Prof. Magda Teter
 208 PAC 
 E-mail:  mteter@wesleyan.edu
 Tel. ext. 5356
Classes: T 7-9:50 PM
Location: 136 PAC 
Office Hours: Monday 12-1:30 PM; Thursday: 10:30-12:30 or by appointment

 
This course will focus on the challenges "modernity" posed to Jews and Judaism and how Jews responded to them in history and historiography.  We will look at various aspects of "Jewish modernity" ranging from religious reform, relations between the non-Jewish state and the Jews, nationalism and Jewish identities before and after Zionism, feminism and gender.  We will try to see whether the these issues were specific for the Jewish community or whether they are part of broader social struggles with "modernity."  During the course we will read primary and secondary sources and watch films.

NOTE for HISTORY MAJORS: This course fulfills the requirements for European concentration; it may also count toward Gender and History concentration with an appropriate research assignment.


 
Books available for purchase at Atticus:

Susan Glenn Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation
Arthur Hertzberg Zionist Idea (Atheneum).
Theodor Herzl Jewish State (Dover)
Theodor Herzl Old New Land (Wiener)
Moses Mendelssohn Jerusalem (Brandeis)
Paul Mendes-Flohr (ed.) Jew in the Modern World (Oxford)
Michael Stanislawski Zionism and the Fin de Siecle (U California Press)
 

Additional readings are either available on line or will be available in hand-outs.
 

Wesleyan University's Library offers a lot of  valuable research
resources, contact Alan Nathanson to guide you through the
Library's treasures.

 REQUIREMENTS


1. 01/28 Introduction:Questions of Modernity:  *Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth,  "Beyond History," Rethinking History 5 (2) 2001: 195-215; * Bjorn Wittrock,  "Modernity:  One, None, or Many?," Daedalus 129 (1) 2000: 31-60; *M. Meyer "Where Does the Modern Period of Jewish History Begin?", Judaism 24 (1975)  FILM: Hester Street

SPECIAL EVENT--ATTENDANCE REQUIRED:  01/29: Etgar Keret, Israeli writer and film maker, talk and film screening: 001 PAC, 4 PM

2. 02/04 Modernity and Emancipation: *Heinrich Graetz; *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;*Lois Dubin, "Between Toleration and "Equalities" -- Jewish Status and Community in Pre-Revolutionary Europe" in Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 1 (2002): 219-234; *Harvey Goldberg "Introduction" in Harvey Goldberg ed. Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries: History and Culture in the Modern Era, 1-55; *Jew in the Modern World, 28-53, 114-121; 123-136.

3. 02/11 German Haskalah and Education: *Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem; *Jew in the Modern World,  70-91.

4. 02/18 Religious Reform: *Jew in the Modern World: 161-169; 173-188; 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).
RESEARCH TOPICS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE

Th. 02/20 SPECIAL EVENT -- ATTENDANCE REQUIERED:  John Klier "A Cossack in the Garden: Re-Examining the Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Russian Empire," CSS Lounge, 4:15PM

5. 02/25 Reaction to Reform and the Rise of Orthodoxy: *Samson Raphael Hirsch Nineteenth Letters (hand-out); * Jew in the Modern World: 169-172, 188-206; 211-240;

Monday 03/03 SPECIAL EVENT -- ATTENDANCE REQUIRED: Adam Teller "Hasidism and the Interpretation of Space: On the Polish Background to the Spread of the Hasidic Movement," CSS Lounge, 4:15 PM

6. 03/4 Feminism and Gender:  *Avrohom Blumenkranz, Gefen Porioh: The Laws of Niddah (New York, 1984); *Freehof,Modern Reform Responsa (HUC Press, 1973), nos. 8, 54; *Freehof, Reform Responsa ((HUC Press 1963), nos. 6;  FILM: Half the Kingdom BIBLIOGRAPHIC ASSIGNEMT DUE

SPRING BREAK 03/07-03/24

7. 03/25  Feminism and Gender II: Modern Dilemmas: Gay and Lesbian Issues: *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: Bubbeh Lee and Me OUTLINE DUE

8. 04/01 6:30 PM Nationalism: *Eric HobsbawmNations and Nationalism 8:00 PM 150 SCIENCE CENTER: Screening of Trembling before G-d.

9. 04/08 Zionism I: *Theodore Herzl Jewish State; *Herzl Old New Land; *Michael Stanislawski, Zionism and the Fin de Siècle (Berkeley, 2000), xiii-xxi, 1-18.

10. 04/15 Zionism II: *Hayim Nahman Bialik "City of Slaughter" and "Ha-Matmid"; *Zionist Idea, 231-278, 406-416; 545-571; *Jew in the Modern World:  547-548; *Stanislawski, Zionism and the Fin de Siècle, 19-73; 178--239; FILM: Wooden Guns

11. 04/22 Other Forms of Jewish Nationalism: *Simon Dubnow "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" in Nationalism and History (Hand-out); *Jew in the Modern World, 419-423, 424-425; *Nokhum Shtif "How I Became a Yiddish Linguist" in Lucy Dawidowicz ed. Golden Tradition, 256-263; *Jacob Shatzky "Balance Sheet of a Jewish Historian" in Golden Tradition FIRST DRAFT DUE

12. 04/29 Migrations and Identities: *Susan Glenn Daughters of the Shtetl;*Jew in the Modern World: 469-488; 490-98; FILM: Present Memory

13. THURSDAY 05/08 Questions of Modern Jewish Dilemmas and Identity: *Jew in the Modern World: 517-522;*Michael Meyer "Being Jewish and..."  in Steve Martin Cohen ed., National Variations in Jewish Identity: Implications for Jewish Education, 21-34

FINAL PAPERS DUE: TUESDAY 05/11 at 5 PM