HIST386: Jews and Modernity: History and Historiography

This course will examine dilemmas and challenges Jews faced in modern times. We discuss the notions of "traditional societies" and their transformations in the modern period. Was it really a rupture, as historian Jacob Katz has argued in his book, Tradition and Crisis? How did the broader social and political transformations influence Jews. Was their experience of "modernity" different from that of their non-Jewish neighbors? We will read texts that focus on these challenges and Jewish responses to them. We will also explore the historical narratives of the transformations created by historians. The readings will include both primary and secondary sources. We will also view some films that address issues pertaining to the topic of the course.

CLASS SCHEDULE FOR SPRING 2006

1. 01/30 Introduction: Questions of Jewish History and Modernity: 

• Simon Dubnow, "Modern Period" in Nationalism and History, Koppel Pinson ed. (Philadelphia, 1958), 314-322;

• Salo Baron "Ghetto and Emancipation," Menorah Journal 14 (1928): 515-526

• Katz, Tradition and Crisis, 10-37, 65-87, 113-124, 183-201, 214-225.

• Harvey Goldberg "Introduction" in Harvey Goldberg ed. Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries: History and Culture in the Modern Era, 1-55;

• Bring to class (recommended reading beforehand): Jew in the Modern World, 28-53, 114-121; 123-136.

• Recommended: Michael Meyer "Where Does the Modern Period of Jewish History Begin?", Judaism 24 (1975) and Lois Dubin, "Between Toleration and "Equalities" -- Jewish Status and Community in Pre-Revolutionary Europe" in Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 1 (2002): 219-234;

2. 02/06 Samuel and Dorothy Frankel Memorial Lecture:Steven J. Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor and Director, Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University"I Have Not Told Half of What I Saw": On Reading Isaac Rosenfeld. Russell House, 8 pm

3. 02/13 Endnote session and German Haskalah and Education:

• Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem,  33-75, 77-139;

• Jew in the Modern World,  70-91

4. 02/20 Religious Reform and the Rise of Orthodoxy:

• Jew in the Modern World: 161-206; 468-9;

• M. Meyer "Jewish Religious Reform and Wissenschaft des Judentums: The Position of Zunz, Geiger and Frankel", LBIY 16 (1971);

• M. Meyer ?The Religious Reform Controversy in the Berlin Jewish Community 1814-1823? LBIY XXIV (1979);

• RECOMMENDED: Samson Raphael Hirsch Nineteenth Letters

5. 02/27  Orthodoxy and Modernity:

• Noah Efron Real Jews (entire book) 

• In Class FILM A Gesheft.  RESEARCH TOPICS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

6. 03/06 Nationalism and History:

• Eric Hobsbawm Nations and Nationalism;

• Michael Brenner, "Same History Not the Same Story: Jewish History and Jewish Politics"

• RECOMMENDED: Heinrich Graetz, Yehezkel Kaufman, Ben-Zion Dinur and Salo Baron in M. Meyer Ideas of Jewish History, 219-244, 275-283, 286-298, 321-335.

Short paper on modern dilemma -- draft due

SPRING BREAK 03/10-03/26

7. 03/27  Zionism I:

• Theodore Herzl Jewish State;

• Hayim Nahman Bialik "City of Slaughter" and "Ha-Matmid" (handouts);

• Zionist Idea, 231-278, 406-416; 545-571;

• Jew in the Modern World:  547-548;

• FILM: Wooden Guns

• Recommended: Theodore Herzl, Old New Land,

• RECOMMENDED: Stanislawski, Zionism and the Fin de Si?le, xiii-xxi, 1-73; 178--239;

• RECOMMENDED: Jonathan Boyarin, "Palestine and Jewish History" [On BB "Course Documents"]

• RECOMMENDED: Arthur Goren "Sanctifying Mount Scopus" in Jewish History and Jewish Memory, ed. E. Carlebach, J. Efron and M. Myers;

8. 04/03: Other Forms of Jewish Nationalism:

• Simon Dubnow, Nationalism and History (handout):

  •  "The Doctrine of Jewish Nationalism,"Jews as a Spiritual (Cultural-Historical) Nationality in the Midst of Political Nations,"

  •  "Autonomism: The Basis of the National Program,"

  •  "On National Education," "Reality and Fantasy in Zionism," 

  •  "The Jewish Nationality Now and in the Future,"

  •  "Negation and Affirmation of the Diaspora in Ahad Ha-Am's Thought";

• Jew in the Modern World, 419-423, 424-425;

• Short paper on modern dilemma - final version

9. 04/10: Modern Israel:

• Tom Segev Elvis in Jerusalem.

• Derek Penslar, "Broadcast Orientalism: Representation of Mizrahi Jewry in Israeli Radio, 1948-1967" in Orientalism and the Jews, ed. Derek Penslar and Ivan Davidson Kalmar, 183-200.

• Film: TBA

• OUTLINE DUE

10. 04/17: Holocaust and Jewish Identity:

• Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, pp. ix-xvi, 1-67, 242-273;

• Zygmunt Bauman Modernity and the Holocaust (2000 edition), pp.222-250;

• Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry, pp. 1-38.

• FILM OUR CHILDREN

11. 04/24 Feminism and Gender: 

• Jody Myers and Jane Rachel Litman, "The Secret of Jewish Femininity: Hiddenness, Power, and Physicality in the Theology of ORthodox Jewish Women in the Contemporary World" in Gender and Judaism, ed. Tamar Rudavsky, pp. 51-77.

• Pamela Nadell, "The Women Who Would Be Rabbis" in Gender and Judaism, ed. Tamar Rudavsky, 123-134.

• Avrohom Blumenkranz, Gefen Porioh: The Laws of Niddah (New York, 1984)-- Handout;

• Freehof,Modern Reform Responsa (HUC Press, 1973), nos. 8, 54;

• Freehof, Reform Responsa ((HUC Press 1963), nos. 6; 

• FILM: Tahora/Purity THE TERM PAPER FIRST DRAFT DUE

12. 05/01   Feminism and Gender II: Modern Dilemmas: Gay and Lesbian Issues:

• Batya Bauman, "Women-identified Women in Male-identified Judaism" in On Being Jewish and Feminist, ed. Susannah Heschel, 88-95.

• Alice Bloch, "Scenes from the Life of a Jewish Lesbian" in On Being Jewish and Feminist, ed. Susannah Heschel, 171-176.

• Yaakov Levado "Gayness and God: Wrestlings of an Orthodox Rabbi;"

• A Letter to A Homosexual Baal Teshuvah,

• Harold Schulweis MORALITY, LEGALITY AND HOMOSEXUALITY and A SECOND LOOK AT HOMOSEXUALITY ;

• Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Homosexuality. 

• Freehof, Modern Reform Responsa (HUC Press, 1973), no.22 

• FILM: Trembling before G-d.

13. 05/08 : Migrations and Identities, and Questions of Modern Jewish Dilemmas and Identity:

• Jew in the Modern World: 469-488; 490-98; 517-522;

• Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin "The Zionist Return to the West and the Mizrahi Jewish Perspective" in Orientalism and the Jews, ed. Derek Penslar and Ivan Davidson Kalmar, 162-181.

• Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, "Art of Being Jewish" and "Kitchen Judaism" [on BlackBoard "Course Documents"].

• Jonathan Boyarin, "Lower East Side A Place of Forgetting" [on BB "Course Documents"]

• Michael Meyer "Being Jewish and..."  in Steve Martin Cohen ed., National Variations in Jewish Identity: Implications for Jewish Education, 21-34

TERM PAPER REWRITES DUE:  05/14 at 4 PM