Miami University in Ohio is offering the following courses in the Posen Project: Secular Jewish Culture from the Enlightenment to Zionism as the core course, with the following peripheral courses: Jewish-American Fiction: 1945 to the Present, Tradition and Identity: Jews and Judaism in the Persian and Greco-Roman Periods: 539 BCE-200 CE, and Contemporary Israeli Society: Psychological and Social Challenges.
Secular Jewish Culture from the Enlightenment to Zionism
Professor Erik Rose
Constructed around a dynamic series of lectures by internationally
renowned Jewish studies scholars, this course surveys topics,
questions, and debates that academics working in the field of modern
secular Jewish culture and history engage with today. We will explore
aspects of Jewish culture, identity and politics in an array of
historical contexts including Revolutionary
France; 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century Germany; and early 20th-century
Eastern Europe; Palestine/Israel, and the United States. We will explore modern Jewish literature written in Yiddish and in Hebrew; a variety of cultural and political approaches to Jewish nationalism; the interrelationships between Jewish identity and modern Jewish scholarship; and the imagination and representation of modern Jewish bodies and sexuality, among other issues. Student should leave this
course with a sense of the richness and variety of modern Jewish
culture(s), and with a first-hand knowledge of how some of the most
exciting practitioners of modern Jewish studies are changing and
widening the field. In an effort to engender dialogue in the Miami and greater Oxford communities, the lecture series that is built into this course will be open to the public.
Course plan:
1. Course Introduction
2. Jews and the Modern Nation-State: The French Revolution
Read: Lynn Hunt, "The Revolutionary Origins of Human Rights: & selected documents on the French Revolution, human rights, & the Jews
3. Lecture: Ronald Schechter (Associate Professor of History, College of William & Mary): "The French Revolution and the Jews"
Read: Ronald Schechter, Obstinate Hebrews, ch 5, "Constituting Differences: The French Revolution & the Jews"
4. Discussion of Ronald Schechter: Lecture & chapter
Jewish Identity & Enlightenment Culture & Politics in Germany
Read: Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem, or on Religious Power and Judaism, Part II
5. Read: Salomon Maimon, chapters, 1-14
6. Read: Salomon Maimon, chapters, 15-22
7. Read: Salomon Maimon, chapter 23
8. The Rise of Modern Yiddish Literature
Read: Sholem Abramovitsch (Mendele Moykher Sforim), "The Little Man" & "Fishke the Lame" (in Frieden, ed., Classic Yiddish Stories)
9. Read: Sholem Aleichem (Sholem Rabinovitsh), "Hodel," "Chava," "Holiday Dainties," "Joseph," & "A Business with a Greenhorn" (in Frieden, ed., Classic Yiddish Stories)
10. Read. I. L. Peretz, "The Shtrayml, "Kabbalists," "Teachings of the Hasidim," "The Rebbe's Pipe, "If Not Higher!" & "Between Two Mountains" (in Frieden, ed., Classic Yiddish Stories)
11. S. An-sky and East European Culture
read: S. An-sky, The Dybbuk (with "Introduction" by David Roskies)
12. Read: Gabriella Safran, "Jews as Siberian Natives: Primitivism and S. An-sky's The Dybbuk"
13. David Biale, "A Journey Between Worlds: East European Jewish Culture from the Partitions of Poland to the Holocaust"
14.Lecture: Gabriella Safran (Associate Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Stanford University): "The Dybbuk vs. the Golem: S. An-sky's Play in Historical Context"
Read: David Frishman, "The Golem" & selection from Yudl Rosenberg, The Golem or The Miraculous Deeds of Rabbi Leyb
15. Discussion of Gabriella Safran lecture
Varieties of Jewish Nationalism
Read: Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State
16. Ahad Haam (Asher Zvi Ginsberg), "The Law of the Heart," "Flesh & Spirit," "The Jewish State & the Jewish Problem," "The Negation of the Diaspora," &"Imitation & Assimilation."
17. Shimen Dubnov, from Nationalism and History: Essays on Old and New Judaism (Letters 1, 2, 4, and 8)
18. Read: Chaim Zhitlovsky, "What is Secular Jewish Culture?", "The Jewish Factor in My Socialism," & "Claims Against Erets Yisroel"
19. Second paper due
20. Lecture: Tony Michels (Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin Madison): "Chaim Zhitlovsky & the Invention of Yiddish Culture."
Read: Tony Michels, A Fire in their Hearts, "Introduction" and Chapter 3, "The Politics of Yidishe Kulture. Chaim Zhitlovsky and the Challenge of Jewish Nationalism
21. Discussion of lecture and reading by Tony Michels
Jewish History, Jewish Scholarship and Modern Jewish Identity
Read:Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Zahkor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory, Chapter 4: Modern Dilemmas: Historiography and Its Discontents
22. Immanuel Wolf, "On the Concept of a Science of Judaism" (with Introduction by Michael Meyer); selections from works by G.W. F. Hegel
23. Lecture: Michael Meyer (Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Cincinnati): "The Persistence of Religion in Wissenschaft des Judentums"
Read: Michael Meyer "Two Persistent Tensions Within Wissenschaft des Judentums"
24. Discussion of lecture and reading by Michael Meyer
Modern Hebrew Literature and New Jewish Bodies
Read: H.N. Bialik, "Behind the Fence" & Uri Nissan Gnessin, "In the Gardens"
25. Read: Y.H.Brenner, "The Way Out" and Moshe Smilansky, "Khwadja Nazar"
26. Read: Daniel Boyarin, "The Colonial Drag: Zionism, Gender, and Mimicry," Max Nordau, "Jewry of Muscle"
27. Lecture: Yaron Peleg (Associate Professor of Classical & Semitic Languages & Literatures, George Washington University): "Returning Sons or Colonizers? Early Zionism in Historical Perspective"
Read:Yaron Peleg, Orientalism and the Hebrew Imagination "Introduction" and Chapter 3, "Out of the Book and into the Desert: The Invention of a Native Hebrew Culture in Palestine"
28. Discussion of lecture and readings by Yaron Peleg
Course Review
Third paper due
29. Course Review
30. Final exam
Required Texts:
Classic Yiddish Stories of S.Y. Abramovitsh,Sholem Aleichem, and I.L. Peretz. Edited by Ken Frieden, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2004.
Salomon Maimon, An Autobiography. University of Illinois Press, 2001.
Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State, Dover Publications, 1989
S. Ansky, The Dybbuk and Other Writings, Yale University Press, 2002
Bibliography:
Ahad Ha-Am. “Past and Future,” Selected Essays, tr. Leaon Simon (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1912), 80-90.
_________. Nationalism and the Jewish Ethic: Basic Writings of Ahad Ha'am. Ed. Hans Kohn. New York: Schocken Books, 1962.
Arendt, Hannah. “The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition.” Hannah
Arendt: The Jewish Writings. Ed. Jerome Kohn and Ron H. Feldman. New
York: Schocken, 2007, 275-297.
Asch, Scholem. God of Vengeance. In Three Great Jewish Plays Ed. and Trans. Joseph C. Landis. New York: Applause, 1986, 73-113.
Berr, Berr Isaac. “Letter of a Citizen to His Fellow Jews” (1791). In Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History. Second Ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1995, p. 118-121.
Biale, David. “A Journey Between Worlds: East European Jewish
Culture from the Partitions of Poland to the Holocaust” in David Biale,
ed., Cultures of the Jews: A New History. New York: Schocken, 2002, p. 799-860.
Dubnow, Simon. Nationalism and History: Essays on Old and New Judaism. Ed. Koppel S. Pinson. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1958.
Gilman, Sander L. Jewish Self-Hatred: Antisemitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1986.
Hunt, Lynn, ed. The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History. Ed. and Trans. Lynn Hunt. New York: St. Martin’s, 1996.
Marx, Karl. “On the Jewish Question.”
Raider, Mark. The Emergence of American Zionism. New York: New York UP, 1998.
Seidman, Naomi. “Staging Tradition: Piety and Scandal in God of Vengeance.” Nanette Stahl, ed., Sholem Asch Reconsidered. New Haven, CT: The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 2004, 51-62.
--. “The Ghost of Queer Loves Past: Ansky's "Dybbuk" and the Sexual
Transformation of Ashkenaz.” Daniel Boyarin, Daniel Itzkovitz, and Ann
Pellegrini, eds. Queer Theory and the Jewish Question. New York: Columbia UP, 2003, 228-245.
Steinlauf, Michael C. “‘Fardibekt!’: An-sky’s Polish Legacy.” In Gabriella Safran and Steven J. Zipperstein, eds., The Worlds of S. An-sky: A Russian Jewish Intellectual at the Turn of the Century. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2006, p. 232-251
de Spinoza, Benedict. Theological-Political Treatise. Ed. Jonathan Israel. Trans. Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007.
Zhitlowsky, Chaim. “What is Secular Jewish Culture?” In Joseph Leftwich, ed., Great Yiddish Writers of the Twentieth Century. New York: Jason Aronson, 1987, 91-98.
--. “The Jewish Factor in My Socialism.” In Lucy S. Dawidowicz, ed., The Golden Tradition: Jewish Life and Thought in Eastern Europe. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967, 411-422.
Jewish American Fiction: 1945 to the Present
Professor John Parks
The course will examine the contributions of Jewish American
writers to American fiction since the Second World War. In addition to
issues of identity and assimilation, the course will explore the
writers' treatment of, or response to the Holocaust and the changing
patterns of life in post-war America.
Texts:
Bernard Malamud, The Assistant
J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Philip Roth, Goodbye, Columbus
Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King
Edward Lewis Wallant, The Pawnbroker
E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime
Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl
Art Spegelman, Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Iluminated
Nathan Englander, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges
Reading and Class Schedule:
1. Introduction
2. Salinger, "Franny"
3. Salinger, "Zooey"
4. Malamud, The Assistant
5. Roth, Goodbye, Columbus
6. Roth, Goodbye, Columbus, "The Defender of the Faith"
7. Bellow, Henderson the Rain King
8. Wallant, The Pawnbroker
9. Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
10. Doctorow, Ragtime
11. Ozick, The Shawl
12. Spiegelman, Maus
13. Englander, For Relief of Unbearable Urges
14. Foer, Everything Is Illuminated
15. Review
Tradition and Identity: Jews and Judaism in the Persian and Greco-Roman Periods (539 BCE-200 CE)
Professor Kevin L. Osterloch
What does it mean to be Jewish in the ancient world? Where, and
under what social conditions, did Judaism come into being? This course
deals with the ancient history of the Jewish people from the Persian
through the Greco-Roman periods (539 BCE-200 CE), during which Judaism
– the “way of life” of the Jewish people – first emerged within the
broader sociopolitical and cultural context of the ancient Near East.
This is a story of how the Jewish people began to define their
identity, as Jews, and find their place in a world as politically and
culturally complex as our own. In this course we will study how Jews
preserved their communal traditions and Israelite legacy through a
variety of approaches to foreign cultures and rulers, such as the
Persians, Greeks and Romans. Jews survived and flourished in a majority
non-Jewish world through a process of “creative communal reinvention”
revealed in the architecture, coins, inscriptions and literature of the
period, which we will study throughout this course. In sum, this course
provides a basic knowledge of ancient Jewish history, essential for
understanding both the origins of Judaism and the great significance of
the ancient Jewish cultural legacy for later Judaism, Christianity,
Islam and western society as a whole.
Required Texts:
Elias J. Bickerman, The Jews in the Greek Age (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1990).
Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, Second Edition (Philadelphia: Westminster, John Knox Press, 2006).
HC = The HarperCollins Study Bible, NRSV (New Revised Standard Version), with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006).
Josephus, The Jewish War (Penguin Classics), G. A.
Williamson trans., revised with a new introduction, notes and
appendices by E. Mary Smallwood (London: Penguin Books, 1984).
Peter Schäfer, The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World (London: Routledge, 2003).
Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (New York: The Penguin Press, 1997).
Class Schedule:
1. Welcome, Review of Syllabus, Class Expectations: Introduction, Overview of the History of the Ancient Near East
2. Prehistory of “Second Temple” Judaism: Ancient Israel and Judah down to the Babylonian Exile
Readings: - 2 Kings, 15-25 (HC, 541-559);
- Psalm 137 (HC, 840-841);
- Shaye J. D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 1-17.
3. Exile in Babylon: The Rise of Persia & Cyrus as “Messiah”
Readings: - Isaiah, 40-47 (HC 961-973);
- John Bright, “Exile and Restoration,” (CP #1, 1-15);
- “The Babylonian Chronicle,” (CP #2, 17-18);
- “The Decree of Cyrus,” (CP #3, 19-20).
4. Return from Exile: Authority and the Rebuilt Community
Reading: - Ezra (HC, 646-662);
- Nehemiah (HC, 663-679);
- Haggai (HC, 1265-1268);
- II Chronicles, 30 (HC 635-636);
- Bright, “The Jewish Community in the 5th Century,” (CP #4, 21-30)
5. Complexities of Identity; Aramaic Literature & the Diaspora
Readings: - Jonah (HC, 1233-1237);
- Ruth (HC, 382-388);
- Daniel, 1-6 (HC 1168-1182);
- “Letters of the Jews in Elephantine,” (CP #5, 31-33);
- Elias J. Bickerman, The Jews in the Greek Age, 26-65.
* Map/ID Quiz # 1
6. The Hellenistic Age: Alexander the Great & the Samaritans
Readings: - Josephus, Jewish Antiquities (=AJ) 9.288-91 (CP #6, 35-36); - Josephus, AJ 11.297-347 (CP #7, 37-50);
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 3-12;
- Peter Schäfer, History of the Jews, 1-12.
7. Judea under Ptolemaic Egypt; & The Eastern Diaspora
Readings: - “Zenon Papyri,” #s 4-6 (CP #8, 51-56);
- Josephus, AJ 12.119-130 (CP #9, 57-60) - Josephus, Against Apion (=Ag Ap) 2.33-48 (CP #10, 61-65);
- Josephus, AJ 12.147-53 (CP # 11, 67-68);
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 13-25;
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 69-100.
8. Encounters between Jews and Greeks & The Septuagint
Readings: - Clearchus of Soli, On Sleep (CP #12, 69-71);
- Hecataeus of Abdera, On The Jews (CP #s 13-14, 71-82);
- “Letter of Aristeas,” (CP # 15, 83-105); - Josephus, “Tobiad Romance,” AJ 12.154-236 (CP #16, 107-127);
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 13-25, 101-16.
9. Judea under Seleucid Rule: Hellenism & Hellenization
Readings: - Josephus, AJ 12.129-146 (CP # 17, 129-135);
- II Maccabees, 3 (HC 1523-1525);
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 27-44;
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 117-29;
- Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 19-37.
10. Judean Communal Institutions: The Temple and its Staff -
Priests & Levites; The Scribe: Wisdom Literature and Apocalyptic
Readings: - Proverbs, 7-9 (HC 860-863);
- Ben Sira, Prologue-1, 24, 34, 38-39, 42.15-50.29 (HC 1378-1382, 1409-1411, 1423-1425, 1428-1432, 1436-1449);
- I Enoch, 1-36 “The Book of the Watchers” (CP # 18, 137-153);
- Daniel, 7-12 (HC 1182-1192);
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 132-76.
* Take Home Exam # 1: Assigned
11. The Anti-Judaism Decrees & The Maccabean Revolt
Readings: - I Maccabees 1-7 (HC 1477-1498); - II Maccabees 1-15 (HC 1519-1547);
- Daniel, 9-12 (HC 1186-1192);
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 44-63.
* Take Home Exam # 1: Due at Beginning of Class
12. Jews and Judaism as Hellenistic Ethnos-Politeia:
Judea Reborn in the Image of Rome
Readings: - I Maccabees, 8-16 (HC 1498-1518);
- II Maccabees, 1-2.18, 4, 6-7, 10-15.39 (HC 1520-1523, 1525- 1528, 1529-1533, 1536-1547);
- Josephus, AJ 13.228-287 (CP # 20, 167-181);
- Josephus, AJ 14.145-155 (CP # 21, 183-186);
- Josephus, AJ 14.247-255 (CP # 22, 187-189);
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 49-80;
- Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 99-103.
13. Contested Legacy I: The Hasmoneans & Their Detractors
Readings: - I Maccabees, 1-2, 7.1-25, 9, 16 (1648-54, 1665-73, 1689-90);
- II Maccabees, 14.1-36 (1718-20);
- Josephus, AJ 13.62-73 (CP # 23, 191-194);
- Josephus, AJ 13.288-432 (CP # 24, 195-232);
- Josephus, The Jewish War (=BJ) “The District of Onias,” 406-07;
- Psalms of Solomon, 1-2, 8, 17 (CP # 25, 233-244).
14. Contested Legacy II: Qumran the Dead Sea Scrolls
Readings: - Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 1-90;
- “The Community Rule,” Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls, 97-117;
- “The Damascus Document,” Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls, 127-145.
15. Midrash - Modes of Rewriting the Jewish/Israelite Past
Readings: - Nahum 1-3 (HC 1249-1253); - “Commentary on Nahum,” Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls, 504-508; - Habakkuk 1-3 (HC 1254-1258)
- “Commentary on Habakkuk” Vermes, Dead Sea Scrolls, 509-516;
- Genesis 1-20 (HC 3-32) - Jubilees, 1-15 (CP # 26, 245-280);
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 177-91, 201-36.
* Map/ID Quiz # 2
16. Judea under Rome and the Rise of the Herodian House
Readings: - Josephus, BJ, 27-119;
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 81-100.
17. From Herod to the Great Revolt: Co-opting and Augmenting the Hasmonean Legacy
Readings: - Josephus, BJ, 120-222;
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 101-120.
* Assignment of Take-Home Midterm
18. Jewish Sects in Palestine
Readings: - Josephus, BJ, 133-38;
- Josephus, AJ, 13.171-173 (CP # 27, 281-282); - Josephus, AJ 13.288-298 (CP # 28, 283-285);
- Josephus, AJ 18.1-25 (CP # 29, 287-297);
- Gospel of Matthew, 22.23-33, 23.1-36 (HC 1706-1709);
- Acts, 5.17-42, 21.27-23.11 (HC 1864-1865, 1896-1899);
- Letter to the Philippians, 3.2-6 (HC 1995);
- Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 119-166.
* Take Home Midterm Due at Beginning of Class
19. Jewish Religion: Second Temple Period Practice & Belief
Readings: - Josephus, BJ 223-306; - Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 257-97;
- Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 51-98.
20. Jewish Identity in the Diaspora
Readings: - Ezekiel the Tragedian, “Exagoge” (CP # 30, 299-310);
- Artapanus (CP # 31, 311-317);
- III Maccabees (HC 1573-1587);
- Josephus, Ag Ap, 2.33-124 (CP # 32, 319-338);
- Josephus, AJ 12.147-153 (CP # 33, 339-340);
- Cohen, , 37-50, 103-118;
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 237-56.
* Map/ID Quiz # 3
21. The Great Revolt and the Destruction of the Temple
Readings: - Josephus, BJ 307-408; - IV Ezra, 3-14 (CP # 34, 341-368); - Schäfer, History of the Jews, 121-43.
* Assignment of Term Paper Topics
22. The Jewish Jesus Movement
Readings: - Gospel of Matthew (HC 1665-1721);
- Gospel of Mark, 1-7 (HC 1722-1738);
- Letter to the Galatians (HC 1972-1981).
23. The Bar Kokhba Revolt
Readings: - Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 4.6.1-4 (CP # 35, 369-370);
- Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae, 49.12-14 (CP # 36, 371);
- Bar-Kokhba Letters (CP # 37, 372-377);
- Jerusalem Talmud, Ta‘anit, 4.5-6 (CP # 38, 379-384);
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 145-61.
24. The Mishnah and the Mobile Cult-The Rabbi and Authority
Readings: - Mishnah, Avot, 1.1-18 (CP # 39, 385)
- Mishnah, Yoma, (CP # 40, 386-391);
- Marriage Contract of Salome Komaïse (CP # 41, 393-396);
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 163-75;
- Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 205-23.
* Map/ID Quiz # 4
25. The Legacy of Ancient Israel: Jews, Gentile Christianity & The “Closing” of the Biblical Canon
Readings: - “Benediction against the Minim,” Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 28b-29a (CP # 42, 397-400) - “Benediction against the Minim,” Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 4.3 8a (CP # 43, 401-403);
- Gospel of John, 8.12-9.34, 12.12-50, 15.18-16.4 (HC 1831-1834, 1838-1840, 1844);
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 1, 16-17, 25, 38-40, 47-48, 64, 67-68, 71-73, 96, 122-25 (CP # 44, 405-429);
- Schäfer, History of the Jews, 176-97;
- Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, 167-204.
26. From Mishnah to Talmud: Literary and Material Remains of Rabbinic Period Galilee; & Summing Up Ancient Jewish History
Readings: - Josephus, AJ 14.19-28, “Honi ha-Me‘agel” (CP # 45, 431-433);
- Mishnah, Ta‘anit 3.8 (CP # 46, 434);
- Jerusalem Talmud, Ta‘anit 3.9-10 (CP # 47, 435-440);
- Babylonian Talmud, Ta‘anit 23a-23b (# 48, 441-444);
- Bickerman, Jews in the Greek Age, 298-305.
* TERM PAPER: DUE MONDAY, MAY 5, AT 12 NOON – HISTORY OFFICE
254 UPHAM HALL
Contemporary Israeli Society: Psychological and Social Changes
Professor Mia Biran
This course is proposed for juniors and seniors in the Psychology
Department and the Jewish Studies Program who are interested in
learning about the unique challenges facing the Israeli society at the
present.
Modern Israel is a vibrant and complex multi-ethnic, multi-racial,
and multi-religious society. After the state was established in 1948,
it was flooded with Jewish immigrants from around the world, primarily
Holocaust survivors from Europe and refugees from Arab lands. Since
then and until today, the Israeli society has faced challenges of
integration of its Israeli-born, European, Middle Eastern, and other
countries of origin residents. It also faces the need to integrate
religious differences amongst the Jews (from ultra-Orthodox to
Secular), the need to heal the tragic past of the Holocaust, and to
establish a secure existence amongst hostile Arab countries and
terrorism. Arab citizens make up close to 20% of the population in
Israel and there is a need to identify a way of living with them side
by side. Finally, there is a need to reconcile the political tensions
between the extreme right parties that believe in maintaining power
over the Palestinians, and the left parties that believe in giving up
lands as the price of peace. The “new Israeli” is a brave, future- and
action-oriented person, while at the same time constant losses and fear
makes it important to do the almost daily mourning process.
The contemporary Israeli society is a rich laboratory for all of
these challenges. In spite of these issues, Israel survives and
flourishes. We will study the different aspects of the complexity of
the Israeli Society and the attempts made to bring this society to
integration. It is expected that students will also gain a deeper
understanding of psychological processes involved in addressing
diversity of people living under conditions of stress.
Schedule of Topics:
Weeks 1-3: The history of the establishment of the state of Israel,
including the trauma of the Holocaust
Read Introduction in text
Weeks 4+5: Immigration Society: European, Middle-Eastern, Spanish,
Americans, others, and Israel-born natives. Economic & Social Gaps
Read chapters 5+7 in textbook
Weeks 6+7: Religious tensions:
Chapter 4 in textbook
Weeks 8+9: Political tensions (left and right parties)
Students declare their choice of project topics
Weeks 10+11: The Palestinians’ crisis (“Intefada”)
Read chapter 6+9 in textbook
Weeks 12+13: Psychological problems: Stress, Mourning and Lost, holocaust survivors
Student presentations of projects
Weeks 14+15: Integration.
Read chapter 11 in textbook
Student presentations of projects
Textbook:
Dowty, A. (Ed.), Critical Issues in israeli Society, Westport: Fraeger
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