Spouse(s) Rabbi Marion Lev-Cohen Children Adam Wall, Edeet Cohen | Name Steven Cohen Role Professor | |
 | ||
Born April 3, 1950 (age 74) ( 1950-04-03 ) Brooklyn, New York Occupation Sociologist, research professor Books The Jew Within, Becker's Ring Education Columbia University, Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York | ||
The shrinking jewish middle what to do about it by professor dr steven m cohen
Steven M. Cohen (born April 3, 1950) is an American sociologist whose work focuses on the American Jewish Community. He is currently a Research Professor of Jewish Social Policy at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at Stanford University.
Contents
- The shrinking jewish middle what to do about it by professor dr steven m cohen
- Raising jewish grandchildren by professor dr steven m cohen
- Biography
- Academic Background
- Young Leadership and Generational Change
- Selected Research on Changing Jewish Leadership Values and Practices
- Selected Research on Changing Connections to Israel
- Intermarriage and Jewish Continuity
- Selected Scholarship on Intermarriage and Jewish Continuity
- Selected Critiques of Cohens Position
- Other Work
- Selected Other Research
- Awards
- References
Raising jewish grandchildren by professor dr steven m cohen
Biography
Cohen was born April 3, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Toby (Fassman) Cohen and Max Cohen, and the grandchild of four East European-born grandparents. Raised in a home marked by strong Jewish ethnicity and nominally Orthodox affiliation, his family kept kosher in the home only. He attended Erasmus Hall High School and then Columbia College. He made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in 1992. He is married to Rabbi Marion Lev-Cohen. They live in both Jerusalem and New York City. He has two children.
Cohen's early intellectual influences include Leonard (Liebel) Fein, Calvin Goldscheider and Charles S. Liebman.
Academic Background
Cohen received his BA from Columbia College in 1970 and his Ph.D. from Columbia University's Department of Sociology in 1974. His doctoral dissertation was on "Interethnic Marriage and Friendship".
Past professorial and research positions include Queens College CUNY, Brandeis University, Hebrew University, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the Melton Centre for Jewish Education. He has also served as Director of the Synagogue Studies Institute of Synagogue 3000 and Director of the Florence G. Heller-JCCA Research Center.
Cohen's research centers on the North American Jewish Community, with focus on the issues of Jewish continuity, intermarriage, and generational change. He has produced work under the auspices of various academic institutions and Jewish organizations and foundations such as the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, the Florence G. Heller-JCC Association Research Center, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Jewish Agency for Israel Jewish Education Committee, and the Jewish Federations of North America.
He has been producing studies, articles, and books since he received his Ph.D. in 1974.,.
Young Leadership and Generational Change
In recent years, Cohen has worked on understanding how Jewish leaders in their 20s and 30s are changing Jewish life, practices, and values. His earlier work on the Baby Boomers, served a point of contrast for his analysis in his later work on the younger generation and their approach to religious, institutional, political, and cultural norms. He has also done work on how Israel attachment is changing across generational lines, generally finding that while younger Jews still care, they feel less political connection to Israel than their older peers.
Selected Research on Changing Jewish Leadership, Values, and Practices
Selected Research on Changing Connections to Israel
Intermarriage and Jewish Continuity
Cohen has been a strong proponent of in-marriage among Jews: "Intermarriage does indeed constitute the greatest single threat to Jewish continuity today." His criticisms of intermarriage and its consequences for American Jews have inspired discussion and controversy.
In his 2007 article, "A Tale of Two Jewries: The `Inconvenient Truth' for American Jews," Cohen argued that inmarried and intermarried Jews form two distinct halves of the Jewish community and that the Jewish future, he argues, rests with the inmarried. Based on a 2010 study he produced for the Foundation for Jewish Camp, he challenged the idea that a lack of welcome is what is deterring interfaith households from participating in Jewish life: "There is no longer a stigma attached to walking into a synagogue with a non-Jewish spouse, but what remains a problem is that that husband or wife then does not have access to what is going on once he or she is there.". Consequently, he has challenged the value of investing in outreach to the intermarried and prefers a strategy of encouraging Jewish in-marriage and the conversion of non-Jewish spouses and partners to Judaism.
Some of Cohen's major critics on this issue include Kerry Olitzky of the Jewish Outreach Institute, Ed Case of InterfaithFamily.com, Len Saxe of Brandeis University's Cohen Center, and Bethamie Horowitz of the Mandel Foundation.
Selected Scholarship on Intermarriage and Jewish Continuity
Selected Critiques of Cohen's Position
Other Work
Cohen's research spans many areas, including the composition of the Jewish professional workforce, issues of gender and sexuality equity in the Jewish workplace, religious communities, and educational institutions, and the impact of various educational programs. His 2010 study, "Profiling the Professionals: Who's Serving Our Communities?", revealed that a twenty thousand dollar wage gap disparity persists between the salaries of men and women working for Jewish organizations.