Magda Teter-Professor of History Faculty Photo

Magda Teter

Professor
of History

Director of Jewish and Israel Studies Program

Wesleyan University

Allbritton 203

Middletown, CT 06459

Tel: 860.685.5356

Fax: 860.685.2078

mteter_at_wesleyan.edu

Office Hours: Wednesday 10:30-12, Thursday 9-11, or by appointment (please email for an appointment)


History Department

Home Full CV Jewish Studies at Wesleyan Early Modern Workshop
Jewish House Mahzor

HIST 248-Jewish History: From the Spanish Expulsion to Jon Stewart

This course explores Jewish history on the eve of modernity and during the modern era.  Modern Jewish experience has often been characterized as an era of increasing participation of Jews in the civil society, and was juxtaposed to the "premodern" era of the ghettoes.  This course will explore these dichotomous stereotypes, and introduce students to the complexity of the Jewish experience, their active involvement in the political and cultural processes that were taking place in the "non-Jewish" environment both before and during the modern times.  We will see Jews as a part of the social and cultural fabric, rather than an "alienated minority" whose history is separate from that of their surroundings. We will explore the transformations from a traditional society, defined by religious identities, into a modern society, of complex religious, ethnic, political identities.  We will look at the acceptance of and resistance to the new ideas brought by the Enlightenment, and explore the consequences of secularization of the society, including the rise of modern anti-Semitism, Jewish nationalism, Zionism, the Holocaust, questions of women and gender, migrations, religious fundamentalism, and American Jewish culture etc.

Course Requirements            Course Readings

CLASS SCHEDULE

1. Monday. 09/05 Introduction: From medieval times to modernity, the Geography of Jewish Settlements.

Maps

Early modern period:

2. Wed. 09/07  New Era of Printing: Impact of Print on Jewish Culture: ERESERVES:

3. Wed. 09/12 After the Expulsion: Historiography, Kabbalah, and Messianic Expectations  

4.Wed. 09/14  Visit to Special Collections.  Class will meet at  the Olin Library Special Collection: group 1: at 11:55 and group 2: 2:40

LIBRARY AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC ASSIGNMENT POSTED

5. Monday.  09/19 After the Expulsion: Messianic Expectations and Messianic Movements:

6. Wed. 09/21 ENDNOTE SESSION in PAC 100

7. Mon. 09/26  Jewish Life and Culture:

Further recommended reading: Fram, Ideals Face Reality, 67-105

8. Wed.  09/28 Protestant Reformation, Counter-Reformation and the Jews.

9. Mon. 10/03 Intellectual crisis and "Precursors" of Modernity: Spinoza

10. Wed. 10/05 Jews in Muslim Lands

11. Mon. 10/10   The Meaning of Modernity and Social and Legal Changes:

12. Wed. 10/12  The Enlightenment: Moses Mendelssohn and the Berlin Haskalah vs. the Enlightenment in the East:

Modernity:

 13. Mon. 10/17   Revolution and Emancipation. Jew in the Modern World pp.123-157; 163-176

14 Wed. 10/19  Responses to Modernity I: Religious Reform

MIDTERM DUE FRIDAY 10/21 at 5PM

OCTOBER BREAK 10/21 10pm-10/26: NO CLASS MON 10/24

15. Wed. 10/26 Responses to Modernity II: Orthodoxy East vs. West

16. Mon. 10/31 Responses to Modernity III: Acculturation, Conversions, and the Science of Judaism

17. Wed. 11/02  Responses to Modernity IV: Jews in Arab Lands:

11/03 AMOZ OZ "Israel through Its Literature" The Memorial Chapel, 8pm.

18. Mon. 11/07 Jewish Women and Modernity.

19. Wed. 11/09:  Stirrings of New Anti-Semitism. Jew in the Modern World pp. 279-289, 292-311, 319-332

11/10 Vivian Mann "Jewish Role in Islamic Art" PAC 004, 8pm.

20. Mon. 11/14 Jewish Nationalism: Zionism

21. Wed. 11/16 Other Forms of Jewish Nationalisms Jew in the Modern World pp. 380-382, 397-404, 268-269; 551-556.

Film Screening Th. 11/17: "Shreds of Memory" by Jolanta Dylewska, Goldsmith Family Cinema, 8 pm.

22. Mon. 11/21  Migrations

Paper Drafts Due Monday 11/21 9 PM

THANKSGIVING BREAK 11/22 (after classes end)-11/28: NO CLASS 11/24

23. Mon. 11/28 The Interwar Period

24. Wed. 11/30  The Second World War and the Holocaust: Jew in the Modern World, 716-726, 729-769, 776-783, 787.

Th, 12/01 FILM SCREENING, 7 pm, PAC 004, dinner will be served.

25. Mon. 12/05 Israel-A Modern State:

Tue. 12/06 Film "Between Two Worlds", 7pm PAC 004 -- dinner will be served

26. Wed. 12/07 Modern Jewish Identity

PAPERS DUE FRIDAY, 12/09 at 4 pm

FINAL EXAM WILL BE A TAKE HOME EXAM DUE AT THE REGISTRAR'S SCHEDULED TIME