Charles S. Liebman (; New York City October 20, 1934 – September 3, 2003) was an American
political scientist
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
and prolific author on
Jewish life and
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. A professor at
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...
, he previously served on university faculties in the United States.
Biography
In 1965, Liebman published a pioneering essay, �
Orthodoxy in American Jewish Life” in the ''
American Jewish Year Book
The ''American Jewish Year Book'' (AJYB) has been published since . Publication was initiated by the Jewish Publication Society (JPS). In 1908, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) assumed responsibility for compilation and editing while JPS rema ...
''. His 14 books include ''Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life''. According to Cohen (2003), Liebman "argued that
American Jews
American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi, 3% id ...
struggle to integrate into the larger society while trying to maintain a distinctive
group identity
Collective identity or group identity is a shared sense of belonging to a group. This concept appears within a few social science fields. National identity is a simple example, though myriad groups exist which share a sense of identity. Like ma ...
." According to
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
Rabbi
Reuven Bulka
Reuven Pinchas Bulka (; June 6, 1944 – June 27, 2021) was a Canadian rabbi, writer, broadcaster, and activist. He was the spiritual leader of Congregation Machzikei Hadas in Ottawa from 1967, first as Rabbi and then, starting in 2015, as Rab ...
, "Liebman's exhaustive study was an eye-opener for many who had dismissed Orthodoxy as a negligible force on the American Jewish scene and also was a partial harbinger of much more literature on Orthodoxy which has proliferated ever since."
In a provocative paper,
Extremism as a Religious Norm" Liebman (1983) analyzes
religious
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
extremism
Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied sha ...
in Israel and argues that "religious extremism is the norm and that it is not religious extremism but religious moderation that requires explanation." A critical respondent appreciated the description of Israel but rejected Liebman's generalization as
begging the question
In classical rhetoric and logic, begging the question or assuming the conclusion (Latin: ) is an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument's premises assume the truth of the conclusion. Historically, begging the question refers to a fault i ...
of whether "extremism should be regarded as "normal religion or even religion at all" (Cumpsty 1985:217).
In a 1990 study of American and Israeli Judaism (“Two Worlds of Judaism”), Liebman articulated a concept of "Jewish
personalism
Personalism is an intellectual stance that emphasizes the importance of human persons. Personalism exists in many different versions, and this makes it somewhat difficult to define as a philosophical and theological movement. Friedrich Schleie ...
" which, writes his co-author, is "the tendency of American Jews to pick those parts of Judaism they find personally meaningful, rather than complying with external requirements of religious law,
Zionist
Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...
ideology or ethnic obligation" (Cohen 2003).
He was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and attended secondary school at the
Gymnasia Herzliya
The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium (, also known as ''Gymnasia Herzliya''), originally known as HaGymnasia HaIvrit (lit. Hebrew High School) is a historic high school in Tel Aviv, Israel, whose faculty and alumni includes many people influential in t ...
in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
. He earned degrees from the
University of Miami
The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...
(B.A.) and
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
(M.A., Ph.D.). He moved to Israel in 1969. With his wife Carol, he had three children. He was an observant Jew, concerned about
intermarriage, served in the
Israeli Defense Forces
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli (b ...
on an education unit, and was politically a dove regarding Israel. (Cohen 2003)
Personally, Liebman is said to have had a "fierce devotion to
honesty
Honesty or truthfulness is a facet of moral character that connotes positive and virtue, virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, straightforwardness (including straightforwardness of conduct: Good faith, earnestness), along with the ...
, even at the risk of unpopularity" (Cohen 2003). For example, in a book review, he writes: "If a
eviewercan't be kind he must be fair. I find it impossible to be kind to an author who writes.... a statement comparable to saying that an American state is located somewhere between New York and California. ... Since I cannot be kind I will try very hard to be fair. The book does have redeeming features" (Liebman 1984:137f.).
In November 2007, the
Jewish Theological Seminary published a memorial volume, ''Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life'' (Stuart Cohen and Bernard Susser, editors). According to an obituary in ''
The Forward
''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...
'', "Liebman was widely regarded as the pre-eminent social scientist of Jews and Judaism in the latter third of the 20th century" (Cohen 2003).
Awards
* In 2000, Liebman was awarded the
Marshall Sklare Award.
* In 2003, Liebman was awarded the
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor.
History
Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...
, for government studies.
Selected works
Orthodoxy in American Jewish Life in the ''American Jewish Year Book 1966'', pp. 21–92, 1965.
pdf version
*''Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life'', Varda Books, 2001.
* ''Aspects of the Religious Behavior of American Jews''. New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1974.
*
Attitudes Toward Jewish-Gentile Relations in the Jewish Tradition and Contemporary Israel'. Cape Town: Kaplan Centre, Jewish Studies & Research, University of Cape Town, 1983.
*''Deceptive Images: Toward a Redefinition of American Judaism'' 1988, Transaction Publishers.
Extremism as a Religious Norm" in ''Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion'', 22:1, 75–86. March 1983.
*''Li-Ḥeyot be-Yaḥad: Yaḥase Datiyim-Ḥiloniyim Ba-Ḥevrah Ha-Yiśreʼelit''. Jerusalem: Keter Avi ḥai, 1990.
*''Liḳrat teoryah Shel Ha-Liberalizm Ha-Yehudi''. Jerusalem: Agudah le-ḥeḳer ha-ḳehilah ha-Yehudit, 1985.
*''Pressure without Sanctions: The Influence of World Jewry on Israeli Policy''. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1977.
*
Reconceptualizing the Culture Conflict among Israeli Jews'. Zivion. Vol. 1. Ramat Gan: Zivion, Jolson Center for Israel, Judaism & Democracy, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University, 2001.
*''Religion, Democracy and Israeli Society''. The Sherman Lecture Series. Vol. 2. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.
*''Retsaḥ Poliṭi: Retsaḥ Rabin u-Retsiḥot Poliṭiyot Ba-Mizraḥ-Ha-Tikhon''. Sidrat Taḳriv. Vol. 1. Tel Aviv: Merkaz Yitsḥaḳ Rabin le-ḥeḳer Yiśraʼel : ʻAm ʻoved, 1998.
*''Religious and Secular: Conflict and Accommodation between Jews in Israel''. New York, N.Y.: Keter Pub. House, 1990.
Reconstructionism in American Jewish Life" in ''American Jewish Yearbook'', 1970
*
eview:"''The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry'' by William B. Helmreich in ''AJS Review'', 9:1 (Spring, 1984), pp. 137–140.
JSTOR
*"Myth, Tradition and Values in Israeli Society" in ''Midstream'' 24, 1978"
*''Yehude Ameriḳah Ṿe-Yiśrael''. Jerusalem: Agudah le-ḥeḳer ha-ḳehilah ha-Yehudit, 1984.
*Liebman, Charles S. and Steven Martin Cohen. ''Two Worlds of Judaism : The Israeli and American Experiences''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
*Liebman, Charles S. and Eliʻezer Don-Yiḥya. ''Religion and Politics in Israel''. Jewish Political and Social Studies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.
*Liebman, Charles S. ''Civil Religion in Israel : Traditional Judaism and Political Culture in the Jewish State''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
*Liebman, Charles S. and Elihu Katz. ''The Jewishness of Israelis : Responses to the Guttman Report''. SUNY Series in Israeli Studies. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
*Liebman, Charles S. and Śarah Libman. ''Nośʼim Nivḥarim Ba-Havanat Ha-Ḳehilah Ha-Yehudit be-Artsot Ha-Berit''. Ramat-Aviv, Tel-Aviv: ha-Universiṭah ha-petuḥah, 1988.
* Liebman, Charles S. and Merkaz Argov.
A Research Agenda for American Jews'. Israel: Bar-Ilan University, Dept. of Political Studies, 2001.
* Susser, Bernard and Charles S. Liebman. ''Choosing Survival : Strategies for a Jewish Future''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
* Tabory, Mala and Charles S. Liebman. "Jewish International Activity : An Annotated Bibliography". Research Aids / Bar Ilan University, the Argov Center. Vol. 1. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, The Argov Center, 1985.
More available online
Charles Liebmanon th
Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner
See also
*
List of Israel Prize recipients
This is an incomplete list of recipients of the Israel Prize from the inception of the Prize in 1953 - 2025.
List
For each year, the recipients are, in most instances, listed in the order in which they appear on the official Israel Prize website ...
Notes
References
*Butler, Menachem. "About Charles S. Liebman" July 18, 2004
and "Prof. Charles S. Liebman's 'Orthodoxy in American Jewish Life'" July 28, 200
*Cohen, Steven M. "Charles Liebman Shed Light on Jewish Culture: Social Scientist Pioneered Pivotal Studies of Contemporary Jewry" in ''The Forward'' Sept. 12, 2003
*Cumpsty, John. "Glutton, Gourmet or Bon Vivant: A Response to Charles S. Liebman" in ''Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion'' 24:2 (June 1985), pp. 217–221.
JSTOR
* Kirschenbaum, Sherry. "JTS Announces Publication of Ambivalent Jew: Charles Liebman in Memoriam
* Prell, Riv-Ellen. "Necrology Charles S. Liebman (1934--2003)" in ''Jewish Quarterly Review'' 94:4 Fall 2004, pp. 672–676
External links
Charles Liebmancollection on the
Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner
The Stanford University Graduate School of Education (Stanford GSE or GSE) is one of the top education schools in the United States. It offers master's and doctoral programs in more than 25 areas of specialization, along with joint degrees with ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebman, Charles
1934 births
2003 deaths
Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium alumni
20th-century American Jews
Israel Prize in political science recipients
Jewish scholars
Judaic scholars
American political scientists
People from New York (state)
University of Miami alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Burials at Segula Cemetery
21st-century American Jews
Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University