Syllabi
American Jewish History
Dr. Marc Dollinger
Fall 2005
San Francisco State University
Course Goals:
1) Provide a 350 year overview of American Jewish history.
2) Explore the dominant themes in the field including immigration, AntiSemitism, regionalism, religion, and American exceptionalism.
3) Compare and contrast issues of class, gender, ethnicity, and denomination in the American Jewish experience.
Course Objectives:
1) Identify the major themes in three different American Jewish historical epochs: the colonial era, nineteenth century, and twentieth century.
2) Assess the impact of at least three major historiographic themes in each epoch.
3) Compare and contrast figures from American Jewish history across class, gender, etc. lines.
Units:
Our course will begin with an exploration of Jews during the British Colonial Period. We continue our study of American Jews in the Revolutionary and Early National periods. We will investigate the impact of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and Natural Rights theory on Jews.
Our second unit will cover the immigration periods (Both German and eastern European). We will examine the changing and varied interactions between the new Jewish arrivals and the host society, looking at the industrial revolution, the role of AntiSemitism, Zionism, and Jewish social mobility.
The third unit focuses on the twentieth century. We will study the particular challenges of Jewish social workers in the 1930s, reexamine the history of American Jews during World War II and the Shoah, and conclude with a look at the Cold War and Jewish liberal involvement in the struggle for racial equality.
Unit Four, Turning Inward, examines the contemporary period. We will study the Jewish ethnic revival of the 1970s and 1980s and will explore the debate over affirmative action and revisit the American Jewish commitment to social justice.
Finally, we will look ahead to the Jew in Twenty-First century American society.
Books Required
Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United States
Marc Dollinger, Quest for Inclusion
Neil Gabler, An Empire of Their Own
Ava F. Kahn and Marc Dollinger, California Jews
Robert Michael, A Concise History of American AntiSemitism
Pamela Nadell and Jonathan Sarna, Women and American Judaism
Jack Salzman and Cornel West, Struggles in the Promised Land
Introduction
Pamela Nadell and Jonathan D. Sarna, Introduction to Women and American Judaism (WAJ)
Historiography
Robert M. Seltzer, “Introduction: The Ironies of American Jewish History,” appearing in
Robert M. Seltzer and Norman J. Cohen, editors, The Americanization of the Jews, NYU Press, 1995, pp. 116.
Jonathan D. Sarna, Introduction to The American Jewish Experience, p. xiii-xix
Paula E. Hyman, "The Normalization of American Jewish History," American Jewish History, special 350th edition (AJH 350th)
Hasia Diner, Introduction, The Jews of the United States (JUS).
Unit I: The Colonial Period
Lesson: Colonial Era: Overview
JUS, chapter 1, pp. 1340
Holly Snyder, “Queens of the Household: The Jewish Women of British America, 1700-1800,” appearing in Women and American Judaism (WAJ).
Robert Michael, A Concise History of American AntiSemitism, (CHAAR), skim chapter 1, read chapter 2.
Optional Reading: Aviva Ben-Ur, “The Exceptional and the Mundane: A Biographical Portrait of Rebecca Machado Phillips, 1746-1831,” appearing in WAJ, pp. 46-80.
Lesson: American Revolution
Diner, JUS, chapter 2
Ralph Lerner, Believers and the Founders’ Constitution,” appearing in Alan Mittleman, et al, Jews and the American Public Square: Debating Religion and Republic.
Richard B. Morris, “The Role of the Jews in the American Revolution in Historical Perspective.”
Unit 2: The Nineteenth Century
Lesson: A Century of Migration in the East
JUS, chapter 3
Gerald Sorin, “Mutual Contempt, Mutual Benefit,” AJH, vol. 81, n. 1.
Jacob Katz, Toward Modernity, p. 247-267
Lesson: Migration and Regionalism
JUS, chapter 4
Ava F. Kahn and Marc Dollinger, California Jews, (CAJEWS), introduction, chapter 2.
William Toll, “From Domestic Judaism to Public Ritual: Women and Religious Identity in the American West,” appearing in WAJ, pp. 128-147.
M I Greenberg, “Becoming Southern,” AJH, vo. 86, no. 1.
Lesson: Colonial Era: Primary Source Documents
Guest Lecturer: Laura Rosenzweig, Doctoral Candidate, American Jewish History, UC Santa Cruz
Lesson: Gender and Jewish Life, 1820-1920
Karla Goldman, “The Public Religious Lives of Cincinnati’s Jewish Women,” WAJ
William Toll, From Domestic Judaism to Public Ritual: Women and Religious Identity in the American West,” WAJ
Eric Goldstein, “Between Race and Religion: Jewish Women and Self Definition in Late Nineteenth Century America,” WAJ
Lesson: A Century of Jewish Politics
Diner, JUS, chapter 5
Dianne Ashton, “Shifting Veils: Religion, Politics, and Womanhood in the Civil War
Writings of American Jewish Women,” appearing in WAJ, pp. 81-106
Lesson: AntiSemitism, 1861-1917
Michael, CHAAS, chapters 3-4
Lesson: American Zionism, 1880-1920
Joyce Antler, “Zion In Our Hearts: Henrietta Szold and the American Jewish Women’s Movement," appearing in AJWH.
Jonathan D. Sarna, “A Projection of America as It Ought To Be: Zion in the Mind’s Eye of American Jews,” appearing in Gal, Envisioning Israel.
Unit 3: The Twentieth Century
Lesson: Scientific Racism and the Gilded and Progressive Eras
Eric L. Goldstein, “Different Blood Flows in Our Veins,” AJH. Vol. 85, no. 1
Eric Goldstein, “The Unstable Other: Locating the Jew in Progressive Era Racial Discourse,” AJH, vol. 89, no. 4.
Beth S. Wenger, “Mitzvah and Medicine: Gender, Assimilation, and the Scientific Defense of “Family Purity,” appearing in WAJ, p. 201-222.
Lesson: Guest Lecture, Dr. Steven Bayme
Lesson: At Home and Beyond, 1920s
JUS, chapter 6
Lesson: Hollywood and the Jews, 1920-1940
Neil Gabler, An Empire of Their Own, TBA
CAJEWS, chapter 8
Lesson: The New Deal
Dollinger, QFI, chapter 1
Point/Counterpoint, Dollinger and Alexander, AJH, Vol. 90, No. 2.
Lesson: AntiSemitism in the Interwar Period
CHAAS, chapter 5
Dollinger, QFI, chapters 2, 3
Lesson: World War II
Dollinger, QFI, chapter 4, 5
CAJEWS, ch. 9
Lesson: Jews and the Shoah
CHAAS, chapter 6
Henry L. Feingold, “Was There Communal Failure? Some Thoughts on the American Jewish Response to the Holocaust.” AJH, vo. 81, no. 1.
Rafael Medoff, “New Perspectives on How America, and American Jewry, Responded to the Holocaust,” AJH, vol. 84, no. 3.
Lesson: The Civil Rights Movement
JUS, chapter 7
Debra Shultz, “Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement,” AJWH.
Bill Issel, CAJEWS, ch. 10
Optional Reading: Joyce Antler, “Justine Wise Polier and the Prophetic Tradition,” appearing in WAJ, pp. 268-290.
Jonathan Kaufman, “Blacks and Jews: The Struggles in the Cities,” appearing in Jack Salzman and Cornel West, Struggles in the Promised Land, chapter 6
Deborah Dash Moore, “Separate Paths: Blacks and Jews in the Twentieth Century South,” appearing in Jack Salzman and Cornel West, Struggles in the Promised Land, chapter 13
Lesson: Civil Rights Movement: A Primary Source Reader
Dollinger, QFI, chapters 7
Dollinger and Zola, The Civil Rights Movement in Primary Sources
Unit 4: Turning Inward
Lesson: The Great Society
Marc Dollinger, “The Other War: American Jews, Lyndon Johnson, and The Great Society,” AJH, vol. 89, no. 4, p. 437-462.
Jerome A. Chanes, “Affirmative Action: Jewish Ideals, Jewish Interests,” appearing in Jack Salzman and Cornel West, Struggles in the Promised Land, chapter 14
Theodore M. Shaw, “Affirmative Action: African American and Jewish Perspectives,” appearing in Jack Salzman and Cornel West, Struggles in the Promised Land, chapter 15
Optional Reading: QFI, chapter 8
Lesson: Turn Inward: Jews, Black Power and the Left
JUS, chapter 8
Dollinger, CAJEWS, ch. 13
Dollinger, “Until We Can Fight As Generals,” Casden Institute.
Waldo, E. Martin, Jr., “Nation Time!” Black Nationalism, The Third World, and Jews,” appearing in Jack Salzman and Cornel West, Struggles in the Promised Land, chapter 16
Lesson: American Zionism in the Postwar Period
“American Jews and Israel,” The Jewish Role in American Life, vol. 2.
Lawrence Grossman, “Transforming through Crisis: The American Jewish Community and the Six Day War,” AJH, vol. 86, no. 1.
Lesson: Contemporary Jewish Life
Deborah E. Lipstadt, “Feminism and American Judaism: Looking Back at the Turn of the Century,” appearing in WAJ, p. 291-308.
Steven M. Cohen, “Jewish Continuity over Judaic Content: The Moderately Affiliated American Jew,” appearing in Robert M. Seltzer and Norman J. Cohen, editors, The Americanization of the Jews, NYU Press, 1995, pp. 395-416.
Egon Mayer, “From an External to an Internal Agenda,” appearing in Robert M. Seltzer and Norman J. Cohen, editors, The Americanization of the Jews, NYU Press, 1995, pp. 417-435.