Statistics, Race, and Essentialism in the Debate over Jewish Employment Structure (1905–39).

SCIENTIFIC racism; JEWISH authors; EMPLOYMENT; JEWISH studies; STATISTICS

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the development of statistical studies about Jewish populations written by Jewish authors. Jewish enthusiasm for statistics gave rise to what historians have called Jewish social science or Jewish statistics. This article contributes to scholarship on Jewish social science by challenging the assumption in the literature that statistics was inherently essentialist and drew on race science. This case study is based on an analysis of early twentieth-century socioeconomic studies in Jewish statistical periodicals and, in particular, discussions of Jewish employment structure, or how the Jewish workforce was divided between the main economic sectors. Although this body of statistical research does not necessarily represent Jewish social science as a whole, it offers an opportunity to analyze the relationship between essentialism and statistics. I argue that Jewish social science did not favor the typological thinking that was inherent to race theory in the early twentieth century. Instead, most Jewish statisticians rejected the biologically determined concept of race and were much more inclined toward explanations framed in cultural terms. Yet these explanations also conveyed essentialist tropes about the productive capacities of Jewish workers that were consistent with the language and framework of racial thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jewish Social Studies is the property of Indiana University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)