Temple University 							Ms. Regina Stein 	
Spring 1998								restein@jtsa.edu
Tues. 5:10-7:40 p.m.  						(212) 722-7849	 								



WOMEN IN AMERICAN  JEWISH HISTORY


	This course will examine the lives of American Jewish women in the 19th and 20th centuries and the impact of women on American Jewish history.  Wherever possible, we will allow these women to speak for themselves.
	Students are required to attend all class sessions prepared to discuss the assigned readings.  Written assignments will include two short (ten page maximum) papers and a final exam.  The first paper is due on March 3.  The second paper is due on April 21.
	All required readings have been put on reserve in the library.

1.  Introduction:  Women, Judaism, and American.

2.  German Jewish Women I
	Diane Lichtenstein, "Mythic Ideals of American and Jewish Womanhood," and "American and Jewish Womanhood," Chapters 2 and 4 in Writing Their Nations, pp. 16-35; 60- 94.
	Selma Berrol, "Class or Ethnicity: The Americanized German Jewish Woman and Her Middle Class Sisters in 1895," Jewish Social Studies 47 (Winter 1985), pp. 21-32.
	Evelyn Bodek, "'Making Do': Jewish Women and Philanthropy," in Murray Friedman, ed., Jewish Life in Philadelphia, 1830-1940, (Phila: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1983), pp. 143-162.
	Karla Goldman, "The Ambivalence of Reform Judaism: Kaufmann Kohler and the Ideal Jewish Woman," AJH 79:4 (Summer 1990), pp. 477-499.	

3.  Eastern European Jewish Immigration I
	Paula Hyman, "Gender and the Immigrant Jewish Experience in the United States," in Judith Baskin, ed., Jewish Women in Historical Perspective, pp. 222-242.
	Sydney Stahl Weinberg, The World of Our Mothers, pp. 67-124.

4.  Jewish Women Writers
	June Sochen, "Jewish Women Writers," Chapter 6 in Consecrate Every Day, pp. 84-113.
	Sally Ann Drucker, "'It Doesn't Say So in Mother's Prayerbook': Autobiographies in English by Immigrant Jewish Women," AJH 79:1 (Autumn 1989), pp. 55-71.
	Janet Burstein, "Mother at the Center: Jewish American Women's Stories of the 1920s," in Judith Baskin, ed., Women of the Word, pp. 182-196.
	Norma Fain Pratt, "Culture and Radical Politics: Yiddish Women Writers in America, 1890-1940," AJH 70:1 (September 1980), pp. 68-90.


5.  Eastern European Jewish Immigration II
	Sydney Stahl Weinberg, The World of Our Mothers, pp. 125-183; 247-260. 

6.  Uptown and Downtown Jewish Women
	Nancy Sinkoff, "Educating for 'Proper' Jewish Womanhood: A Case Study in Domesticity and Vocational Training, 1897-1926," AJH 77:4 (June 1988), pp. 572-599.
	Selma Berrol, "When Uptown Met Downtown: Julia Richman's Work in the Jewish Community of New York, 1880-1912," AJH 70:1 (September 1980), pp. 35-51.

7.  Women, Family and Work I
	Sydney Stahl Weinberg, The World of Our Mothers, pp. 187-202.
	Susan Glenn, Daughters of the Shtetl, pp. 50-89.

8.  Women, Family and Work II
	Sydney Stahl Weinberg, The World of Our Mothers, pp. 225-243.
	Susan Glenn, Daughters of the Shtetl, pp. 90-166.

9.  Women, Labor and Politics
	Susan Glenn, Daughters of the Shtetl, pp. 167-242.
	Paula Hyman, "Immigrant Women and Consumer Protest: The New York City Kosher Meat Boycott of 1902," AJH 70:1 (September 1980), pp. 91-105.
	Maxine Seller, "Defining Socialist Womanhood: the Women's Page of the Jewish Daily Forward in 1919," AJH 76:4 (June 1987), pp. 416-438.
	Elinor Lerner, "Jewish Involvement in the New York City Woman Suffrage Movement," AJH 70:4 (June 1981), pp. 442-461.

10.  Women, Consumerism and Domestic Culture
	Andrew Heinze, Adapting to Abundance, pp. 89-144.
	Jenna Weissman Joselit, The Wonders of America, pp. 135-218.

11.  Jewish Women's Organizations
	June Sochen, "Volunteer Activists: The First Two Generations," Chapter 4 in Consecrate Every Day, pp. 45-71.
	Deborah Grand Golomb, "The 1893 Congress of Jewish Women: Evolution or Revolution in American Jewish Women's History?," AJH 70:1 (September 1980), pp. 52-67.
	Jenna Weissman Joselit, "The Sphere of the Middle-Class American Jewish Woman: The Synagogue Sisterhood, 1890-1940," in Jack Wertheimer, ed., The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed, pp. 206-230.
	Beth Wenger, "Jewish Women and Voluntarism: Beyond the Myth of Enablers," AJH 79:1 (Autumn 1989), pp. 16-36.
12.  Women and Judaism
	Jonathan Sarna, "The Debate over Mixed Seating in the American Synagogue," in Jack Wertheimer, ed., The American Synagogue, pp. 363-394.
	Ellen Umansky, "Women in Judaism: From the Reform Movement to Contemporary Jewish Religious Feminism," in Rosemary Ruether and Eleanor McLaughlin, eds., Women of Spirit: Female Leadership in the Jewish and Christian Traditions, pp. 334-354.
	Ann Lapidus Lerner, "'Who Has Not Made Me a Man': The Movement for Equal Rights for Women in American Jewry," American Jewish Year Book 77 (1977), pp. 3-38.

13.  Jewish Feminism 
	Lucy Dawidowicz, "On Being a Woman in Shul," Commentary (July 1968), pp. 71-74.
	Rachel Adler, "The Jew Who Wasn't There: Halakhah and the Jewish Woman," [1973] in Susannah Heschel, ed., On Being A Jewish Feminist, pp. 12-18.
	Blu Greenberg, "Judaism and Feminism," [1976] in Elizabeth Koltun, ed., The Jewish Woman, pp. 179-192.
	Cynthia Ozick, "Notes Toward Finding the Right Question," [1979] in Susannah Heschel, ed., On Being A Jewish Feminist, pp. 120-151.
	Judith Plaskow, "The Right Question is Theological," in Susannah Heschel, ed., On Being A Jewish Feminist, pp. 223-233. 
	
14.  Conclusions and Further Explorations