Recent Developments in the Social Scientific Study of Canadian Jews

Abstract

This article presents an overview of the growth of the field of the social scientific study of Canadian Jewish life over the past quarter century, and assesses the recent research trends as they relate to the specific character of modern Canadian Jewish life. It takes stock of several social science domains, including the study of Canadian Jewish demography, research on socio-economics, women, family and sexuality studies, Canadian regionalism, immigration, religion and identity, Canadian Jewish political studies, studies of Canadian anti-Semitism, and the impacts of Holocaust and Israel-related research on the field. This essay offers several pointed critiques of the field and its current scholarly agenda, most notably, scholars' persistent and partly misplaced efforts to understand the Canadian Jewish experience as wholly distinct from its American counterpart.Keywords Canadian Jewish studies Á Social scientific research Á Comparison Á Multiculturalism Á Demography This article presents an overview of the social scientific study of Canadian Jewish life over the past quarter century. It seeks to do two things. First, it outlines the growth and landmarks in the field of research. And second, it assesses some of the content of this research, notably as it relates to the two key challenges of modern Canadian Jewish living, namely, the preoccupation with Jewish-identity retention at

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