History of American Jews

History of American Jews
History 387/Judaic Studies 387/American Culture 387
Prof. D. Dash Moore [ddmoore]
FALL 2009

Classroom: Mason 3463
Class Times: M/W 4:00-5:30
Office: Haven 1703, Ronit Stahl [rystahl]
Office Hours: Thursdays, 1-3
Course #: 40727, 40794, 40799

Required Reading:

· Riv-Ellen Prell, Fighting to Become Americans (Beacon, 2000)
· Michael E. Staub, Torn at the Roots (Columbia University Press, 2004)
· Gerald Gamm, Urban Exodus (Harvard University Press, 1999)
· Gertrude Berg, The Molly Goldberg Cookbook (Ivyland Press, 1999)
· Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism: A History (Yale University Press, 2004)
· Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United States (University of California Press, 2004)

Required Films:

· “Hester Street”
· “From Philadelphia to the Front”
· “America and the Holocaust”
· “Goodbye, Columbus”

This course asks how Jews resolved the tensions between being Jewish and American by exploring the history of American Jews with a focus on several important themes: immigration, politics, cultural creativity, religious change, and the establishment of a diasporic community with ties to Jews throughout the world.

Course requirements:
Read, think, consider, compare, discuss, write, question, and come to class. Lectures will build upon required reading and viewing. To learn students will need to engage the material before they come to class and be ready to question and consider alternative interpretations. There will be four short (500 words) response papers that address thematic questions. These papers will address the reading or film or text selection. They are due on September 30th, October 26th, November 16th, and December 7th. There will be a required make-up class due to class canceled for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

· Class preparation and participation (including make-up class) (16%)
· Four response papers (24% or 6% each)
· Midterm Take-Home Exam (25%) due Oct. 16th
· Final Exam (35%) Dec 23, 8:00-10:00 a.m. or Final Paper (35%) due Dec 23, 10:00 am.

Students who choose to write a final paper must submit their topic and bibliography for approval by November 6th.

Sept. 9 - Introduction: What is American Jewish History?

Sept. 14 - Interpreting Early American Jews

· Reading: Sarna, pp. 1-61; Diner, pp. 13-67.

Sept. 16 - Immigration: Ghetto Girls and Swells

· Reading: Prell, pp. 21-57; “Minnie Goldstein,” in Cohen & Soyer, pp. 18-34.
· Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis photographs
· Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”

Sept. 21 - Love, Marriage, and Middle Class Aspirations

· Reading: Prell, pp. 58-123.

Sept. 23 - Gender Matters

· Reading: “Chaim Kusnetz” & “Minnie Kusnetz” in Cohen & Soyer, pp. 233-310.

Sept. 28

No class. Yom Kippur.

Sept. 30 - Interpreting Acculturation

· Film: “Hester Street”
· First Response Paper Due

Oct. 5 - Labor, Gender, and Jewish Politics

· Reading: Paula Hyman, “Immigrant Women and Consumer Protest,” American Jewish History 70 (September 1980), 91-105; Paula Hyman, “Beyond Place and Ethnicity,” in Remembering the Lower East Side, ed. Hasia Diner, Jeffrey Shandler, Beth Wenger, pp. 70-85.

Oct. 7 - American Judaism in the Making

· Reading: Jenna Weissman Joselit, “Red Letter Days,” The Wonders of America, pp. 89-134; Jeffrey Gurock, “From Fluidity to Rigidity: The Religious Worlds of Conservative and Orthodox Jews in Twentieth-Century America,” in American Jewish Identity Politics, ed. Deborah Dash Moore, pp. 159-204.

Oct. 12 - Suburban Dreams, Jewish Realities

· Reading: Gamm, pp.11-95.

Oct. 14 - Interpreting Religious Change

· Reading: Gamm, pp. 113-171.

Oct. 16

Midterm Exam Due

Oct. 19

BREAK

Oct. 21 - Second Generation Struggles

· Reading: Gamm, pp. 175-260.

Oct. 26 - Picturing Jews

· Richard Nagler, My Love Affair with Miami Beach
· Second Response Paper Due

Oct. 28 - Jewish Mothers

· Reading: Prell, pp. 142-176, Berg, pp. 5-70.

Nov. 2 - Kitchen Judaism

· Reading: Joselit, “Kitchen Judaism,” pp. 171-218; Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, “Kitchen Judaism,” in Getting Comfortable in New York ed. Susan L. Braunstein and CONTACT _Con-3B3F69FC12 Jenna Weissman Joselit, pp. 75-105.
· Guest Lecture: CONTACT _Con-404A30FA9B Jenna Weissman Joselit

Nov. 3 - Make-up Class: The View from the Gallery: Why Jewish Museums Matter

· Lecture by CONTACT _Con-404A30FA9B Jenna Weissman Joselit, 7:00 Thayer 2022

Nov. 4 - Recipes for Jewish Living

· Reading: Berg, pp. 72-130, 256-282, 294-309.

Nov. 6

Final Paper topic and bibliography due (optional)

Nov. 9 - Anti-Semitism in America

· Reading: Leonard Dinnerstein, “A History of American Anti-Semitism,” pp. 162-177. David Hollinger, “Two NYUs and ‘the Obligation of Universities to the Social Order’ in the Great Depression, in Science, Jews, and Secular Culture, pp. 60-79.
· Film: “The Jewish Americans”

Nov. 11 - World War II and American Jews

· Film: “From Philadelphia to the Front”

Nov. 16 - America and the Holocaust

· Reading: Henry L. Feingold, “Who shall bear guilt for the Holocaust?” pp. 255-276, in Bearing Witness (1995).
· Film: “America and the Holocaust”
· Texts: reviews of “America and the Holocaust”
· Third response paper due

Nov. 18 - Politics in Postwar America

· Reading: Staub, pp. 19-44.
· Rye Bread and Anarchism lecture by CONTACT _Con-404A30FA151 Ari Weinzweig 7:00 Thayer 2022

Nov. 23 - Civil Rights

· Reading: Staub, pp. 45-111.
· Bob Dylan and the Folk Music Revival

Nov. 25

Thanksgiving Break

Nov. 30 - Zionism and Ethnic Identity

· Reading: Staub, pp. 112-152, 194-240.
· Film: “Exodus”

Dec. 2 - Dissenting Jews

· Reading: Staub, pp. 280-308.

Dec. 7 - Jewish American Princess: Myths and Realities

· Reading: Prell, pp. 177-208, Staub, 241-279.
· Film: “Goodbye, Columbus”
· Fourth Response Paper Due

Dec. 9 - Popular Culture

· Reading: Jeffrey Shandler, “American Jewish Popular Culture,” pp. 194-211; Jeffrey Shandler, “What is American Jewish Culture?” in Columbia History of Jews and Judaism in America (2008), pp. 337-365.
· Television: “Seinfeld”

Dec. 14 - Conclusion

Dec. 23

Final Exam: 8:00-10:00 am