Our concept of the life of east European Jews has been dominated by the Hollywood and Broadway blockbuster "Fiddler on the Roof." The "Shtetl" has been the paradigm of east European Jewish experience. But the powerful imagery of the "shtetl" is largely a creation of 19th-century writers. This is a course will take us beyond the "shtetl" and will look at the history the Jews in eastern Europe from the initial settlement of the Jews there until the eve of modernity. We will examine how historians and writers have shaped our understanding of Jewish history in that region, and the context in which the persisting imagery of eastern European Jews was created. Why were certain stories told? What can different historical sources show us about Jewish life in Eastern Europe? We will discuss how Jewish history in eastern Europe was studied by historians, and couple the narratives created by scholars with historical sources: privilege charters, crime records, rabbinic response, anti-Jewish literature, and others. We will try to probe the relation between history, historical sources, and historical writings.
Course Requirements Course Readings
Week 1:
1. Tu. 01/31 Introduction: ON ERESERVES:
- Larry Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe, pp. 1-16,
- "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.
Week 2:
2. Tu 02/07 The Shtetl-- WE WILL MEET AT 7 PM at the CFA lab AWKS 112.
- Dan Miron, "The Literary Image of the Shtetl" in Jewish Social Studies 1,3 (1995) 1-43;
- 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;
- Thomas Hubka "The Shtetl in Context" on www.earlymodern.org
Bibliographic Assignment Announced
Week 3
3.Tu. 02/14 Simon Dubnow and the Writing of Eastern European Jewish History:
- Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland pp. 495-499;
- 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;
- S. Dubnow "The Doctrine of Jewish Nationalism,"Jews as a Spiritual (Cultural-Historical) Nationality in the Midst of Political Nations,"
- HANDOUT: Dubnow "Autonomism: The Basis of the National Program," "On National Education," "Jewish History" Bibliographic Assignment Due
Week 4
4. Tu. 02/21: Historians, Historical Sources, Historiography:
- Hayden White, "The Burden of History," "Interpretation in History," "Historical Text as a Literary Artifact," "Historicism, History and the Figurative Imagination", "Fictions of Factual Representation" in Tropics of Discourse;
- Natalie Davis, Fiction in the Archives, 1-36, 111-114;
- Hayden White, "The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality" in The Content of the Form, 1-25;
- Primary Text: Trial of Maryna Litwinianka on BlackBoard First Paper Assigned
By NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE DISCUSSED YOUR PAPER TOPIC WITH ME
Week 5
Tu. 02/28 Narratives of the Origins:
- 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,
- 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; H
- and-out: P. Wexler "The Reconstruction of Pre-Ashkenazic Jewish Settlements in the Slavic Lands in the Light of Linguistic Sources") and Polish and Jewish Legends. DUE First Paper Draft Due
Week 6:
4. Tu. 03/07: Legal Status:
- Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, pp. 16-45;
- Rosman "The Lords' Jews, 1-74;
- 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;
- The royal privilege of 1453 and the Jampol private privilege of 1711 presented by Adam Teller in Summer 2004 on www.earlymodern.org Bibliography for your term paper: Monday 03/06 5 pm
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]
Final Draft of the First Paper Due FRIDAY 03/10 5 pm
SPRING BREAK 03/10-03/27
Week 7:
5. Tu. 03/28: Jews in Polish Economy:
- Dubnow, History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, 28-30, 66-69, 80-82 ;
- Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality, 106-128;
- Moshe Rosman, Lords' Jews, pp. 75-184;
- On ERESERVES: 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.
- Ereserves: Hundert Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century, 32-56.
Suggested Supplementary Reading: Bogucka, "Polish Towns between Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries" in J. Fedorowicz, ed., A Republic of Nobles (Cambridge University Press, 1982),135-152
Week 8: Jewish-Christian Relations: The Church, the accusations and the daily contacts
6. Tu. 04/04:
- Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, pp.82-87;
- Baron SRHJ vol. XVI, pp 89-120
- Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality, pp. 15-37;
- On ERESERVES: 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;
- on ERESERVES: Teter, Jews and Heretics, pp. 21-40, 59-79, 99-121
- Primary Text: Church Robbery and Host Desecration text on www.earlymodern.org, and the text of the trials of two converts to Judaism in Dubno 1716 (on BlackBoard).
Suggested supplementary reading: Teter, Jews and Heretics in Catholic Poland (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp.1-20, 41-79, 122-141
Notes from your research due and paper outline DUE
Week 9:
7. Tu. 04/11: Jewish Community and Self-Government:
- Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, pp. 28-51; 91-96;
- Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality, 38-47,
- Moshe Rosman Lords' Jews, ch.7: "The Magnates and the Jewish Community";
- Ereserve: Sh. Ettinger "The Council of the Four Lands" in Jews in Old Poland 1000-1795, pp. 93-109
- Ereserves J. Goldberg "The Jewish Sejm; Its Origins and Functions". pp. 147-165,
- Ereserve: 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;
- HANDOUT: Adam Teller "Radziwill, Rabinowicz and the Rabbi of Swierz: The Magnates' Attitude to Jewish Regional Autonomy in the 18th Century,"
- Mordekhai Nadav "Regional Aspects of the Autonomy of Polish Jews: The History of the Tykocin Kehilla, 1670-1782;
- Primary Sources: Community ordinances of Cracow (1595), Ordinance of Poznań (1686) 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;
Week 10:
8: Tu. 04/18: Religious Culture:
- Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland pp. 51-65; 96-99;
- Edward Fram, Ideals Face Reality, pp. 1-12, 48-105;
- On ERESERVES: Edward Fram "Two Cases of Adultery and the Halakhic Decision-Making Process," AJS Review 26, no. 2 (2002), 277-300;
- Ereserves Joseph Davis "The Reception of the Shulhan `Arukh and the Formation of Ashkenazic Jewish Identity," AJS Review 26, no. 2 (2002), 251-276;
- HANDOUT : Moshe Rosman "The History of Jewish Women in Early Modern Poland" in Polin 18, 25-56;
- ONLINE: A Responsum by Rabbi Isaac the Great of Poznań (1711), A Book of Women's Commandments, Hillel Baal Shem on www.earlymodern.org FIRST DRAFT DUE
Week 11:
9. Tu. 04/25: Narratives of the "Watershed:" The Chmielnicki Uprising of 1648-49:
- Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland pp. 66-82,
- Nathan Nata Hanover Abyss of Despair (Yeven Metsulah);
- On ERESERVES:Edward Fram, "Creating a Tale of Martyrdom in Tulczyn, 1648" in Jewish History and Jewish Memory, ed. Elisheva Carlebach, John Efron, et al. (Brandeis University Press, 1998), 89-112
- Supplementary readings: B. Weinryb The Jews of Poland pp. 181-205; F. Sysyn "A Contemporary's Account of the Causes of the Khmel'nytskyi Uprsing", HUS, vol.I, no.2, (1981) and "The Jewish Factor in the Khmiel'nyts'kyi Uprising" Ukrainian Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective, Edmonton 1990); .
Week 12:
10. Tu. 05/02: Hasidism:
- Dubnow History of the Jews in Russia and Poland pp. 107-117;
- Handouts: Essential Papers on Hasidism, pp. 11-85; M. Rosman Founder of Hasidism, 11-94;
Supplementary: Etkes The Besht,
Week 13
11. Tu. 05/09: Eastern European Jewish History: Reassessment: Moshe Rosman: "Innovative Tradition: Jewish Culture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth" in D. Biale ed. Cultures of the Jews (Schocken, 2002), 519-570. FINAL DRAFT DUE ON Monday 05/08 by 5 pm