Sumitra Shah's comment is helpful.  Be assured that my question is not
rhetorical but completely straight and sincere. 

Rabbi Hoffman seems to have tackled it straight on: commendable. At least
two questions remain, however:
	1. Is that Kuznets' definition, if indeed he had one?
	2. Is Hoffman's definition circular enough to be just a tautology?

It bothers me when one of our contributors avers that so and so many Nobel
Laureates in Economics have been "Jews". How did he identify them as such?
It is not quite as bad as taking U.S.D.C. data on NIPA as holy writ, or
saying that a recession "officially" begins and ends when Robert Hall says
so, but it betrays a little of the same mindset: "We gotta have a number!"

Mason Gaffney

-----Original Message-----
From: Societies for the History of Economics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Sumitra Shah
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2012 2:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] RVW -- Schiffman on Kuznets, _Jewish Ec onomies: Deve
lopment and Migration in America and Beyond - Volume I: Th e Economic Life
of American Jewry_

Mason Gaffney's question is perhaps rhetorical, to highlight the difficulty
in the making of a definition. But there are answers available,. I heard an
interesting lecture by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman discussing his new book *
One Hundred Great Jewish Books*, which he started by talking about what is a
Jew. He has also revised his uncle's book titled *What is a Jew?*. The first
chapter bears that title as well. He summarizes his explanation by writing:

"A Jew is therefore a number of people, by birth or by conversion, who
chooses to share a common cultural heritage, a religious perspective, and a
spiritual horizon derived uniquely from Jewish experience and Jewish
wisdom".

But Hoffman is clear that Jewishness is not a matter of race or nationality.

Best,

Sumitra Shah

________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
mason gaffney
Schiffman’s review of Kuznets on “Jewish Economies” only adds to the
mysteries. Schiffman credits Kuznets with “careful definition of concepts,
meticulous empirical analysis and fact-based theoretical insights”. Then he
itemizes Kuznets’ findings which fail in all the above.
Let’s just take one, that is defining a “Jew”. What makes one a “Jew”?  Is
it genetic, ethnic, training, a choice, or what?  We know it is not family
name, for these are often changed. Is it from mother or father?
Am I partly Jewish?  My name, Gaffney, is supposedly Irish, but Gafni is
also Hebrew for Weingartner. One Gt.-grandmother was née Newman, and her Gt.
Uncle converted to Rome and became a Cardinal, but some claim that Newman
was changed from Neumann, a Dutch-Jewish name. There were some other shadowy
figures in there that no one has traced. Many Christians preach mainly from
the Old Testament, or Torah, and all good Christian children used to learn
it. Christian seminaries used to require Hebrew along with Greek and Latin.
So who is a Jew?  Who is not?
That would be a good start for a “careful definition of concepts”.

Mason Gaffney