HIST 248 – Jewish History: Thinking Beyond the Ghetto
This course explores Jewish history on the eve of modernity and in 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. 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’ll explore the transformations from a traditional society, defined by religious identities, into a modern society, of complex religious, ethnic, political identities. We’ll 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 etc.
Course Requirements Course ReadingsCLASS SCHEDULE
1. Wed. 01/25 Introduction: From medieval times to modernity, the Geography of Jewish Settlements.
Early modern period:
2. Mon. 01/30 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
3. Wed. 02/01 Visit to Special Collections. Class will meet at 2:35 pm at the Olin Library Special Collection. LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT POSTED
4. Mon. 02/06 After the Expulsion: Historiography, Kabbalah, and Messianic Expectations
- Gershom Scholem Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism lectures 7 and 8: "Isaac Luria and His School" and "Sabbatianism and Mystical Heresy";
- Yerushalmi Zakhor ch. 3;
- J. Marcus Jew in the Medieval World ch. 35, 51, 52,53;
- Texts by Hayim Vital, Yehuda Hayat on www.earlymodern.org
5. Wed 02/08 Jewish Life and Culture:
- Leon Modena in Judaism in Practice, 453-520,
- 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 the text of Shulhan Arukh on BlackBoard under "Course Documents." BIBLIOGRAPHIC ASSIGNMENT POSTED
Further recommended reading: Fram, Ideals Face Reality, 67-105.
6. Mon 02/13 CLASS WILL START AT 2:30 Protestant Reformation, Counter-Reformation and the Jews.
- J. Marcus Jew in the Medieval World ch.33-34;
- M. Edwards "Against the Jews,"
- S. Baron "John Calvin and the Jews,"
- 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
7. Wed 02/15 Intellectual crisis and "Precursors" of Modernity: Spinoza
- Spinoza Theological-Political Treatise, Preface, chapters:1-8, 11-17, 19-20.
- Marcus Jew in the Medieval World, ch.69; Jew in the Modern World pp. 57-58) DRAFT of the LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT DUE
FEBRUARY 16, 6 pm: Moshe Rosman "From Counterculture to Subculture to Multiculture: 'The Jewish Contribution to Civilization' Then and Now"
8. Mon 02/20 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)
9. Wed. 02/22 ENDNOTE SESSION in PAC lab (main floor)
10. Mon. 02/27 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);. FINAL LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT DUE FRIDAY 03/03 at 5 pm.
11. Wed. 03/01 The Enlightenment: Moses Mendelssohn and the Berlin Haskalah: Moses Mendelssohn Jerusalem (33-75, 77-139) BIBLIOGRAPHIC ASSIGNMENT DUE FRIDAY 03/10 at 5 pm
Modernity:
12. Mon 03/06 Revolution and Emancipation. Jew in the Modern World pp.114-135; 141-161 MIDTERM ANNOUNCED
13. Wed. 03/08 Responses to Modernity I: Religious Reform
- Jew in the Modern World pp. 250-253; 161-169; 177-178; 183-188;
- M. Meyer Origins of the Modern Jew p. 115-144) MIDTERM DUE
SPRING BREAK 03/10-03/27
14 Mon. 03/27 Responses to Modernity II: Modern Orthodoxy Jew in the Modern World pp.169-173; 197-211)
15. Wed. 03/29 Responses to Modernity III: Acculturation, Conversions, and the Science of Judaism
- Jew in the Modern World pp.211-259
- M. Meyer The Origins of the Modern Jew p. 85-115, 144-183;
- Y.H. Yerushalmi Zakhor "Modern Dilemmas: Historiography and Its Discontents"
16. Mon. 04/03 Responses to Modernity IV: Jews in Arab Lands:
- Norman Stillman, Jews in Arab Lands in Modern Times, 3-64; 467-469, 511-515, 522-530.
- Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews, 130-199 Paper Assignment Announced.
17. Wed. 04/05 Hasidism
- G. Scholem Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, Jew in the Modern World lecture 9;
- J. Marcus Jew in the Medieval World ch. 54,55; 70)
18. Mon. 04/10 Jewish Women and Modernity.
- P. Hyman Gender and Assimilation 10-92;
- Jew in the Modern World pp.260-262; 287-289
19. Wed. 04/12: Stirrings of New Anti-Semitism. Jew in the Modern World pp. 304-309; 331-334; 343-356
20. Mon. 04/17 Jewish Nationalism: Zionism T. Herzl The Jewish State (entire)
Suggested additional readings: Jew in the Modern World, 532-566; 594-611 Paper Drafts Due
21. Wed. 04/19 Other Forms of Jewish Nationalisms Jew in the Modern World pp. 402-404, 417-429
22. Mon. 04/24 Migrations
- Jew in the Modern World pp. 413-417, 463-465;
- P. Hyman Gender and Assimilation 93-133
23. Wed. 04/26 The Second World War and the Holocaust: Jew in the Modern World, 634-699.
24. Mon. 05/01 "Turn Left at the End of the World" (Israel, 2003)
25. Wed. 05/03 Israel-A Modern State: Jew in the Modern World, 603-633 PAPERS DUE
FILM "Nina's Tragedies" (Israel, 2003), TIME AND PLACE TBA
26. Mon. 05/08 Modern Jewish Identity (Jew in the Modern World p. 278-286, 289-301 )
FINAL EXAM WILL BE A TAKE HOME EXAM DUE ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 5pm