Statistics, Race, and Essentialism in the Debate over Jewish Employment Structure (1905–39).
The second half of the nineteenth century saw the development of statistical studies about Jewish populations written by Jewish authors. Jewish enthusiasm for statistics gave rise to what historians have called Jewish social science or Jewish statistics. This article contributes to scholarship on Je...
| Published in: | Jewish Social Studies Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 185 - 226 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Indiana University Press
Winter2022
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=154928660&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 154928660 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00216704 JWS jtl: Jewish Social Studies issn: 00216704 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Winter2022 vid: 27 iid: 1 pid: 211 pub: Indiana University Press artinfo: ui: 154928660 10.2979/jewisocistud.27.1.06 ppf: 185 ppct: 41 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 483KB tig: atl: Statistics, Race, and Essentialism in the Debate over Jewish Employment Structure (1905–39). aug: au: Vallois, Nicolas su: Scientific racism Jewish authors Employment Jewish studies Statistics sug: subj: Scientific racism Jewish authors Employment Jewish studies Statistics keyword: economics essentialism Jewish social science race statistics ab: The second half of the nineteenth century saw the development of statistical studies about Jewish populations written by Jewish authors. Jewish enthusiasm for statistics gave rise to what historians have called Jewish social science or Jewish statistics. This article contributes to scholarship on Jewish social science by challenging the assumption in the literature that statistics was inherently essentialist and drew on race science. This case study is based on an analysis of early twentieth-century socioeconomic studies in Jewish statistical periodicals and, in particular, discussions of Jewish employment structure, or how the Jewish workforce was divided between the main economic sectors. Although this body of statistical research does not necessarily represent Jewish social science as a whole, it offers an opportunity to analyze the relationship between essentialism and statistics. I argue that Jewish social science did not favor the typological thinking that was inherent to race theory in the early twentieth century. Instead, most Jewish statisticians rejected the biologically determined concept of race and were much more inclined toward explanations framed in cultural terms. Yet these explanations also conveyed essentialist tropes about the productive capacities of Jewish workers that were consistent with the language and framework of racial thinking. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Jewish Social Studies is the property of Indiana University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Jewish Social Studies holder: Indiana University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2022 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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