Springer American Jewish Year Book 2012: 109-112

Published since 1899, this is the authoritative reference on the demography and sociology of Jewish life in the U.S. and around the world. Covers population and character of Jewish communities, directories of Jewish organizations, publications and more. Review For many years, the American Jewish Yearbook has served as a resource for information on American Jews.  Leaders in the Federation movement, JCCs and many other organizations have turned to the Year Book for facts and figures about American Jewish Life. Having access to the Year Book on-line will make this resource available to thousands of leaders and individuals at a moment’s notice. This is quite clearly a much needed resource to our communities.Samuel H. Asher, Chief Executive Officer, Jewish Community Federation of Richmond For over a century, the venerable, authoritative and information-rich American Jewish Year Book has served as a critical resource to researchers, policy-makers and thought leaders in and around Jewish life in the United States. As a web-based publication, it will now reach the thousands of people and institutions who need reliable and comprehensive information on American Jews, presented in a clear and accessible fashion. In short, in the 20th century, the AJYB served as a vital resource for thinking and writing about American Jewry. In the 21st century, the online edition promises to continue to eminently fulfill that function and vastly extend its readership.Steven M. Cohen, Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner (www.BJPA.org ) This new improved version of the American Jewish Year Book continues in its century-long tradition of providing thought-provoking, insightful essays on the state of American Jewish life as well as invaluable information to researchers, policy-makers, and all those interested in the American Jewish community. Its accessibility is both widened and eased in this online version. Its editors deserve a long round of applause for revitalizing an essential resource about American Jewry. Harriet Hartman, President, Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ), Professor of Sociology, Rowan University From the Back Cover The 2012 American Jewish Year Book, “The Annual Record of American Jewish Civilization,” contains major chapters on Jewish secularism (Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar), Canadian Jewry (Morton Weinfeld, Randal F. Schnoor, and David S. Koffman), national affairs (Ethan Felson), Jewish communal affairs (Lawrence Grossman), Jewish population in the United States (Ira Sheskin and Arnold Dashefsky), and World Jewish population (Sergio DellaPergola). These chapters provide insight into major trends in the North American and world Jewish community. The volume also acts as a resource for the American Jewish community and for academics studying that community by supplying obituaries and lists of Jewish Federations, Jewish Community Centers, national Jewish organizations, Jewish overnight camps, Jewish museums, Holocaust museums, local and national Jewish periodicals, Jewish honorees, major recent events in the American Jewish community, and academic journals, articles, websites, and books. The volume should prove useful to social scientists and historians of the American Jewish community, Jewish communal workers, the press, and others interested in American and Canadian Jews. About the Author Arnold Dashefsky, Ph.D. served as the inaugural holder of the Doris and Simon Konover Chair of Judaic Studies and professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, where he is now emeritus. He is the co-author, editor or co-editor of nine books, including Americans Abroad, Charitable Choices, Ethnic Identification Among American Jews, among others, as well as numerous scholarly articles. A former Associate Head of the Sociology Department, he was the founding Director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, located i