Rosenthal, Erich
ROSENTHAL, ERICH
ROSENTHAL, ERICH (1912–1996), U.S. sociologist. Born in Wetzlar, Germany, Rosenthal studied in Germany and the United States. He received his M.A. in 1942 and his Ph.D. in 1948 from the University of Chicago. A student of Louis Wirth, he became a research associate at the University of Chicago; research consultant of Group Work agencies in Chicago; director of research at the Chicago Bureau of War Records; and professor of sociology at Roosevelt and Northwestern universities at Chicago and Evanston, Ill., at the University of Iowa, and from 1951 to 1978 at Queens College in New York.
Rosenthal was an expert in income distribution and acculturation. In particular, his reputation rests with his work in the demography of the Jews in America. Through his work on Jewish assimilation and group identity, he brought to national attention the high intermarriage and low fertility rates among American Jews. His works in this field include: "Acculturation without Assimilation? The Jewish Community of Chicago, Illinois" (American Journal of Sociology, 66 (Nov. 1960), 275–88); "Jewish Fertility in the United States" (ajyb, 62 (1961), 3–27); "Studies of Intermarriage in the United States" (ajyb, 64 (1963), 3–53); and "Jewish Intermarriage in Indiana" (ajyb, 68 (1967), 243–64).
[Werner J. Cahnman /
Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]