Encyclopedia of Religion and Society

Dashefsky, Arnold

(1942-) Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus, and Director of its Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life; earned B.A. (1964) and M.A. (1966) degrees at Temple University, and a University of Minnesota Ph.D. (1969) in sociology.

Dashefsky’s major works focus on Jewish identity formation, Jewish communal organizations, and the emigration of American Jews to Israel. These include Ethnic Identification Among American Jews: Socialization and Social Structure (with Howard Shapiro, 2nd ed, University Press of America 1993) and Americans Abroad: A Comparative Study of Emigrants from the United States (with Jan DeAmicis, Bernard Lazerwitz, and Ephraim Tabory, Plenum 1992).

He served as (1986-1987) Editor of Contemporary Jewry , the journal of the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry, and President (1990-1996) of the association.

—J. Alan Winter