Antisemitism, Statistics, and the Scientization of Hebrew Political Discourse: The Case Study of Ha-tsefirah

Abstract

O ver the past decade, the nineteenth-century engagement of Jews with statistics has become the subject matter for a growing body of literature within the field ofJewish studies.' As the literature indicates, social scientists, influenced by the natural sciences, began using statistical data as a tool for legitimation and a source of hope for solving social problems. Jews became an important object of social-statistical studies, which were often used to justify antisemitic ideas. Jewish social scientists and physicians, who saw themselves as obligated to answer this scientific antisemitism, used the same statistical tools to do so, and therefore helped to usher theJewish people into the modern age of statistics. The adoption of such tools, however, though motivated by an apologetic need, had its own particular internal effects onJewish studies and society. The focus of research so far has been on the role of scientists and

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