Introduction to Jewish History: Modern Jewish History HIST/JWST 1108 Professor David Shneer Goals of the Course: Who are Jews? In this foundation to Jewish Studies, we will study the rise of and responses to modernity to understand how Jews have gone from a relatively tight knit group of people bound together by religious law to a group of individuals with diverse Jewish identities. After a brief introduction to the origins of Jewish history, we will study: 1. Jews and Their Interactions with Others 2. Responses to secularism and modernity 3. The development of modern Jewish literatures and cultures that were as much in dialogue with European literature as with the traditional Jewish literature 4. The breaking down of individual and communal boundaries that allowed Jews to go from the group in the ghetto to being one of the most integrated yet highly visible minorities in European and American societies. We will read many primary sources, reading diaries, letters, philosophy, poetry, and other materials, and will also study some secondary sources that expose us to Jewish history. This course serves as a foundation course for the Certificate in Jewish Studies. Books: 1. John Efron, Joshua Holo et al, The Jews 2. Caryn Aviv and David Shneer, New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora (New York: NYU Press, 2005). 3. Materials from many other books found on CU Learn Films: Sunshine (Hungary/US, 1999), streamling on library website (Password: jewish) Five Cities of Eastern Europe, documentary films from 1939 (Lithuania/Poland, 1939) Jewish Americans, 2007, streaming on library website (Password: jewish) Expectations of You: Reading: about 50-100 pages/week. Assignments: Weekly In-Class Quiz to Keep You Up on the Reading Papers: Two short papers Exams: One final exam Participation: this is determined by you participating in class, engaging with your hevruta, attending out of class activities. Expectations of Me and Christian: Engaged class time Timely response on written work
Availability in office hours and additional time as needed Expectations of you made clear Evaluation: 1. Class participation/hevruta/out of Class 15% 2. Weekly Quizzes (given on Thursday in class. Cannot be made up) 15% 3. Two Short papers 30% (late policy: half grade off for each day late up to two days. Happy to read drafts) 3. Final Take Home Exam 40% Visiting Scholars: Menachem Mor, Dean of Humanities, University of Haifa, February 2 Brian Catlos, Assoc Prof of History, University of California, February 11 Jay Michaelson, author of Everything is God, March 9 Robby Adler Peckerar, asst prof of Jewish literature, University of Colorado, April 6 I. Introduction Who are Jews? People of the Book, People of the Body, People on the Move. What unifies Jews?, Jan. 12,14. Tuesday: Introduction, Class Philosophy, What is Hevruta? Thursday: Quiz, Who are Jews and What Makes Them Different 1. Introduction, David Shneer and Caryn Aviv, New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora 2. Ron Hendel, Israel Among the Nations 3. The Jews, 1-48. 4. Bible: Genesis 17, story about Abraham, Genesis story about Jacob/Israel, Jeremiah on Exile Show The Tribe II. III. IV. Greeks, Romans, and Jews Jan. 19, 21 Tuesday: Hellenistic Jews, the Bible, and Conquest Thursday: Romans, Exile, and the Multiplicity of Judaisms 1. TJ: 49 91 2. Maccabees on reconquest The Age of the Rabbis Jan. 26, 28 Tuesday: From Temple to Synagogue, From Priests to Rabbis Thursday: What is Rabbinic Judaism? How It Comes to Become Normative 1. TJ: 92 114 2. Gafni, Babylonian Rabbinic Culture (223 266) 3. Readings on Bar Kochba Jews and Islam and Medieval Christianity Feb. 2, 4.
Tuesday: Professor Menachem Mor, dean of humanities at Haifa University, Bar Kochba as Radical Jew Thursday: Jews Under Islam. Poets, Philosophers, and the Golden Age? 1. The Jews, 116 173 2. Readings on Medieval Spain (Maimonides, Shmuel Ha-Nagid, etc.) 3. Cordoba, Maimonides, Conversion V. The Birth of Modern Jewish History Feb. 9, 11 Tuesday: Inquisition, Expulsion, Renaiissance, and the Creation of Sephardic Jews Thursday Professor Brian Catlos, associate professor of history at UC Santa Cruz, Jewish, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Spain 1. The Jews, p. 174-203 2. Inquisition and Expulsion Material 3. Baruch Spinoza, Letter to Albert Burgh 4. Amsterdam Jewry and Its Debate with Peter Stuyvesant (see weblinks) Upload short papers on Pre-Modern Jewish History, Thursday, February 11 VI. Jewish Life in Early Modern Europe and the New World Feb. 16, 18 Tuesday: Daily Life/Glikl Thursday: Kabbalah and Hasidism 1. The Jews, pp. 204-229 2. Documents on the Council of the Four Lands 3. The BeShT and Hasidism 4. Selections from Glikl of Hameln (blackboard) 5. Chametzky, Felstiner, Hellerstein, eds., Literature of Arrival, 1654-1880, Jewish American Literature (New York: Norton, 2001), ISBN 0-393-04809-8 Watch First Two Hours of Jewish Americans VII. Emancipation and Modernization in Europe and the New World: Can Jews Be Citizens? (18 th century). Feb. 23, 25 Tuesday: States and Their Jews Thursday: Mendelsohn, Graetz, and Jews Modernization 1. The Jews, pp. 231-258. 2. John Toland, Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews 3. Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, Concerning the Amerlioration of the Civil Status of the Jews 4. Joseph II, Edict of Tolerance
5. Documents from the French Revolution and Napoleon s Sanhedrin 6. Moses Mendelssohn, The Right to Be Different Judaism as Revealed legislation Judaism is the Cornerstone of Christianity 7. Jewish American Literature Rebecca Graetz Goldberger Week of Jewish Culture, A Part of Jewish MoVeRs (www.jewishmovers.org) VIII. Responses to Modernization and the Emergence of New Jewish Identities: Europe and America (19 th century), Mar. 2, 4 Tuesday: Reform and Response Thursday: Combined Class, Hasidism and Neo-Hasidism 1. The Jews, pp. 260-274, 282-293. 2. Rebbe Nachman s Tales 3. Solomon Maimon, My Emergence from Talmudic Darkness The New Hasidim 4. Documents on early German Reform Judaism (JMW, 316-321) 5. Documents from the Alliance Israelite Universelle 6. The Pittsburgh Platform of Reform Judaism (JMW, 468-9) 7. Kaufman Kohler, The Concordance of Judaism and Americanism (JMW, 471-2) IX. Eastern European Jews: Haphazard Emancipation Fostering Modern Jewish Nationalism. Mar. 9,11. Tuesday, Visiting Lecturer: Jay Michaelson, Everything is Judaism: Radical Theology Thursday: Eastern European Jews Modernizing 1. TJ: 275-282, 294-297 2. Sholem Aleichem, Chava 3. Osip Rabinowitch, Russian Must Be Our Mother Tongue 4. Judah Leib Gordon, Awake My People For Whom Do I Toil X. Can Jews Integrate? Antisemitism and Its Effects on Modern Jewish Culture and Society March 16,18 Tuesday: History of Anti-Jewish Sentiment Thursday: Birth of Modern Anti-Semitism 1. TJ: pp. 298-312 2. Voltaire_De Pinto, Bauer, Marr, Protocols 3. Pauline Wengeroff, pp. 215-237. Upload Second Short Papers: Jews, Emancipation, and Modernity SPRING BREAK Watch Second Two Hours of Jewish Americans Over Break
XI. Should Jews Integrate? The Rise of Socialism, Zionism and Secular Jewish Identities and Cultures, March 30, April 1 Tuesday: NO CLASS MARCH 30 DUE TO PASSOVER Thursday: Socialism and Zionism 1. TJ: 313-329 2. Aaron Liebermann, The Jewish Question in Eastern Europe in Jew in the Modern World (JMW, 405) 3. Theordor Herzl, A Solution to the Jewish Question (JMW, 533-538) 4. Protestrabbiner (JMW, 538-9) 5. Yitzhak Epstein, The Hidden Question 6. BILU Manifesto (JMW, 532) 7. Dovid Edelshtadt in Jewish American Literature 8. Rosa Luxemburg, No Room in My Heart 9. Deutscher, Isaac, "The Non-Jewish Jew," in The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays (London: Oxford University Press, 1968) Watch First half of Sunshine XII. WWI and Interwar Jewish Culture and Life April 6, 8 Tuesday: Robby Adler-Peckerar, Jews and Soccer Thursday: Film Day. Christian to Show Two Shorts Upload Your Short Paper on Interwar Jews. Readings: 1. The Jews: pp. 334-373. 2. Isaac Babel, How It Was Done in Odessa 3. Franz Kafka, My Father s Bourgeois Judaism 4. Sigmund Freud, Address to the Society of Bnai Brith 5. Franz Rosenzweig, Jewish Learning and the Return to Judaism 6. Bertha Pappenheim, The Jewish Woman 7. C.N. Bialik, selected works 8. Mani Leyb and Jacob Glatshteyn in Jewish American Literature Show Five Cities of Eastern Europe, Sjabat XIII. Antisemitism and The Holocaust Through the Eyes of Survivors April 13, 15 Tuesday: What the Nazis did to Jews Thursday: What the Jews did during the Holocaust 1. TJ: 374-405 2. Documents on the Holocaust in Jew in the Modern World 3. Art Spiegelman, Maus, in Jewish American Literature
Torah Queeries Book Launch, Wednesday April 14 th at 7pm XIV. New Centers of Global Jewry April 20, 22. Tuesday: Visiting Lecturer: Daniel Itzkovitz, Professor of American Studies, Stonehill College. Sarah Silverman in the Age of Obama Thursday: Visiting Lecturer: Caryn Aviv, New Jews in Israel, the US, and Beyond 1. The Jews: 406-442 2. Shneer and Aviv, New Jews, chp. 1, 2, 3,5. 3. Shneer, The Third Way: Russian-Jewish German Jewry in the 21 st Century 4. Proclamation of the State of Israel Watch Rest of Jewish Americans XV. READING WEEK: TAKE HOME FINAL EXAM