Secular Judaism in Historical Perspective
The starting point for our investigation of a distinctively secular
Jewish conception of the world will be the fact that roughly one half
of the American Jewish population possesses a secular non-religious
orientation (American Jewish Identity Survey, 2001). How did this
non-religious orientation arise amongst what many people consider to be
a religious community? We will explore how certain non- religious
features, such as shared culture, language, customs, dress, and
education played an integral role in the definition of Jews and Judaism
from their inception, and the role played by these features in the
constitution of variant secular forms of Judaism and secular Jewish
orientations in the modern period.
Although ordered chronologically, the course aims to expose
students to important elements within the Jewish cultural tradition
that will eventually serve as building blocks for variant forms of
secular Jewish identity and culture in the modern period. We will begin
our study with an exploration of the Bible. Reading the text against
the grain, we will come to see how religious practice served as only
one element within a broader Israelite identity. During our study of
the ancient world, we will focus on the clash of religion, ethnicity,
and political sovereignty that led to the development of variant forms
of Jewish culture and identity in the Land of Israel and the Diaspora.
Particular attention will be given to Jewish art that challenges
efforts to portray Jews in late antique Palestine as highly devout and
cut-off from larger cultural trends seemingly at odds with Judaism.
Through exploration of the impact of philosophy on the works of Saadya
Gaon and Maimonides, we will see how Judaism began to be redefined as a
moral system during the medieval period. The secular Hebrew poetry of
Medieval Spain will then be studied to illustrate the interaction of
medieval Jews and non-Jews that allowed for the transformation of
sacred language and text into a secular leisure culture. We will then
move to examine changes in Judaism that occurred with the development
of converso identity following the mass conversions of Spanish and
Portugese Jews to Christianity in the 14th and 15th centuries. These
changes would set the stage for Spinoza’s pioneering expression of
secular Jewish identity. Attention will then shift to the Enlightenment
period and Ashkenazic Jewry’s first encounter with secularism. We will
then move into a discussion of nineteenth-century Europe, concentrating
on Jewish integration and its role in the development of new forms of
secular Judaism. We will end the course with discussion of American
Jewish identity and Israeli identity and the foundational role played
by secularism in their construction. The progression of the course
should permit the students to grasp the central idea that secular
Jewish identity is an essential dimension of the Jewish experience, not
something that arose recently.
Course Outline:
1. Introduction
Reading: Preface, xvii-xxxiii.
2. Discussion of Preface & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Introduction” pps. 3-8 & “Imagining the Birth of Ancient Israel,” 9-42.
Reading on jbooks website:
3. Discussion of “Imagining the Birth of Ancient Israel" & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Israel among the Nations,” pps. 44-76.
Reading on website:
4. Discussion of “Israel among the Nations” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Hellenistic Judaism,” pps. 77-134.
Reading on website:
5. Discussion of “Hellenistic Judaism” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Jewish Culture in Greco-Roman Palestine," pps. 135-180
Reading on website:
6. Discussion of “Jewish Culture in Greco-Roman Palestine” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Confronting a Christian Empire,” pps. 181- 222.
Reading on website:
7. Discussion of “Confronting a Christian Empire” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Babylonian Rabbinic Culture,” pps. 223-266.
Reading on website:
8. Discussion of “Babylonian Rabbinic Culture” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Jewish Culture in the Formative Period of Islam,” pps. 267-304.
Reading on website:
9. Discussion of “Jewish Culture in the Formative Period of Islam” & Jbooks reading
10. Film: Fiddler on the Roof
11. Film: Fiddler on the Roof
12. Discussion of Fiddler on the Roof
Reading: “Introduction,” pps. 305-312 & “Merchants and Intellectuals,” pps. 313-388.
13. Discussion of “Merchants and Intellectuals” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “A Letter to a Wayward Teacher,” pps. 389- 448.
Reading on website:
14. Discussion of “A Letter to a Wayward Teacher” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “A Jewish-Christian Symbiosis,” pps. 449-518.
Reading on website:
15. Discussion of “A Jewish-Christian Symbiosis” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Innovative Tradition,” pps. 519-572
Reading on website:
16. Discussion of “Innovative Tradition” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Families and Their Fortunes,” pps. 573-638.
Reading on website:
17. Discussion of “Families and Their Fortunes” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Bom Judesmo,” pps. 639-670.
Reading on website:
18. Discussion of “Bom Judesmo” & Jbooks reading
19. Film: Zelig
20. Film: Zelig
Reading: “Introduction,” pps. 725-730 & “Urban Visibility,” pps. 731-789.
21. Discussion of “Urban Visibility” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “A Journey Between Worlds,” pps. 799-862.
Reading on website:
22. Discussion of “A Journey Between Worlds” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “The Ottoman Diaspora,” pps. 863-886.
Reading on website:
23. Discussion of “The Ottoman Diaspora” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Multicultural Visions,” pps. 887-932.
Reading on website:
24. Discussion of “Multicultural Visions” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Challenges to Tradition,” pps. 933-976.
Reading on website:
25. Discussion of “Challenges to Tradition” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Religious Interplay,” pps. 977-1030.
Reading on website:
26. Discussion of “Religious Interplay” & Jbooks reading
27. Film: Crossing Delancey
28. Film: Crossing Delancey
29. Discussion of Film: Crossing Delancey
Reading: “Locus and Language,” pps. 1011-1062.
Reading on website:
30. Discussion of “Locus and Language” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “The ‘Other’ Israel,” pps. 1063-1098.
Reading on website:
31. Discussion of “The ‘Other’ Israel” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Declarations of Independence,” pps. 1099- 1146.
Reading on website:
32. Discussion of “Declarations of Independence” & Jbooks reading
Reading: “Conclusion,” pps. 1147-1150.
Reading on website:
33. Discussion of readings.
Readings:
• Biale, David ed., Cultures of the Jews: A New History
• Scheindlin, Raymond. A Short History of the Jewish People
• Website of the Center for Cultural Judaism (
www.jbooks.com/secularculture)
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