DHUM 25A29 - Eastern European Jewishness: Societies and State Policies

This course aims to provide an exploration of the relationship to Eastern European Jewishness, both secular and religious, from the end of the 18th century to the present, marked by profound social, economic, political, and cultural transformations. The complex relationship between all of them reflects on the evolutions of Jewish singularity, paradigmatic to other minorities. The goal of this interdisciplinary seminar is to introduce to a modern encounter between Jews, societies, and States, both in culture and politics, including the consequences of the Holocaust and its legacy in the present. It offers a precious key to understand the diversity of contemporary debates on singular vs. universal rights, traditions vs. modernity, rural vs. urban cultures, religiousness vs. secularity and beyond that, the condition of modernity in Europe. The Nobel Prize-winning book “The Books of Jacob" by Olga Tokarczuk will be the focus of reflective, historical and creative work throughout this course. The creative cartographies produced will be presented to and potentially commented on by the author.
Ewa TARTAKOWSKY
Séminaire
English
No required
Spring 2023-2024
1. A creative cartography based on The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk: work conducted in small groups (50%) 2. An oral presentation of the cartographic work in small groups (20%) 3. An individual one-hour written evaluation (30%)
Bartal Israel, My Heart Is in the West': The Haskalah Movement in Eastern Europe, in: id. (ed.), The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881, University of Pennsylvania, 2006, pp. 90-101.
Fishman David E., The Politics of Yiddish, in: id., The Rise of Modern Yiddish Culture, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005, pp. 18-32.
Gitelman Zvi, Becoming Jewish in Russia and Ukraine, in: Zvi Gitelman, Barry Kosmin & András Kovács (eds), New Jewish Identities: Contemporary Europe and Beyond, Budapest, Central European University Press, 2002, pp. 105-138.
Polonsky Antony, Fragile Coexistence, Tragic Acceptance: The Politics and History of the East European Jews, Osteuropa, Vol. 58, No. 8/10, pp. 7-24.
Tokarczuk Olga, The Books of Jacob, Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2021 [2014] (book excerpts).
Bartal Israel, The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
Brym Robert, The Jews of Moscow, Kiev, and Minsk. Identity, Antisemitism, Emigration, New York, New York University Press, 1994.
Cherry Robert & Orla-Bukowska Annamaria, Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future, Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.
Frankel Jonathan, Prophecy and Politics. Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian Jews (1862-1917), London, The Macmillan Press, 1978.
Gitelman Zvi, A century of ambivalence. The Jews of Russia, 1881 to the present, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2001.