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.
Early modern period:
2. Wed. 09/07 New Era of Printing: Impact of Print on Jewish Culture: ERESERVES:
- Michael Gullick "How Fast Did Scribes Write? Evidence from Romanesque Manuscipts" in Making the Medieval Book: Techniques of Production;
- Natalie Zemon Davis: "Printing and the People" in Society and Culture in Early Modern France: 189-227;
- Primary text: Jew in the Medieval World, chapter 82;
- Book of Women's Commandments (Seder Mizvot Nashim, 1577) on www.earlymodern.org
- Organizing Jewish Books: The Book of the Sleeping (Sefer Siftei Yashanim 1630)
3. Wed. 09/12 After the Expulsion: Historiography, Kabbalah, and Messianic Expectations
- Gershom Scholem Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism lectures 7: "Isaac Luria and His School"
- Yerushalmi Zakhor ch. 3;
- Texts by Hayim Vital, Yehuda Hayat (read the introduction and the text under "English", Isaac de Lattes on the printing of the Zohar on www.earlymodern.org
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:
- Gershom Scholem Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism lecture 8: "Sabbatianism and Mystical Heresy";
- J. Marcus Jew in the Medieval World chs. 35, 51, 52,53
- Shabbatai Zvi in Lawrence Fine, Judaism in Practice, 470-482
6. Wed. 09/21 ENDNOTE SESSION in PAC 100
7. Mon. 09/26 Jewish Life and Culture:
- Leon Modena in Lawrence Fine, Judaism in Practice, 453-467
- Glickl of Hamlin in Lawrence Fine, Judaism in Practice, 484-497
- Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality, 15-37, 48-64;
- Joseph Davis "The Reception of the Shulhan `Aruk" in AJS Review 26 no. 2 (2002);
- Jew in the Medieval World, chapters 42, 77-III, 84;
- and a selection from the Shulhan Arukh.
Further recommended reading: Fram, Ideals Face Reality, 67-105
8. Wed. 09/28 Protestant Reformation, Counter-Reformation and the Jews.
- J. Marcus Jew in the Medieval World ch.33-34;
- Thomas Kaufmann "Luther and the Jews"
- Achim Detmers, "Calvin, the Jews, and Judaism."
- K. Stow "The Burning of the Talmud in 1553,
- Miriam Bodian, "In the Cross-Currents of Tthe Reformation: Crypto Jewish Martyrs of the Inquisition 1570-1670" in Past and Present 176 (2002): 66-104
- DRAFT of the LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT DUE Monday 10/03
9. Mon. 10/03 Intellectual crisis and "Precursors" of Modernity: Spinoza
- Spinoza Theological-Political Treatise, Preface, chapters:1-8, 11-17, 19-20 (on Moodle).
- Marcus Jew in the Medieval World, ch.69; Jew in the Modern World pp. 57-58)
10. Wed. 10/05 Jews in Muslim Lands
- Mark Cohen, "Islam and the Jews: Myths, Counter-Myths, History" in Jews among Muslims: Communities in Precolonial Middle East (NYU Press, 1996);
- Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 1-40;
- N. Stillman The Jews of Arab Lands, 278, 288-92; 312-316, 318-321, 324-339, 349-356, 365-66;
- J. Marcus Jew in the Medieval World ch. 83)
11. Mon. 10/10 The Meaning of Modernity and Social and Legal Changes:
- M. Meyer "Where Does the Modern Period of Jewish History Begin?", Judaism 24 (1975),
- Salo Baron "Ghetto and Emancipation," Menorah Journal 14 (1928): 515-526;
- Masters, Christians and Jews, 41-97;
- Zvi Zahav "Sephardic Rabbinic Responses to Modernity" in Jews among Muslims: Communities in Precolonial Middle East (NYU Press, 1996).
12. Wed. 10/12 The Enlightenment: Moses Mendelssohn and the Berlin Haskalah vs. the Enlightenment in the East:
- Moses Mendelssohn Jerusalem (33-75, 77-139),
- Jew in the Modern World, 74-80, 357-362, 378-380
- FINAL LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT DUE FRIDAY 10/14 at 4:30 pm.
Modernity:
13. Mon. 10/17 Revolution and Emancipation. Jew in the Modern World pp.123-157; 163-176
- MIDTERM ANNOUNCED AND POSTED ONLINE
14 Wed. 10/19 Responses to Modernity I: Religious Reform
- Jew in the Modern World pp. 84-90, 182-189; 201-202; 207--211;
- M. Meyer Origins of the Modern Jew p. 115-144)
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
- Jew in the Modern World pp.189-201; 220-231, 365-377
- The Baal Shem Tov and the Gaon of Vilna in Lawrence Fine, Judaism in Practice, 498-520
16. Mon. 10/31 Responses to Modernity III: Acculturation, Conversions, and the Science of Judaism
- Jew in the Modern World pp.202-206, 217-219, 236-260, 261-266, 273-275.
- Y.H. Yerushalmi Zakhor "Modern Dilemmas: Historiography and Its Discontents"
- M. Meyer The Origins of the Modern Jew p. 85-115, 144-183; (optional)
- Paper Assignment Announced.
17. Wed. 11/02 Responses to Modernity IV: Jews in Arab Lands:
- The Jew in the Modern World, 444-469.
- Norman Stillman, Jews in Arab Lands in Modern Times, 467-469, 511-515, 522-530.
- Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews, 130-199
11/03 AMOZ OZ "Israel through Its Literature" The Memorial Chapel, 8pm.
18. Mon. 11/07 Jewish Women and Modernity.
- P. Hyman, Gender and Assimilation 10-92;
- Jew in the Modern World pp. 383-385, 405-407, 473-477, 808-809, 824-825, 841-846.
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
- T. Herzl The Jewish State, pp. 69-157 (in the Dover edition)
- Jew in the Modern World, 588-598; 606-610, 613, 616-617, 660
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
- Jew in the Modern World pp. 395-397, 509-510, 514, 517-518, 532-537, 541-542, 545-546, 548-549, 568-570, 681-682.
- P. Hyman Gender and Assimilation 93-133
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
- Jew in the Modern World, 411-433
- Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness, 81-106
- Awakening Lives, ch. 12 "Esther"
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:
- Jew in the Modern World, 603-633
- Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness,1-81
Tue. 12/06 Film "Between Two Worlds", 7pm PAC 004 -- dinner will be served
26. Wed. 12/07 Modern Jewish Identity
- Jew in the Modern World p. 861-878
- Jeremy Gillick and Nonna Garilovskaya, "Meet Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz (aka) Jon Stewart"
- The Great Schlep-Sara Silverman
PAPERS DUE FRIDAY, 12/09 at 4 pm
FINAL EXAM WILL BE A TAKE HOME EXAM DUE AT THE REGISTRAR'S SCHEDULED TIME