Jewish Denominations and Longevity

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-219
Author(s):  
Ernest L. Abel ◽  
Michael L. Kruger

This study examined the relationship between affiliation with one of three denominations within Judaism representing a conservative-liberal continuum of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism. The criterion for affiliation was burial in a cemetery maintained by these denominations. Longevities of married congregants born 1850–1910 were compared, controlling for birth year. Orthodox Jews had the shortest life spans (77 years); Conservative and Reform Jews had very similar life spans (80.7 years). Differences in years of survival of husbands after death of a spouse did not differ significantly. Reform widows survived longest (16.5 years) after death of a spouse. Conservative and Reform widows did not differ significantly from one another.

2021 ◽  
pp. 10-36
Author(s):  
Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz

This chapter explores the problems of studying Orthodox Jewish women, in particular the 'double invisibility' they experience, first from the perspective of male Orthodox Jews, and, second, in the lack of knowledge about them in the non-Jewish world. Orthodox women engage in a wide range of communal and domestic religious activities, in spite of their exclusion from an active role in worship in synagogue and from some areas of Torah study. Activities defined by Orthodoxy as the supreme religious privileges of women, such as keeping a kosher kitchen, preparing food for sabbath and festivals, and nurturing and educating children, remain largely invisible to Orthodox men. Standard descriptions of women's practices in the domestic and individual spheres omit many widespread customs and practices, often characterized as 'superstitions' although they form an integral and meaningful part of many women's religious lives. A major problem in studying women's religious lives and the ways in which they differ from and intersect with those of men is imagining how women fit into one's overall picture of Jewish religious activity. Neither the 'separate but equal' apologetic nor the simplistic identification of 'oppressed and oppressors' made by some feminists provides an adequate way of thinking about the relationship between male and female lived experience of Judaism. Given that Orthodox Judaism is undeniably patriarchal, it may reasonably be asked whether women have any access to power or agency within the religious life of the community, particularly in matters of ritual and correct practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-354
Author(s):  
Howard Lupovitch

Abstract This article explores the mentality of Neolog Judaism and how its early proponents fashioned a centrist, non-ideological alternative to both Orthodoxy and German-Jewish style Reform Judaism, an alternative that emphasized Judaism’s inherent compatibility with and adaptability to the demands of citizenship. Early proponents of this Neolog mentality, such as Aron Chorin and Leopold Löw, argued that adapting Jewish practice within the framework and systemic rules of Jewish law, precedent, and custom would not undermine a commitment to traditional Judaism in any way, as Orthodox jeremiads predicted; nor would it require the sort of re-definition of Judaism that Reform Jews advocated. Four aspects of Neolog mentality, in particular, laid the foundation for this outlook: a belief that Judaism has always been inherently malleable and diverse; a willingness to see leniency as no less authentic an option than stringency (in contrast to the “humra culture” that has defined Orthodox Judaism for the last two centuries); a preference for unity over schism (contra the secession of Orthodox communities in Germany and Hungary); and the use of halachic precedent and argumentation as a mandatory part of the rationale for innovation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 886-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erez Harari ◽  
David S. Glenwick ◽  
John J. Cecero

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 326-360
Author(s):  
Evan Goldstein

AbstractThis article uses the case of Kaufmann Kohler (1843–1926), an intellectual and institutional leader of American Reform Judaism, to explore the relationship between Orientalism and the category of religion in nineteenth-century America. Recent scholarship has shown that the lived religion of nineteenth-century American Jews departs significantly from the ideological hopes of Jewish elites. Connecting the emerging portrait of nineteenth-century Jewish laity with elite arguments for American Judaism, I reconsider Kohler's thought as a theological project out of step with his socioreligious milieu. Kohler is renowned for his theorizing of Judaism as a universal, ethical religion. As scholars have demonstrated repeatedly, defining Judaism as a “religion” was an important feature of Reform thought. What these accounts have insufficiently theorized, however, is the political context that ties the categorization of religion to the history of Orientalism that organized so many late nineteenth-century discussions of religion, Jewish and not. Drawing on work by Tracy Fessenden, John Modern, and Tisa Wenger, I show that Kohler's universal, cosmopolitan religion is a Jewish version of the Protestant secular. Like these Protestant modernists, Kohler defines Reform Judaism as a religion that supersedes an atavistic tribalism bound to materiality and ritual law. Being Jewish, for Kohler, means being civilized; reforming the soul of Judaism goes together with civilizing Jewish bodies and creating a Judaism that could civilize the world in an era in which religion and imperialism were overlapping interpretive projects with racial and gendered entanglements.


Author(s):  
Louis Jacobs

This chapter highlights Reform Judaism that began in nineteenth-century Germany. It mentions the three most prominent Reform thinkers: Zacharias Frankel, Abraham Geiger, and Samuel Holdheim. Frankel, originally a Reformer like the Geiger and Holdheim, eventually gave up the classical Reform position and is rightly regarded as the forerunner of Conservative Judaism, which appealed to people with no desire to abandon traditional Judaism and found the views of both Geiger and Holdheim far too extreme. Reform Jews certainly have a modern mind. Their intellectual integrity in facing up to the challenge of modernity is apparent. Their refusal to accept untenable theories about the history of Judaism is only to be admired.


1967 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 239-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Kerr

A review is given of information on the galactic-centre region obtained from recent observations of the 21-cm line from neutral hydrogen, the 18-cm group of OH lines, a hydrogen recombination line at 6 cm wavelength, and the continuum emission from ionized hydrogen.Both inward and outward motions are important in this region, in addition to rotation. Several types of observation indicate the presence of material in features inclined to the galactic plane. The relationship between the H and OH concentrations is not yet clear, but a rough picture of the central region can be proposed.


Paleobiology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Oliver

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Parr

Abstract This commentary focuses upon the relationship between two themes in the target article: the ways in which a Markov blanket may be defined and the role of precision and salience in mediating the interactions between what is internal and external to a system. These each rest upon the different perspectives we might take while “choosing” a Markov blanket.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Benjamin Badcock ◽  
Axel Constant ◽  
Maxwell James Désormeau Ramstead

Abstract Cognitive Gadgets offers a new, convincing perspective on the origins of our distinctive cognitive faculties, coupled with a clear, innovative research program. Although we broadly endorse Heyes’ ideas, we raise some concerns about her characterisation of evolutionary psychology and the relationship between biology and culture, before discussing the potential fruits of examining cognitive gadgets through the lens of active inference.


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