The Importance of Residence: Goldscheider's Contribution to Explaining Orthodoxy's Vitality

Publication Date: January 2002

Publisher: Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry

Author(s): Samuel C. Heilman

Research Area: Culture and religion; Social conditions

Keywords: American Jews; Residential mobility; Religious denominations

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

In Contemporary Jewry 23, 220-236. In the case of the Orthodox Jews in America, unlike the case of other contemporary Jews for whom Goldscheider suggested "other context for interaction seem to be replacing the neighborhood," neighborhood, residential clustering, and the creation of enclaves are increasingly the basis for all other ties. These neighborhoods and communities have become the key variable guaranteeing growth, continuity and to use Goldscheider's words - "a critical factor in fostering and strengthening ethnic bonds." They may in the final analysis play a greater role in determining the future character of Orthodoxy than any other single variable.