Norman Friedman is an American sociologist and the former chairman of the Department of Sociology at California State University, Los Angeles.
[1] Friedman coined the term "autobiographical sociology," defined as a "pathway to data and ideas that requires the sociologist introspectively recollect, reconstruct, and interpret the past phenomenon or process he/she was involved in.
[4] One of the key points in the discipline's development was the formation of the a professional organization for sociologists specializing in the sociology of Jewry.
[5] The association was informally launched by Friedman and Bernard Lazerwitz in 1970; the event, titled "The Sociological Study of Jewry" took place at the ASA annual conference.
The new organization, the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (ASSJ), formally met for the first time the following year.