VOLUME xix: NUMBER 2 DECEMBER 1977 CONTENTS Towards a General Theory of Jewish Political Interests and Behaviour Peter Y. Medding The Socially Disadvantaged Peer Group in the Israeli Resi- dential Setting Mordecai Arieli and Yitzhak Kashti The Conquest of a Community? The Zionists and the Board of Deputies in 1917 Stuart A. Cohen The Secular Jew: Does He Exist and Why? (Review Article) - Israel Finestein Jewish Gold and Prussian Iron (Review Article) Lloyd P. Gartner Editor: Maurice Freedman Managing Editor: Jvdith Freedman The Jewish Journal of Sociology NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS BACK NUMBERS Most of the issues of The Jewish Journal of Sociology for the years 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965. and 1966 are out of print Many of the libraries and institutions of higher learning that subscribe to our Journal are extremely anxious to obtain copies of these out-of-print issues. The editors of the J.J.S. are therefore appealing to subscribers who may be willing to dispose of these issues to write to the Managing Editor at 55 New Cavendish Street, London Wi M 813T. indicating which numbers they have for sale. If the issues are in good condition the J.J.S. will be glad to buy them back at a fair price and to reimburse postage expenses. Alternatively. the J.J.S. would be willing to exchange a future issue of the Journal against one of the out-of-print issues. THE JEWISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY VOLUME XIX NO. 2 DECEMBER 1977 CONTENTS Towards a General Theory of Jewish Political Interests and Behaviour Peter Y. Medding ii The Socially Disadvantaged Peer Group in the Israeli Residential Setting Mordecai Arieli and Titzha/c Kashti 14. The Conquest of a Community? The Zionists and the Board of Deputies in 1917 Stuart A. Cohen 17 The Secular Jew: Does He Exist and Why? (Review Article) Israel Finestein 185 Jewish Gold and Prussian Iron (Review Article) Lloyd P. Gartner 197 Book Reviews 203 Chronicle 223 Books Received 230 Notes on Contributors 233 PUBLISHED TWICE YEARLY on behalf of the World Jewish Congress by William Heinemann Ltd Annual Subscnption £3-°° (U.S. $7.50) post free Single Copies £'75 ($.00) Applications for subscriptions should be addressed to the Managing Editor, The Jewish Journal of Sociology, 55 New Cavendish Street, London WiM 8BT EDITOR Maurice Freedman - -. MANAGING EDITOR Judith Freedman - ADVISORY BOARD R. Eaèhi (Israel) 0. Klineberg (USA) André Chouraqui (France & Israel) S. J. Prais (Britain) M. Davis (Israel) Louis Rosenberg (Canada) S. N. Eisenstadt (Israel) H. L. Shapiro (USA) Nathan Glazer (USA) Meyer Fortes (Britain) j. Katz(Israe1) A. Tartakower (Israel) © THE WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS 1977 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BUTLER AND TANNER LTD FROME AND LONDON BOOKS REVIEWED Author Title Reviewer Page Theodor W. Adorn; The Positivist Dispute in Ger- Julius Gould 203 Hans Albert, RaIf man Sociology Dahrendorf, Jurgen - Habermas, k-braid Pilot, and Karl R. Popper J. David Bleich Contemporary !-falakhic Louis Jacobs 205 Problems Henry A. Fischei, Essays in Greco-Román and Louis Jacobs .207 ed. Related Talmudic Literature Tom Forester The Labour Party and the Julius Gould 208 Working Class Saul L. Goodman, The Faith of Secular Jews Israel Finestein 18 ed. Celia S. Heller On the Edge of Destruction: Lional Kochan 209 Jews of Poland Between the Two Wars - Cathcrine Jones Immigration and Social Policy C. Stephen Fenton 209 in Britain Elihu Katz and The Secularization of Leisure: David Martin 212 Michael Gurevitch Culture and Communication in Israel Thomas Kessner The Golden Door: Italian and Howard Erotz 214 Jewish Immigrant Mobility in New Tork City, s88o-11 Emanuel Manc The Social Context of Violent Terence Morris 216 Behaviour: A Social Anthro- pological Study in an Israeli. - Immigrant Tow;i Ezra Mendelsohn, ed. Essays on the American Jewish Lloyd P. Gartner 218 Labor Movement John O'Neill, ed. On Critical Theory John Scott 220 Fritz Stern Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Lloyd P. Gartner 197 Bleichrdder, and the Building of the German Empire George Surgeon, Race Relations in Chicago Howard Erotz 214 Judith Mayo, and Donald J. Bogue ''3 NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS Papers submitted to The Jewish Journal of Sociology should be addressed to the Managing Editor at 55 New Cavendish Street, London WiM 8B 7. The papers must be original. They should not have been published previously, or be committed to publication elsewhere, in any language. When a paper has been accepted for publication, the author may not publish it elsewhere, in any language, without the written consent of the Editor of the J.J.S. MSS. should be typewritten on one side only and double-spaced with ample margins. Pages (including those containing illustrations, diagrams, or tables) should be numbered consecutively. All quotations should be within single inverted commas; quotation marks within quotations should be double inverted commas. Notes should follow the style of this journal and should be given at the end of the article in numerical sequence according to the order of their citation in the text. Bibliographical Details: Boo/cs Give author, tide, place of publication, year, and page reference. Unddrline all tides of books. Articles Place tides of articles within single inverted commas. Underline the tide of the book or journal in which the article appears. In the case of a journal, cite numbers of volume and part, and year of publication. PROOFS. Authors making major revisions in proof will be required to bear the cost. Unless proofs are returned to the Managing Editor promptly, authors' corrections cannot be incorporated OFFPRINTS. Each contributor receives thirty free offprints of his article. ''4 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF JEWISH POLITICAL INTERESTS AND BEHAVIOUR Peter Y. Medding INCE the Emancipation, Jews in the West have been citizens of many states embracing various forms of government. According to Sthe conventional wisdom about Jewish political behaviour, Jews, regardless of differences in social structure and regime, have been consistently liberal or Left in their political responses and attitudes, rather than conservative or Right. Most theorizing about Jewish political behaviour, therefore, has attempted to explain this supposedly universal phenomenon. In fact, that conventional wisdom was based upon the assumption that the 'natural' Jewish political response was liberal and Left—which was anomalous, given the class position of Jews in Western societies. This paper seeks to develop a more general theory of Jewish political behaviour based upon a broader view of Jewish political interests. It seeks to demonstrate that the political liberalism ofJews is a particular variant of Jewish political behaviour, occurring only under specific historical and social conditions, rather than a universal phenomenon. A note on concepts It should be recognized from the very outset that we are dealing with highly ambiguous terms and concepts, and with vague and often contradictory sources of evidence, and sets of facts. The Left/Right distinction is a relative one, depending upon the situation of the Centre, and the Centre itself often moves. What is Left in one society may be Centre or even moderate Right in another. Similarly, liberalism and conservatism are historical movements which are constantly changing. Thus there are major differences between important mani- festations of the same movement in different societies and continents (for example, between Continental and Anglo-American liberalism). Moreover, what was liberal yesterday may be conservative today, because liberalism affirms the desirability of change, reform, and ''5 PETER Y. MEDDING progress. By the same token, what conservatives opposed yesterday they may tolerate today as part of an accepted status quo. Even more confusing is the absence of complete overlap between the terms Left and liberal, on the one hand, and Right and conservative, on the other. To begin with, radical and socialist are also commonly associated with the Left, and these, clearly, are not synonymous with liberal. Similarly there may be aspects of liberalism on the Right, and it is also common- place by now to recognize a radical Right. Determining what constitutes Left or liberal political behaviour is also extremely difficult. This is usually done by examining support for various political entities, such as parties, candidates, policies and programmes, orientations to issues involving change or reform, and general views of social organization. The problem is that political reality often does not correspond with the demands of theoretical consistency. The same party takes on different images in different parts of the country; liberal parties may offer illiberal candidates for election and vice versa; general programmes and orientations may be liberal, but specific policies and responses of particular candidates, politicians, party bodies, and governments may be illiberal, and so on. With so many liberal and Left criteria and so many varied aspects of political reality, contradictions and inconsistencies are bound to occur. Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence of consistency and a common core to both liberal and Left politics, on the one hand, and conservative and Right politics, on the other, to suggest that the political scientist proceed with caution, rather than abandon the exercise completely.' The conventional wisdom Let us begin by examining the empirical evidence which provides the basis for the theory that constitutes the conventional wisdom. Survey research and other forms of electoral analysis have shown that in