In Spring 2010 Goucher will offer The Jewish Experience, and Advanced Modern Hebrew: Israeli Culture. The Fall 2009 courses were the core course, The Modern Jewish Experience, as well as Jews in Germany, and The Jewish Mother.
The Jewish Experience Professor Jerome E. Copulsky
This course surveys and examines the wide variety of Jewish cultures from Late Antiquity to the modern period, in the Land of Israel, the Middle East, and Europe.We will consider the multifarious religious and secular aspects of the Jewish experience, and how Jews adapted to, resisted, and contributed to the cultures around them.
Books and Readings:
The following books have been ordered for this course:
David Biale, ed. Cultures of the Jews Raymond P. Scheindlin, A Short History of the Jewish People The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza
All other required readings are available in PDF format on Blackboard.
Class Schedule:
Note: This schedule is subject to modification Tues. Jan 26Introduction: What is Jewish culture? Thurs. Jan 28Origins Readings: David Biale, "Preface," Cultures of the Jews Arnold Eisen, "Exile" Bruce Lincoln, "On the Relation of Religion and Culture" Tues. Feb 2Israelite History Readings: Short History, Chapter 1 James D. Purvis, "Exile and Return: From the Babylonian Destruction to the Reconstruction of the Jewish State" Thurs. Feb 4The Hellenistic Period Readings:Short History, Chapter 2
Erich S. Gruen, "Hellenistic Judaism," in Cultures of the Jews
Jewish Diaspora; Hellenism; ethnicity; Holy Land
Tues. Feb 9Readings: Book of Esther
Philo (selections)
Thurs. Feb 11Readings: The Marriage and Conversion of Aseneth(Joseph and Aseneth) Tues. Feb. 16The Greco-Roman Period Readings:Short History, Chapter 3 Eric M. Meyers, "Jewish Culture in Greco-Roman Palestine," inCultures of the Jews
Persian Period; Hasmonaean Era; Sectarianism; emergence of a "common Judaism"; emergence of "Rabbinic Judaism"
Thurs. Feb 18Readings: Meyers, continued Tues. Feb 23Byzantine Jewish Culture Readings:Oded Irshai, "Confronting a Christian Empire:
Jewish Culture in the World of Byzantium," in Cultures of the Jews
Palestinian center, Galilee and Judea; Patriarchate; synagogue culture; rise of Babylon
Thurs. Feb 25Babylonian Rabbinic Culture Reading: Isaiah Gafni, "Babylonian Rabbinic Culture," in Cultures of the Jews
The links with Antiquity; Babylonian Exilarch (resh galuta); Persian impacton Jewish culture
Tues. March 2Judaism and early Islam
Readings: Reuven Firestone, "Jewish Culture in the Formative Period of Islam," in Cultures of the Jews
Arab conquests and Islamization; Jewish communities and cultures of Arabia
Wed. March 3Lecture: Ruth Franklin, "A Thousand Darknesses: Truth and Lies in Holocaust Fiction" 7:00 PM, Place TBA Thurs. March 4Readings: Firestone, continued.
Tues. March 9Review and discussion
Thurs. March 11Midterm Exam
SPRING BREAK The Middle Ages
Tues. March 23Judeo-Arabic Culture
Readings:Short History, Chapter 4 Raymond Scheindlin, "Merchants and Intellectuals, Rabbis and Poets: Judeo-Arabic Culture in the Golden Age of Islam," inCultures of the Jews Maimonides (selections)
Academies; Geonim; Karaites; Judeo-Arabic literature; the rise of "Jewish" philosophy (Kalam, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism); new types of halakhic writing
Thurs. March 25Readings: Scheindlin, continued.
Andalusian wine poetry (selections)
Liturgical poetry (piyyutim); pietism; "secular" Hebrew poetry and literature
Tues. March 30No class
Thurs. April 1Sephardic Culture
Reading: Benjamin R. Gampel, "A Letter to a Wayward Teacher: The Transformations of Sephardic Culture in Christian Iberia," in Cultures of the Jews
Sephardic culture and mores; Maimonidean controversy Tues. April 6Ashkenazic Culture Readings:Short History, Chapter 5 Ivan Marcus, "A Jewish-Christian Symbiosis: The Culture ofEarly Ashkenaz," in Cultures of the Jews
The emergence of Ashkenaz; Self-fashioning as martyrs; Pietism; Jewish-Christian tensions
Thurs. April 8Readings: Marcus, continued
Tues. April 13Readings:Shalom Sabar, "Childbirth and Magic: Jewish Folklore and Material Culture," in Cultures of the Jews Thurs. April 15Readings: Chava Weissler, "The Traditional Piety of Ashkenazic Women" Tues. April 20Readings: The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln Thurs. April 22Guest Lecture: Aspects of Jewish Secularism Roundtable Discussion on Jewish Studies 4:30 PM, Place TBA Tues. April 27Readings:The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln Thurs. April 29An Opening to Modernity Readings: Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza Tues. May 4Readings: Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza Thurs. May 6Conclusions and Review Final Exam (Take-home) Due May 10
The Modern Jewish Experience Prof. Jerome E. Copulsky
The modern world opened up vistas of possibilities for Jews, but it also posed profound problems for Judaism as a religious culture. The possibility of political and social integration, demographic changes, and development of a modern historical consciousness challenged traditional models of Jewish religiosity and identity, and opened up the space for new, secular forms of "Jewishness."
In this course, we will inquire into the nature and meaning of a "Jewish secular modernity." Through an analysis of various forms of literature and media - autobiography, theological and philosophical writings, political treatises, fiction and film - we will consider the ways in which the meaning of modern Judaism and the problem of Jewish identity and commitment in the modern world have been articulated and contested. We will be attentive throughout to the complex dialectical relationship between Judaism as a religion and secular manifestations of Jewishness.
Books and Readings: Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's Ball Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism Arthur Hertzberg, ed., The Zionist Idea The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem: Or on Religious Power and Judaism Philip Roth, Operation Shylock Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise
Course Outline:
Week I Introduction to the Problem: Secularism, Modernity and the Jews The secular and secularization
This week will serve as a general introduction to the question of secularism and the modern Jewish experience. We will work to define the meaning of "the secular," "secularization" and "secularism," and consider how these terms may be applied to Judaism. This discussion will provide the theoretical framework for our investigation.
Readings: Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World Leo Strauss, "Preface to Spinoza's Critique of Religion" Supplemental materials: Peter Burger, The Sacred Canopy
Week II Judaism before "Modernity"
In this segment of the course, we will inquire into the nature of "pre-modern" Jewish life. We will consider what Jacob Katz and others have called a "traditional" society" and will also look at the ways in which "secular" aspects of Jewish life already existed within a religiously-dominated milieu.
Readings: Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis Supplemental materials: Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis David Biale (ed.), Cultures of the Jews
Week III Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza: The first "secular" Jew? The Theological-Political Problem Judaism as a politics?
Spinoza has been regarded as the "first secular Jew." With particular attention to the Theological-Political Treatise, we will consider Spinoza's challenge to traditional Judaism, and how this challenge opened the way to rethinking and reframing Jewish identity.
Readings: Theological-Political Treatise Supplemental materials: Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics, Vol. 1 Steven Smith, Spinoza, Liberalism and the Question of Jewish Identities
Week IV Mendelssohn & the Question concerning Emancipation Background to Emancipation Mendelssohn's Jerusalem With the prospect of emancipation arose the question of the suitability of the Jews for citizenship and wide-ranging economic opportunities and the nature of Judaism as a religion. For Jews who wished to take part in modern society, the horizon of emancipation required an envisioning of Judaism in light of the new or hoped for social and political reality.
Readings: Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto; Jewish Emancipation and Self-Emancipation Lessing, Nathan the Wise Christian Wilhelm Von Dohm, "Concerning the Amelioration of the Civil Status of the Jews" Michaelis, "Arguments against Dohm" Mendelssohn, Jerusalem Supplemental materials: Michael A. Meyer, The Origins of the Modern Jew
Week V Solomon Maimon: A journey from tradition to Enlightenment
These sessions focus on Solomon Maimon's transformation from Polish Rabbi to Enlightenment philosopher. We will place particular emphasis on Maimon's attitude towards Judaism and its relationship to political life and intellectual enlightenment, and the influence on Maimonides and Spinoza on his intellectual development and thought.
Readings: The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon
Week VI-VII The Invention of Judaism as "Religion" Reforming Judaism
Jewish Emancipation was premised on a state which would treat all individuals as equal under the law. It would therefore come at the price of Jewish corporate existence, and the primacy of Jewish law. Given the collapse of the kehillah and the weakening of the halakhic system it was founded upon, would Judaism wither away in the modern state? Or could it adapt to this new world? Attention will be paid to the Reformers' articulation of a "sphere" of religion, and the attendant reduction of Jewish religiosity.
Readings: Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity Saul Ascher, Leviathan Lazarus Bendavid, Notes Regarding the Characteristics of the Jews David Friedlaender, Open Letter to His Reverence, Probst Teller Supplemental materials: S. R. Hirsch, The Nineteen Letters Hermann Cohen, Religion of Reason out of the Sources of Judaism
Week VIII The Science of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums) The Emergence of Modern Jewish Studies
One of the signals of the development of a secular Jewish consciousness was the emergence of the critical, academic approach to the study of Judaism and Jewish history. In this section we will look at some of the early manifestos calling for a modern critical study of Judaism and Jewish texts, and some of the products of this inquiry.
Readings: JMW, V Eduard Gans, "A Society to Further Jewish Integration" Immanuel Wolf, "On the Concept of a Science of Judaism" Leopold Zunz, "On Rabbinic Literature" Moritz Steinschneider, "The Future of Jewish Studies" Abraham Geiger, "Jewish Scholarship and Religious Reform" Gershom Scholem, "The Science of Judaism - Then and Now"
Week X Jewish Nationalism I
Zionism The term Zionism is derived from the Hebrew word "Zion," an appellation for the city of Jerusalem (and sometimes symbolically the Land of Israel). Rather than a single coherent doctrine or political program, Zionism encompasses a constellation of ideologies and factions, set along a wide political spectrum, with varied tactics and goals. In this segment, we will consider the emergence of Zionism as a secular political movement.
Readings: Arthur Hertzberg, ed., The Zionist Idea, introduction Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem Theodor Herz, The Jewish State Supplemental materials: Shlomo Avineri, The Making of Modern Zionism: Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State Theodor Herzl, Old-New Land
Week XI Jewish Nationalism II
Cultural or Spiritual Zionism The Political Zionism of Herzl was driven by Judennot, the "need of the Jews" and not by cultural concerns. In contrast, Cultural or Spiritual Zionism was mainly worried by "the need of Judaism" brought about by the deterioration of traditional Jewish society and collective identity. The "agnostic Rabbi" Ahad Ha-Am advocated a cultural renaissance which would preserve and revitalize Jewish values in a modern secular vein. Radicals such as Micah Joseph Berdyczewski, Joseph Hayyim Brenner, and Jacob Klatzkin struggled to liberate Jewishness from the religious tradition and the ghetto culture which they believed had stifled its spirit.
Readings: Ahad Ha-Am, "The Law of the Heart," "Flesh and Spirit," "The Jewish State and the Jewish Problem," "The Negation of the Diaspora" Hayyim Nahman Bialik, "On the Hebrew University" Micah Joseph Berdichevski, "Wrecking and Building," "The Question of Culture" Haim Haziz, "The Sermon"
Labor Zionism Labor Zionists strove to forge a "new Jew," grounded in land and labor, and to establish a new Jewish society driven by a secular, humanist faith. Its leading ideologists were the utopian socialist Nachman Syrkin, Ber Borochov, who developed a synthesis of Marxism and Zionism, and A. D. Gordon, whose "religion of labor" was influenced by Tolstoy.
Readings: Nahman Syrkin, "The Jewish Problem and the Socialist-Jewish State" Dov Ber Borochov, "The National Question and the Class Struggle," "Our Platform" Aaron David Gordon, "Logic for the Future," "People and Labor," "Our Tasks Ahead" Berl Katzenelson, "Revolution and Tradition"
Week XII The Modern Jew Zelig
Second Paper Due
Moses and Monotheism
Week XIII Freud's Moses Readings: Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism Supplemental materials: Peter Gay, A Godless Jew Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Freud's Moses: Judaism Terminable and Interminable
Week XIV Zionism in the American Imagination Roth's Galut Thanksgiving Roth's Galut
Readings: Philip Roth, Operation Shylock
Week XV Chabon's Galut Readings: Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Review and Conclusions Final Paper Due
Jews in Germany from the Enlightenment to the Rise of the Nazi Regime Professor Uta Larkey
This course explores the evolution and transformation of Jewish life in German lands from the Haskalah to the early 1930s. We will examine the movement towards Jewish emancipation and the role of Jews before and after the founding of Germany as a nation state in 1871. Our particular focus will be on Jewish contributions to culture, education and intellectual life in Germany. We will discuss the impact of WWI on Jews in Germany, and the political backlash of Germany's defeat. In the last part of the course we will analyze the changes and chances for Jews in a democratic German society during the Weimar Republic. The course will conclude with a discussion on the rise of the Nazi regime.
Some of our leading topics/questions include:
Assimilation and Acculturation Questions of Identity: A German-Jewish Symbiosis? Inclusion and Exclusion of Jews in German Society Backlash to Progress: Anti-Semitism and Persecution Course Objectives: To contextualize historical events and political movements that shaped the "dual identity" of Jews in Germany from the Haskalah to the end of the Weimar Republic
To examine life and work of Moses Mendelssohn and Solomon Maimon.
To develop a wider perspective of the specific political, economic and social situation of Jews in Germany.
To appreciate cultural contributions of Jews to German society in the arts, music, architecture, and film.
To discuss the question of identity and the contested notion of a German-Jewish "symbiosis." To develop critical and analytical skills.
Required Reading:
Michael Brenner. The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in WeimarGermany, YaleUniversity Press (1998). Amos Elon. The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933, Picador (2002).
Solomon Maimon. An Autobiography, University of Illinois Press (2001).
George Mosse. German Jews beyond Judaism, HebrewUnionCollege Press (1997). Monika Richarz. Jewish Life in Germany, Indiana University Press (1991).
Recommended Reading: Marion Kaplan. Jewish Daily Life in Germany, 1618-1945, OxfordUniversityPress, USA (2005).
NOTE: This is a tentative schedule. Minor changes are to be expected, especially in the second half of the semester. The reading assignments will vary, additional material will be provided. You will receive further assignments during the semester. Please be prepared to discuss the reading on the due day.
Class Schedule:
Week 1: Jewish Life in the German Lands before Emancipation Sep 1 Introduction Sep 3 Readings: Amos Elon, The Pity of it All, p. 1-31. The Memoirs of Gluckel von Hameln (Excerpts) Week 2 and 3: Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) Sep 8 Readings: Amos Elon, p. 33-100. Sep 10 Reading: Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem. (Excerpts) David Sorkin, "The Case of Comparison: Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment," Modern Judaism, Vol. 14, No. 2 (May 1994), p. 121-138.http://www.jstor.org/stable/1396291 Sep 15 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise (Excerpts) Solomon Maimon, Autobiography, p. 24-37, 79-93, p.111-125, p. 187-307 Sep 17 Jewish Women and Salon Culture Readings: Rahel Varnhagen O How Painful to have been born a Jewess (1795) (Mendes-Flohr, 226) Dorothea Schlegel Henriette Herz SHORT PAPER DUE Week 4: Court Jews in Economics and Politics Sep 22 QUIZ Readings: Essays (From Court Jews to the Rothschilds 1600-1800. Art, Patronage and Power) Sep 24 FILM: Jud Suss (1940) and its anti-Semitic use under the Nazi regime (Watch before class) Week 5: Promised Emancipation Sep 29 Readings: Amos Elon, 149-184. Monika Richarz, Jewish Life in Germany, p. 50-65. Oct 1 George Mosse, German Jews beyond Judaism, p. 1-20. Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto, p. 2-27 (Handout) FILM: Golem (1920)(Watch before class) Week 6: Heinrich Heine, Ludwig Borne and German Romanticism Oct 6 Readings: Amos Elon, p. 101-148. Oct 8 Heinrich Heine, Germany - a Winter's Tale Week 7: Cultural, Economic and Political Transformations in the Second Half of the 19th Century Oct 13 QUIZ Readings: Amos Elon, 185-220. Oct 15 Mendes-Flohr (Exerpts) Monika Richarz, p. 173-180, p.197-224, p. 246-266. Week 8: Emancipation at Last Oct 20 NO CLASS Oct 22 Readings: Amos Elon, 221-257. Franz Kafka (Mendes-Flohr, 219-220) Rathenau (Hear, O Israel) Martin Buber (Mendes-Flohr, p, 211-13, p. 448-53). Week 9: Assimilation and Dissimilation Oct 27 Readings: Amos Elon, 259-295. George Mosse, 21-41. Oct 29 Herzl, The Jewish State (Excerpts); A Solution to the Jewish Question (Mendes-Flohr, 422-27) Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question (Mendes-Flohr, 265-268). Dadaand Surrealism Week 10: Impact of WWI Nov 3 Readings: Amos Elon, 297-354. Kurt Tucholsky (TBA) Nov 5 Readings: Ernst Toller, I was a German (Excerpts) George Mosse, p. 55-71. Week 11-14 Jews in Weimar Culture and Politics Nov 10 Readings: Amos Elon,355-390.403. Joseph Roth, Wandering Jews (Kaes, 263) Nov 12 Readings: Michael Brenner, 11-65. George Mosse, p. 42-54. Nov 17 QUIZ Readings: Michael Brenner, 69-126. Nov 19 FILM: Metropolis (1927) (In-class viewing) Nov 24 Readings: Michael Brenner, 129-152 (Literature) Stefan Zweig (TBA) Else Lasker-Schuler (TBA) Nov 26 NO CLASS Dec 1 Readings: Michael Brenner, 153-184 (Music, Architecture and Visual Arts) Expressionism and New Objectivity; Bauhaus Dec 3 QUIZ Readings: Anton Kaes, Weimar Republic Sourcebook, 429-453. FILM: People on Sunday (1929) (Watch before class) Week 15 End of Weimar Republic; Rise of Nazi Regime Dec 8Readings: Amos Elon, 390-403. Brenner, 213-220. Dec 10 Readings: Richarz, 1-29. Mosse, p.72-82. Last Class - Conclusion Dec 15 FINAL PAPER DUE
The Jewish Mother: Love and Guilt from Sarah to Silverman Professor Jerome E. Copulsky
How are mothers and motherhood imagined in the Jewish experience and
portrayed in Jewish cultural productions? Is the Jewish mother a noble
and benevolent matriarch or a domestic tyrant and the butt of jokes? This
seminar will explore, through a variety of media (classical Jewish sources,
memoir, fiction, film, television programs and jokes), various notions of
Jewish motherhood, from the primacy of women in preserving the Jewish tradition
to the modern stereotype of the nagging, overbearing, guilt-producing Jewish
mother.
We will begin with a
consideration of biblical narratives and rabbinic interpretations regarding
women and motherhood. We will then turn to look at the organization of
domestic space and allocation of authority in Jewish tradition and the
treatment of women in Jewish law. Finally, we will analyze the
construction and contestation of the stereotype of the Jewish mother and the
renegotiation of motherhood by Jewish feminists in modern America.
Throughout the course, we will be attentive to the complex relationships
between mothers and sons, mothers and daughters.
Books and Readings
The following books have been ordered for this course:
Joyce Antler, You Never Call! You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother
Anita Diamant, The Red Tent
The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln
Anne Roiphe, Lovingkindness
Philip Roth, Portnoy's
Complaint
All other required readings are available in PDF format on
Blackboard.
Suggested supplemental readings are available at the
Atheneum Library.
Class Schedule:
Note: This schedule is subject to modification
Tuesday, September 1Introduction
Biblical Mothers
Thursday, September 3The
Matriarchs
Genesis
12-13, 15-21, 23-34
Tuesday, September 8Moses
birth narrative Exodus 1-2
HannahI
Samuel 1-2
Thursday, September 10Women
of Valor (and others)
Book of Ruth
Proverbs 5, 7, 31
Jeremiah 31:
14-16
Rabbinic Mothers
Tuesday, September 15Rabbinic
materials (from The Book of Legends)
Thursday, September 17Rabbinic
Mothers
FIRST
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE
Women in the Jewish
Tradition
Tuesday, September 22Women and Jewish Law
Rachel
Biale, "Women and the Mitzvot"
Thursday, September 24Childbirth, magica"Childbirth and Magic: Jewish Folklore and
Material Culture"
Tuesday, September 29Chava
Weissler, "The Traditional Piety of Ashkenazic
Women"
The Mainz Anonymous
Thursday, October 1The Memoirs of
Gluckel of Hameln
Tuesday, October 6The Memoirs of
Gluckel of Hameln
Thursday, October 8MosesHess, Rome
and Jerusalem
Isaac Bashevis
Singer, In My Father's Court
Review
The American Jewish
Mother
The Yiddishe Mamme
Tuesday, October 13Joyce
Antler, You
Never Call! You Never Write!, Chapter 1
The Jazz Singer
Thursday, October 15Antler,
Chapter 2
Gertrude
Berg and The Goldbergs
Tuesday, October 20The Goldbergs
Thursday, October 22Antler,
Chapter 3 and 4
Tillie Olson, "I
Stand Here Ironing"
Cynthia
Ozick, "The Shawl"
SECOND
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE
and her son...
Tuesday, October 27Dan
Greenburg, How To Be a Jewish Mother
Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
Thursday, October 29Philip
Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
Tuesday, November 3Woody
Allen, Oedipus Wrecks!
and her daughter...
Thursday, November 5Feminism and the Jewish Mother
Antler, Chapter 6
Selections from On Being a Jewish Feminist
Tuesday, November 10NO
CLASS
Thursday, November 12Representation
in 80's and 90's