American Jewish History
Prof. Hasia Diner
New York University
Spring 2007
This course takes as its subject the history of the Jewish people in America. It explores the social, political, economic, religious, and cultural development of Jewish life in America from the middle of the seventeenth century through the present. will set that history into the larger contexts of American history and modern Jewish history, asking how the Jewish experience did or did not differ from that of others in America and from that other Jews in other places. Central to the course will be the fact that the America, both before and after national independence, was a place characterized by religious, ethnic, and racial diversity and we will explore how Jews fit into that reality. We will focus much attention on the fact that Jews chose to migrate to the United States and that they sought ways to identify with their new home. At the same time they saw themselves as part of a worldwide people and behaved accordingly.
Class Schedule
Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United States will serve as our textbook; some section of it will be read each week.
Introduction to the course; basic themes: European legacies.
European Legacies/American Beginnings