When Sociology Meets Geography: Spatial Variations in Jewish Family Types
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When Sociology Meets Geography: Spatial Variations in Jewish Family Types Ira M. Sheskin1 Published online: 24 September 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This paper provides additional data to complement Harriet Hartman’s open systems model of family presented as part of her Sklare address. Recognition of spatial vari‑ ations in Jewish family types is important in understanding the “environment” in which Jewish families operate. The impact of family type on Jewish connectivity, which in Hartman’s open systems model can be viewed as a “family output,” is also addressed. Keywords Jewish family · household structure · Jewish connectivity As an academic for almost 50 years at three different academic institutions and at numerous professional meetings, I have heard appeals for academics to work in interdisciplinary teams. While significant movement in this direction has been seen over the years, my work in concert with Harriet Hartman, myself a geographer and Harriet a sociologist, demonstrates some of the advantages of such interdiscipli‑ nary cooperation. Just about all of our work together reflects this melding of dis‑ ciplines (Hartman and Sheskin 2011, 2012, 2013a, b, 2019; Hartman et al. 2017; Sheskin and Hartman 2015a, b, 2019). These studies all recognize the importance of community context and geographic variables (such as the geographic concentra‑ tion of the Jewish population and the size of a Jewish community) in searching for explanations. In addition, as someone who attended high school and college in the 1960s and 1970s, I have listened to the call for academic research to be relevant so as to reveal aspects of our society that can be improved and to provide facts in a neutral fashion that can contribute to finding solutions. Harriet and I share a belief in the importance of interdisciplinarity and relevancy. Both of these factors have played a role in our collaboration. * Ira M. Sheskin [email protected] 1
Department of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, 1300 Campo Sano Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33124‑4401, USA
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Harriet Hartman presents a strong case for her framework for the study of the Jewish family.1 Her diagram outlining the Jewish family (see her article earlier in this issue) and its importance in transmitting Jewish identity from one generation to the next should become the framework that is referenced for studies of Jewish fami‑ lies in the future. The purpose of this paper is to (1) add a geographic perspective to Harriet’s con‑ ceptualization of the Jewish family and (2) look briefly at variations in the levels of Jewish connectivity exhibited by different household types. Most planning in the American Jewish community is undertaken at the local community level by synagogues, Jewish Federations, Jewish Community Centers, Jewish Family Services, and numerous other local Jewish organizations (Dashefsky and Sheskin 2019, Chapter 9), not at the national level. Thus, information to assist in this planning is needed not just
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