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JUS 370a
701
History
of the Jews:
The Modern Period (1750-1950) |
THIS IS A "DISTANCE LEARNING"
COURSE
In order to register,
contact the office of
Continuing Ed. & Academic Outreach - Distance Learning Office
additional fees apply |
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Approved as General Education Tier II - Individuals &
Societies and General Education Diversity Emphasis. |
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Prerequisites: none
but recommended
are two courses from Tier One, Traditions & Cultures (TRAD
101,102,103,104) or JUS 301 Jewish Civilizations. |
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Identical with: HIST 370a &
RELI 370a |
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Instructor:
Deborah Kaye |
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Desire2Learn will be
replacing E-reserves 4Learn
more about D2L |
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4Sample Syllabus (currently enrolled students
go to 4D2L
for up to date syllabus) |
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D2L |
UA Schedule of Classes
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Student Link
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Final Exam Schedule |
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Survey of
major political, socioeconomic, and cultural developments in the history
of Diaspora Jewry: Modern Jewish history.
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SAMPLE SYLLABUS
Currently enrolled students go to4D2L
for most current syllabus |
JUS370A - Modern Jewish History
FALL 2007
Required Textbooks *can be purchased at the UA Bookstore
S.Y. Agnon, A Simple Story (Sipur pashut)
Paula E. Hyman, Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History
Allan Levine, Scattered Among the Peoples: The Jewish Diaspora in Ten
Portraits
Paul R. Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, ed. The Jew in the Modern
World
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Course Description:
This course focuses on one of the key questions of Jewish modernity: How
did Jewish religious tradition fit within an increasingly insistent
secular culture? To explore the meaning of this question, I chose to
begin with S.Y. Agnon’s A Simple Story. This narrative provides us with
a geographical reference point (the fictitious town of Syzbusz) to place
the standard questions of modern Jewish history and a cultural framework
to work out of. From our investigation of Agnon’s Jewish social reality
we turn to studying the origins of Jewish modernization by tracing the
legal, political, social, economic and cultural trends that characterize
Modern Jewish History from 1750 to 1960s. The first unit examines the
twin processes of emancipation and acculturation through a historical
analysis of interactions between state and civil society with regard to
the Jewish Question. The second unit begins at the end of the nineteenth
century when the rise in nationalism, anti-modernist and anti-semitic
rhetoric opposed the political and social integration of Jews in
society. From the ideological origins if anti-Semitism, we then consider
the Jewish experience in America, tensions created in an environment of
newfound freedom. The last unit of the course traces the major watershed
events in twentieth century Jewish history: the tragedy of the
Holocaust, the emergence of Zionism and the establishment of the modern
state of Israel.
Grading and Assignments
Attendance 10%
Quizzes 20 %
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Exam 25%
Papers 20%
Grading Scales: (all grades will be mathematically weighted per the
percentages listed above)
For Quizzes
A (10) A- (9) B+ (8) B (7) B- (6) C+ (5) C (4) C- (3) D+ (2) D (1) D-
(0) E (absent)
For Exams
100-99-98 = A+ 97-96-95-94 = A 93-92-91 = A-
90-89-88 = B+ 87-86-85-84 = B 83-82-81 = B-
80-79-78 = C+ 77-76-75-74 = C 73-72-71 = C-
70-69-68 = D+ 67-66-65-64 = D 63-62-61 = D-
For Attendance
0-1 absences = A 2-3 absences = B 4-5 absences = C 5-6 absences = D
7 absences = E for the course
Please note that I require regular and punctual attendance. Since our
class sessions meet only once a week attendance is critical to passing
the class. Furthermore, lateness simply cannot be tolerated because of
the disruption to students. Also, note that the teacher reserves the
right to drop or to award a course grade of E to any student with
excessive absences. See above for the grading scale in the attendance
part of the course.
Quizzes
You must be prepared for a quiz at the start of each class period
although I may not always give one. Most of the time, I construct
quizzes from identifications (key figures, terms and events) and
multiple choice questions, but I may on occasion require longer
responses based on primary source readings. Quiz material will be based
on both lecture and reading assignments. NOTE: There are no make-ups for
quizzes. The lowest quiz (or missed quiz) will be dropped prior to the
calculation of final grades. Quizzes will be given at the start of
class. Once quizzes are collected those arriving late may not take them.
Midterm and Final
The format of midterm and final exams includes short answer and essay
questions. Before each exam I will give out a study guide. Remember to
bring a bluebook to class on the day of the exam. Exams are always based
on both readings and lecture. I encourage you to keep a Cornell style
notebook while studying for the class. This is an excellent study skill
to develop, one that will allow you to organize your note-taking
effectively and efficiently for exams.
Papers
You will be required to write two 3-5 page papers dealing with some
aspect of modern Jewish culture discussed in class. The main goal of
these papers is to develop analytical writing skills which include 1)
identifying the thesis argument in essays from the readings for class
and discuss the author’s stance on our topic 2) be able to articulate
the ways in which the author of the essay goes about proving her thesis
and 3) to incorporate quotes both directly and indirectly into the essay
in a logical manner.
Papers must have a title and be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch
margins, using a standard font (12 point) for easy legibility. Grading
of papers will be on both form (spelling, error-free grammar, clarity,
accuracy of expression and organization) and content (logic, analytical
insights, persuasiveness, incorporation of quotes as evidence and above
all, the ability to place the paper’s subject into the overall study of
our course
Statement of Academic Honesty
Pursuit of truth is a prime activity in a university community. As a
member of this class, each one of you pledges to maintain standards of
honesty and integrity in all academic work. The guiding principle of
academic integrity is that a student’s submitted work must be the
student’s own. If you engage in plagiarism, in other words you fail
adhere to the above standards, it will result in a grade of E for the
course.
Disruptive Behavior
Students need to be considerate to others and to avoid the negative
impact on the learning environment of disruptive behavior, even if
minimal, including being late for class or leaving early, the ringing of
beepers and cell phones.
How to Prepare for Class
Keep Up on Readings and Read Carefully!
There are different kinds of reading material for this course. Here are
some suggestions for how to tackle all of them.
1. Journalist/Historian Allan Levine’s survey of modern Jewish history
is not as dull as most surveys so hopefully you will enjoy the reading.
Try to draw an overall sense of the historical contexts of modern Jewish
history from his book. Read each chapter well (even twice) and take
detailed notes, so you can identify the major people, places and events
on quizzes and exams.
2. The source book of documents by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz
(hereafter referred to as “MFR” in the schedule of readings) provides
you with an excellent way in to understanding the tensions and
aspirations of those who lived through the historical moments we will be
considering. To write about these sources you will need to be able to
analyze primary source documents. Document analysis requires that you
consider the purpose of the document, who wrote it and why it was
written as it was. Always be able to integrate what you have studied
from the Levine survey and from lecture to interpret and evaluate
documents. Your paper assignments will focus on these documents.
3. Paula Hyman’s analytical essays on gender and assimilation are
perhaps the most challenging of the readings. Reading this type of
historiography requires that you identify Hyman’s argument straight
away. Then, ask yourself what types of evidence does she use to
substantiate her claims and how effective are her proofs. Finally, after
you feel confident that you have identified this, think about the
implications of the author’s argument for the study of modern Jewish
history.
4. This course also draws on literature and film as a means of thinking
about the connections between narrative and historical interpretation.
Thinking about issues such as identity, assimilation, freedom and
alienation through fiction provides a thematic framework to think about
all the various component parts of course. In this case, as I said in
the course description, we are reading Nobel prize winning author S.Y.
Agnon’s modern Hebrew classic A Simple Story, an ironic tale about
star-crossed lovers in a Jewish town in Eastern Europe. With films as
with fiction, I will give a series of guiding questions to help you read
critically. Check the JUS website.
Schedule of Classes and Readings (Provisional)
8/23 Course Introduction:
Introduction to Methods: Discussing Different Ways of Approaching the
Subject of Jewish Modernity; Outlining Technical Aspects of Assignments
and Grading for the Course
8/30 A Social Critique of Jewish Modernity: S.Y. Agnon’s A Simple Story
Agnon, A Simple Story (see guiding questions page); Hyman, Chapter I
“The Paradoxes of Assimilation”
9/6 Galician Jewish Society in “Szybusz”
Finish, Agnon’s A Simple Story; Read Hyman, Chapter II “Seductive
Secularization”
9/13 No Classes /Jewish New Year
9/20 PAPER I DUE IN CLASS
Socioeconomic Transformations: Court Jews and Jewish Artisans
Levine, pp. 141-169; MFR Chapter I: Document #4 Emperor Leopold, “The
Appointment of Samson Wertheimer as Imperial Court Factor”; Document #6
Frederick II, “The Charter Decreed for the Jews of Prussia” (April 17,
1750)
Discussion Questions: Before liberal debates surrounding “the Jewish
Question” raised fundamental questions about the place of Jews in modern
society, influential Jews appeared in the courts of Europe. What kinds
of financial services and insider information did Court Jews provide to
absolutist rulers? How did this increase toleration? Did these economic
transformations also increase acceptance?
9/27 Political Emancipation and the Public Sphere: From Debate to
Revolution
MFR Chapter I; Document #8 Concerning the Amelioration of the Civil
Status of the Jews, Christian Wilhelm von Dohm; #10 Arguments Against
Dohm, Johann David Michaelis; #11 Response to Dohm, Moses Mendelssohn;
#12 Remarks Concerning Michaeli’s Response to Dohm, Moses Mendelssohn;
MFR Chapter III #2 French National Assembly, Debate on the Eligibility
of Jews for Citizenship;#19 The Congress of Vienna
Discussion Questions: How did von Dohm envision the framework for social
and economic changes that would lead to increased toleration for Jews in
western and central Europe? In what ways did political change in France
affect the legal national and international status of Jewish
communities? In what parts of Europe was Jewish equality granted first
and why? In contrast, where did the hope of attaining civil rights fail
and how do scholars explain these failures?
10/4 Religious Reform and Modernization: From the Haskala to the
Wissenschaft des Judentums Movement
MFR Chapter I Document #9 Joseph II, Edict of Tolerance; MFR Chapter II
Documents #4 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, The Jews; #8 Naphtali Herz
Wessely, “Words of Peace and Truth”; David ben Nathan of Lissa, #9 A
Sermon Contra Wessely; #10 Ha-Me’assef, The Stream of Besor; #22 David
Friedlaender, “Open Letter to His Reverence Probst Teller”; MFR Chapter
V: #5 Leopold Zunz, “On Rabbinic Literature”; #8 Samuel David Luzzatto,
“Learning Based on Faith”
Discussion Questions: How did emancipation debates alter the ways in
which Jewish communities viewed Jewish doctrine, practice and education?
In what ways did modernization and secularization encourage scholarly
interaction between and among Jewish religious and lay leaders?
10/11 Emancipation Eluded: The Jewish Experience in Eastern Europe
Levine, Chapter 6 pp. 169-230; MFR Chapter VIII Document#3 Statutes
Regarding the Military Service of the Jews; #4 Delineation of the Pale
of Settlement; #5 The May Laws; #7 Judah Leib Gordon, Awake My People!;
#8 A Jewish Program for Russification; #9 Judah Leib Gordon, For Whom Do
I Toil; #10 Rabbi David Moses Joseph of Krynki, The Volozhin Yeshivah#
20 The Massacre of the Jews at Kishinev
Discussion Questions: How did Agnon depict the impact of Russification
in “Syzbusz?” In what ways does the “factual” historical context differ
from fictional accounts? Would Yehuda Leib Gordon fit as a character in
Agnon’s narrative? Why or why not?
10/18 MIDTERM EXAM IN CLASS
Nationalism and the Emergence of Political Antisemitism in Europe
Levine, Chapter 7 pp. 201-230; MFR Chapter VII Documents #12 Wilhelm
Marr, The Victory of Judaism over Germandom; #16 Adolf Stoeker, What We
Demand of Modern Jewry; #17 Heinrich von Treitschke, A Word About Our
Jewry; #20 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, The Foundations of the
Nineteenth Century #21 Hermann Goedsche, The Rabbi’s Speech: The Promise
of World Domination; 22#The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Discussion Questions: Why did the emancipation of the Jews provoked
anti-Jewish hatred? In assessing the new anti-Semitism, consider which
thinkers focus on the antagonism of Jew and Christian and which focus on
racial difference? How did modern anti-Semitism develop into “scientific
racism”? In what ways did Jews exhibit distinct racial elements that
were not only inferior but also harmful to the majority? How did “the
Jews,” according to anti-Semitic ideology in the Protocols, constitute a
sort of criminal conspiracy, responsible for all the ills of the modern
world - capitalism, social atomization and secularization?
10/25 Goldene Medina: The American Jewish Experience
Levine Chapter 8 pp. 231-264; Hyman, Chapter 3, “America, Freedom and
Assimilation; MFR Chapter IX Documents #15 Jewish Immigration to the
United States; #16 Abraham Cahan, The Russian Jew in America; Isaac
Rubinow, The Economic Condition of the Russian Jew in New York City
(1905) #33 Congressional Committee on Immigration (1920)
Discussion Questions: How did worldwide Jewish demographics change
between 1880 and 1920? What do the sources from Rubinow and Cahan tell
us about the nature of immigrant life in America? How did immigrant
writers like Anzia Yezierska and Alfred Kazin view women’s roles (Hyman
essay)? How does Hyman explain the evolution and meaning of the figure
of the Yiddishe Mamma?
11/1 The Zionist Idea: Jewish Nationalism in the Pre-State Era
Hyman, The Sexual Politics of Jewish Identity, Chapter 4; MFR Chapter X
Documents# 2 Theodor Herzl, A Solution to the Jewish Question; #4 The
First Zionist Congress, The Basle Program; #5; Max Nordau, Jewry of
Muscle;#8 The Mizrahi Manifesto #11 Israel Zangwill, A Manifesto; #12
Ber Borochov, Program for Proletarian Zionism; #18 Conjoint Committee of
British Jewry, An Anti-Zionist Letter to the Times (London); # 19 The
Balfour Declaration; #23 Malcolm MacDonald, White Paper of 1939;#24 The
Jewish Agency, Statement on MacDonald White Paper of 1939
Discussion Questions: What role did religious and secular ideas play in
emergence of the Zionism? In what ways did Zionists attempt to combat
the anti-Semitic depiction of the male Jew as weak, manipulative and
lacking in moral vigor and honor? How do Max Nordau and Theodor Herzl
view life in the Jewish Diaspora? When reading the Balfour Declaration,
think about whether it is a political or legal document? How about the
1939 White Paper?
11/8 The Holocaust and Destruction of European Jewry: Emancipation
Reversed
MFR Chapter XI Documents #2 Mein Kampf; #3 Robert Weltsch, Wear The
Yellow Badge With Pride; # 5, 6,7,9 The Nuremberg Laws; #R.T Heydrich,
Kristallnacht-A Preliminary Report; #12 Security Service Report on
Kristallnacht, The Operation Against the Jews; #13 H.W. Goering, Decree
Regarding Atonement Fine of Jewish State Subjects (November 12, 1938);
#14 Public Response to Kristallnacht#15 Decree for the Elimination of
the Jews from German Economic Life (November 12, 1938); #16 Numerus
Nullus in Schools (November 16, 1938) #20 Protocols of the Wannsee
Conference (January 20, 1942); #27 Estimated Number of Jews Killed By
the Nazis
Discussion Questions: What effect did the Nuremberg Laws have on Jewish
identity?
In your opinion, after reading the documents presented do you believe
that Hitler intended from his writings in Mein Kampf to establish death
camps to murder Jews? In your response, consider the evidence presented
in the Protocols of the Wannsee Conference. Compare the dates. Why is
there such a big gap in time between the actual Judeocide pronouncement
and Hitler’s early ranting and raving?
11/15 PAPER II DUE IN CLASS
Jewish Resistance: The Case of Vilna Ghetto
Levine, Chapter 9, pp. 265-300; MFR Chapter XI Documents #21 Goebbels,
The Nazi Response to Resistance; #22 Jurgen Stroop, The Jewish
Residential Area in Warsaw Is No More; #23 Bermuda Conference Joint
Communique; #24 Shmuel Zygelboym, Where is the World’s Conscience; #26
Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz
11/22 No Classes Thanksgiving Break
11/29 Zionists and Soviets in the 1960s
Levine, Chapter 10, pp. 301-334: MFR Chapter VIII Documents #27 The
Bund, Decisions on the Nationality Question; #29 V. I. Lenin, Critical
Remarks on the Jewish Question; #30 Joseph Stalin, The Jews Are Not A
Nation
12/13 FINAL EXAM @ 8:00 PM
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