"Social Science as a "Weapon of the Weak
Max Weinreich, the Yiddish Scientific Institute, and the Study of Culture, Personality, and Prejudice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3497358 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Leila Zenderland (0000-0003-2880-6463, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 104 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 742-772 |
| Publication date | 2013-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Isis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/674942 |
| PMID | 24783492 |
| OpenAlex | W2075270598 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 20 |
This essay examines Max Weinreich's efforts to turn "culture and personality studies" into social and psychological weapons that could be used to combat the effects of prejudice. It focuses on language choice, audience, and purpose in the production of such knowledge by and for a Yiddish-speaking Eastern European population. During the 1930s, Weinreich led the Yiddish Scientific Institute, a research organization headquartered in Poland but affiliated with neither a state nor a university. He was profoundly influenced by a year spent at Yale and a trip through the American South visiting segregated African-American universities. In his 1935 study Der veg tsu undzer yugnt [The Way to Our Youth], Weinreich blended European, Soviet, American, and African-American research traditions to examine the effects of prejudice on child and adolescent development; he also considered the ways members of "despised minorities" could use such science. In 1940 he fled to New York and in 1946 published Hitler's Professors, the first book analyzing the uses of the human sciences to advance Nazi state-sponsored antisemitism. In examining Weinreich's Yiddish and English writings, this essay explores the broader relationship of social science not only to state power but also to statelessness and powerlessness
Antisemitism · Media studies · Nazism · Personality · Political science · Politics · Population · Prejudice (legal term · Racism · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Central European national history · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · European history and politics · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
Frustration and aggression.
Durkheim and the Jews of France
Studying the Jew
The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe
The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture
Here-Ness, There-Ness, and Everywhere-Ness
Max Weinreich, assimilation and the social politics of Jewish nation-building
Alabama in Africa
Current Sociology in Poland
Opening Remarks on the History of Science in Yiddish
Organizing Knowledge and Behavior at Yale's Institute of Human Relations
Personality and culture, the Social Science Research Council, and liberal social engineering
Racial Science, Social Science, and the Politics of Jewish Assimilation
Types Distinct from Our Own
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,36 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2025 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |