INTERDISCIPLINARY CENTER IN HERZLIYA
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The IDC is offering four courses for the 2008-09 academic year. These are: A City Without Break: Secular Culture in the First Hebrew City - Tel Aviv; What is Judaism, and Who are the Jews - From Spinoza and Mendelsohn to Kaplan and Levinas: History and Thought; Jews and other Minorities: Nationalism, Migration and Ethnic Identity in Modern Times, and Jewish Myths as Social and Humanistic Symbols.
A City without Break: Secular Culture in the First Hebrew City – Tel-Aviv
Dr. Nili Aryeh-Sapir
In this course we will discuss the renewal process of festivals and carnivals , that are part of the yearly cycle, during the first Aliyot to Eretz Israel. We will explore the reformation of the holidays’ symbolic systems, and the way they accelerated the formation of the national secular identity of Jewish ideological groups in Eretz Israel. We will examine the changing characteristics of the yearly cycle to the present day in modern Israel.
Lesson 1: Historical review of the first Aliyot to Eretz Israel.
The ideological national map and the formation process of national identity beginning in first Aliya and the national and secular identity through the second and third Aliyot.
Lesson 2: The role of folk culture within the renewal process in Eretz Israel. The formation of ‘official folk culture’ in the first Aliyot.
Lesson 3: A theoretical discussion in the functions that festive public events and their symbol system may fulfill in the renewing national/ secular reality. The role of rituals, festivals and carnivals from the Jewish yearly cycle in the evolving Eretz Israel reality.
Lesson 4: Historical holidays that have been adopted to Eretz Israel’s reality in the periods of the first, second and third Aliyot: Hanukkah, Passover and Lag b’Omer.
Lesson 5: same as 4.
Lesson 6: Holidays with strong agriculture themes that were renewed in Eretz Israel in urban settlements and in agriculture settlements: The Feast of Booths, The New Year for The Trees, Passover, The Feast of Weeks, 15 of Ab.
Lesson 7: same as 7.
Lesson 8-9: Purim as a Diaspora holiday that was renewed in Eretz Israel. The central reference will be to Purim in Little Tel Aviv.
Lesson 10: Guest lecture: Ran Aldema tells about his father, Avraham Aldema, the initiator of Purim’s parades in little Tel Aviv.
Lesson 11- 12: The Jewish holiday yearly cycle in Israel since the state was founded to this day. Among others we shall discuss the formation of independence day, and the changes that the holiday events went through in light of the changing socio- historical correlations in Israel.
Lesson 13: Guest lecture: Binyamin Yogev, manager of “Shitim” archive, about holidays in the Kibbutzim in modern Israel.
Lesson 14: Summary.
Select Bibliography:
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London-New York 1992.
Aryeh-Sapir, Nili. The Formation of Urban Culture and Education: Stories of and about Ceremonies and Celebrations in Tel Aviv in its First Years. Dor Ledor, XXVI, 2006.
Aryeh-Sapir, Nili. “ Carnival in Tel Aviv: Purim in the First Hebraic City”. Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore, 22 (2003). Pp. 99-122.
Aryeh-Sapir, Nili. “The Light Procession: Hanukkah as a National Holiday in Tel Aviv in the Years 1909-1936”. Cathedra, 103 ( Nisan 2003). Pp. 1310150.
Carmiel, Batia. Tel Aviv in Costume and Crown- Purim’s Celebrations in the Years 1909-1935. Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv . Tel Aviv 1999.
Gaster ,Theodor H. Festivals of the Jewish Year. New York 1972.
Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terence (eds.). The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge-London-New York 1983.
Rash, Yehoshua (ed.). Regard and Revere- Renew without Fear- The Secular Jew and His Heritage. Tel Aviv 1987.
Shavit, Yaakov. “Supplying the Missing System- Between Official and Unofficial Popular Culture in the Hebrew National Culture in Eretz Israel”. Studies in the History of Popular Culture. Benjamin Z. Kedar (ed.). Jerusalem 1996. pp. 327-345.
Zeira, Moti. Rural Collective Settlement and Jewish Culture in Eretz Israel during the 1920s. Jerusalem 2002.
What is Judaism, and Who Are the Jews – From Spinoza and Mendelsohn to Kaplan and Levinas: History and Thought
Dr. Ron Margolin (4 hours)
The two central questions characterizing modern Jewish thought – which began with Baruch Spinoza and Moses Mendelssohn – are 'what is Judaism?', and 'who are the Jews?'. In the modern world, whose gates began to open for the Jewish people as well, the question of belonging to the Jewish people became a key issue, and the various answers to it shaped the complexity of the Jewish world in the new era. Some thought that the Jews are sons of a shared religion. Others believed themselves to be a national minority, spread across the nations of the world. Yet others saw themselves as the continuation of a historic group, which must redefine itself nationally and culturally, faced with the new global reality.
Taking into account Spinoza's and Mendelssohn's early opposed solutions, the various ideas will be examined in the light of the development of modern secularism, the change in the role occupied by religion in the new era, the ideas of the French revolution and the development of national and historic thinking.
Week number 1: Was Baruch Spinoza the first secular Jew? Studies of the third chapter of his 'Tractatus Theologico Politicus' on the election of the Hebrews and the nineteenth chapter about the separation between state and religion.
Week number 2: Main points of Moses Mendelssonh approach to the Jewish existence in modern world by reading from his book 'Jerusalem'. Judaism as a historical truth and not as eternal truth which means founding a pluralistic point of view concerning religions. Mendelssonh as the father of Jewish Enlightenment.
Week number 3: The Philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the idea of the moral autonomy of man and his book 'Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone'. Kant's influence on the shaping of modern Judaism in Europe. Salomon Maimon as Kant's reader and the first example of philosophical denial by east European 'Talmid Hacham'; reading special fragments from his autobiography 'My Life'.
Week number 4: Judaism as Ethics. Reading 'The essence of Judaism', by Shmuel David Luzato, selected fragments from Herman Cohen's 'Religion of Wisdom' and from the writings of Immanuel Levinas. The inner connections between understanding Judaism as culture and understanding Judaism as Ethics.
Week number 5: The 'Wissenschaft der Judentum' group (Zunz, Steinschneider, Geiger and others) and the birth of a critical scholarly approach to Jewish culture. The development of The History of the Jewish People by Nachman Krochmel, Zvi Graetz and Simon Dubnov. The understanding of Jewish history itself as the essence of Judaism.
Week number 6: Romanticism, Nationalism, Modern Jewish existence after the emancipation and the awareness to the history of the Jewish people as sources of the birth of Jewish Nationalism and Zionizm. Reading selected writings of Zionist thinkers: Moses Hess, Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, and Jacob Klatchkin.
Week number 7: Ahad Ha'am and his criticism against political Zionism. His demand to found cultural center in Palestine. The meaning of Ahad Haam's Jewish culture and Berdichevsky's criticism of him.
Week number 8: Socialist-Zionism and its attitude to religion and tradition. (Syrkin, Borochov, Gordon, Katzenelson and Ben Gurion).
Week number 9: Radical and militant secularism from Joseph H. Brenner to the Knaanite movement and its ideas.
Week number 10: 'I and Though' - The dialogical philosophy of Martin Buber. His understanding of Ahad Haam's demands and his interpretations of the Bible and the Hasidic doctrines. Buber's non-Halachik religiosity in comparison to HaRav Kook's halachik mysticism.
Week number 11: Mordechai Kaplan and his approach to Judaism as culture. Reading selected chapters from his book: The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion. The establishment of Jewish community centers as implementation of cultural approaches of Judaism.
Weeks number 12 - 14: Contemporary trends in modern Jewish thought and culture. The culture of memory and the meaning of the holocaust in modern Jewish life (From Eli Vizel to Aron Appelfeld); The various aspects of Jewish feminism; The challenge of modern Jewish fundamentalism; The Jewish renewal and the contemporary interest in the Jewish library and its meaning.
Origins of Secular Judaism and its Essence Today
Dr. Ron Margolin + guest lecturers (4 hours)
Special seminar for the students of Ofakim in addition to the course 'What is Judaism, and Who Are the Jews'
This course includes twelve meetings of four hours each one. Its purpose is to deepen our students knowledge and understanding of the sources of Jewish secularism and its various aspects today. In most of the meetings the main lecturer invites to the class experts. The students prepare themselves to the guest lecturers by reading books or papers of the guests. The second part of every such meeting is dedicated to discussions which are directed by the main lecturer.
Meetings number 1- 2: Introduction. The beginnings of secularism in Europe: the separation between state and religion, the ideas of the French revolution. The decline of religious faith in the 19th century, and the rise of skepticism and materialistic ideologies. The secular thesis of Emil Durkheim and his school.
Meeting number 3: Prof. J. Yovel – Secularization of Jewish memory and the study of Jewish History: The importance of modern Jewish Historiography in creating modern Jewish culture. From the beginnings of Spinoza's study of the bible to the founding of the study of Jewish history by Gratez. The artificial invention of the term Judaism and the real existence of various types of Judaism.
Meeting number 4: Dr. Shalom Ratzabi – The establishing of non Orthodox Jewish movements in central Europe and their continuity in North America in the framework of the Reform and Conservative movements and the Reconstruction movement. The meaning of Modern Orthodoxy and its roots in Samson R. Hirsh doctrine.
Meeting number 5: Prof. Yaira Amit - The new place of the bible in modern Jewish education and culture since the Jewish enlightenment till our time.
Meeting number 6: Dr. Iris Milner – The Hebrew enlightenment writers and their struggle against rabbinic leadership and its inflexibility and fanaticism; from Y. L. Gordon to J. H. Brenner.
Meeting number 7: Dr. Ron Margolin – Ahad Haam and his idea of national and cultural Judaism. Reading in some of his famous articles: Moses, The Renaissance of the Spirit, The National Ethics, The Hebrew High School in Jafa and others.
Meeting number 8: Prof Y. Gorni – The secularism of the socialist parties, from the Bund to Zionist socialism. Their attitudes toward Jewish culture and religious tradition.
Meeting number 9: Mr. Ari Elon – H. N. Bialik and his book of Agada. His secular approach toward the midrash and the Jewish legends of the Sages. The renewal of Bialik's approach today.
Meeting number 10: Mr. Yair Zaban – Secular Jewish identity today, its ideological basis, and its various manifestations in Israeli culture and society.
Meeting number 11: Dr. Michal Govrin – The integrating of Jewish sources in modern Hebrew literature and theater. Reading examples from Govrin's works.
Meeting number 12: Mrs. Shulamit Aloni or Prof. Yael Tamir: The meaning of educating toward Judaism as culture today.
Jews and Other Minorities: Nationalism, Migration and Ethnic Identity in Modern Times
Professor Yaron Tsur
The modern era, from the late 18th century on, has seen major upheavals in the history of world populations. Alongside processes of industrialization, migration and urbanization, new ideologies of identity emerged, first and foremost that of modern nationalism. Like other minorities, Jews – religious communities in agrarian societies – were obliged to redefine their identity in the face of pressures previously unknown. This course covers the history of places where Jewish communities were found, focusing on the events and processes that molded these communities, the new conditions to which minorities had to adapt and the status of Jews under these new conditions. We will follow the different focal points of change, from American immigrant society to revolutionary France; from there, to the Empires of continental Europe, Russia and Austria where most of the world’s Jews lived at the start of the modern era; and on to the lands of Islam, the Ottoman Empire and colonial North Africa. In each of these regions we will consider the changes affecting demography and patterns of migration, and the question of ethnic and national identity. In this framework, we will look at the situation of the Jews in comparison with other minorities. The course concludes with the development of nationalism and ethnic identities in the State of Israel.
Program:
The End of the18th Century: [2 Lessons]
Blacks and Jews after American Independence (1777)
The French Revolution (1789): The National “Deal” with the Jews (1791)
19th-Century Europe [6 Lessons]
Empires, Nationalism and Minorities: Russia and Austria
Organic Nationalism and Modern Anti-Semitism: The Case of Germany
Jews and other Migrants: Europeans Flocking to the New World
The Ottoman Empire [2 Lessons]
Greeks, Armenians and Jews, 1826-1918
French North-Africa [1 Lesson]
Jews in Colonial Society
The State of Israel [3 Lessons]
Zionism as a “Diaspora Nationalism”
Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim: Internal Jewish Ethnic Identities
Arabs: A National Minority in the Hebrew State
Jewish Myths as Social and Humanistic Symbols
Prof. Eli Yassif
General Outline:
The goal of this course is to present the major myths of Jewish history in a cultural perspective. The myths will be read in their original context, and will be studied both as literary texts and as cultural ideas. The major Jewish myths: The creation of the world, The Deluge, the binding of Isaac, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, The Ten Lost Tribes, the myth of martyrology (Kiddush ha-Shem), The Diaspora and "out of Gheto", the few against the many, the Masada myth and the "Ingathering of the Diaspora", are the main texts we will discuss. The comparative aspect of the study of myths is essential, and we shall read parallel myths from other cultures and learn how their reading affects their interpretation. We shall try to understand that most of these myths are expressions of the human spirit of Judaism, that have almost nothing with the religious world that Jewish society was part of.
Syllabus:
1. What is myth? Definitions, meanings, functions. The myths in native cultures, oral and written myths. The meaning of myth in contemporary cuture.
2. The myth in Judaism. How can myths exist in a monotheistic religion? Ealy Jewish myths and modern Jewish myths.
3. The myth in the Hebrew Bible (1): The creation of the world and the Garden of Eden. Changing variants of the myths. The creation of the first woman: Lilith and Eve.
4. The myth in the Hebrew Bible (2): The myths of the Tower of Babel and the myth of the Noah and the Deluge. The multi-variants of the myths. The Ancient Near-Eastern origins of the myths. The universal meaning of the myths.
5. The Binding of Isaac: the biblical background. The traditional interpretations and modern meanings of the myth. Can we approach critically this myth?
6. Later developments of the Binding of Isaac: the rewritten versions in the Midrash and the creative interpretation in the Middle-Ages. New approaches to this myths and their meaning.
7. Solomon and the Queen of Sheba: Gender considerations in Jewish myths. How did gender tensions express themselves through myths? A comparative reading the myth of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in Jewish and Arabic versions.
8. The Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes: Reading Utopia in Jewish Culture. The history of this myth from Talmudic times to modern Israel. The changing meanings of the myth, and the wish fulfillment of Jewish society expressed through it.
9. The myth of Mystical Safed. The renewal of Jewish culture and life in the Upper Galilee in the 16th century. The function of the myth of Safed as spiritual drive in Palestine of early modern time.
10. The legends of Ari: Magic, life and wandering in Safed of the 16th and 17th century. Safed in modern Hebrew literature and its influence on modern Israeli culture.
11. The myths of Modern Israel (1): The Masada myth: The historical and geographical background of the myth. The uses of the myth for the ideal of heroism and active force in Israeli culture.
12. The myths of Modern Israel (2): The Sabra and the new Israeli. The negation of the diaspora vs. Israel as myth. Developments of the idea of the "native-born" Israeli and its meanings for Israeli culture.
13. Jewish Culture as a history of its myths: The humanistic and universal meaning of Jewish myths: a summary.
Select Bibliography (in English):
Abramson, Glenda, Modern Jewish Mythologies, Cincinnati 2000, pp. 1-14.
Ben-Yehuda, Nachman, The Masada Myth: Collective Memory and Mythmaking in Israel, Madison 1995.
Doty, William G., Mythography: The Study of Myths and Rituals, Tuscaloosa and London 2000, pp. 305-335.
Dundes, Alan (ed.), Sacred Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth, Berkeley 1984.
Fishbane, Michael, Biblical Myth and Rabbinic Mythmaking, Oxford 2003, pp. 63- 94.
Schwartz, Howard, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism, Oxford 2004.
Zerubavel, Yael, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition, Chicago 1995, pp. 192-238.
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