Magda Teter :: Professor of History

This course offers Jewish history in Eastern Europe that takes us beyond the (legendary) shtetl and into a complex, more textured world of Jews living among Christians from the beginnings of Jewish settlement in the thirteenth century to the contemporary period and Poland's small Jewish community, trying to reinvent Jewish life in Poland in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the 1968 forced migrations.

Descendants of East European Jews are now the largest demographic group among Jews in the United States, they were crucial in shaping American culture and media. But until the Second World War, Jews in Eastern Europe were the largest Jewish community in the world. From the 16th century, their impact on Jewish culture and society has been tremendous, from shaping one of the most important codes of Jewish law, the Shulhan Arukh, in the 16th/17th centuries, to shaping the ideology of the Zionist movement at the turn of the 20th century. Yet, the history of this important Jewish community has been vastly misunderstood, largely due to the devastating legacy of the Holocaust and the persistence of imagery of "the shtetl" created by 19th- and early 20th-century writers of Yiddish fiction, later popularized through Broadway plays and films such as "Fiddler on the Roof."

Films and additional lectures and workshops will be part of the class.

This is a "service-learning" course. One of the assignments will be related to the collection of Judaica from eastern Europe at the Adath Israel Congregation in Middletown. Students will be part of a workshop on Jewish art and material culture and will investigate the material aspects of Jewish culture.

Course Requirements Course Readings

SCHEDULE

Week 1:

1. Thursday 01/20 Introduction: East European Jewish History

Week 2:

2. Tuesday 01/25: The Image of the Shtetl

"Mendele: The Calf" in A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, 97-111;
"Sholem Aleichem" Tevye the Dairyman, "Chava", "Schprinze," and "Tevye Leaves for the Holy Land", 53-116;
I.L. Peretz "Bontche Shvayg" and "The Dead Town" in The I.L. Peretz Reader, 146-152; 162-171.
Alana Newhouse, "A Closer Reading of Roman Vishniac," New York Times Magazine, April 1, 2010
Optional Reading: Dan Miron, "The Literary Image of the Shtetl" in Jewish Social Studies 1,3 (1995) 1-43;
Also useful: Thomas Hubka "The Shtetl in Context" on www.earlymodern.org; Dan Miron A Traveller Disguised, pp. xiii-xxvii, 1-33; Adam Teller "The Shtetl as an Arena for Polish-Jewish Integration in the Eighteenth-Century" in Polin 17 (2004), 25-40; Jack Kugelmass and Jonathan Boyarin "Yizker Bikher and the Problem of Historical Veracity: An Anthropological Approach" in Yisrael Gutman, Ezra Mendelsohn et al. eds, The Jews of Poland between Two World Wars, 519-536;

3. Thursday 01/27: The beginnings

S. Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, pp. 1-16;
Omelijan Pristak "The Pre-Ashkenazic Jews of eastern Europe in Relation to the Khazars, the Rus' and the Lithuanians" in Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective, pp. 3-21,
Primary Sources: Polish and Jewish Legends (on Moodle)
Suggested Supplementary Readings: Baron SRHJ vol. III pp. 213-220, Baron SRHJ vol. XVI, pp 3-23; Bernard Weinryb "Immigration and Settlement" in The Jews of Poland" pp.17-27; Israel Ta-Shma "On the History of the Jews in Twelfth and Thirteenth-Century Poland, Polin 10 (1997): 287-317; P. Wexler "The Reconstruction of Pre-Ashkenazic Jewish Settlements in the Slavic Lands in the Light of Linguistic Sources"

4. Tuesday 02/01: Jewish status in Medieval Poland

Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, pp. 16-45;
Baron SRHJ vol. XVI, pp. 120-163;
Maurycy Horn, "Jewish Jurisdiction's dependence on Royal Power in Poland and Lithuania up to 1548" Acta Poloniae Historica [Poland] 1997 (76): 5-17.
Privilege of Boleslav the Pious of 1264 (on Moodle).
Primary Sources: Royal privilege of 1453 on www.earlymodern.org; Privilege for the Jews of the Przemyśl Region and Rus', Privilege for the Jews of Lw? presented by Adam Teller in Summer 2008
Suggested Supplementary Reading: Wyczański "Problem of authority in sixteenth-century Poland" and Mączak "The Structure of Power in the Commonwealth of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries" in J. Fedorowicz, ed., A Republic of Nobles (Cambridge University Press, 1982), 91-134 [available on Ereserves] Rosman "The Lords' Jews, 1-74 (=60pp); Baron SRHJ vol. XVI, pp. 120-163; J. Goldberg "De non tolerandis iudaeis" Studies in Jewish History Presented to Professor Raphael Mahler, pp. 39-52; Maurycy Horn, "Jewish Jurisdiction's dependence on Royal Power in Poland and Lithuania up to 1548" Acta Poloniae Historica [Poland] 1997 (76): 5-17;

REQUIRED EVENT: The Frankel Memorial Lecture: Film Showing, Farewell My Country, a film by Andrzej Krakowski about the 1968 exodus of Jews from Poland. Powell Family Cinema at the Film Studies, 8pm.

5. Thursday 02/03: The Catholic Church and the Jews

Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, pp.82-87
Teter, Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp.1-20.
Early Church decrees regarding Jews in Poland

6. Tuesday 02/08: Adath Israel Museum Workshop - we will meet at the Adath Israel

Jules Prown, "Mind Matter: an Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method," Winterthur Portfolio 17 no. 1 (Spring 1982): 1-19
Cary Carson, "Material Culture History: Scholarship Nobody Knows" in American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field, eds. Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison (Winterthur: Winterthur Museum, 1997), 401-428
Richard Grassby, "Material Culture and Cultural History," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35 no. 4 (Spring 2005): 591-603

First paper assignment announced

7. Thursday 02/10 The Changing Political and Religious Landscape: The Reformation

Teter, Jews and Heretics, chapters 2-3
Selections from Isaac ben Abraham of Troki, Hizzuk Emunah [Faith Strengthened]

8. Tuesday 02/15 Jews and the Nobles

Teter, Jews and Heretics, chapter 5
Moshe Rosman, Lord's Jews, chapters 1-3,
Primary Sources: Jampol private privilege of 1711 presented by Adam Teller in Summer 2004 and 1711 Lithuanian Tribunal Decree presented by Magda Teter in the Summer of 2005

Suggested supplementary reading: Gershon Hundert Jews in Poland-Lithuania, 79-118; M. Rosman, Lords' Jews, ch.7: "The Magnates and the Jewish Community"; Adam Teller "Radziwill, Rabinowicz and the Rabbi of Swierz: The Magnates' Attitude to Jewish Regional Autonomy in the 18th Century."

Extra credit event: 2/15 Hankus Netsky will speak on American klezmer, CFA Hall, 7pm

9. Thursday 02/17 Economic Life

Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality, chapters 5-7, pp. 106-163
G. Hundert " Jews, Money and Society in the Seventeenth Century Polish Commonwealth: The Case of Cracow" in Jewish Social Studies 43/3-4 (Fall 1981) pp. 261-274.
Primary Sources: Nathan Nata Hanover, Abyss of Despair, 23-109; The Will of Todros Kozuchowski translated by Moshe Rosman in 2006 at the www.earlymodern.org
Suggested Supplementary Reading: Ereserves: Hundert Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century, 32-56. Bogucka, "Polish Towns between Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries" in J. Fedorowicz, ed., A Republic of Nobles (Cambridge University Press, 1982),135-152

First assignment DUE: Friday 02/18 at 3pm

10. Tuesday 02/22 Daily Life: Jewish-Christian Relations

Fram, Ideals Face Reality, chapter 1
Teter, Jews and Heretics, chapter 4
Magda Teter and Edward Fram, Apostasy, Fraud, and the Beginnings of Hebrew Printing in Cracow, AJS Review, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Apr., 2006), pp. 31-66
Primary Sources: Trials of two converts to Judaism in Dubno 1716 presented by Magda Teter at the www.earlymodern.org website

Extra Credit Event: 2/22 Michael Winograd, klezmer performance, CFA Hall, 7pm

11. Thursday 02/24 The Catholic Church and the Jews after the Reformation

Teter, Jews and Heretics, chapters 6-7
Kalik "Patterns of Contact between the Catholic Church and the Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: The Jewish Debts" in Studies in the History of the Jews in Old Poland in Honor of Jacob Goldberg, pp.102-122
Primary Sources: Church Robbery and Host Desecration text on www.earlymodern.org

12. Tuesday 03/01 Jewish Community and Culture in Pre-Modern Poland I: Rabbis and the Formal Community

Fram, Ideals Face Reality, "Introduction" and chapters 2--4, pp. 1-12, 38-105
Edward Fram "Two Cases of Adultery and the Halakhic Decision-Making Process," AJS Review 26, no. 2 (2002), 277-300;
Magda Teter, "There Should Be No Love Between Us and Them"
Primary Sources: Nathan Nata Hanover, Abyss of Despair, chapter 16, pp.110-121; Community ordinances of Cracow (1595), Ordinance of Poznań (1686), A Responsum by Rabbi Isaac the Great of Poznań on www.earlymodern.org
Suggested supplementary reading: Israel Bartal "The Pinkas of the Council of Four Lands" in Jews in Old Poland 1000-1795, 110-118; Mordekhai Nadav "Regional Aspects of the Autonomy of Polish Jews: The History of the Tykocin Kehilla, 1670-1782; Gershon Hundert "The Kehilla and the Municipality in Private Towns at the End of the Early Modern Period," Gershon Hundert Jews in Poland-Lithuania, 79-118; J. Goldberg "The Jewish Sejm; Its Origins and Functions". pp. 147-165; Sh. Ettinger "The Council of the Four Lands" in Jews in Old Poland 1000-1795, pp. 93-109; Lords' Jews, ch.7: "The Magnates and the Jewish Community"; Adam Teller "Radziwill, Rabinowicz and the Rabbi of Swierz: The Magnates' Attitude to Jewish Regional Autonomy in the 18th Century,"

13. Thursday 03/03 Jewish Community and Culture in Pre-Modern Poland II: Women and Popular Culture

Magda Teter, The Legend of Ger Zedek (Righteous Convert to Judaism) of Wilno as Polemic and Reassurance, AJS Review, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Nov., 2005), pp. 237-263
Moshe Rosman, "The History of Women in Early Modern Poland" in Jewish Women in Eastern Europe, Polin 18, pp. 25-56
Primary Sources: A Book of Women's Commandments, Hillel Baal Shem on www.earlymodern.org

First assignment (final revised version) DUE: Thursday 03/03 at 4pm

Friday 03/04 Trip to New York: the Tenement Museum and the Jewish Museum

03/05-03/20 SPRING BREAK

14. Tuesday 03/22 Polish Partitions and the Rise of New Jewries: Political Status

Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe 1772-1881, chapters 2-3, 5-6
Franz Szabo "Austrian First Impressions of Ethnic Relations in Galicia" in Focusing on Galicia: Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians 1772-1918, Polin 12, 49-60
Primary Sources: Texts nos. 2-4 in Chapter VIII "East European Jewry" in Jew in the Modern World

MIDTERM announced 03/21

15. Thursday 03/24 Jewish Culture: the Enlightenment and Modernity

Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe 1772-1881, chapters 8-9
Shulamit Magnus, "Sins of Youth, Guilt of a Grandmother: M. L. Lilienblum, Pauline Wengeroff, and the Telling of Jewish Modernity in Eastern Europe in Jewish Women in Eastern Europe, Polin 18, 87-120
Primary Sources: Texts nos. 6-9, 16-20 in Chapter VIII "East European Jewry" in Jew in the Modern World

MIDTERM DUE: Friday 03/25 at 3pm

16. Tuesday 03/29 Jewish Culture: Orthodoxy, East vs. West

Moshe Rosman, Essential Papers on Hasidism, 209-225
Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe 1772-1881, chapters 4, 10-11
Primary Sources: Texts nos. 10-15 in Chapter VIII "East European Jewry" in Jew in the Modern World

17. Thursday 03/31 Jewish Culture: Economic Life

Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe 1772-1881, chapter 3
Rebecca Kobrin, Jewish Bialystok and Its Diaspora, chapter 1
Selection of Primary Sources

18. Tuesday 04/05 Secular Identity: Diaspora Nationalism and Socialism

Primary Sources: Texts nos. 21, 30-31, 33-34 in Chapter VIII "East European Jewry" in Jew in the Modern World and text no. 12 in Chapter V; S. Dubnow "The Doctrine of Jewish Nationalism,"Jews as a Spiritual (Cultural-Historical) Nationality in the Midst of Political Nations,"
Optional readings: Dubnow "Autonomism: The Basis of the National Program," "On National Education," "Jewish History"; R. Seltzer "From Graetz to Dubnow: The Impact of the East European Milieu on the Writing of Jewish History" in The Legacy of Jewish Migration: 1881 and its Impact ed. D. Berger, pp.49-60;

Extra Credit Event: 4/5 Olga Litvak will speak on Sholem Aleichem, CFA Hall, 7pm

19. Thursday 04/07 Nationalism: Zionism

Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe 1772-1881, chapters 12-13
Primary Sources: Texts nos. 23-25, 27, 32 in Chapter VIII "East European Jewry" in Jew in the Modern World and texts no. 1, 5, 12, 14, 16-17 in Chapter X "Zionism"

Object description due, Friday, 04/08 at 3 pm

20. Tuesday 04/12 Workshop at the Adath Israel Congregation with Professor Sabar Shalom

Required Lecture: Professor Sabar Shalom of Hebrew University

21. Thursday 04/14 Workshop at the Adath Israel Congregation with Professor Sabar Shalom

Contextual/historical essay about the object due Monday 04/18 at 3 pm

22. Tuesday 04/19 Jews in the Soviet Union

Zvi Gitelman, Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, ch. 2
Primary Sources: Texts nos. 35-38, 40, 43 in Chapter VIII "East European Jewry" in Jew in the Modern World

23. Thursday 04/21 Poland between Wars

Kobrin, Jewish Bialystok, chapters 2-3
Eva Plach, "Feminism and Nationalism on the Pages of Ewa 1928-1933" in in Jewish Women in Eastern Europe, Polin 18, 241-262
Primary Sources: Texts nos. 39, 41-42 in Chapter VIII "East European Jewry" in Jew in the Modern World; Awakening Lives, ch. 12 "Esther" and 13 "J. Harefuler"

24. Tuesday 04/26 WWII:

Jan Gross, Fear, chapter 1 "Poland Abandoned"
Zvi Gitelman, Century of Ambivalence, ch. 4 "The Holocaust"
Primary Sources: Texts nos. 24-29, 31-35 in Chapter XI "The Holocaust" in Jew in the Modern World

25. Thursday 04/28 Jews in Eastern Europe after WWII

Jan Gross, Fear, chapter 2 "The Unwelcoming of Jewish Survivors"
Kobrin, Jewish Bialystok, chapter 5
Primary Sources: Memoir of Michal Friedman

Final revised object assignment due April 29 at 3pm

26. Tuesday 05/03 Jews in Eastern Europe--A Reassessment: History and Memory