Religion and state is at the forefront of world attention today. This primary course, Negotiating Religion and State: Jewish Secularism and the Emergence of European Modernity examines the global contemporary situation while looking at the emergence of modernity in European cultures, beginning with the 18th century.
The two peripheral courses are: World Jewish Cultures: Jewish Diaspora, Culture and People and Jews in Muslim Lands.
Negotiating Religion and State: Jewish Secularism and the Emergence of European Modernity
Today, the question of the relation between Religion and State has returned to center stage. Contested issues such as the “right” to wear the veil in French public schools and the “right” to exhibit a massive sculpture of the Ten Commandments in an American Court of Law are but two recent examples of the eruption of “fundamentalist” religious claims upon the state in the West.
Awareness of this global contemporary situation informs this course’s interest in the emergence of modernity in European cultures. Although the relations of Religion and State have been negotiated differently across national boundaries and over time, this course will focus on the distinctive role of Jews and Judaism in shaping some of the basic terms of these negotiations. These negotiations may have implications for those undertaken in regard to both religious and secular minority positions and communities today in Europe, the US, and Israel. Indeed, some of the overdetermined character of contemporary negotiations between Religion and State may in part be a result of the forceful, if unexpected, return of these issues to the national and international scenes.
Rather than directly considering the present manifestation of these issues, however, we will contextualize them in terms of their history, returning to one of the primary scenes of the negotiation between a minority religion, culture, and people within majority European cultures. Thus, we will be particularly interested in how the test case of Jews and Judaism has shaped this negotiation in Europe and how, in turn, the condition of Jews and Judaism has been correspondingly reconfigured, especially with the emergence of secularism and the modern nation-state. We will start by attending to the beginnings of this negotiation between Religion and State first by considering the Napoleonic “Sanhedrin” and then subsequent developments of the, so called, “Jewish Question” in the emergence of the modern nation-states. We will then turn to the negotiation of the question of Religion and State in early modern philosophy and political thought (with special attention to formative Jewish thinkers) and then focus on the emergence of new forms of Jewish nationalism, including Zionism. We will conclude the course with a consideration of the return of the question of the separation/relation between Religion and State in the modern State of Israel and its consequences for both religious and secular forms of Judaism.
Required Texts:
All course texts may be purchased at the Amherst Bookstore. All course books will be available at the reserve desk in the DuBois Library. Assigned articles will be distributed a week in advance. (From time to time, additional course resources may be made available on e-reserve at the DuBois Library.)
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, ed. A.R. Braunmuller (N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2000).
Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds. The Jew in the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
Baruch Spinoza, Politico-Theological Treatise, trans. R. H. M. Elwes (New York: Dover Publications, 1951).
Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, or on Religious Power and Judaism, trans., Allan Arkush, intro. and commentary by Alexander Altmann (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1983).
Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem (Lincoln, NEB: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).
Course Schedule and Assignments:
The assignments are due on the day they are listed on the syllabus. Bring texts to class. (The page numbers of articles on the syllabus reflect the original pagination of the texts.)
I. Setting the Stage: The Struggle for Emancipation and the Emergence of Modern Nation-States
Wed. September 3: Introduction
Topic: Modernity and the Transformation of Jews and Judaism—the Emergence of Secularism and Judaism as Culture
Setting the Scene: Viewing 2005 film version of The Merchant of Venice.
Reading:
*Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice;
*Sander Gilman, “Diaspora Judaism: a Model for Diaspora Islam in Europe Today?” pp. 1-16;
*Talal Asad, “Reflections on Laïcité & the Public Sphere,” pp. 1-4, 1-5, 1-4,
1-5, 1-5.
Wed. September 10
Topic: Napoleon and the Question of Emancipation: Regulating Jews/Religion
Reading:
*“The Acts of the Israelitish Deputies of France and Italy,” pp. 14-31;
*Selected Documents Related to the “Acts”:
* Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, “Imperial Decree
Calling for an Assembly of Jewish Notables (May 30, 1806),” JMW, Part III, pp. 123-124;
* Count Molé, “Napoleon’s Instructions to the Assembly of Jewish Notables (July 29, 1806),” JMW, Part III, pp. 125-126;
* Abraham Furtado, “Reply on Behalf of the Assembly to Count Molé (1806),” JMW, Part III, pp. 126-128;
* The Assembly of Jewish Notables, “Answers to Napoleon (1806),” JMW, Part III, pp. 128-133;
* Count Molé, “Summons for Convening the Parisian Sanhedrin (September 18, 1806),” JMW, Part III, pp. 133-135;
* The Parisian Sanhedrin, “Doctrinal Decisions (April 1807),” JMW, Part III, pp. 135-136.
*Selected Texts on Marriage and the Social Contract:
* Carole Pateman, “Contracting In,” pp. 1-18;
* Olympe de Gouges, “The Declaration of the Rights of Woman,” pp. 87-96;
* “Allegemeines Landrech,” pp. 38-39;
* “The Napoleonic Code,” pp. 39-40.
* Wendy Brown, “Tolerance as Supplement: The “Jewish Question” and the “Woman Question,” from Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire, pp. 48-77; 219-224.
Secondary Reading:
Pierre Birnbaum, “Between Social and Political Assimilation: Remarks on the History of Jews in France,” pp. 94-127;
“A Petition to the National Assembly from Leaders of Jewish Communities,” pp. 130-135;
The French National Assembly, “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789),” JMW, Part III, p. 114;
“Debate on the Eligibility of Jews for Citizenship (December 23, 1789),” JMW, Part III, p. 114;
The Emancipation of the Jews of France (September 28, 1791),” JMW, Part III, p. 118.
Wed. September 17
Topic: The Question of Jewish Emancipation and the relation of Religion and State in German Speaking lands
Reading:
* Christian Dohm, “Concerning the Amelioration of the Civil Status of the Jews (1781),” Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World (JMW), Part I, pp. 28-36;
* Joseph II, “Edict of Tolerance (January 2, 1782),” JMW, Part I, pp. 36-40;
* Moses Mendelssohn, “Response to Dohm (1782),” JMW, Part I, pp. 44-47;
* Moses Mendelssohn, “The Right to be Different,” JMW, Part II, pp. 68-69.
Secondary Reading:
Werner Mosse, “From ‘Schutzjuden” to “Deutsche Staatsbburger Judischen Glaubens”: The Long and Bumpy Road of Jewish Emancipation in Germany,” pp. 59-93;
Menasseh Ben Israel, “How Profitable the Nation of the Jews Are (1655),” JMW, Part I, pp. 10-13.
II. The role of Jewish political philosophy in the emergence of Modernity
Wed. September 24
Topic: Reinvisioning the Politico-Theological: Judaism, Christianity and the State
Reading:
* Baruch Spinoza, Politico-Theological Treatise, preface, chs. 4-5,12-16, 18-20;
* The Sephardi Community of Amsterdam, “The Writ of Excommunication Against Baruch Spinoza (July 27, 1656),” JMW, Part II, p. 57.
Secondary Reading:
Baruch Spinoza, Politico-Theological Treatise chs. 7-10 (recommended);
Hans Daalder, “Dutch Jews in a Segmented Society,” pp. 37-58; The Estates of General of the Republic of the United Provinces, “Declaration Protecting the Interest of Jews Residing in Holland (July 13, 1657),” JMW, Part I, pp. 17-18.
Wed. October 1—No Class—Rosh HaShanah
Mon. October 6—Makeup Class
* MIDTERM EXAM DISTRIBUTED
Topic: Mendelssohn’s response to the question of the relation of Religion and State, with special attention to Jews and Judaism
Reading:
* Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, Section I, pp. 33-75.
“Introduction,” pp. 3-29, “Appendix,” pp. 247-248, and “Commentary,” pp. 143-240.
Secondary Reading:
Carole Pateman, “Feminism and the Marriage Contract,” pp. 189-218;
Wed. October 8
Topic: Mendelssohn’s interpretation of Judaism as Legislation and its consequences for his understanding of the relations of Religion and State, with special reference to questions of marriage, gender, contract, and religious identity
Reading:
* Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, Section II, pp. 77-139 and “Commentary,”
pp. 143-240.
Wed. October 15—No Class—Succoth
Wed. October 22—No Class—Simchat Torah
Wed. October 29
* MIDTERM EXAM DUE IN CLASS
Topic: Wissenschaft des Judentums: the Emergence of the Secular Study of Judaism
Reading: General Essays:
*Rachel Livneh-Freudenthal, “From ‘A Nation Dwelling Alone’ to ‘A Nation Among the Nations,” pp. 153-177;
*Eliezer Schweid, “The Impact of the Enlightenment on Religion”;
*Selected Documents:
*Abraham Geiger, “Introduction to the Science of Judaism” (coursepac);
*Joel Abraham List, “A Society for the Preservation of the Jewish People (1819),” JMW, Part V, pp. 211-213;
*The Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews, “Statutes (1822),” JMW, Part V, pp. 213-214;
*Eduard Gans, “A Society to Further Jewish Intergration,” JMW, Part V, pp. 215-219;
*Immanuel Wolf, “On the Concept of a Science of Judaism (1822),” JMW, Part V, pp. 219-221;
*Moritz Steinschneider, “The Future of Jewish Studies (1869),” JMW, Part V, pp. 230-233;
*Samson Raphael Hirsch, “A Sermon on the Science of Judaism (1855),” JMW, Part V, pp. 234-235;
Secondary Reading:
Gershom Scholem, “The Science of Judaism—Then and Now”;
Martin Buber, “Jewish Scholarship: New Perspectives (1901),” JMW, Part V, pp. 241-243;
Gershom Scholem, “Science of Judaism, Its Achievement and Prospects (1971),” JMW, Part V, pp. 245-248.
III. The Emergence of Modern Jewish Nationalism(s) and the renegotiation of the Relations of Religion and State
Wed. November 5
Topic: The Return of Jewish Nationalism After/Despite Marx
Reading:
*Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem (Lincoln, NEB: University of Nebraska Press, 1995);
*Bruno Bauer, “The Jewish Problem (1843),” JMW, Part VII, pp. 321-324;
*Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Problem (1844),” JMW, Part VII, pp. 324-327.
Secondary Reading:
Melvin Urofsky, “Introduction” and “Translator’s Introduction” in Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem, pp. v-xvii and pp. 9-34.
Wed. November 12—No class, Tuesday Class Schedule
Wed. November 19
Topic: Zionism as a Political Response to the Return of the Jewish Question: Reevaluating Assimilation and Integration in light of the failure of Emancipation
Reading:
*Leo Pinsker, “Auto-Emancipation: An Appeal to his People by a Russian Jew,” pp. 161-174;
*Vicki Caron, “The Ambivalent Legacy: The Impact of Enlightenment on Zionism,” pp. 502-516;
*Sigmund Freud, “The Uncanny,” pp. 19-60.
Secondary Reading:
Sigmund Freud, “Adddress to the Society of Bnai Brith (May 6, 1926),” JMW, Part VI, pp. 278-279;
Michael Stanislawski, “Russian Jewry, the Russian State, and the Dynamics of Jewish Emancipation,” pp. 262-283.
Wed. November 26
* FINAL EXAM DISTRIBUTED
Topic: WWI and the Emergence of Ethical, National, Political, and Cultural Zionisms
Reading:
Secular, Cultural, or Religious Zionism: The “Spiritual Center”
*Ahad Ha-Am, “A Spiritual Center,” pp. 201-208;
Martin Buber, “A Spiritual Center,” pp. 118-128; “The Jewish Cultural Problem and Zionism,” pp. 176-193; “Israel and the Command of the Spirit,” pp. 289-293;
Eliezer Berkovitz, “The Spiritual Center?,” pp. 132-139.
WWI and National, Political, and Ethical Zionisms
*Paul Mendes-Flohr, “Realpolitic or Ethical Nationalism,” pp. 168-178;
Selections from Hermann Cohen, Reason and Hope:
“Affinities between the Philosophy of Kant and Judaism,” pp. 77-89;
“The German and the Jewish Ethos I,” pp. 175-184;
“The German and Jewish Ethos II,” pp. 185-189;
“On Closing the Borders,” pp. 189-192;
“Thou Shalt Not Go About as a Slanderer,” pp. 192-193;
“I and Thou: Selfhood through Ethical Action,” pp. 217-218;
“Judaism’s Relevance for Modern Man,” pp. 219-220.
Wed. December 3
Topic: WWI & II and Competing Notions of “Home”: Ethical Zionism versus National Messianism
Reading:
Prophetic or Ethical Zionism
*Jean Améry, “How Much Home Does a Person Need?,” pp. 41-61;
*Martin Buber and Hermann Cohen, “A Debate on Zionism and Messianism,” JMW, Part X, pp. 571-577;
Selections from Hermann Cohen, Reason and Hope:
“An Argument Against Zionism: A Reply to Dr. Martin Buber’s Open Letter to Hermann Cohen,” pp. 163-170;
“Religion and Zionism,” pp. 170-171;
Selections from Martin Buber, A Land of Two Peoples:
“Nationalism,” pp. 47-57;
“A Proposed Resolution on the Arab Question,” pp. 58-61;
“Resolution on the Arab Question of the Twelfth Zionist Congress,” pp. 62-63;
“Notes From the Congress Concerning Zionist Policy,” pp. 64-68;
“Sidelights,” pp. 68-70;
“Responsa on Zionist Policy,” pp. 70-72;
“Brith Shalom,” pp. 72-75;
“Soul-Searching,” pp. 76-78;
“No More Declarations,” pp. 78-80;
“National Home and National Politics in Palestine,” pp. 81-91;
“Israel and the Command of the Spirit,” pp. 289-293.
Wed. December 10
Topic: Renegotiating the Boundaries between Religion and State: The Return of the Problem in Modern Israel
Reading:
*Selections from Yehoshua Leibowitz, Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State:
*“The Social Order as a Religious Problem,” pp. 145-157;
*“The Crisis of Religion in the State of Israel,” pp. 158-173;
*“A Call for the Separation of Religion and State,” pp. 174-184;
*Haim H. Cohn, “Religious Freedom and Religious Coercion in the State of Israel,” pp. 27-61.
Secondary Reading:
David Hartman, “The Callenge of Modern Israel to Traditional Judaism,” pp. 31-53;
Eliezer Schweid, “Jewish religion and Israeli Democracy,” pp. 7-29;
Rachel Elior, “Judaism and Democracy—The Private Domain and Public Responsibility,” pp. 123-139;
Bernard Avishai, “Saving Israel From Itself: A Secular Future for the Jewish State,” pp. 33-43;
Talal Asad, “Secularism, Nation-State, Religion,” pp. 181-201.
Wed. December 17
* FINAL EXAM DUE AT NOON IN HERTER ROOM 732
World Jewish Cultures: Jewish Diaspora, Culture and People
Jews across the world are connected to one another through the religious tradition they hold in common and through a shared sense of Peoplehood. Yet, over the past two millenia, Jewish peoples have also been shaped by their diaspora experiences. Scattered across the globe, their diverse histories and environments have given rise to a variety of Jewish religious, cultural and social forms.
This course employs the anthropological lens to focus on Jewish life in Eastern Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, Israel, the United States and India. These select case studies will not provide a comprehensive view of the great range of Jewish diaspora life. They will, however, provide a framework for understanding some of the critical issues at stake in the discussion of the Jewish Diaspora experience, including: cultural and religious adaptability, social boundary flexibility and maintenance, and ambivalence surrounding the question of where home is.
Readings will include:
Yoram Bilu, Without Bounds: The Life and Death of Rabbi Ya'akov Wazana
Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days
Course Schedule:
1. Introduction – Jewish culture and people around the world
2. Overview of Jewish diaspora history
Steven Lowenstein, Tapestry of Culture
3. The Vicissitudes of Diaspora Life
Lloyd Cabot Briggs, Ch. 1, “The People Fled” in No More For Ever: A Saharan Jewish Town
DIASPORA, MEMORY AND THE STUDY OF THE JEWISH PAST AND FUTURE
4. Salvage Ethnography
Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog, Life is With People
5. Remembering through texts
Selections from Jack Kugelmass, From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry
6. Remembering with visual cues
Selections from Zion Ozeri’s Yemenite Jews: A Photographic Essay
Selections from Catalogue from exhibit on Bukharan Jews, Israel Museum
7. Remembering through ritual
Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days
8. Remembering through re-creating the past
Visit to the National Yiddish Book Center
9. The limits of memory
Yoram Bilu, Without Bounds
NEGOTIATING DEFINITIONS OF JEWISH IDENTITY
10. Jewish identity in traditional societies
11. Jewish identity in the Soviet Union
Fran Markowitz, “A Bat Mitzvah among Russian Jews in America” Pp. 121-135 In Harvey Goldberg, ed. The Life of Judaism
Alanna Cooper “Looking out for ones own Identity: Central Asian Jews in the Wake of Communism” In Zvi Gitelman, ed. New Jewish Identities
12. Jewish identity in contemporary United States
Selections from National Jewish Population Survey
JEW AND NON-JEW: BLURRING & MAINTAINENCE OF SOCIAL BOUNDARIES
13. Danger at the Boundaries
Without Bounds
14. Without Bounds
15. Creating Social Boundaries
Film Screening: A Life Apart: Hasidism in America
16. Celebrating the permeability of social boundaries
Film Screening: Leap of Faith
CULTURE: JUDAISM IN PRACTICE
(case studies: marriage ceremony, and Passover)
17. What is Jewish Culture?
David Biale, “Preface: Toward a Cultural History of the Jews” In Cultures of the Jews
18. Case Study: Marriage
Harvey Goldberg, “Marriage,” In Jewish Passages: Cycle of the Jewish Life
19. Case Study: Marriage, cont.
Einat Ramon, “Tradition and Innovation in the Marriage Ceremony,” in The Life of Judaism, Harvey Goldberg, ed.
Lloyd Cabot Briggs, “The Ties that Bind” in No More For Ever
20. Case Study: Passover
Irene Awret, “Preparing Passover in North Africa” in The Life of Judaism, Harvey Goldberg, ed.
“Ritual Enactments of Indian-Jewish Identity” Nathan Katz and Ellen Goldberg in Studies of Indian Jewish Identity
21. Film Screening: The Last Marranos
DEFINING HOME IN THE DIASPORA CONTEXT
22. Ben Zvi, Izchak: Exiled and the Redeemed, Introduction (pp.v,vi,3-19)
Frederic Brenner, Selections from Diaspora at Home
THE TIES THAT BIND: JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD
23. Tudor Pafitt, Judaising Movements: Studies in the Margins of Judaism, Introduction and Ch. 1 “Judaising Movements and Colonial Discourse”
James Ross, Fragile Branches, “The Children of Menasseh”
24. Alanna Cooper, “Reconsidering the Tale of Rabbi Yosef Maman and the Bukharan Jewish Diaspora” Jewish Social Studies, 2004
25. Wrap up and Review
Jews in Muslim Lands: Responses to Modernity
Most Modern Jewish History courses focus on Jewish responses to the secularization of European society. Such responses include the Haskalah, the rise of the Reform, Orthodox and Conservative movements, the emergence of secular Judaism and the advent of political Zionism. This course focuses on the Modern era through the gaze of the Jews in Muslim lands. In this part of the world, processes of modernization and secularization were introduced by European colonial powers. As such, Jewish responses did not grow organically out of changes within the larger society as they did in Europe, but rather, they were a reaction to a process that was imposed from without. This course explores these reactions in a comparative context with a focus on the Jews of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Topics to be covered include: Travel and cosmpolitanism, religious responses to modernity, shifting gender roles, literary responses to the modern condition and mass migration.
Course Texts:
Norman Stillman, Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times
Roya Hakakian, Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood in Revolutionary Iran
Albert Memmi, Pillar of Salt
Course Schedule:
1. Introduction
2. Historical overview of the Sephardi/Mizrachi experience
From Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, Study Guide, Ed. William Hallo,
"Judaism and the Rise of Islam"
From Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, Source Reader, Ed. William W. Hallo, “The Pact of Umar,” “Nathan the Babylonian on the Installation of the Exilarch”
From The Jew in the Medieval World, “Jewish Autonomy in Babylon”
3. Historical overview, cont.
From Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, Study Guide, Ed. William Hallo, "Flowering of Jewish Civ. in Muslim Spain", "Decline and Expulsion of Spanish Jewry"
From Heritage: Civilization and the Jews, Source Reader, Ed. William W. Hallo, “Samuel Ha-Nagid’s Victory,” “Poetical Attack on the Jews of Granada,” “A Spanish Jewish Curriculum”
4. Defining the Modern Era
“Jews in the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East,” in A Short History of the Jewish People, Raymond Scheindlin
Stillman, JALMT , Ch.1: Nineteenth Century and the Impact of the West
5. Responses to Modernity: An Overview
Stillman, JALMT
Ch.2: Social Transformations
6. Colonization, Travel and Cosmopolitanism
Susan Gilson Miller, “Kippur in the Amazon,” in Sephardi and Middle Eastern Jewries
OR
Jael Silliman, “Introduction” and “Farha,” in Jewish Portraits Indian Frames
7. Colonization, Travel and Cosmopolitanism, cont.
Readings on Jews of Central Asia (handouts)
8. Religious responses to modernity
Stillman, Sephardi Religious Responses to Modernity
9. Religious responses to modernity, cont.
10. Shifting Gender Roles
Malino, Frances: The Women Teachers of the Alliance, In Judith R. Baskin (ed) Jewish Women in Historical Perspective
“The Emancipation and Reformation of Women,” in Images of Sephardi and Eastern Jewries in Transition, Aron Rodrigue
11. Literary Responses to the Modern Condition
Albert Memmi, Pillar of Salt
12. Literary Responses to the Modern Condition
Albert Memmi, Pillar of Salt
13. Literary Responses to the Modern Condition
Albert Memmi, Pillar of Salt
14. Literary Responses to the Modern Condition, cont.
Hakakian, Introduction and Ch. 1,2, 3
15. Literary Responses to the Modern Condition, cont.
Hakakian Ch. 4, 5, and 6
16. Looking toward Palestine/Israel
Ben-Arieh, Jerusalem in the 19th Century, Ch.1 and Ch.2
17. Looking toward Palestine/Israel (cont.)
Stillman, JALMT , Ch.4: "Zionism and the Jews of Arab Lands"
18. Challenges in Settling in Israel
19. Mass emigration
Silent Refugees: Jews from Arab Countries, Maurice Roumani
Mediterranean Quarterly, 2003
20. Mass Migration, cont.
Rupture and Return: Zionist Discourse and the Study of Arab Jews
Social Text 21.2 (2003) 49-74
21. Mass Migration
Film: Forgotten Refugees
22. Mass Migration
23. Wrap Up and Review
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