Until the academic year of 1966-1967, my research interests centered on the sociology of Jews and of certain small religious groups. (As a graduate student, I had done a thesis on Jehovah’s Witnesses.) In general, I was interested in groups that live within our society but which, in one way or another, have become excluded from full participation in it.
I believe that a study of these groups helps us to understand our society and culture. In 1966, my family and I went to France for a sabbatical ...