Harry Sebee Linfield, aka H.S. Linfield (; 31 October 1888 – 24 November 1978) was a 20th Century demographer and statistician of the Jewish people.
Linfield was also a rabbi, author and historian who produced publications for the American Jewish Committee, the Bureau of Jewish Social Research and the Jewish Statistical Bureau, amongst other organizations.
A primary focus of his work was exploring the role and nature of Jewish life in America and quantifying its size, the ways in which it changed over time, and the manner in which it impacted American culture. He also studied Jewish demographic trends worldwide. He did so through abstracting information from government and private sources, including the US, English, French, German, Hebrew and Yiddish press.
A "Special Agent" for the US Census Bureau quantifying statistics on Jews in America, Linfield nevertheless thought that the US Government should not ask individuals their personal religious beliefs or treat citizens differently due to their religion. He believed that capturing such data could be used directly or indirectly to persecute Jews, or members of other religious groups. Concerning the attempted effort to include this data in the 1960 US Census, Linfield said: "we see a complete denial of the principle of equal treatment of all religious groups in government records, and a threat to the liberties of all religious groups."
Biography
Born in Birzai, Russian Empire in 1889, Linfield was the son of a leading Lithuanian Rabbi, Pinchas HaKohen Lintup. Linfield studied Talmud starting at the age of ten. In 1905, he immigrated to the United States.
Linfield received his bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1914, and his Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1919.
Linfield also received his rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College in 1918. His dissertation was entitled: The Relation of the Jewish Law on Interest to Babylonian Law.
Linfield served as a Resident Fellow at Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning from 1918–1921. While at Dropsie, Linfield published an article entitled: The Dependence of the Talmudic Principle of Asmakhta on Babylonian Law (New Haven: Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1920, Volume 40, Pages 126–133). He also was editor of Max Margolis’ 646 page Notes on The New Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: 1921), which outlined the evidence upon which the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation of the Holy Scriptures rested.
Starting in 1921 and through 1927, Linfield served as Director of information and statistics for the American Jewish Committee's (AJC's) Bureau of Jewish Social Research. Part of these efforts, starting in 1921 Linfield compiled and edited the American Jewish Committee's monthly entitled: Summary of Events of Jewish Interest. He also authored the "Statistics of Jews" section for several volumes of the AJC's American Jewish Year Book.
Beginning in 1926, he served as a “special agent” for Jewish statistical information for the United States Bureau of the Census. In this role he oversaw the Decennial Censuses of Religious Bodies in 1926, 1936 and 1946.
He continued this work directly for the American Jewish Committee from 1928–1932. He was hired to provide a statistical basis to aid the Committee's goals of: Dispelling inaccurate ideas about the Jewish people; spurring communal action on matters of import; and offering an accurate historical record of Jewish communal life. To these ends, he abstracted information and statistics across a broad array of topics of import to the Jewish community.
He then served as head of the Jewish Statistical Bureau, from 1932 until his retirement in 1978. Briefly, from 1940 to 1942 the Bureau was called the Statistical Bureau of the Synagogue Council of America (SBSCA).
In the 1940s a chief focus of Linfield's was working to ensure the US Government's Decennial Census not ask individuals any questions concerning their personal religious beliefs. In accordance with this focus, the SBSCA published a flier entitled: ”The Census Man Did Not Ask your Religion . . . Because . . .” This piece stated: “The Statistical Bureau proved that replies to a question on religion or belief would be unreliable and that such a census if ever taken would be unfair . . . Diligent and constant watching on our part is necessary to defeat the agitation for the introduction of a religious or racial classification in government statistics.”