HIST 248 – Jewish History: Thinking Beyond the Ghetto
This course explores Jewish history on the eve of modernity and during 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 both before and during the modern times. 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, and religious fundamentalism etc.
Course Requirements Course ReadingsCLASS SCHEDULE
1. Tue. 09/08 Introduction: From medieval times to modernity, the Geography of Jewish Settlements.
Early modern period:
2. Th. 09/10 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
- Organizing Jewish Books: The Book of the Sleeping (Sefer Siftei Yashanim 1630)
3. Tue. 09/15 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 (read the introduction and the text under "English", Isaac de Lattes on the printing of the Zohar on www.earlymodern.org
4. Th. 09/17 Visit to Special Collections. Class will meet at the Olin Library Special Collection: group 1: at 11:55 and group 2: 1:50
LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT POSTED
5. Tue. 09/22 After the Expulsion: Messianic Expectations and Messianic Movements (readings above) BIBLIOGRAPHIC ASSIGNMENT POSTED
Wed. 09/23 LECTURE by Professor Lawrence Fine, 'We are bound to one another as if we were one person': Spiritual Friendship in Jewish Mystical Traditions, PAC 004, 4:15 pm.
6. Th. 09/24 ENDNOTE SESSION in Allbritton 204
7. Tue. 09/29 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.
Further recommended reading: Fram, Ideals Face Reality, 67-105
8. Th. 10/01 CLASS WILL START AT 1:00pm Protestant Reformation, Counter-Reformation and the Jews.
- J. Marcus Jew in the Medieval World ch.33-34;
- Thomas Kaufmann "Luther and the Jews"
- Achim Detmers, "Calvin, the Jews, and Judaism."
- 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
- DRAFT of the LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT DUE
9. Tue. 10/06 Intellectual crisis and "Precursors" of Modernity: Spinoza
- Spinoza Theological-Political Treatise, Preface, chapters:1-8, 11-17, 19-20 (on Moodle).
- Marcus Jew in the Medieval World, ch.69; Jew in the Modern World pp. 57-58)
10. Th. 10/08 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)
- FINAL LIBRARY ASSIGNMENT DUE FRIDAY 10/09 at 5 pm.
11. Tu. 10/13 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).
BIBLIOGRAPHIC ASSIGNMENT DUE
12. Th. 10/15 The Enlightenment: Moses Mendelssohn and the Berlin Haskalah: Moses Mendelssohn Jerusalem (33-75, 77-139), Jew in the Modern World, 70-76
Modernity:
13. Tu. 10/20 Revolution and Emancipation. Jew in the Modern World pp.114-135; 141-154
- MIDTERM ANNOUNCED AND POSTED ONLINE
14 Th. 10/22 Responses to Modernity I: Religious Reform
- Jew in the Modern World pp. 80-87, 161-169; 177-178; 183-188;
- M. Meyer Origins of the Modern Jew p. 115-144)
MIDTERM DUE FRIDAY 10/23 at 5PM
OCTOBER BREAK 10/23-10/28: NO CLASS 10/27
15. Th. 10/29 Responses to Modernity II: Modern Orthodoxy Jew in the Modern World pp.169-173; 197-211)
16. Tu. 11/03 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"
- Paper Assignment Announced.
17. Th. 11/05 Responses to Modernity IV: Jews in Arab Lands:
- Norman Stillman, Jews in Arab Lands in Modern Times, 467-469, 511-515, 522-530.
- Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews, 130-199
18. Tue. 11/10 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)
19. Th. 12/12: Jewish Women and Modernity.
- P. Hyman Gender and Assimilation 10-92;
- Jew in the Modern World pp.260-262; 287-289
20. Tu. 11/17 Stirrings of New Anti-Semitism. Jew in the Modern World pp. 304-334; 343-356 Paper Drafts Due FRIDAY 11/20 3 PM
21. Th. 11/19 Jewish Nationalism: Zionism T. Herzl The Jewish State (entire)
Suggested additional readings: Jew in the Modern World, 532-566; 594-611
22. Tu. 11/24 Other Forms of Jewish Nationalisms Jew in the Modern World pp. 402-404, 417-429
THANKSGIVING BREAK 11/24 (after classes end)-11/30: NO CLASS 11/26
23. Tue. 12/01 Migrations
- Jew in the Modern World pp. 413-417, 463-465;
- P. Hyman Gender and Assimilation 93-133
24. Th. 12/03 The Second World War and the Holocaust: Jew in the Modern World, 634-699.
Tuesday, 12/03 "Turn Left at the End of the World" (Israel, 2003), 7 pm, PAC 004, dinner will be served.
25. Tu. 12/08 Israel-A Modern State: Jew in the Modern World, 603-633 PAPERS DUE at 12 pm
26. Th. 12/10 Modern Jewish Identity (Jew in the Modern World p. 278-286, 289-301)
FINAL EXAM WILL BE A TAKE HOME EXAM DUE AT THE REGISTRAR'S SCHEDULED TIME