Tagged Ira Sheskin

To accurately count Jews of color, we need to radically alter assumptions

Marc L. Dollinger (Courtesy)

Two summers ago, I published an academic book about blacks and Jews that did not include a single black Jew in the narrative. Ilana Kaufman, founder and president of the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, encouraged me to open my eyes to my own implicit assumptions about Jews,… Read more »

Lifting the veil on the science of counting Jews

Ira Sheskin, a professor of geography at the University of Miami, has conducted 43 Jewish federation population surveys since 1982. His most recent began in mid-January in Miami. (Uriel Heilman)

MIAMI (JTA) — Fueled by KitKats and Cherry Coke, some two dozen people sit hunched over stacks of questionnaires in a windowless conference room in Miami, a phalanx of 1980s-era push-button telephones in front of them. It’s the first day of work on a new survey of Miami Jews,… Read more »