Essential Readings on Jewish Identities, Lifestyles and Beliefs : Analyses of the Personal and Social Diversity of Jews by Modern Scholars

This book provides a convenient, single source for better understanding Jewish diversity in America, Israel, and other societies--and the implications of recent changes in the identities, lifestyles, and beliefs of Jews for their personal and social lives in the twenty-first century. The authoritative studies by modern scholars presented in this volume dispel stereotypes about Jewish men and women by revealing the wide range of cognitive, affective, and behavioral differences among Jews with respect to sex and sexuality; marriage, intermarriage, and divorce; childbirth and adoption; religious practices; the Torah and other sacred texts; Jewish and African-American relations; Zionism, Israel, and Palestine; Jewish and Gentile relations; body image and eating behaviors; mental and physical illness; death, burial, and the afterlife. The rich collection of facts, perspectives, and insights contained in this anthology--written by leading thinkers in sociology, religious studies, psychology, anthropology, and psychiatry--makes it a vital resource not only for Jews and students of Judaism, but for all individuals concerned about issues involving identity, assimilation, acculturation, conflict, and discrimination among members of minority groups in multicultural societies.

STANFORD M. LYMAN, Ph.D., editor, was Robert R. Morrow Eminent Scholar in Social Science at Florida Atlantic University, where he was on the faculty of the Holocaust and Judaic Studies Program. He also was a Fulbright lecturer, with a lifetime appointment to the faculty of Oxford University, and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science at the New School for Social Research, in New York. Dr. Lyman authored 25 books and more than 100 articles published in numerous professional journals. Five of his books have been recognized as distinguished contributions to sociological scholarship by the Mid-South Sociological Association, and he has received both the Certificate of Recognition from the National Association for Ethnic Studies and the Herbert Mead Award for lifetime contributions to the study of social psychology, given by the Society for Symbolic Interaction.