R Brym
Biographic Data
| ID | 40968 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Brym |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Brym |
| SIGNATURE | BRYM R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4732-7524 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 132 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 454 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 132 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Canadian Jewish Barometer 2026: Pressures on Canadian Jews and their Responses
This report is based mainly on a survey of 3,062 adult Canadian residents, including oversamples of Quebecers, Muslims, and Jews. The survey was in the field from January 15 to February 11, 2026. It focuses on how the attitudes of non-Jews toward Jews and Israel have changed since early 2024 and how that change has affected Canada’s Jews. Its main findings are as follows: (1) Non-Jewish Canadians’ attitudes toward Jews and especially toward Israe…
The 2025 Canadian Jewish Vote in Political Context: Break with the Past or Return to Form
Two Methods for Estimating the Size of Haredi Communities in Diaspora Cities: Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Montreal and Toronto, Canada
A Survey on Antisemitism in Ontario's K-12 Schools
This study demonstrates the existence of a disjuncture between (1) the purported desire of Ontario schools to ensure that all students feel respected, included, and valued; and (2) the treatment of their Jewish students. Its main source of information is a survey of 599 Jewish parents and their reports on 781 antisemitic incidents in Ontario K–12 schools. Antisemitic incidents are defined as those that parents and their children consider antisemi…
Patterns of Canadian-Jewish Intermarriage, 2021
The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others
The “Jewish Vote” in Canada’s 2025 Federal General Election
Contrary to widespread opinion, Jewish voting patterns are not governed solely or sometimes even mainly by the commonly perceived ethno-religious interests of Jews, such as support for Israel and opposition to antisemitism. They are also governed by the same social forces that affect all Canadians. Focusing exclusively on the presumed Jewish interest underlying the Jewish vote prevents us from fully understanding why Jews vote the way they do. Th…
Les Juifs et Israël 2024: Une enquête sur les attitudes canadiennes et les perceptions juives
The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others
Qui sont les partisan.es et les opposant.es des campements propalestiniens
The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others
Canadian Attitudes towards Jews and Muslims, 2025
Jews and Muslims are two of the most dissimilar groups in Canada society in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics. Layered on top of those differences is antagonism over the Israel-Palestine conflict. Yet this report, based on a January 2025 web panel survey of 2,821 Canadian adults, shows that Jews and Muslims have some things in common. Notably, a considerable number of Canadians have negative attitudes toward both groups. Negative at…
What Does Zionism Mean to Canadian Jews? A Longitudinal Study of Semantic Drift
A late summer 2024 web panel survey of 588 Canadian Jews found that 49 percent of respondents do not identify as Zionists. Anti-Zionists rejoiced that rejection of Zionism is widespread in the Jewish community. Zionists took comfort from the same survey’s finding that 94 percent of Canadian Jews said they support the existence of a Jewish state in Israel. Many observers were puzzled over how both findings could be accurate at the same time. This …
Enquête 2024 sur les Juif.ves et Israël: Dix réflexions supplémentaires
The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others
None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe, 1933–1948 , 40th anniversary edition, Irving Abella and Harold Troper
The Decline of Canadian Multiculturalism and the Rebirth of the Jewish Question
Visible, Indigenous, and Gender Minorities among Canadian Jews, 2021
This paper focuses on Canadian Jewish minorities that have attracted little scholarly attention. It does so mainly by reviewing data from the 2021 Canadian census on Jews who identify as members of visible, Indigenous, and gender minorities. This discussion points to several areas in need of further academic research, and concludes by claiming that, ironically, understudied Canadian Jewish minorities (including but not restricted to those discuss…
Jews and Israel 2024: A Survey of Canadian Attitudes and Jewish Perceptions
Most Canadian Jews feel unsafe and victimized. They perceive a rise in negative attitudes toward Jews in recent months and years. Most doubt the situation will improve. The main reason they feel this way is that extreme anti-Israel statements andactions have proliferated in recent months. Because support for the existence of a Jewish state in Israel is a central component of their identity, most Jews regard extreme anti-Israel statements and acti…
Yankev Leshchinsky’s Dos natsyonale ponem fun goles-yidntum and Canadian Jewish Education in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others
Jewish Economic Life in Yiddish Literature: Yitskhok Ber Levinzon and Yisroel Aksenfeld
Reflections
The Association for Canadian Jewish Studies encourages research on the Canadian Jewish experience through the disciplines of political science, sociology, economics, geography, history, demography, education, religion, linguistics, literature, architecture, performing and fine arts, among others
Jewish Religious Intermarriage in Canada
Drawing on secondary literature, this paper first identifies trends in Jewish religious intermarriage in Canada—including variation over time, gender, age and community size. It then critically examines results from the 2018 Survey of Jews in Canada to explore factors associated with intermarriage. Binary logistic regression demonstrates that intermarriage is significantly and independently associated with residing in cities other than Montreal a…
Public support for social security in 66 countries: Prosperity, inequality, and household income as interactive causes
It is widely accepted that support for government intervention is highest among people in lower socioeconomic positions, during economic recessions and in less prosperous countries. However, the relationship between income inequality and attitudes toward government intervention is less clear. We contribute new insights to both questions by exploring how subjective household income, economic prosperity, and income inequality interact to influence …
Qualifying the Leading Theory of Diaspora Jewry: An Examination of Jews from the Former Soviet Union in Canada and the United States
Jewish Intellectual Exceptionalism? Ethnic Representation at the University of Toronto Medical School
Eeja in Action: “The Development of the Jewish People Over the Last 100 Years” by Yakov Leshchinsky
EEJA in Action: “The Development of the Jewish People Over the Last 100 Years” by Yakov Leshchinsky
Demonstrating in the internet age: A test of Castells’ theory
Some social movements researchers argue that the Internet globalises protest and equalises cross-national inequalities in opportunities for activism. Critics warn against such techno-optimism, highlighting continued individual-level inequalities and country-level variation in protest participation. In this paper, we operationalise Manuel Castells’ theory of social movement development to test the extent to which contemporary demonstrators share t…
Family Welfare Effort, Total Fertility, and In Vitro Fertilization: Explaining the Israeli Anomaly
The theory of family welfare effort is a leading macro‐sociological explanation of variation in human fertility. It holds that states which provide universally available, inexpensive, high‐quality day care, generous parental leave, and flexible work schedules lower the opportunity cost of motherhood. They thus enable women, especially those in lower socioeconomic strata, to have the number of babies they want. A considerable body of research supp…
Social media in the 2011 Egyptian uprising
This paper uses Gallup poll data to assess two narratives that have crystallized around the 2011 Egyptian uprising: (1) New electronic communications media constituted an important and independent cause of the protests in so far as they enhanced the capacity of demonstrators to extend protest networks, express outrage, organize events, and warn comrades of real-time threats. (2) Net of other factors, new electronic communications media played a r…
The functions of elections in the USSR
(1978). The functions of elections in the USSR. Soviet Studies: Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 362-371
Suicide Bombing as Strategy and Interaction: The Case of the Second Intifada
Social scientists have explained the rise of suicide bombing since the early 1980s by focusing on the characteristics of suicide bombers, the cultural matrix in which they operate, and the strategic calculations they make to maximize their gains. We offer an alternative approach that emphasizes the interaction between Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli government actions, analyzing the motivations, organizational rationales and precipitants…
The Structure of the Canadian Capitalist Class
Tolerance of Homosexuality in 88 Countries: Education, Political Freedom, and Liberalism
Researchers have repeatedly found a positive correlation between education and tolerance. However, they may be victims of an unrepresentative sample containing only rich Western liberal democracies, where political agendas have a liberalizing effect on curricula. In this paper, we specify the relationship between education and liberal attitudes by analyzing data on educational attainment and tolerance of homosexuality (one dimension of liberalism…
The Size, Composition, and Dynamics of the Russian State Bureaucracy in the 1990s
In this paper Robert J. Brym and Vladimir Gimpelson analyze changes in the size and social composition of the Russian state bureaucracy in the 1990s based on official data. Although the Russian state bureaucracy grew somewhat at the regional level in the 1990s, it actually shrank at the federal level. Comparing the Russian state bureaucracy to the Weberian ideal type of bureaucratic efficiency, the authors also demonstrate the existence of strong…
The Decline of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association
This article seeks to explain why membership in the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association (CSAA) has declined despite a growing number of sociology and anthropology professors in the country. The author argues that four factors are likely responsible for the trend: (1) external competition from sociology organizations in the United States; (2) internal competition from the Canadian Journal of Sociology; (3) a changed environment in whic…
Anti-Semitism in Moscow: Results of an October 1992 Survey
Public opinion polls show that between 1988 and 1991 some three percent of adult Russians donated money to various political movements, four percent took part in strikes and just over six percent participated in mass rallies and demonstrations. Fewer than one percent of Russians j o i n ed new political parties, still nascent organizations that attract elites, not masses. At the same time, membership in the Communist Party dropped from ten percen…
Palestinian Suicide Bombing Revisited: A Critique of the Outbidding Thesis
ROBERT J. BRYM is professor of sociology at the University of Toronto. He has published widely on the social bases of Russian and Canadian politics and is now researching collective and state violence in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza during the second intifada. His recent articles on the latter subject have appeared in Social Forces, Contexts, and The Canadian Journal of Sociology. BADER ARAJ is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology…
From Culture to Power: The Sociology of English Canada
There have been many dramatic changes in English Canadian sociology since the 1960s. 25 years ago the cultural values of Canadians were believed to be largely responsible for patterns of economic development, politics, and inequality. In the late 1980s these same features of social life are typically explained in terms of the way power is distributed in Canada. Brym and Fox attribute this change to the growing influence of various currents of Mar…
Public Welfare Expenditure in OECD Countries: Towards a Reconciliation of Inconsistent Findings
In this paper some of the reasons for inconsistent findings on the determinants of welfare expenditure and outcome in the advanced capitalist countries are examined. Particular attention is paid to the work of Harold Wilensky and John Stephens on the grounds that their research illustrates some key methodological and theoretical differences in this field. Several problems of conceptualization and measurement in their work are identified. Hypothes…
Assessing Variation in Tolerance in 23 Muslim‐Majority and Western Countries
Scholars disagree over whether Islam hinders the development of liberal democracy in Muslim-majority countries. We contribute to this debate by assessing the influence of Islam at the individual and national levels on ethnic, racial, and religious tolerance in 23 countries. Our analyses are based on a set of multilevel models fitted to World Values Survey data and national-level contextual information from various sources. Our findings suggest th…
The Return of the Native: A Cultural and Social-Psychological Critique of Durkheim's Suicide Based on the Guarani-Kaiowá of Southwestern Brazil
This article argues that Durkheim's theory of suicide is deficient because of its monocausal reasoning, its conception of suicide as an action without subjects, and its characterization of preliterate societies as harmonious, self-contained, and morphologically static. It shows that these deficiencies can be overcome by including cultural and social-psychological considerations in the analysis of suicide-specifically by including culture as a cau…
Re‐evaluating mass support for political and economic change in Russia
SINCE 1991 WESTERN SOCIAL SCIENTISTS have been struggling to understand the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the likely course of future developments in the post-communist era. They were ill-prepared for the task, both analytically and empirically. Most theories about the dynamics of Soviet society had to be abandoned in the light of sudden and unforeseen events, notably the advent of a multiparty system and the privatisation of muc…
Underdevelopment and Social Movements in Atlantic Canada
From Culture to Power: The Sociology of English Canada
There have been many dramatic changes in English Canadian sociology since the 1960s. 25 years ago the cultural values of Canadians were believed to be largely responsible for patterns of economic development, politics, and inequality. In the late 1980s these same features of social life are typically explained in terms of the way power is distributed in Canada. Brym and Fox attribute this change to the growing influence of various currents of Mar…
Israeli State Violence during the Second Intifada: Combining New Institutionalist and Rational Choice Approaches
In attempting to explain Israel's retaliatory policies toward Palestinian violence, new institutionalist and rational choice theories vie for dominance. This article argues that both approaches can contribute to understanding the severity of Israel's response if they are viewed as nested explanations appropriate to different threat levels. The article makes its case using data from 74 interviews with senior Israeli counterterrorist experts (2006–…
Culture, Communication, and Dependency: The Tradition of H. A. Innis
Canadian sociology: An introduction to the upper thirteen
The Jews of Moscow, Kiev and Minsk: Identity, Antisemitism, Emigration
List of Tables and Figures - Preface - The Scope of the Study - The Jews in Soviet and Post-Soviet Society - Identity - Antisemitism - Emigration - Between East and West - Appendix A Methodological Notes - Appendix B The Questionnaire - Sources Cited - Index of Names
Liberalism and Postmaterialism in China: The Role of Social Class and Inequality
The postmaterialist thesis holds that postmaterialist and liberal values tend to be strongest in affluent locations and among people in higher socioeconomic positions. We demonstrate the degree to which China fails to conform to these expectations and seek to account for Chinese exceptionalism. We use multilevel models fitted to 2006 Chinese General Social Survey data to test the postmaterialist thesis. In general, we find expected associations f…
The Political Attitudes of Canadian Professors
In this paper we analyze the social determinants of political attitudes among Canadian university professors as expressed in a nationwide 1987 survey. We examine four questionnaire items. They measure attitudes towards faculty unionization, faculty militancy, and faculty salary egalitarianism; and position on a left-right political scale. The results support a class-based theory of intellectual attitudes, more with respect to unionism and leftism…
Public support for social security in 66 countries: Prosperity, inequality, and household income as interactive causes
It is widely accepted that support for government intervention is highest among people in lower socioeconomic positions, during economic recessions and in less prosperous countries. However, the relationship between income inequality and attitudes toward government intervention is less clear. We contribute new insights to both questions by exploring how subjective household income, economic prosperity, and income inequality interact to influence …
After Postmaterialism: An Essay on China, Russia and the United States
The postmaterialist thesis makes two main claims. First, over time, rising affluence enables many people to substantially satisfy their need for security and economic sustenance, allowing them to focus on pursuing personal autonomy and self-expression. Second, at a given time, younger people, individuals in higher socio-economic positions and wealthier societies tend to be more postmaterialistic than are older people, individuals in lower socio-e…
Rational choice and the political bases of changing Israeli counterinsurgency strategy1
Israeli counterinsurgency doctrine holds that the persistent use of credible threat and disproportionate military force results in repeated victories that eventually teach the enemy the futility of aggression. The doctrine thus endorses classical rational choice theory's claim that narrow cost-benefit calculations shape fixed action rationales. This paper assesses whether Israel's strategic practice reflects its counterinsurgency doctrine by expl…
A Note on the Raznochintsy
Journal Article A Note on the Raznochintsy Get access Robert J. Brym Robert J. Brym University of Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Social History, Volume 10, Issue 3, Spring 1977, Pages 354–359, https://doi.org/10.1353/jsh/10.3.354 Published: 01 March 1977
The Jewish Intelligentsia and Russian Marxism: A Sociological Study of Intellectual Radicalism and Ideological Divergence
Regional social structure and agrarian radicalism in Canada: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick
Ce document suggére que les variations dans les idéologies populistes canadiennes dépéndent largement de l'organisation sociale des agriculteurs. Les éléments importants de cette connexion sont (a)le degré des rapports sociaux parmi les agriculteurs; (b)le degré auquel les agriculteurs sont capables de maintenir leurs positions de producteurs indépendants; et (c)la densité des liens de classe entre agriculteurs et diverses classes. On a tenté de …
Regional Factors in the Formation of the Fishermen's Protective Union of Newfoundland
Robert J. Brym, Barbara Neis, Regional Factors in the Formation of the Fishermen's Protective Union of Newfoundland, The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Autumn, 1978), pp. 391-407
The functions of elections in the USSR
(1978). The functions of elections in the USSR. Soviet Studies: Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 362-371
The Jewish Intelligentsia and Russian Marxism: A Sociological Study of Intellectual Radicalism and Ideological Divergence
Comment on Benkin's Review of the Jewish Intelligentsia and Russian Marxism
The Maritime Rights Movement, 1919-1927
Underdevelopment and Social Movements in Atlantic Canada
The Jewish Intelligentsia and Russian Marxism: A Sociological Study of Intellectual Radicalism and Ideological Divergence
Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917
Culture, Communication, and Dependency: The Tradition of H. A. Innis
Underdevelopment and Social Movements in Atlantic Canada
Introduction to Gershenzon
Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon (1869-1925) was the leading historian of Russian literature in the first quarter of the 20th century. Yet in the West his name and reputation, let alone his work, are virtually unknown to all but specialists, as is evidenced by the fact that only one of his numerous books and articles was translated into English during the four decades after his death. As one of his translators remarks, this unfamiliarity is partly a …
The Rites of Rulers: Ritual in Industrial Society: The Soviet Case
Intellectuals and Politics
Underdevelopoment and Social Movements in Atlantic Canada
Cultural versus structural explanations of ethnic intermarriage in the USSR: A statistical re‐analysis
The Creation of Regional Dependency
Anomie, opportunity, and the density of ethnic ties: Another view of Jewish outmarriage in Canada
Deux perspectives du mariage des juifs en dehors de leur groupe, au Canada, sont évaluées dans cet article. La 1ère souligne 1'anomie et la rupture des liens normatifs. La 2e est une interpretation structurelle qui soutient que le mariage en dehors du groupe est surtout dû aux chances limitées de se marier à l'intérieur de la collectivité. Les données sont tirées de Statistiques Canada/ chaque province représentant une unite d'analyse. Les donnée…
Reply to Richard Hamilton
Zionism and Territory: The Socio-Territorial Dimensions of Zionist Politics
Incorporation versus Power Models of Working Class Radicalism: With Special Reference to North America
Robert J. Brym, Incorporation versus Power Models of Working Class Radicalism: With Special Reference to North America, The Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 227-251
Conclusion
Social Stratification: Class and Ethnic Dimensions
Sociology (89 works) · Political science (87 works) · Law (65 works) · Politics (48 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (41 works) · Law (40 works) · History (38 works) · Economics (34 works) · Judaism (32 works) · Philosophy (32 works)