Download Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious

Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious
Tradition by Carmel Chiswick (review)
Sylvia Barack Fishman
American Jewish History, Volume 100, Number 1, January 2016, pp. 156-158
(Review)
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ajh.2016.0000
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/606063
Accessed 19 Jun 2017 01:26 GMT
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ringleader, was a big fan. Spending far too much of his time in the company of Lorna, the Jungle Girl, rather than that of Little Dorrit or Rabbi
Akiva, was it any wonder that he was no model citizen? The “obscene,
lewd, lascivious, filthy, indecent and disgusting literature accessible to
the youth of our city” corrupted their minds and warped their souls,
insisted one civic official (108).
That comic books came in for more than their fair share of anathematizing is not new, of course; this is well-traveled territory. But in
expressly linking the anti-comic book sentiment of the 1950s to the
nefarious exploits of a group of Brooklyn Jewish teen-agers, Adlin’s
account adds a new twist, rendering the story a distinctly American
Jewish one. In this, the book is only partially successful. At times, the
narrative proceeds along, and shuttles between, two separate tracks: the
demonizing of the comic book and the American Jewish response to the
trial of its junior coreligionists. They do not converge quite as neatly–or
as convincingly–as readers might hope. More pointedly still, Adlin’s
over-reliance on the Forward as the major, indeed the only, repository
of information about the Jewish communal response to the Thrill-Kill
Gang, seems ill-conceived. By the 1950s, it was hardly the only, much
less the most influential, voice in town. A greater contextual knowledge
of American Jewish history–and, most especially, of earlier instances of
malfeasance–would also have enhanced the story she unfolds, highlighting the ways in which this gang of four both belonged to and departed
from earlier generations of n’er-do-wells.
Still, for all its limitations, the book makes for lively reading. It reminds
us that when it comes to child-rearing, no generation has all the answers.
Jenna Weissman Joselit
The George Washington University
Carmel Chiswick. Judaism in Transition: How Economic Choices Shape Religious Tradition. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2014. 248 pp.
In Judaism in Transition, Carmel Chiswick, Research Professor of
Economics at George Washington University, uses economic concepts
to demystify recent developments in American Jewish life. Chiswick
distinguishes between her understanding of the “Great Tradition” of
foundational Judaic belief over millennia and “Small Traditions” in
particular communities. Historically, “each Small Tradition faced the
same basic problem of how to preserve the Great Tradition for future
Book Reviews 157
generations” (201). American Judaism represents a particular, evolving
“Small Tradition.” The concept of scarcity illuminates American Jewish lifestyle choices: Jews on every income level have limited quantities
of time, money, and personal energy; what they choose to spend on
religion competes with other possible choices. The popular phrase “the
high cost of being Jewish” refers not just to direct financial costs but
also to indirect costs in scarce personal time and energy.
Chiswick explains that in America’s pluralistic open environment,
Jewish religious rules are often experienced as expensive. American Jews–
especially in liberal wings of Judaism that reject the concept of religious
obligations–fulfill Jewish expectations “only if the benefits were seen to
be large, while low benefit rules might be obeyed if the cost was low”
(8). Passover Seder attendance is perceived has having large benefits and
low personal cost, as a yearly activity that enjoys popular general social
approval. In contrast, observance of kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) carries
a high cost socially, perhaps professionally, and financially. American
Jews also weigh their children’s educational choices, assessing direct and
indirect cost against perceived benefits.
Chiswick explains how Jewish education–both formal and informal–
creates “Jewish human capital” that enhances a person’s participation
in Judaism’s religious, communal, and cultural life. In addition to the
cognitive information about Jewish history, laws, and folkways imparted
in the classroom, synagogue attendance and Jewish summer camps
often add the dimension of learning traditional Jewish liturgies and
songs and Hebrew as an ethnic language–an important part of Jewish
human capital. Feelings of connection to the modern State of Israel also
increase Jewish human capital. As Chiswick notes, in economic terms,
Jewish communal scholarships for Jewish schools, camps, or Israel trips
comprise another example of Jewish financial capital being devoted to
the creation of Jewish human capital. The Jewish calendar year, with its
cycle of holidays, also helps build Jewish human capital through homebased ceremonies and synagogue attendance. Chiswick explains that
observing Jewish holidays is “an occasion to build Jewish memories, to
practice Jewish skills, and to acquire Jewish experiences,” and also to
gain access to the foundational stories of Jewishness and participate in
the Jewish “Great Tradition” (91).
However, when acquiring Jewish human capital is perceived as
conflicting with acquiring general human capital, these two are experienced as being anticomplements rather than complements. For example,
should a Jewish child attending public school spend after school hours at
mandatory Little League practice or Hebrew school? In the workplace,
religiously observant Jews may find that kashruth observance removes
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them from informal but critically important information sharing over
restaurant meals. In the home, a non-Jewish spouse may prefer his children to attend church school as well as synagogue school.
One contemporary complement success story is the sharing of Jewish
human capital between American and Israeli Jews. As Chiswick notes,
accelerated Israeli modernization over the past two decades has lessened
the cultural divide between America and Israel and facilitated the sharing of cultural materials. American Jewish individuals and institutions
have become increasingly familiar with Israeli Hebrew in all its guises–
modern street Hebrew, professional vocabulary, slang, music, literature,
art and culture–thereby increasing American Jewish human capital. In
turn–although Chiswick does not fully develop this theme–American
values and norms are similarly imported into Israel and internalized
into Israeli lives and values.
In this ambitious book, illustrated with tables and graphs, Chiswick
effectively lays out the economic framework which serves as the scaffolding of American Jewish life. She also valiantly attempts to reach back
over time to explain the relationship of contemporary Jewish societies to
those of the past, a less successful aspect of the book due to telescoping
and generalizing. Chiswick’s major thesis about the utility of economic
concepts and her practical, detailed lessons on using economic concepts
to illuminate American Jewish life are effective, accessible and useful,
both for the classroom and for the interested lay reader. A glossary of
the relevant economic terms will no doubt become part of the toolkit of
many readers and colleagues from outside the field of economics. After
completing Chiswick’s book, readers will understand how American
Jewish religion, ethnicity, and ethnoreligious culture are profoundly affected by economic as well as historical trends.
Sylvia Barack Fishman
Brandeis University
Bringing Zion Home: Israel in American Jewish Culture, 1948–1967. By Emily Alice Katz.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015. xiii + 215 pp.
This is a valuable study that conveys a wealth of useful information
about Israel’s presence in American Jewish life, and in the United States
generally, in the period preceding the 1967 Six Day War. Claiming that
American Jewish culture was “constructed” in the 1950s via the development of various performances and practices, Katz concentrates on topics