Syllabi
JEWS IN POST WORLD-WAR II AMERICA
Hasia Diner
New York University
This research seminar will explore the ways in which American Jews experienced the era from the end of World War II into the early 1960s, a period of time generally understood as “post-war.” We will do some common readings, but students will primarily be involved in individual research projects based on primary materials. Students should consider that the ultimate goal of the course is to write a paper which could become a publishable paper.
This is a period in American Jewish history which has received very little attention to date. Yet, this era encompasses the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and the World War with their tremendous disruptions, the process of suburbanization, the Cold War, anti-Communism, the civil rights struggle, the development of television and its penetration into American homes, the rise of the State of Israel, debates in America about church-state separation, among other developments in which Jews functioned as both agents of change and as reflectors of the forces around them, upon which they had little control.
***All students who receive this syllabus before the start of the semester are encouraged to use the winter break to familiarize themselves with the issues and the literature and to begin to think about a possible project, going so far as to investigate the availability of primary sources.****
Required Readings:
James T. Patterson, Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (Oxford University Press)
Eli Lederhendler, New York Jews and the Decline of Urban Ethnicity, 1950-1970 (Syracuse University Press)
Michael Staub, Torn at the Roots: The Crisis of Jewish Liberalism in Postwar America (Columbia University Press)
Stephen Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War
SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:
Introduction to the seminar: first discussions of topics
Post-World War II America:
READINGS: Patterson, Grand Expectations and Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War
American Jewry and the Post-War era:
READINGS: Eli Lederhendler, The Crisis of Urban Liberalism, Michael Staub, Torn at the Roots. [Students should also familiarize themselves with Stuart Svonkin, Jews Against Prejudice.]
Research update:
be prepared to present (a) your research scope; (b) bibliography of secondary sources; and (c) description of primary materials
Research update:
be prepared to discuss the progress of your research and the emergence of your central analytic framework and the implications of that framework for the structure of your paper.
Presentation of paper outlines
Presentations of papers:
Each student will make a presentation in the form of a conference paper.