Syllabi
The Jewish Experience in America
Dr. Aviva Ben-Ur
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Fall 2004
Course Description
The United States is home to the second largest (after the State of Israel), and arguably most influential, Jewish community in the world. This course will explore the development of the Jewish community and Jewish social and religious institutions in the United States from socio-historical, religious and cultural perspectives, and through the often overlapping lenses of religion, ethnicity, race, culture and community. While this course will progress chronologically, the emphasis, particularly during the latter half of the course, will be topical. This course is meant to introduce students to the sources historians use to reconstruct the past, and we will thus explore a variety of genres (wills, memoirs, portraits, inventories, letters, diaries, and historical fiction) and ways of approach and analysis. Themes include immigration patterns, labor movements, regional variations, traditional denominations and religious innovations, gendered experiences, and interaction with “mainstream” American culture. Through the exploration of primary and secondary source readings, class lectures, overheads, and film, the uniqueness and diversity of American Jews and their communities will be explored from both traditional and innovative perspectives.
We will be viewing two films, both relating to written texts. Students will write at least one film review dealing with a film and related readings. Students will also be assessed through a midterm and second exam, and class engagement.
Prerequisites
While there are no prerequisites for this course, "The Jewish People I" or "The Jewish People II" are recommended as preparatory background. This is a university, not a seminary--you need not be of Jewish ancestry or religion to take and/or succeed in this course. For those seeking a basic understanding of the Jewish religion, recommended reading is Rabbi Milton Steinberg’s Basic Judaism ("the essential book for both Jews and non-Jews eager to know more about one of the world’s great religions), San Diego, New York, London: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1975.
Required Texts
Helen Jacobus Apte. Heart of a Wife: The Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman (Wilmington, Delaware: SR Books, 1998).
Eli N. Evans. The Lonely Days were Sundays: Reflections of a Jewish Southerner (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993).
Also Required
Ben-Ur, Aviva. Electronic Course Page for “American Jewish Experience.” In this syllabus, the Electronic Course Page is designated as (ECP)
Class Schedule with Assigned Readings
Class #1: Introduction: Periodization and Overview
Jacob Rader Marcus. “The Periodization of American Jewish History,” Proceedings of the American Jewish Historical Society 47:3 (March 1958): 125-133.
Jonathan Sarna. “Critical Dates in the History of American Judaism,” in Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism: A History (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), 429-439. No need to memorize entire list: the review for the midterm will clarify which dates and facts are important to know.
Jonathan Sarna. “Appendix: American Jewish Population Estimates, 1660-2000,” in Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism: A History (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), 375-376. No need to memorize entire list: the review for the midterm will clarify which dates and facts are important to know.
Optional: Edward S. Shapiro. “Jews,” in Elliot Robert Barkan, ed., A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America’s Multicultural Heritage (Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1999), 330-353. Provides a helpful overview of American Jewish history.
Class #2: The “Stuff” of Jewish History: Material Culture
David L. Barquist. “’That Noted and Proficient Mechanic’: The Life and Career of Myer Myers,” in David L. Barquist, ed., Myer Myers: Jewish silversmith in colonial New York (New Haven: London: Yale University Press, 2001), 25-75.
Class #3: Inventories and Wills
Leo Hershkowitz. Wills of Early New York Jews (1704-1799) (New York: American Jewish Historical Society, 1967), pp.8-10 (Isaac Rodriquez Marques); 11-14 (Esther Brown); 21-26 (Isaac Pinheiro).
Malcolm H. Stern. “Asser Levy—A New Look at Our Jewish Founding Father,” American Jewish Archives 26:1 (April 1974): 66-77.
Class #4: Portraiture
Ellen Smith. “Portraits of a Community: The Image and Experience of Early American Jews,” in Richard Brilliant, ed., Facing the New World: Jewish Portraits in Colonial and Federal America (Munich and New York: Prestel, 1997), 9-21.
Class #5: Colonial Women
David de Sola Pool. Portraits Etched in Stone: Early Jewish Settlers, 1682-1831 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1952), 181.
Doris Groshen Daniels. “Colonial Jewry: Religion, Domestic and Social Relations,” American Jewish Historical Society 66:3 (March 1977): 375-400.
Irene D. Neu. “The Jewish Businesswoman in America,” American Jewish Historical Society 66: (September 1976-June 1977): 137-154.
Class #6: Rights and Restrictions
The following are all from Jacob Marcus, ed., The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1996).
“Political Rights and Disabilities under the English, 1669-1762,” pp.34-39.
“Political Rights of American Jews, 1776-1840,” pp.93-104.
Isaac Leeser Pleads for Equality of Rights for Jews, December 8, 1840,” top of p.158, pp.162-3.
“Jew Hatred and General Grant, 1862-1870,” pp.196-202.
“Emerging American Period, 1925-1960,” pp.396-405.
“Equal Rights for Jews, 1964-1980s,” pp.497-504.
Optional: J. H. Hollander. “The Naturalization of Jews in the American Colonies under the Act of 1740,” Proceedings of the American Jewish Historical Society 5 (1897): 103-117.
Class #7: The Development of the “Synagogue Community”
The following are all from Jacob Marcus, ed., The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1996).
“The Colonial Jewish Community, 1728 to ca. 1770,” pp.57-66.
“American Jewish Communities, 1810-1812,” pp.131-136.
“Religious Life in the United States, 1787-1826,” pp.139-140 and pp.144-145.
Class #8: The Development of “Community of Synagogues:” American Jewish Denominations
The following are all from Jacob Marcus, ed., The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1996).
“Religious Life in the United States, 1787-1826,” pp.145-146.
“Judaism under the Germans, 1873-1902,” pp.238-244. (CROSS OUT 244-246 FROM ERESERVES)
“The Jewish Religion and its Adherents, 1937-1960,” pp.435-446. On print reserve in the book, The Jew in the American World.
Class #9: German Jewry Shaping the Economic Landscape
Jacob Marcus, ed., “The Jews and the Economy, 1861-1895,” The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1996), pp.219-227. On print reserve in the book, The Jew in the American World.
Class #10: Jews and Slavery
Louis Ruchames. “The abolitionists and the Jews,” Proceedings of the American Jewish Historical Society 42:2 (December 1952): 131-155.
Class #11: Southern Jews: Female Perspectives
Helen Jacobus Apte. Heart of a Wife: The Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman (Wilmington, Delaware: SR Books, 1998), pp.xi-xx and 73-182. Students are strongly encouraged to read the entire book, though only the aforementioned pages are mandatory.
Class #12: Jewtown
Jacob A. Riis. “Jewtown” and “The Sweaters of Jewtown,” in How the Other Half Lives (New York: Penguin, 1997; first published 1890), pp.82-102.
“The Social Life of the East European Jewish Immigrant: Life on New York’s Lower East Side, by A.H. Fromenson, 1905,” in Jacob Marcus, ed., The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1996), pp.375-380.
Class #13: Zionism
The following are all from Jacob Marcus, ed., The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1996).
“Anti-Zionism, Zionism, Aid to Jews in Distress: The Oneness of Jewry, 1897-1921,” pp.381-391. On print reserve in the book, The Jew in the American World. PP.381TOP OF P.389
“Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948,” and “David Ben Gurion and Jacob Blaustein,” pp.486-494.
Optional: “Mordecai M. Noah, Proto-Zionist, April 17, 1818,” 179-183.
Class #14: Fiddler on the Roof and American Jewish Identity
screening of: Fiddler on the Roof (1971); starring Chaim Topol; set in the small Jewish village of Anatevka, Russia, in 1905. Part I to be viewed in class; the remainder to be viewed on your own in library reserves.
Class #15: Fiddler on the Roof and American Jewish Identity
Seth L. Wolitz. “The Americanization of Tevye or Boarding the Jewish Mayflower,” American Quarterly 40 (1988): 514-536.
Optional: Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916). Hillel Halkin, trans. Tevye the Dairyman; and, the Railroad Stories (Yiddish title: Tevye der milkhiker). (New York: Schocken Books, 1987), pp.1-131. On hard-copy library reserves.
Class #16: Intermarriage and Conversion
Malcolm H. Stern. “Jewish Marriage and Intermarriage in the Federal Period (1776-1840), American Jewish Archives 19:2 (November 1967): 142-43.
Leo Hershkowitz and Isidore S. Meyer, eds. The Lee Max Friedman Collection of American Jewish Colonial Correspondence (Waltham, MA: American Jewish Historical Society, 1968), pp.1-6; 65-70; 75-77; 114; 116-119; 120-122; 124-25; 129.
Howard E. Freeman and Gene G. Kassebaum. “Exogamous Dating in a Southern City,” Jewish Social Studies 18:1 (January 1956): 55-60.
Bernard Lazerwitz. “Intermarriage and Conversion: A Guide for Future Research,” Jewish Journal of Sociology 13:1 (June 1971): 41-63.
Class #17: Anti-Semitism: The Way it Used to Be
Film review #1 due: Fiddler on the Roof
Leonard Dinnerstein. “Anti-Semitism.” The Oxford Companion to United States History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.42-43.
John Higham. “Social Discrimination Against Jews in America, 1830-1930,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 47:1 (September 1957): 1-33.
Class #18: Anti-Semitism on the Screen
Film: “Gentleman's Agreement” (1947); starring Gregory Peck; A New York-based reporter pretends to be a Jew in order to write an effective feature article on anti-Semitism.
Irwin C. Rosen. “The Effect of the Motion Picture “Gentleman’s Agreement” on Attitudes Toward Jews,” Journal of Psychology 26 (October 1948): 525-536.
Class #19: Southern Jews: Male Perspectives
Eli N. Evans. The Lonely Days were Sundays: Reflections of a Jewish Southerner (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993), selections. Students are strongly encouraged to read the entire book, though only the pages to be assigned in class are mandatory.
Class #20: Jews in the Civil Rights Movement
Film review #2 due: Gentleman’s Agreement
Inge Lederer Gibel. “The Negro-Jewish Scene: A Personal View,” Judaism 14:1 (Winter 1965), 12-21.
P. Allen Krause. “Rabbis and Negro Rights in the South, 1954-1967,” American Jewish Archives 21:1 (April 1969): 20-47.
Class #21: The Holocaust and U.S. Jewish Identity
Peter Novick. The Holocaust in American Life [electronic resource: accessible through the World Wide Web via UMass Library website, under title] (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
Class #22: Israel and U.S. Jewish Identity
Matti Golan. Translated from the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin. With Friends like You: What Israelis Really Think about American Jews (New York: Free Press, 1992), pp. xi-xii, 51-106, 181-184.
Class #23: American Jews Today
“The Onset of the Twenty-First Century: The Future of the American Jew,” in Jacob Marcus, ed., The Jew in the American World: A Source Book (Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1996). pp.614-617.
Jonathan Sarna. “Conclusion: American Judaism at a Crossroads,” in Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism: A History (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), 356-374 (footnotes: pp.419-421).