Thesis--Freie Universität Berlin. / Bibliography: p. 256-278.

Many modern democracies have a hard time dealing with religion. The question of how much religious identity should be respected by government is one that America has spent a great deal of time and intellectual effort on. Because this paper looks at Jewish political communities, it first looks at what kind of religiously-rooted political activism is desirable. It finds that both groups of Jews in this study meet Amy Gutmann’s strict criteria for healthy religious and political entanglement. For the empirical part of this study, Jews have long been of interest to political scientists because their partisan ties are stronger and more uniform than most other groups. This paper looks at how Jewish political identity is shaped by Jewish elite messages in the forum of worship. Earlier studies have shown empirically that there are not substantive systematic differences in the political views of Conservative and Reform Jews. This earlier research has not addressed the issue of differences in Jewish denomination and elite political messages. Specifically, this paper explores the differences in the political tenor of the messages of the leaders in a Conservative Congregation and those of leaders in a Reform Congregation in Fort Worth, Texas. Based on the data collected in nine in-depth interviews with Rabbis, board members, Jewish Federation Executive Directors, and other active community members, this paper looks at how elites express their political views in their respective congregational settings. It finds that elites in the Jewish Reform movement in Fort Worth are more overt in their combination of worship and politics, while Jewish Conservative elites feel less comfortable with politicizing the bimah. / text

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In the history of Austrian Jewry, the year 1848 marked a crucial turning point. Although there had been a rapid succession of changes in the lives of Jews in Central Europe, 1848 was a definitive beginning on the road to "modernity" from which there could be no turning back. Ludwig August Frankl was a distinguished representative of this generation of Jews living in the Habsburg realm. He believed in the revolutionary ideals of 1848, and yet was paradoxically not a radical. He was, rather, a representative of that now often forgotten group of Jews who believed in an evolutionary path to modernity that seemed to offer the logical and triumphant culmination of a hundred years of cultural assimilation. Modernity became their identification and their aspiration, and also led to a new perception of their own Judaism. Ludwig August Frankl brought the elements of this new identity to his mission to found the first secular Jewish school in Jerusalem in 1856, the Laemel School.

No description available.

While sociological studies of 'Jewish identity' have proliferated over the last several decades, these works often ignore the internal diversity found within Jewish populations. Because of the particularities of the gay Jewish case, there is a need to devote more scholarly attention to the 'Jewish identities' of this subpopulation. This study contributes to this under-studied area. Using qualitative methods (in-depth interviews and participant observation), this study explores the processes of Jewish identity construction among gay Jewish men. Despite the fact that Jews have historically held more liberal attitudes on social issues than non-Jews, the study found that Jewish families and communities often demonstrate a resistance to homosexuality and Jewish same-sex relationships. While most North American Jews, whether heterosexual or gay, partake in some form of negotiation between their Jewish identity and the non-Jewish world around them, because of the perceived stigmatization felt by gay Jewish men within the Jewish community, this group has added obstacles to overcome in constructing a personally meaningful Jewish identity. Due to the emphasis on 'traditional' gender roles, the 'nuclear family,' procreation and conservative religious values, the gay Jewish experience bears many similarities to the experiences of gay men in Black, Latin American, Asian, Greek and Italian communities. There are some distinctive features to the Jewish case, however. These include a particular aversion to same-sex relations due to the Jewish preoccupation with ethnic survival and continuity, especially in light of the Holocaust, and increased difficulty for the gay Jewish man to maintain privacy about his sexual orientation due to high levels of friendship and social networks within the Jewish community. Building upon theoretical models that attempt to acknowledge the complexities of multiple layers of stigmatized identities, the study develops a more nuanced analytical framework in which to understand the various strategies ethnic minority gay men implement as a means of negotiating their ethnoreligious and gay identities. The study illustrates, for example, that the variable of 'level of religiosity' serves as a key factor in this process. The study concludes with reflections on the implications of the findings for Jewish communities and recommends similar studies of other ethno-religious communities.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1982.

Recent scholarship has focused on the response of Jews in the free world to the plight of European Jewry in Nazi-occupied Europe. The work of Anglo- Jewish refugee organisations in facilitating the arrival of over 50,000 refugees in Britain between 1933-1939 has been variously chronicled as a model of charitable endeavour and a half-hearted effort cramped by insecurity and self- interest. More consistently, scholars argue that Anglo-Jewry failed to respond to the catastrophe of the war years with the resolution and vigour that might have saved more lives. This thesis takes issue with the current consensus on both the pre-war and war periods. Anglo-Jewry was a confident, well-integrated community which tackled the escalating problems of refugee immigration in the 1930s with common sense and administrative expertise born of a long tradition of communal charity. Its achievement is all the more remarkable measured against the scale of the disaster, the constraints of government immigration policy regulations and the organisations' own chronic lack of funds. By contrast, the Anglo-Jewish organisations were hamstrung during the war years by their political naivete and inexperience in dealing with government officials. Although their administrative skills remained valuable in areas of relief work such as internment and parcel schemes, their preoccupation with the Jewish humanitarian issue prevented them from grasping the military and logistical implications of their proposals. Misreading the language of diplomacy, they doggedly pursued aims which were in practice, if not in theory, unrealistic. Unlike most previous literature on the record of Anglo-Jewry during this period, this thesis eschews both the didactic and speculative approaches to historical interpretation. Instead of attempting to apportion blame, or to answer hypothetical questions of responsibility, it offers an evaluation based on the evidence available. The thesis examines the quality and scope of rescue and relief work, both of organisations and individuals. What was done, rather than what should have been done, is the focus of attention.

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No description available.