NEJS 135A: the Modern Jewish Experience

NEJS 135a: The Modern Jewish Experience

Professor: Eugene R. SheppardSemester: Fall 2014

Class Meetings: T, F 9:30-10:50Room:Lown 202

Office: Lown 307Email:

Hours: Monday 10-12Phone: 781-736-2965

TF: Kendra McKinney

Office Hours: Tuesday 12-1

Email:

Office: Lown 115

Course Description:

NEJS 135 surveys the multiple dimensions of Jewish history from 1750-1950, a period noted for the Jewish struggle for inclusion and participation within society, economy, politics, and religion within Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. The complex processes by which governments, leaders and communities attempted to incorporate the Jews and Judaism into society took place against the backdrop of larger currents and transformations of the European and world orders.

Topics to be studied in the first half of the class include the Jewish involvement with the Enlightenment; the struggle for emancipation; the rise of Jewish Reform, Orthodoxy, and other modernizing forms of Judaism; the rise of the scholarly historical study of Judaism; nationalism, racial science, and antisemitism. The second half of the course will explore various topics which shaped Jewish existence from the middle of the 19th century through the first third of the 20th century. Competing forces of capitalism and socialism; liberal, conservative and revolutionary politics all shape different Jewish trajectories. The rise of Jewish nationalist movements, including Zionism and diaspora forms of Jewish nationalism, will also be studied. While much of the focus will be on Jewish society and identity in Europe, we will also follow the changing course of the global Jewish experience as seen in the Middle East and the United States.

Required Books: Hard brackets [] indicate abbreviation used in the syllabus

The Jews: A History, Efron, Weitzman, Lehmann, and Holo (Editors) 2nd Edition (Prentice Hall 2014) [JH] . Note that assignments for this item are drawn from the 2nd edition. Note that this textbook has a helpful glossary of terms which should be consulted while reading individual chapters.
The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, 3rd Edition, Edited by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (Oxford U. Press, 2010) [JMW]

Recommended:

John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe: From the Renaissance to the Present (Norton 3rd Edition, 2010) [Merriman]

Learning Goals

*Identify the major events, persons, and ideas of modern Jewish history

*Read primary sources critically and contextualize their significance to relevant problems

*Write persuasive short interpretive essaysand speak critically about modern Jewish experiences and events

*Become aware of the sometimes sharp distinction between collective memory and history

*Communicate ideas effectively about the continuities and discontinuities

Course Requirements and Grading:

Undergraduates:

1) Class Participation - 10%: Students are expected to have read the texts for each class and participate actively in discussions.You should therefore plan to bring to class the documentary source reader, The Jew in the Modern World (JMW). You will also be asked to bring your own copies of selected primary texts that are posted on Latte for discussion.

2) In-class midterm: 30% (Includes: Identifications, Essays, Map Test)

3) Write 1-2 page critical summaries of at least 2 lectures and seminars 10%

Undergraduate students are expected to attend two events lectures during the semester by visiting scholars related to any field of Jewish studies. These events are indicated on the syllabus in blue. Students are also expected to prepare for and attend the Tauber Institute’s colloquium in Jewish Studies ONCE this semester. There are three meetings in this semester on Tuesdays from 12:30-1:50pm in Lown 315. Papers are available one week prior to the discussion and can be found on the Tauber website at:

Students will turn in a critical summary of each event within one week of the event.

5) Final Examination 40%

Graduate Students:

Graduate students will be expected to follow all of the abovementioned requirements. An additional graduate section may be added if there is substantial graduate student interest. The purpose of a graduate section would be to supplement the lectures and class meetings with a greater emphasis on historiographic debates and more specialized areas of research necessary for graduate examinations.

Late work policy: Unless there are legitimate reasons (e.g., serious illness or personal circumstances), work will not be accepted more than one week past the due date. Work turned in late will be docked 2% per day. Undergraduate incompletes are governed by the policy outlined in the university Bulletin. A similar policy will be applied to graduate students.

Academic integrity: Academic integrity is central to the mission of educational excellence at Brandeis University. Each student is expected to turn in work completed independently, except when assignments specifically authorize collaborative effort. It is not acceptable to use the words or ideas of another person–be it a world-class philosopher or your lab partner–without proper acknowledgment of that source. This means that you must use footnotes and quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or ideas found in published volumes, on the internet, or created by another student.

Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section three of Rights and Responsibilities, may result in failure in the course or on the assignment, or in suspension or dismissal from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for any assignment in this course, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification.

Disability: If you are a student with a documented disability/learning difference on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation provided, please see me immediately. Please keep in mind that reasonable accommodations are not provided retroactively.

Weekly Topics and Assignments:

* indicates Latte

8/29Introduction: Setting the Stage for Modern Jewish History

From Tolerance to Enlightenment and Emancipation

9/2 Toleration and Anti-Clericalism and the Jewish Question in the 18th Century Enlightenments

Required Reading:

JMW, pp. 1-15, 27-34, 62-65
Katz, Out of the Ghetto, pp. 1-8, 28-51
The Jews Chapter 10

Suggested Reading:

Merriman, Ch. 9, pp. 312-348, ch. 10

9/5Toleration and Emancipation:Germany and Debates in France

Required reading:

1. JMW, pp. 34-58, 65-66, 72-77,

2. Moses Mendelssohn: Writings on Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible(Brandeis University Press 2011)* : selection 2 (from Jerusalem) (Latte selection 2)

Suggested Reading:

Hannah Arendt, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000)
Deborah Hertz, How Jews Became Germans: The History of Conversion and Assimilation and Berlin (Yale U. Press 2007)

9/12 Enlightenment: Models and Controversies

Required Reading: JMW, pp.121-159

9/16Modern Transformations: Solomon Maimon, from Hassidism to Kantianism

Required Reading:

1.The Jews,pp. Ch. 11, pp. 287- top of 304

2.Selections from Maimon’s autobiographical novel(Lebensgeschichte)*

Suggested Reading:

Abraham P. Socher, The Radical Enlightenment of Solomon Maimon (Stanford U. Press)

Tauber Colloquium: Sunny Yudkoff, University of Chicago

“A Sick Room of Her Own: Tuberculosis and the Literary Case of Rahel”

Lown 315

9/19Emancipation Reconsidered in France and German States: Political Reform and Restoration Within and Against the French Empire

Required Reading:

JMW, pp. 148-171
Berkovitz, Rites and Passages, chapter 6

Suggested Reading:

Merriman, ch. 13Reading:

9/23BRANDEIS THURSDAY, NO CLASS

9/26 NO CLASS

9/30 Haskalah and transformations in the East: Poland and Galician Jewry before and after 1800

Required Reading:

JMW, p. 347-371 ( see especially map on p. 355 and documents on pp. 365-70)
The Jews, pp. 304-top right column of 313

3. Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe 1772-1881, pp. 14-46

10/3Origins of Hassidism

Required Reading:

Selections from Hassidism:

Suggested Reading:
Polonsky, The Jews in Poland and Russia chapters 6-9

10/7Rise of Lithuanian Yeshivot,Hungarian Orthodoxy and Musar

Required Reading

*Shaul Stampfer, Lithuanian Yeshivas of the 19th Century, pp. 1-47

10/10Scientific Study of Judaism and Reform

Required Reading:

The Jews, p. 313-top left column 317

JMW, pp. 233-235, 238-260, 182-191

Suggested Reading:

Harvey Goldberg, Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries, 81-98

11/18Modernity and Judaism: Alienation

Required Reading:

JMW, 833-834, 837-838

Tauber Colloquium: Rachel Manekin, University of Maryland

11/21Modernity and Judaism: Scholem and Zionism and Scholarship

Required Reading

Gershom Scholem, From Berlin to Jerusalem

11/25Jewish Nationalism II

November 26-28 NO COURSES

11/30Rise of the Third Reich

The Jews, 374-386 (top right column)

JMW , 716-737, 751-754,777-778,

12/2The Holocaust

12/5The Holocaust II

The Jews, 386-405