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Date: 1994
Author(s): Harris, Margaret
Date: 1994
Abstract: This thesis is about the work and organisation of local religious congregations in England. It focuses on the congregation of two religions- Christianity and Judaism; that is, on 'churches' and 'synagogues'. In Chapter One, the study is positioned within the academic field of social policy and administration. Chapters Two, Three and Four review literature on the historical and societal context within which churches and synagogues operate, the role of religious functionaries and organisational features of congregations. Four organisational themes cutting across denominational and religious boundaries are identified: purposes and goals; roles and role relationships; organisational change; and denominational institutions. Chapter Five develops an approach for an empirical study and gives an account of fieldwork in an inner-city Roman Catholic church; a black-led Pentecostal church in an industrial town; an Anglican church on a housing estate; and a suburban Reform synagogue. Organisational features of the four case congregations are presented in Chapter Six. In the following four chapters the organisational issues which arise in the Congregations are described and analysed. Chapter Seven presents the perceived Issues in congregations around setting and implementing goals. Chapter Eight looks at clerical roles and Chapter Nine at the roles of lay employees and volunteers. Chapter Ten discusses organisational change, the links between congregations and their denominational institutions, and organisational structures. Finally, in Chapter Eleven, the study findings are drawn together and re-examined in the light of the earlier literature. The way in which the case studies elucidate and develop knowledge about the work and organisation of congregations is discussed. It is suggested that further progress towards the development of theory on congregation organisation could be made by conceptualising congregations as voluntary organisations.
Date: 1994
Abstract: With the rise of ultranationalist organizations throughout Europe, the issue of attitudes and orientations held toward designated "out-groups" has become a critical concern of anxious observers. In Russia the strength registered by Vladimir Zhirinovskii's ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party during the parliamentary elections of 1993 has been interpreted as a sign of intolerance among the Russian populace. In fact, the success of candidates associated with the Liberal Democratic Party was not only based upon appeals to strengthen the Russian nation against perceived enemies, but also upon promises of a return to price stability and upon Zhirinovskii's anti-establishment, populist program. Nonetheless, Zhirinovskii's success in the 1991 presidential elections (he attracted 7.8% of the electorate) does serve to reaffirm the importance of tracking how attitudes toward groups that have often been targeted as scapegoats in times of social or economic upheaval have evolved in the late Soviet and immediate post-Soviet period. Two major questions concern us here: first, how pervasive among Russians and Ukrainians are perceptions of significant "social distance" between themselves and designated out-groups, most notably the Jewish population; and second, to what extent do these perceptions of distance form part of a cohesive ideology of ultranationalism? Understanding the basis of sentiments toward Jewish populations is particularly important for interpreting the workings of the complex mosaic of the post-Soviet political culture.
Author(s): Volovici, Leon
Date: 1994
Date: 1994
Abstract: Background We wished to ascertain immunization uptake rates in the strictly orthodox Jewish community in Hackney and to survey reasons for non-uptake and attitudes to immunization and immunization services within this community.

Methods A total of 575 strictly orthodox Jewish children, aged under 2 5 years, were identified from three general practices in the community, and a random sampling of 100 of these children was carried out. The sample uptake recorded by family doctors was compared with District uptake rates. A questionnaire was administered to parents. The main outcome measures were immunization uptake rate, reasons for non-uptake, and attitudes to immunization. Results Percentage immunization uptake (95 per cent confidence intervals) was: third diphtheria 86 per cent (82–90 per cent); third pertussis 82 per cent (78–86 per cent); and MMR 79 per cent (75–85 per cent). District uptake rates for a cohort of the same age, and at the time of the study, were: third diphtheria 82 per cent; third pertussis 79 per cent; and MMR 83 per cent. Sixty-seven parents completed the questionnaire (72 per cent response) and their children's uptake was the same as for children of nonresponders. All parents thought immunization to be important.

ConclusionsFor all immunizations, uptake in the strictly orthodox Jewish community is not significantly different from that of the District. Responding parents had positive attitudes to the value and safety of immunizations but wished better access to services. Health professionals need to question their perceptions so that efforts to improve uptake amongst ethnic minority groups are based on facts and are responsive to identified needs.
Date: 1994
Editor(s): Webber, Jonathan
Date: 1994
Abstract: How do the Jews of post-Holocaust, post-communist Europe—east and west—regard themselves: as a religious minority, an ethnic group, or simply as ordinary members of the communities in which they live? How do they regard non-Jews and relate to the Jews of other European countries? Is Israel a factor in forging these relationships? In confronting these questions, the contributors to this book—all of them writers with significant international reputations—cover a wide range of topics from different perspectives.

Contents:
Introduction JONATHAN WEBBER
Part 1 A Changing Europe
1 The Jews of Europe in the Age of a New Völkerwanderung MAX BELOFF
2 Changing Jewish Identities in the New Europe and the Consequences for Israel ELIEZER SCHWEID
Part 2 Demographic and Sociological Considerations
3 An Overview of the Demographic Trends of European Jewry SERGIO DELLAPERGOLA
4 Modern Jewish Identities JONATHAN WEBBER
5 Judaism in the New Europe: Discovery or Invention? NORMAN SOLOMON
Part 3 Hopes and Uncertainties in Religious Trends
6 The Jewish Jew and Western Culture: Fallible Predictions for the Turn of the Century NORMAN LAMM
7 From Integration to Survival to Continuity: The Third Great Era of Modern Jewry JONATHAN SACKS
8 The Role of the Rabbi in the New Europe JONATHAN MAGONET
Part 4 Jewish Communities in Former Communist Countries
9 Jewish Communities and Jewish Identities in the Former Soviet Union MIKHAIL A. CHLENOV
10 Constructing New Identities in the Former Soviet Union: The Challenge for Jews IGOR KRUPNIK
11 Changes in Jewish Identity in Modern Hungary ANDRAS KOVACS
12 Jewish Identities in Poland: New, Old, and imaginary KONSTANTY GEBERT
Part 5 Jewish Communities in Western Europe
13 Israélites and Juifs: New Jewish Identities in France DOMINIQUE SCHNAPPER
14 The Notion of a 'Jewish Community' in France: A Special Case of Jewish Identity SHMUEL TRIGANO
15 British Jewry: Religious Community or Ethnic Minority? GEOFFREY ALDERMAN
16 Religious Practice and Jewish Identity in a Sample of London Jews STEPHEN H. MILLER
17 Jewish Identity in the Germany of a New Europe JULIUS CARLEBACH
Part 6 Rethinking Interfaith Relations in a Post-Holocaust World
18 The Dangers of Antisemitism in the New Europe ROBERT S. WISTRICH
19 The Holocaust as a Factor in Contemporary Jewish Consciousness EVYATAR FRIESEL
20 The Impact of Auschwitz and Vatican II on Christian Perceptions of Jewish Identity ELISABETH MAXWELL
21 A New Catholic-Jewish Relationship for Europe PIER FRANCESCO FUMAGALLI
22 Possible Implications of the New Age Movement for the Jewish People MARGARET BREARLEY
Part 7 Jewish Europe as Seen from Without
23 The New Europe and the Zionist Dilemma DANIEL GUTWEIN
24 Jewish Renewal in the New Europe: An American Jewish Perspective DAVID SINGE
Author(s): Harris, Tracy K.
Date: 1994
Abstract: After expulsion from Spain in 1492, a large number of Spanish Jews (Sephardim) found refuge in lands of the Ottoman Empire. These Jews continued speaking a Spanish that, due to their isolation from Spain, developed independently in the empire from the various peninsular dialects. This language, called Judeo-Spanish (among other names), is the focus of Death of a Language, a sociolinguistic study describing the development of Judeo-Spanish from 1492 to the present, its characteristics, survival, and decline. To determine the current status of the language, Tracy K. Harris interviewed native Judeo-Spanish speakers from the sephardic communities of New York, Israel, and Los Angeles. This study analyzes the informants' use of the language, the characteristics of their speech, and the role of the language in Sephardic ethnicity.
Part I defines Judeo-Spanish, discusses the various names used to refer to the language, and presents a brief history of the Eastern Sephardim. The next part describes the language and its survival, first by examining the Spanish spoken by the Jews in pre-Expulsion Spain, and followed by a description of Judeo-Spanish as spoken in the Ottoman Empire, emphasizing the phonology, archaic features, new creations, euphemisms, proverbs, and foreign (non-Spanish) influences on the language. Finally, Harris discusses sociological or nonlinguistic reasons why Judeo-Spanish survived for four and one-half centuries in the Ottoman empire.
The third section of Death of a Language analyzes the present status and characteristics of Judeo-Spanish. This includes a description of the informants and the three Sephardic communities studied, as well as the present domains or uses of Judeo-Spanish in these communities. Current Judeo-Spanish shows extensive influences from English and Standard Spanish in the Judeo-Spanish spoken in the United States, and from Hebrew and French in Israel. No one under the age of fifty can speak it well enough (if at all) to pass it on to the next generation, and none of the informants' grandchildren can speak the language at all. Nothing is being done to ensure its perpetuation: the language is clearly dying.
Part IV examines the sociohistorical causes for the decline of Judeo-Spanish in the Levant and the United States, and presents the various attitudes of current speakers: 86 percent of the informants feel that the language is dying. A discussion of language and Sephardic identity from a sociolinguistic perspective comprises part V , which also examines Judeo-Spanish in the framework of dying languages in general and outlines the factors that contribute to language death. In the final chapter the author examines how a dying language affects a culture, specifically the role of Judeo-Spanish in Sephardic identity.