Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-05T02:29:32.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Functions of the Book for Society and Self: a Study in Secular Transformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Elihu Katz  and
Hannah Adoni
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Reading and study were among the central values of traditional Jewish society. Indeed, it is impossible to explain the continuity of the Jewish people without reference to the unique status of the book. Any analysis of contemporary Israeli culture, therefore, must look first to the fate of the book as it is affected by the weight of tradition and of modernity. This task is attempted here. It is part of a comprehensive national study of the sociology of Israeli culture in the ‘70s.

In traditional Jewish society, the book refers, of course, to the Holy Scriptures and the body of rabbinic literature that was built upon them throughout the ages. The Jews came to be called the “People of the Book” by virtue of living according to the rules of the Book with which they were so preoccupied.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 21 , Issue 81 , March 1973 , pp. 106 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 This article is based upon data from "Israel Culture 1970" a study prepared for the Ministry of Culture and Education by a research team from The Communications Institute of the Hebrew University and the Israel Institute of Applied Social Research. The study was directed by Prof. Elihu Katz and Dr. Michael Gurevitch. During the field work, which was carried out in June-July 1970, some 3700 people were interviewed from 56 residential areas. Those examined constitute a representative sample of the Jewish popu lation above the age of 18.

2 By traditional Jewish society we refer here to that type of society which, according to Jacob Katz's definition "regards its existence as based upon a common body of knowledge and values handed down from the past." From the historical point of view this is "the whole of world Jewry, at least from the Talmudic era (200 C.E.) up to the age of European Emancipation." Despite the geographical dispersion of different parts of the society, in his book Tradition and Crisis J. Katz emphasizes the social unity of the Jewish population based upon "a common religion, nationhood and messianic hope." In Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis, Jewish Society and the End of the Middle Ages. The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961, pp. 3, 7.

3 Ibid. p. 162.

4 An analysis of the special characteristics of the Scholar of the Law is found in E. Simon's article: "Tomorrow's Jew in the Making, New Forces Reshape a Centuries Old Ideal." Commentary, Vol. 6, July, 1948.

5 On the processes of spreading literacy see C.M. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West, Pinguin, 1969.

6 Jacob Katz's analysis, on which these thoughts are based, refers to Max Weber's assertion that religious charisma and rationalism are the two crises that befall the institutions of traditional society. Hassidism was, in large measure, a populist reaction against the aristocracy of the learned; Haskalah was a reaction against the inhospitality of traditional Jewish society to secular culture.

7 S. N. Eisenstadt, Israeli Society, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1967, pp. 368-371.

8 Even in the State of Israel, despite counter claims which are perhaps partly justified, a continuity of this cultural tradition is still felt. R. Escarpit, who relies upon UNESCO data, reports that in the year 1962 the rate of publication in Israel, mutatis mutandis, was the highest in the world. (The Book Revolution, London, Harzap, Unesco, 1966).

Although in the years 1969-1970 the growth in the number of books published was smaller than in previous years, the rate of publication still increased. When we checked, according to Escarpit's system, the situation of books published in Israel in 1968 in comparison to other countries, it turned out that even in that year the rate of books published in Israel was among the highest in the world.

* The monotonic correlation coefficient shows to what extent the answers to one question rise when the answers to the second question rise, without the assumption that the rise is exactly according to a straight line. The coefficient extends from — 1 to + 1, when + 1 expresses a full monotonic connection and — 1 expresses an inverted full monotonic connection. O shows a lack of monotonic connection.

9 This operational definition of literacy makes no pretence at conceptual precision. It refers simply to persons who reported themselves as readers of at least one book per year.

10 In the study we accepted the respondents' subjective definition of what is a book. Examination of the titles given us by respondents in answer to the question concerning the last book they read confirms that the subjective definition is not far different from the following accepted definition: "a book is a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, exclusive of the cover pages" from "Recommendation concerning the international standardization of statistics relating to book production and periodicals," Unesco 1964.

11 P. H. Ennis, Adult Book Reading in the United States, NORC, University of Chicago, 1965.

12 Reader's Digest Survey of Europe Today, 1970, pp. 122-123.

13 The eight needs are as follows:

  1. To kill time

  2. To be entertained

  3. To overcome loneliness when I am alone at home

  4. To release tension

  5. To feel that others think as I do

  6. To get to know the true qualities of our leaders

  7. To understand what goes on in Israel and in the world

  8. To keep up with the way the government performs its functions

With respect to each of these needs, respondents were asked to indicate "how helpful" each of the five media is in fulfilling the need. For a full discussion of this procedure and its results, see: Elihu Katz, Michael Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas, "On the Use of the Mass Media for Important Things," paper prepared for the Symposium on the Effects of the Mass Media of Communication, XXth International Congress of Psychology, Tokyo, August, 1972.