Jewish Studies

Brief description of the courses in the 2004-2005 Academic Year

German-Jewish History from the Enlightenment to the Rise of National Socialism
Michael Brenner
This course will provide a broad overview of German-Jewish history in modern times, from the period of Enlightenment until the rise of National Socialism. Beginning with the Berlin Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment), the course will examine the drawn-out struggle for legal, political and civic emancipation; transformations in religious life and practice; the question of social integration vs. exclusion in Imperial Germany; World War I and its aftermath; and aspects of Jewish culture, politics and society in the Weimar Republic.

Russian, Poles and Jews: An Imperial Triangle
John Klier
There is an extensive historical literature devoted to the history of the Poles and the Jews under Russian imperial rule. These histories are usually recounted as two distinct and separate narratives, "The Polish Question" and "The Jewish Question." While some attention has been devoted to Polish-Jewish relations, it is usually viewed as a two-sided relationship, and primarily within the context of the so-called Kingdom of Poland. Only a few scholars have tried to view this relationship in a broader context, or outside the Kingdom of Poland. In particular, the Polish-Jewish relationship appears in a very different light if placed in the context of the disputed Polish-Russian borderlands, a territory that was co-terminous with the Pale of Jewish Settlement. The borderlands as a cockpit of struggle between dominant and emergent national groups has featured prominently in the work of Edward Thaden and Theodore Weeks. I have tried to explore this three-cornered relationship in a number of articles and a book, Imperial Russia's Jewish Question, 1855-1881 (Cambridge, UK, 1996).

This course will explore the three-sided relationship between Poles, Russians and Jews, both in the Kingdom of Poland and the Pale of Settlement. It will examine the process through which Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were transformed into "Polish Jews" and "Russian Jews." The role of Jews in the Polish national movement in the Russian Empire that culminated in the Polish uprising of 1863 will be explored, as well as the gradual estrangement that culminated in outright hostility on the eve of World War I. Attention will be devoted to the Polish-Jewish relationship in the Pale of Settlement against the background of the anti-Polish campaign known as "Russification," which some historians have seen as anti-Jewish in intent. The over-riding perspective will be that of the dilemma of Jews caught in the midst of the conflict between two dominant and antipathetic national groups.

Social History of Central European Jewry
Victor Karády
The course deals with long term processes of social, demographic, institutional and political transformations related to Jews and Jewish communities in East Central European societies (especially in the Habsburg Empire) since the Enlightenment. A theoretical introduction concerning the unique nature and multiple patterns of modern Jewish collective identity leads to an outline of the establishment of Jews in this part of the world since the Middle Ages. The main foci of the course are organized around the following topical areas: community structure, internal power relations and inter-state community networks in traditional Jewry; professional and economic stratification and social mobility since the 19 th century; Jews and the emerging nation states (East and West compared); demographic modernization; cultural heritage and 'educational capital' problems of acculturation and language switch; social assimilation, integration and status mobility (mixed marriages, conversion, 'nationalization' of surnames); pathologies of modern Jewish identity; political responses to the crisis of assimilation: Zionism, autonomism, Bund, socialism and communism.

The Emergence of Zionism
Michael Miller
Zionism, in its various forms, set out to transform the Jewish people by creating a territorial homeland for a dispersed minority, by replacing (or supplementing) a religious-ethnic identity with a national one. Though influenced by other nineteenth-century national movements, Zionism differed in several key respects. The Jews lacked not only a common language and land, but, arguably, even a common history. As the Jews were gradually emancipated throughout Western Europe, they often repudiated all 'national' elements of Judaism, preferring to view other Jews as 'coreligionists' and other Frenchmen, Germans, etc. as fellow countrymen.

Zionism emerged, in large part, as a response to the failed promises of emancipation. As faith in full emancipation and social acceptance was belied by a resurgence of pogroms, the emergence of modern anti-Semitism, and the rise of nationalist movements, some European Jews began to reevaluate the Enlightenment view that the Jews could become full and equal members of society after a process of moral, religious and occupational 'regeneration.'

This course will explore the wide range of responses to this crisis through an examination of selected Zionist thinkers and their writings. Beginning with the Zionist "precursors" of the mid-nineteenth century, the course will analyze seminal texts that reflect the basic diversity of the Zionist idea up until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. These texts provide not only dissenting critiques of the Jewish plight in the diaspora, but also shed light on the competing conceptualizations of the Jewish future. The Zionist thinkers envisioned Zion as a purely political entity, as a Jewish state grounded in socialist ideas, as a site for the regeneration of the Jewish people, as the cultural center for Diaspora Jewry, as the locus of messianic redemption.

Interpretations of Modern Anti-Semitism
András Kovács
The course is to provide students with an overview of psychological, sociological, political and historical theories of modern antisemitism. After considering key concepts such as antijudaism, antisemitism, modern antisemitism it will give an introduction into the most influential scholarly explanations of the investigated subject. The course will concentrate on the theological explanations of the persistence of antisemitic prejudices, the psychoanalytically oriented personality theory, the projective theories of prejudice, the group conflict theories, and the political explanations of antisemitic movements and ideologies. Special attention will be given to the methods of empirical sociological investigation of the subject.

Israel: Nation-Building, Political Development. War and Peace
Shlomo Avineri
This course aims at a comprehensive overview of the main issues which have determined Israel's political and ideological development.

The intellectual and political origins of Zionism and Israel will be traced in the context of 19th and 20th century European nationalism and the crisis and failure of liberalism in Central and Eastern Europe. The structure of the political institutions and political ideological formations in Jewish community in British, pre-1948 Palestine will be presented as the background out of which the political structure and culture of contemporary Israel has emerged. The political map of Israel will be discussed over the period 1948-2002: political parties, state/religion, the status of the Arab minority in Israel, the emergence of Sephardi power and the impact of the recent Russian immigration.

The international context of the Arab-Israel conflict will be related to these developments: from Soviet support for Israel in the late 1940's, through French-British-Israeli alliance in 1956, the growing importance of the American connection in the Cold War and the post-l989 changes. The promise of Oslo and the breakdown of the peace process following Camp David in 2000 and the impact on the Israeli political scene will lead us to the January 2003 elections.

Culture, Society and Religion of Eastern European Jewry
Michael Miller
This course examines the "Eastern European era in Jewish history," with particular focus on religious and cultural trends that shaped (or were shaped by) the Jewish experience in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - up until the Partitions of Poland (1772-1795) - and in the Russian Empire up until the Bolshevik Revolution. After exploring the origins of Eastern European Jewry, the course will examine Jewish institutions of self-government, social and economic relations with the surrounding Gentile population, and the flourishing religious and educational life that was temporarily disrupted by the Cossack Uprising of 1648-49. It will also examine the eighteenth-century emergence of Hasidism, a mystical religious movement that attracted a mass following - and precipitated a vociferous opposition - among the Jews of Eastern Europe.

After the Partitions of Poland, Jews were incorporated into the Russian, Prussian and Habsburg states, each of which aimed to transform the Jews into useful citizens - or at least "productive" subjects - in accordance with the regnant Enlightenment discourse. This course will briefly examine the developments in Prussia and the Habsburg Empire, but the focus will be on the Russian Empire, which acquired its Jewish population with the Partitions of Poland. Particular attention will be paid to the Russian Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), changing attitudes towards religion and "Jewishness," shifting roles of women and the family, the emergence of modern Jewish literature, and ideological responses to economic and physical insecurity. In addition, the transfer, adaptation and rupture of Eastern European Jewish patterns of life will be examined in the context of mass emigration to the New World.

RELEVANT COURSES OFFERED BY OTHER DEPARTMENTS

• Judaism and Gender, Andrea Peto
• German-Jewish History from the Enlightenment to the Rise of National Socialism, Michael Brenner

Selected syllabi of the courses

Culture, Society and Religion of Eastern European Jewry
Michael Miller
4 credits, Winter Semester

The sixteenth to twentieth centuries have been called the "Eastern European era in Jewish history," a reflection of this region's overarching centrality in the Early Modern and Modern Jewish history. By the seventeenth century, Eastern Europe was home to the largest Jewish population in the world, but already in the sixteenth century, Eastern European Jewry had begun acquiring a religious prominence - and a set of educational, cultural and socio-economic traits - that marked its emergence as a distinct Ashkenazic cultural realm in the Jewish Diaspora.

This course examines the "Eastern European era in Jewish history," with particular focus on religious and cultural trends that shaped (or were shaped by) the Jewish experience in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - up until the Partitions of Poland (1772-1795) - and in the Russian Empire up until the Bolshevik Revolution. After exploring the origins of Eastern European Jewry, the course will examine Jewish institutions of self-government, social and economic relations with the surrounding Gentile population, and the flourishing religious and educational life that was temporarily disrupted by the Cossack Uprising of 1648-49. It will also examine the eighteenth-century emergence of Hasidism, a mystical religious movement that attracted a mass following - and precipitated a vociferous opposition - among the Jews of Eastern Europe.

After the Partitions of Poland, Jews were incorporated into the Russian, Prussian and Habsburg states, each of which aimed to transform the Jews into useful citizens - or at least "productive" subjects - in accordance with the regnant Enlightenment discourse. This course will briefly examine the developments in Prussia and the Habsburg Empire, but the focus will be on the Russian Empire, which acquired its Jewish population with the Partitions of Poland. Particular attention will be paid to the Russian Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), changing attitudes towards religion and "Jewishness," shifting roles of women and the family, the emergence of modern Jewish literature, and ideological responses to economic and physical insecurity. In addition, the transfer, adaptation and rupture of Eastern European Jewish patterns of life will be examined in the context of mass emigration to the New World.

This course will make extensive use of literature and film to explore various aspects of Eastern European Jewish culture, society and religion.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Regular attendance and participation
• One in-class presentation
• One term paper (15-20 pages)


• Origins of Eastern European Jewry


• Legal Status & Jewish Self-Government


• Jewish Christian Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth


• Elite and Popular Culture


• The Chmielnicky Uprising, 1648-1649


• Hasidism and Jewish Religious Life


• The Partitions of Poland: Jews of Russia, Prussia and Habsburg Galicia


• Russian Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah)


• Modernity and the Jewish Woman: the Case of Pauline Wengeroff


• The Emergence of Modern Jewish Literature


• Pogroms and Jewish Responses, 1881-1905


• Eastern European Jews in the New World

The Emergence of Zionism
Michael L. Miller
Central European University
Fall 2004

Zionism, in its various forms, set out to transform the Jewish people by creating a territorial homeland for a dispersed minority, by replacing (or supplementing) a religious-ethnic identity with a national one. Though influenced by other nineteenth-century national movements, Zionism differed in several key respects. The Jews lacked not only a common language and land, but, arguably, even a common history. As the Jews were gradually emancipated throughout Western Europe, they often repudiated all 'national' elements of Judaism, preferring to view other Jews as 'coreligionists' and other Frenchmen, Germans, etc. as fellow countrymen.

Zionism emerged, in large part, as a response to the failed promises of emancipation. As faith in full emancipation and social acceptance was belied by a resurgence of pogroms, the emergence of modern anti-Semitism, and the rise of nationalist movements, some European Jews began to reevaluate the Enlightenment view that the Jews could become full and equal members of society after a process of moral, religious and occupational 'regeneration.'

This course will explore the wide range of responses to this crisis through an examination of selected Zionist thinkers and their writings. Beginning with the Zionist "precursors" of the mid-nineteenth century, the course will analyze seminal texts that reflect the basic diversity of the Zionist idea up until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. These texts provide not only dissenting critiques of the Jewish plight in the diaspora, but also shed light on the competing conceptualizations of the Jewish future. The Zionist thinkers envisioned Zion as a purely political entity, as a Jewish state grounded in socialist ideas, as a site for the regeneration of the Jewish people, as the cultural center for Diaspora Jewry, as the locus of messianic redemption.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• Regular attendance and participation
• One in-class presentation
• One term paper (12-15 pages)

SYLLABUS

Week 1
Introduction: Enlightenment, Emancipation and the Jewish Question

Week 2
"Precursors" to Zionism I: Y. Alkalai and Z.H. Kalischer
Laqueur, pp. 3-55; Avineri, pp. 47-55
Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, "The Third Redemption"
Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, "Seeking Zion"

Week 3
"Precursors" to Zionism II: Moses Hess Isaiah Berlin, "The Life and Opinions of Moses Hess"
Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem

Week 4
Leo Pinsker and the Crisis of Assimilation
Laqueur, pp. 56-83; Avineri, pp. 73-82
Leo Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation

Week 5
Theordor Herzl and Political Zionism I: The Jewish State
Laqueur, pp. 84-135
Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State

Week 6
Theodor Herzl and Political Zionism II: Old-New Land
Theodor Herzl, Old-New Land

Week 7
Achad Ha-Am and Cultural Zionism
Laqueur, pp. 136-170; Avineri, pp. 112-124
Ahad Ha-Am, "The Law of the Heart"; "Flesh and Spirit"; "On Nationalism and Religion";
"The Negation of the Diaspora"; "The Wrong Way"; "Slavery in Freedom"; "The Jewish State and the Jewish Problem"

Week 8
Religious Zionism
Laqueur, pp. 171-205; Avineri, pp. 187-197
Rabbi Samuel Mohilever, "Message to the First Zionist Congress"
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, "The Land of Israel;" "The War"; "The Rebirth of Israel"; "Lights for Rebirth"

Week 9
Labor Zionism and Marxist Zionism
Laqueur, pp. 270-337; Avineri, pp. 139-158
Ber Borochov, "The National Question and the Class Struggle"; "Our Platform"

Week 10
Vladimir Jabotinsky and Revisionist Zionism
Laqueur, pp. 338-383
Vladimir Jabotinsky, "Emdee"; "Evidence Submitted to the Palestine Royal Commission"

Week 11
Zionism and its Critics
Laqueur, pp. 384-416; Ravitzky, "Munkács and Jerusalem"
Protestrabbiner, "Protest Against Zionism"
Rabbi Zadok Hacohen Rabbinowitz, "The Zionists Are Not Our Saviors"
Rabbi Sholem Dov Ber Schneerson, "On the Zionists, Zionism and the State"

Week 12
Berit Shalom: Zionism and the Arab Question
Laqueur, pp. 209-269
Judah Leon Magnes, "Like All the Nations"
Martin Buber, "The Jew in the World"; "From an Open Letter to Mahatma Gandhi"; "Nationalism"; "Zionism and Nationalism"; "The National Home and National Policy in Palestine"