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Title: Cosmopolitans & Parochials: Modern Orthodox Jews in America by Samuel C. Heilman, Steven M. Cohen ISBN: 0-226-32496-6 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: October, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: One Traditional Subculture's Blueprint For Revival
Comment: 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...

Rating: 1
Summary: fundamentally flawed study
Comment: 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.