DHIS 25A11 - Comparing Jewish Modernities: Jews in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, 1789-1948

This course will provide an overview of major currents in Jewish life across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from the Enlightenment era to the creation of the State of Israel. Topics to be considered include continuity and rupture in Jewish cultural life and political and social status, interactions and influences between Jews in different geographical, political and cultural spheres, the rise of modern antisemitism and Jewish responses, European and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Jews' respective roles in and reactions to the emergence of the Zionist movement, the Shoah, and the creation of the State of Israel.
Nadia MALINOVICH
Séminaire
English
Autumn 2022-2023
Requirements for the class include doing the weekly readings, participating in class discussions (10% of the final grade) and completing one short writing assignment (2-3 pages; 40% of the final grade) and one longer final paper (5-7) pages (50% of the final grade).
A combination of primary and secondary sources will be assigned for each week. These will include selections from the following:
Michael Brenner, A Short History of the Jewish People (Princeton University Press, 2012)
Irving Howe, ed. A Treasury of Yiddish Stories (New York: Penguin Books, 1990)
Cohen, Julia and Stein Sarah, Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History (Stanford University Press, 2019)
Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehouda Reinharz, eds. The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
The World Was Ours : The Jewish Legacy of Vilna, part I
Ethan Katz et al, ed. Colonialism and the Jews (Indiana University Press, 2017)
Complementary readings will be provided in a detailed syllabus distributed on the first day of class.
Film: In the Beginning there was a School (about the Alliance Israelite Universelle) (2010)
Film: The World was Ours: The Jewish Legacy of Vilna (2006)