Comparative Perspectives on Judaisms and Jewish Identities

Contents

vii Contents Preface ix Part 1: Wide Comparisons, Within and Without Introduction to Part 1 3 1. Religious Syncretism and Religious Distinctiveness 10 2. The Kaifeng Jews: A Reconsideration of Their Acculturation and Assimilation in a Comparative Perspective 42 3. Elite Religion and Popular Religion: The Example of Saints 58 Afterword to Part 1 80 Part 2: Religious Movements Introduction to Part 2 85 4. Jewish Millenarian-Messianic Movements: Comparisons of Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Italian Jews 91 5. Millenarianism Among Conversos (New Christians) and Former Conversos (Returnees to Judaism) 105 6. The Sacredness of Sin: Antinomianism and Models of Man 123 Afterword to Part 2 139 Part 3: Jewish Identities Introduction to Part 3 145 7. Formulations of Ethnicity and Religion Regarding American Jews in the Writings of American Sociologists 151 00 Sharot FM.indd 7 9/20/10 10:23 AM viii c o ntents 8. Judaism and Jewish Ethnicity: Changing Interrelationships and Differentiations in the Diaspora and Israel 167 9. Jewish and Other National and Ethnic Identities of Israeli Jews 183 Afterword to Part 3 197 Part 4: Judaism in the Sociology of Religion Introduction to Part 4 201 10. Secularization, Neotraditionalism, Polarization 206 11. Public Religion, Privatization, and Deprivatization in Israel 232 Afterword to Part 4 253 A Final Afterword—Boundaries: Comparisons and Shifts 257 Notes 263 Index 313 00 Sharot FM.indd 8 9/20/10 10:23 AM ...