organizations as well as the largest concentration of academics working in the field much of the focus of this essay will be on developments affecting research on American Jewry.