Charles Liebman
Encyclopedia
Charles S. Liebman (October 20, 1934 – September 3, 2003) was a political scientist and prolific author on Jewish life
and Israel
. A professor at Bar-Ilan University
, he previously served on university faculties in the United States.
. His 14 books include Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life. According to Cohen (2003), Liebman "argued that American Jews
struggle to integrate into the larger society while trying to maintain a distinctive group identity
." According to Orthodox
Rabbi Reuven Bulka
, "Liebman's exhaustive study was an eye-opener for many who had dismissed Orthodoxy as a negligible force on the American Jewish scene and also was a partial harbinger of much more literature on Orthodoxy which has proliferated ever since."
In a provocative paper, "Extremism as a Religious Norm," Liebman (1983) analyzes religious
extremism
in Israel and argues that "religious extremism is the norm and that it is not religious extremism but religious moderation that requires explanation." A critical respondent appreciated the description of Israel but rejected Liebman's generalization as begging the question
of whether "extremism should be regarded as "normal religion or even religion at all." (Cumpsty 1985:217).
In a 1990 study of American and Israeli Judaism (“Two Worlds of Judaism”), Liebman articulated a concept of "Jewish personalism
" which, writes his co-author, is "the tendency of American Jews to pick those parts of Judaism they find personally meaningful, rather than complying with external requirements of religious law, Zionist
ideology or ethnic obligation" (Cohen 2003).
He was born in New York
and attended secondary school at the Gymnasia Herzliya
in Tel Aviv
. He earned degrees from the University of Miami
(B.A.) and University of Illinois (M.A., Ph.D.). He moved to Israel in 1969. With his wife Carol, he had three children. He was an observant Jew, concerned about intermarriage
, served in the Israeli Defense Forces on an education unit, and was politically a dove regarding Israel. (Cohen 2003)
Personally, Liebman is said to have had a "fierce devotion to honesty
, even at the risk of unpopularity." (Cohen 2003) For example, in a book review, he writes: "If a [reviewer] can't be kind he must be fair. I find it impossible to be kind to an author who writes.... a statement comparable to saying that an American state is located somewhere between New York and California. ... Since I cannot be kind I will try very hard to be fair. The book does have redeeming features." (Liebman 1984:137f.)
In November 2007, the Jewish Theological Seminary
published a memorial volume, Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life (Stuart Cohen and Bernard Susser, editors). According to an obituary in The Forward
, "Liebman was widely regarded as the pre-eminent social scientist of Jews and Judaism in the latter third of the 20th century" (Cohen 2003).
More available online: Charles Liebman on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner.
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. A professor at Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
, he previously served on university faculties in the United States.
Biography
In 1965, Liebman published a pioneering essay, “Orthodoxy in American Jewish Life,” in the American Jewish Year BookAmerican Jewish Year Book
The American Jewish Year Book , which has been published annually since 1899, is regarded as the authoritative record of events and trends in Jewish life in the United States and around the world by many Jewish organizations....
. His 14 books include Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life. According to Cohen (2003), Liebman "argued that American Jews
American Jews
American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
struggle to integrate into the larger society while trying to maintain a distinctive group identity
Identity (social science)
Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
." According to Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
Rabbi Reuven Bulka
Reuven Bulka
Reuven P. Bulka is a rabbi, writer, broadcaster and activist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and former co-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress...
, "Liebman's exhaustive study was an eye-opener for many who had dismissed Orthodoxy as a negligible force on the American Jewish scene and also was a partial harbinger of much more literature on Orthodoxy which has proliferated ever since."
In a provocative paper, "Extremism as a Religious Norm," Liebman (1983) analyzes religious
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
extremism
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
in Israel and argues that "religious extremism is the norm and that it is not religious extremism but religious moderation that requires explanation." A critical respondent appreciated the description of Israel but rejected Liebman's generalization as begging the question
Begging the question
Begging the question is a type of logical fallacy in which the proposition to be proven is assumed implicitly or explicitly in the premise....
of whether "extremism should be regarded as "normal religion or even religion at all." (Cumpsty 1985:217).
In a 1990 study of American and Israeli Judaism (“Two Worlds of Judaism”), Liebman articulated a concept of "Jewish personalism
Personalism
Personalism is a philosophical school of thought searching to describe the uniqueness of a human person in the world of nature, specifically in relation to animals...
" which, writes his co-author, is "the tendency of American Jews to pick those parts of Judaism they find personally meaningful, rather than complying with external requirements of religious law, Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
ideology or ethnic obligation" (Cohen 2003).
He was born in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and attended secondary school at the Gymnasia Herzliya
Herzliya Hebrew High School
The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium , originally known as HaGymnasia HaIvrit is a historic high school in Tel Aviv, Israel.-History:...
in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. He earned degrees from the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
(B.A.) and University of Illinois (M.A., Ph.D.). He moved to Israel in 1969. With his wife Carol, he had three children. He was an observant Jew, concerned about intermarriage
Interfaith marriage in Judaism
Interfaith marriage in Judaism was historically looked upon with very strong disfavour by Jewish leaders, and it remains a controversial issue amongst Jewish leaders today. In the Talmud, interfaith marriage is completely prohibited, although the definition of interfaith is not so simply expressed...
, served in the Israeli Defense Forces on an education unit, and was politically a dove regarding Israel. (Cohen 2003)
Personally, Liebman is said to have had a "fierce devotion to honesty
Honesty
Honesty refers to a facet of moral character and denotes positive, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, and straightforwardness along with the absence of lying, cheating, or theft....
, even at the risk of unpopularity." (Cohen 2003) For example, in a book review, he writes: "If a [reviewer] can't be kind he must be fair. I find it impossible to be kind to an author who writes.... a statement comparable to saying that an American state is located somewhere between New York and California. ... Since I cannot be kind I will try very hard to be fair. The book does have redeeming features." (Liebman 1984:137f.)
In November 2007, the Jewish Theological Seminary
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
published a memorial volume, Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life (Stuart Cohen and Bernard Susser, editors). According to an obituary in The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
, "Liebman was widely regarded as the pre-eminent social scientist of Jews and Judaism in the latter third of the 20th century" (Cohen 2003).
Awards
- In 2000, Liebman was awarded the Marshall Sklare AwardMarshall Sklare AwardThe Marshall Sklare Award is an annual honor of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry . The ASSJ seeks to recognize "a senior scholar who has made a significant scholarly contribution to the social scientific study of Jewry." In most cases, the recipient has given a scholarly...
. - In 2003, Liebman was awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, for government studies.
Selected works
- "Orthodoxy in American Jewish Life" in the American Jewish Year Book 1966, pp. 21–92, 1965. (pdf version)
- Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life, Varda Books, 2001. ISBN 1590450396
- Aspects of the Religious Behavior of American Jews. New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1974.
- Attitudes Toward Jewish-Gentile Relations in the Jewish Tradition and Contemporary Israel. Cape Town: Kaplan Centre, Jewish Studies & Research, University of Cape Town, 1983.
- Deceptive Images: Toward a Redefinition of American Judaism 1988, Transaction Publishers. ISBN 0887382185
- "Extremism as a Religious Norm," in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 22:1, 75-86. March 1983.
- Li-Ḥeyot be-Yaḥad: Yaḥase Datiyim-Ḥiloniyim Ba-Ḥevrah Ha-Yiśreʼelit. Jerusalem: Keter Avi ḥai, 1990.
- Liḳrat teoryah Shel Ha-Liberalizm Ha-Yehudi. Jerusalem: Agudah le-ḥeḳer ha-ḳehilah ha-Yehudit, 1985.
- Pressure without Sanctions: The Influence of World Jewry on Israeli Policy. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1977.
- Reconceptualizing the Culture Conflict among Israeli Jews. Zivion. Vol. 1. Ramat Gan: Zivion, Jolson Center for Israel, Judaism & Democracy, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University, 2001.
- Religion, Democracy and Israeli Society. The Sherman Lecture Series. Vol. 2. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.
- Retsaḥ Poliṭi: Retsaḥ Rabin u-Retsiḥot Poliṭiyot Ba-Mizraḥ-Ha-Tikhon. Sidrat Taḳriv. Vol. 1. Tel Aviv: Merkaz Yitsḥaḳ Rabin le-ḥeḳer Yiśraʼel : ʻAm ʻoved, 1998.
- Religious and Secular: Conflict and Accommodation between Jews in Israel. New York, N.Y.: Keter Pub. House, 1990.
- "Reconstructionism in American Jewish Life," in American Jewish Yearbook, 1970
- [Review:] "The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry by William B. Helmreich in AJS Review, 9:1 (Spring, 1984), pp. 137–140. (JSTOR)
- "Myth, Tradition and Values in Israeli Society" in Midstream 24, 1978"
- Yehude Ameriḳah Ṿe-Yiśrael. Jerusalem: Agudah le-ḥeḳer ha-ḳehilah ha-Yehudit, 1984.
- Liebman, Charles S. and Steven Martin Cohen. Two Worlds of Judaism : The Israeli and American Experiences. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
- Liebman, Charles S. and Eliʻezer Don-Yiḥya. Religion and Politics in Israel. Jewish Political and Social Studies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.
- Liebman, Charles S. Civil Religion in Israel : Traditional Judaism and Political Culture in the Jewish State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
- Liebman, Charles S. and Elihu Katz. The Jewishness of Israelis : Responses to the Guttman Report. SUNY Series in Israeli Studies. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
- Liebman, Charles S. and Śarah Libman. Nośʼim Nivḥarim Ba-Havanat Ha-Ḳehilah Ha-Yehudit be-Artsot Ha-Berit. Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv: ha-Universiṭah ha-petuḥah, 1988.
- Liebman, Charles S. and Merkaz Argov. A Research Agenda for American Jews. Israel: Bar-Ilan University, Dept. of Political Studies, 2001.
- Susser, Bernard and Charles S. Liebman. Choosing Survival : Strategies for a Jewish Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Tabory, Mala and Charles S. Liebman. "Jewish International Activity : An Annotated Bibliography". Research Aids / Bar Ilan University, the Argov Center. Vol. 1. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, The Argov Center, 1985.
More available online: Charles Liebman on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner.
See also
- List of Israel Prize recipients
- Charles Liebman collection on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner.