The Judaism as Culture program at Tel Aviv University is a carefully constructed academic program that explores the culture of Judaism in its modern, non-religious forms. It concentrates on four themes: the historical, textual, social, and artistic facets of modern Judaism. Courses will be offered on Jewish thought, art, literature, society, folklore, cinema and theater.
What is Judaism, and Who are the Jews? History and Thought from Spinoza and Mendelssohn to Kaplan and Levinas
Dr. Ron Margolin
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, which began
to open to the Jews 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 were sons of a shared religion. Others believed themselves to be a
national minority, scattered across the nations of the world. Yet
others saw themselves as the continuation of a historic group which
must redefine itself nationally and culturally to respond to a new
global reality. Taking into account Spinoza's and Mendelssohn's early
solutions, the various ideas will be examined in the light of the
development of modern secularism, the change in the role of religion in
the new era, the ideas of the French Revolution and the development of
national and historical thought. In the course, the schools of thought
which evolved in the 19th and 20th centuries will be discussed, along
with the teachings of Nahman Krochmel, Tzvi Graetz, S.R. Hirsh, Moses
Hess, Max Nordau, Ahad Ha-Am, Aharon David Gordon, Herman Cohn, Martin
Buber, Jacob Klatzkin, Mordechai Kaplan, Emmanuel Levinas and others.
Freud, Kafka and Scholem: The Jewish Intellectual between Vienna, Prague and Jerusalem
Dr. Marina Arbib
Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka and Gershom Scholem: three prominent personalities, three remarkable life stories, placed against the backdrop of three great cities. Freud, Kafka and Scholem changed the face of modern Western culture. Articulating the tensions between modernism and specific Jewish identity, each of them posed questions on issues that confront and perplex the Jew and the Israeli to this day: the legitimacy of religion, tolerance, secular and religious co-existence, and the separation of religion and state. This course will explore these issues by closely analyzing Freud's, Kafka's and Scholem's texts, together with critiques and commentaries of their writings. Screenings of selections from contemporary films will highlight the immediacy of the issues under discussion, within the context of the cultural-artistic dialectic of our times.
Early Twentieth Century Narrative Fiction
Dr. Oded Menda-Levy
In the early twentieth century, the combination of great writers, sophisticated means of literary and linguistic expression, publishing options and a stable reading public resulted in the emergence of the genuine genre of Hebrew literary fiction. The emblematic protagonist in this generation was HaTalush, a young Jew who broke with family and tradition to find his way in modern society. In this course we will read and discuss stories by Berdyczewski, Gnessin, Brenner, Shofman, Baron and Steinberg.
The Individual in Modern Jewish Culture
Dr. Tamar Aylat-Yaguri
This course will introduce studetns to different individualistic perspectives on being a Jew. It will include the writings of key Jewish thinkers and philosophers, such as Spinoza, Buber, Rosenzweig, Soloveitchik and Freud. Biblical stories, Hassidic tales, midrashim (homiletic interpretation) from Jewish sources will serve as illustrations of individualistic Jews. There will be ample opportunity to take a critical view of this approach throughout the course and to emphasize the role of existential philosophy in understanding the individual in modern Jewish culture.
Culture and Nationality in Hebrew Children's Literature
Dr. Hanna Livnat
This course examines cultural and national concepts, ideas and means of dealing with social and political situations, circumstances and change as found in literary texts for children and young adults written in Hebrew (original and translated). I define a series of text models to help shed light on the ways in which adults attempt to shape the concept of identity of young generations in Israeli society as compared to other societies in various periods. This highlights what authors believe is right and essential to offer the young generation as a means of dealing with key national, cultural and social circumstances. The course also provides instruction in the basic academic crafts essential for critical reading of texts as well as techniques of academic writing.
How Jewish is Israeli Art - Identity Issues in Modern Art in Israel
Dr. Dalia Manor
This interdisciplinary course links issues of national and cultural identity with aspects of Jewish and Israeli history. The main facet explored is the relationship between Jewishness and Israeliness which is cast as a story of continuity vs. the story of a new beginning. The course will consider these points as reflected in the visual art and art discourse since the early 20th century. Conventional historiography of Israeli art emphasizes the aspiration ofthe visual arts as distinct from Jewish art, i.e. as 'Israeli' and thus as 'modern' and 'anti-exile' while reflecting a common Zionist narrative. A deeper analysis of the artistic activities and the work of pivotal artists however reveals artists' significant interest in issues of Jewish identity, their attraction to themes and styles that have been identified ast Jewish, and some fierce controversy surrounding the formation of the canon of Israeli art and the role of Jewish features in it. The course starts with the first attempt to create Jewish national art in Eretz Israel at the Bezalel School (founded 1906) and the role of Jewish tradition in this project. Rapidly, opposing attitudes championed local and modern expression. Later this localism was rejected in favor of what was seen as a Jewish type of expression based on Jewish character and history. The Western-modernist trend that has dominated the Israeli canon in art since the 1950s helped to eliminate any reference to the trauma of the Holocaust in Israeli art. The partial legitimacy of the subject in the 1980s has facilitated a critical debate on issues of Jewish identity in contemporary Israeli art since the 1990s.
The Encounter of Vision, Longing, and Reality in Eretz Israel: a Multi-Disciplinary Examinationi and Discussion
Dr. Michal Sadan
This course focuses on themes that reflect central issues and key points in the location and significance of Eretz Israel in the cultural life and daily existence of the Jewish nation since the rise of Zionism. The subject matter will be approached from a multidisciplinary perspective including historical sources, the visual arts, popular songs, literature, educational literature as well as relevant studies. The cultural products which crystallized during this dynamic period are shown to function as a mirror of historical and social processes.
Judaism and Society
Dr. Nili Aryeh-Sapir
This course will instruct students in study skills and the writing of academic papers. The topic is folklore, and thus going into the field to interview will be mandatory. The core subject of the course is the adaptation and renewal process of public festivals and carnivals in Eretz Israel and in Israel from the first Aliya period to this day. This process will be interpreted through reference to the socio-historical context of the time. We will discuss festive public events such as the holidays marking the cycle of the year, rites of passage in the life cycle and events that characterize specific identity groups (like the pride parade). Their social meanings will be examined while discussing their symbolic systems.
Judaism(s) in the New-Age: Intercultural Crossroads
Dr. Marianna Ruah-Midbar
Over the last ten years, New Age culture has taken root in Israel and can be witnessed both in the way existing cultural products have been imported, and the creation of new syntheses representing the local Jewish-Israeli character. This phenomenon has the potential to impact strongly on Israeli society, Jewish identity, local values, and discourse. This course focuses on the intercultural crossroads of Judaism and New Age (in Israel as well as in the Diaspora), analyzes the doctrines and groups in the field from a multidisciplinary point of view, and assesses the implications.
The Challenge of Secularization in Israeli Judaism
Dr. Nissim Leon
This course discusses the influence of the modern secularization process in Israeli Judaism. It first examines the multiple models of secularization in time and space. Then it explores the institution and the cultural challenges of secularization - as a mulitfaceted contemporary phenomenon - to religious communities in general and especially to Israeli Judaism. The main case we will analyze is Orthodox reactions to the challenges of secularization. Applying Peter Berger's typology we will distinguish between three strategies found in Orthodox communities that deal with the secularization process: 1) isolation, 2) extension and 3) integration.
From Jew to Hebrew and Back Again? The Forging of Israeli/Jewish Identity
Dr. Alon Gan
The New Jew, the Hebrew, the Sabra: these concepts reflect attempts by the Zionist revolution to forge an alternative identity that made a clean break with the old Diaspora Jew. This course deals with agents of change involved in the building of a new Israeli identity. I focus on the fundamental features of the concept of 'the new person' that was central to the Zionist revolution, and analyze the processes leading to the gradual waning of this figure as a model Israeli society was expected to emulate. Course material is multidisciplinary and examines these issues in terms of philosophy, education and linguistics as well as their manifestations in art, literary works (including children's literature), the theater, cinema, dance, music, and athletics.
Men and Women: Heroes of the Holocaust in Israeli Society
Dr. Sharon Geva
This course introduces Israeli society's perceptions of the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors from the end of the Second World War to the early 1960s, via reading, discussing and analyzing a variety of primary documents: manifestos, protocols, speeches, letters and memoirs of men and women. In class we will examine topics such as the reparation controversy, Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel (Remembrance Day for the Holocaust and Heroism), the Kastner Affair, the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem and the gender aspect of Holocaust research.
Zeitgeist in Textbooks: Instructional and Educational Texts in the Jewish Hebrew Culture
Dr. Tal Kogman
This course will trace the development of textbook corpora from the 16th century to our time, mainly in Jewish culture. Textbooks express the main cultural conjunction of the educational system, the literary system aimed at children and young adults, and different fields of knowledge. Textbooks deliver knowledge and cultural values and traditions, and reflect the goals of education and its images of childhood. Cultural and textual traditions, development of knowledge, ideological and national struggles, and transitions in values and in educational outlooks are all expressed in textbooks, and make them an important subject for studying the Jewish culture.
Female Life Cycle in Jewish Traditional Society and Modern Israeli Society
Dr. Nili Aryeh-Sapir
This seminar discusses the way in which the female life cycle is expressed in verbal folk expressions (such as fairy tales, legends, novellas, proverbs) and in various ceremonies (life cycle ceremonies and ceremonies that are held in female groups). We will examine the nature of the female voices in these various folk expressions and the forms of identity they convey. The seminar will focus on female voices from traditional Jewish groups, and from ideological, local, and religious groups in Eretz Israel and in Israel.
Jewish Women in the State of Israel (The First Decade)
Dr. Sharon Geva
According to the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on May 14th, 1948, "The State of Israel will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex." But this equality between men and women in Israel was not de facto - neither legally nor socially. During the seminar we will examine women's roles and duties in the 1950's as pioneers, soldiers, parliamentarians, homemakers, and above all as mothers, by reading, discussing and analyzing a variety of primary documents, such as manifestos, protocols, reportages, letters and memoirs.
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