Arnold Dashefsky – författare

The American Jewish Year Book, now in its 118th year, is the annual record of the North American Jewish communities and provides insight into their major trends. The first two chapters of Part I include a special forum on "Contemporary American Jewry: Grounds for Optimism or Pessimism?" with assessments from more than 20 experts in the field. The third chapter examines antisemitism in Contemporary America. Chapters on “The Domestic Arena”  and “The International Arena” analyze the year’s events as they affect American Jewish communal and political affairs. Three chapters analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canada, and world Jewish populations. Part II provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, synagogues, Hillels, day schools, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. The final chapters present national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; academic resources, including Jewish Studies programs, books, journals, articles, websites, and research libraries; and lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries. 

Today, as it has for over a century, the American Jewish Year Book remains the single most useful source of information and analysis on Jewish demography, social and political trends, culture, and religion. For anyone interested in Jewish life, it is simply indispensable.

David Harris, CEO, American Jewish Committee (AJC), Edward and Sandra Meyer Office of the CEO

The American Jewish Year Book stands as an unparalleled resource for scholars, policy makers, Jewish community professionals and thought leaders. This authoritative and comprehensive compendium of facts and figures, trends and key issues, observations and essays, is the essential guide to contemporary American Jewish life in all its dynamic multi-dimensionality.

Christine Hayes, President, Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)and Robert F. and Patricia R. Weis Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica at Yale University

Part I of each volume will feature 5-7 major review chapters, including 2-3 long chapters reviewing topics of major concern to the American Jewish community written by top experts on each topic, review chapters on "National Affairs" and "Jewish Communal Affairs" and articles on the Jewish population of the United States and the World Jewish Population.  Future major review chapters will include such topics as Jewish Education in America, American Jewish Philanthropy, Israel/Diaspora Relations, American Jewish Demography, American Jewish History, LGBT Issues in American Jewry, American Jews and National Elections, Orthodox Judaism in the US, Conservative Judaism in the US, Reform Judaism in the US, Jewish Involvement in the Labor Movement, Perspectives in American Jewish Sociology, Recent Trends in American Judaism, Impact of Feminism on American Jewish Life, American Jewish Museums, Anti-Semitism in America, and Inter-Religious Dialogue in America.

Part II-V of eachvolume will continue the tradition of listing Jewish Federations, national Jewish organizations, Jewish periodicals, and obituaries. But to this list are added lists of Jewish Community Centers, Jewish Camps, Jewish Museums, Holocaust Museums, and Jewish honorees (both those honored through awards by Jewish organizations and by receiving honors, such as Presidential Medals of Freedom and Academy Awards, from the secular world). We expand the Year Book tradition of bringing academic research to the Jewish communal world by adding lists of academic journals, articles in academic journals on Jewish topics, Jewish websites, and books on American and Canadian Jews. Finally, we add a list of major events in the North American Jewish Community.

The American Jewish Year Book, which spans three different centuries, is the annual record of the North American Jewish communities and provides insight into their major trends. Part I of the current volume contains the lead article: Chapter 1, “Pastrami, Verklempt, and Tshoot-spa: Non-Jews’ Use of Jewish Language in the US” by Sarah Bunin Benor. Following this chapter are three on domestic and international events, which analyze the year’s events as they affect American Jewish communal and political affairs. Three chapters analyze the demography and geography of the US, Canada, and world Jewish populations. Part II provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, synagogues, Hillels, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. The final chapters present national and local Jewish periodicals and broadcast media; academic resources, including Jewish Studies programs,books, journals, articles, websites, and research libraries; and lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries.   While written mostly by academics, this volume conveys an accessible style, making it of interest to public officials, professional and lay leaders in the Jewish community, as well as the general public and academic researchers.

The American Jewish Year Book has been a key resource for social scientists exploring comparative and historical data on Jewish population patterns. No less important, the Year Book serves organization leaders and policy makers as the source for valuable data on Jewish communities and as a basis for planning. Serious evidence-based articles regularly appear in the Year Book that focus on analyses and reviews of critical issues facing American Jews and their communities which are indispensable for scholars and community leaders.

Calvin Goldscheider, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Ungerleider Professor Emeritus of Judaic Studies, Brown University

They have done it again. The American Jewish Year Book has produced yet another edition to add to its distinguished tradition of providing facts, figures and analyses of contemporary life in North America.  Its well-researched and easily accessible essays offer the most up to date scrutiny of topics and challenges of importance to American Jewish life; to the American scene of which it is a part and to world Jewry.  Whether one is an academic or professional member of the Jewish community (or just an interested reader of all things Jewish), there is not another more impressive and informative reading than the American Jewish Year Book.

Debra Renee Kaufman, Professor Emerita and Matthews Distinguished University Professor, Northeastern University 

For more than 120 years the American Jewish Year Book has served as an indispensable resource for scholars, clergy, and lay leaders, providing crucial, detailed insights into demographic shifts and sociological trends in the North American Jewish community. The latest edition continues to fulfill these important needs with essential articles on the landmark Pew Report and the impact of the Holocaust in the American Jewish community and American in general. This is a must-have volume for any serious student of the contemporary Jewish world.

Jeffrey Shoulson, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Professor of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, and English, Director Emeritus Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, University of Connecticut

The American Jewish Year Book is a critical snapshot of Jews and Jewish Studies in the United States in a particular year, and a valuable resource for scholars studying the changes in Jewish communities and Jewish Studies in the United States (and beyond!) over time. The AJYB highlights major publications and data that are consistently used in research, and its scholarly essays contextualize the information in an easily readable context. The lists of important institutions and organizations are invaluable for someone interested in the broader Jewish experience (or, at the most practical, a Jewish organization in their neighborhood!).

Michelle Margolis Chesner, Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies, Columbia University

This book offers an examination of an expanding set of options for being Jewish in contemporary American society. It examines the evolution of Jewish identity across five epochs of Jewish civilization as well as the transformation of the American Jewish experience across four centuries. In addition, an institutional history and a geographic, demographic, and religious profile of American Jews are presented, including an outline of contemporary Jewish options to express Jewish identity in twenty-first century America. Readers will gain an understanding of how these options developed via the provision of a socio-historical and a social scientific analysis of each option in one integrated volume. The book also discusses contemporary challenges to the continuity of American Jewish community and identity including the issues of education, interfaith marriage, and philanthropy.

Across three centuries, AJYB has provided insight into major trends. Part I of the current volume contains eight chapters: The first lead chapter includes an Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in 2023 produced by the ADL, and the second chapter examines Denominational Identity and Jewish Engagement. Subsequent chapters analyze recent domestic and international events as they affect the American Jewish community, major events in the past year, and the demography and geography of the US, Canada, and World Jewish populations. Part II contains nine chapters: lists of local Jewish organizations; Jewish museums, and Holocaust museums and monuments; overnight camps; national Jewish organizations; Jewish press; Jewish academic programs; Jewish academic resources; Jewish honorees; and Jewish obituaries. This volume employs an accessible style, making it of interest to public officials, Jewish professional and lay leaders, as well as the general public and academic researchers.

For more than a century, the American Jewish Year Book has served as an indispensable compendium of Jewish demographic trends, research and data. It is considered a must-read for data scientists, demographers, community leaders or anyone interested in the trends that make up the lifeblood of the Jewish experience in America. We are proud of our contributions to this essential resource.

 Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO and National Director of ADL (the Anti-Defamation League)

The American Jewish Year Book is a unique resource of tremendous value to anyone interested in global Jewish life. It is critical for people today, and it will be for those who come after us. Its lists capture not only critical information about key aspects of Jewish communal life, but provide the opportunity for reflection, comparison, and analysis with other religious and ethnic communities.

  Riv-Ellen Prell, Professor Emerita, American Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies, University of Minnesota

This book, in its 113th year, provides insight into major trends in the North American Jewish community, examining Jewish education, New York Jewry, national and Jewish communal affairs, and the US and world Jewish population. It also acts as an important resource with its lists of Jewish Institutions, Jewish periodicals, and academic resources as well as Jewish honorees, obituaries, and major recent events. It should prove useful to social scientists and historians of the American Jewish community, Jewish communal workers, and the press, among others. 

For more than a century, the American Jewish Year Book has remained and continues to serve, even in the Internet age, as the leading reference work on contemporary Jewish life. This year’s volume, with its special reports on Jewish education and  the New York community and its updates on Jewish population statistics, Jewish institutions, and the major Jewish figures who passed in the year past, continues this splendid tradition.

Pamela S. Nadell, Chair, Department of History, American University and Co-editor, Making Women’s Histories: Beyond National Perspectives

 The 2013 volume of the American Jewish Year Book impressively demonstrates that Arnold Dashefsky and Ira Sheskin have restored this important resource in all its former glory.

Bruce A. Phillips, Professor of Sociology and Jewish Communal Service, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles

Having a current AmericanJewish Year Book on my shelf is like having a panel of experts on American Jewish life at the ready, prepared to give me thoughtful, accurate answers and observations on the key issues, trends and statistics that define our continental Jewish community today. Well into its second century, the American Jewish Year Book continues to be an essential resource for serious leaders, practitioners and students who seek to ground their work in solid research and up-to-date data.

Jacob Solomon, Greater Miami Jewish Federation President and CEO