The History of the Jews of the United States of America
Professor Erik Greenberg
Hebrew Union College

Introduction
     The purpose of this course is to explore the 353 year history of American Jewry. We will first attempt to understand broad definitional categories such as Jews and Jewishness, certain variants of democracy, as well as other ideas and terms relating to Jewish and American history and identity. We will then explore the history and historiography of American Jewry, developing a broad chronological overview while paying close attention to specific historical moments and certain milestones in the writing of American Jewish history. Upon completion of this course students should:


     Throughout your academic career you have encountered history teachers that expect you to memorize historic facts and then spit them out onto a sheet of paper. This is not one of those classes. History is a discussion between the present and the past, an attempt to understand why an historic event happened through the lens of today’s societal zeitgeist. Those of you that have siblings, think of a time when you got into trouble because of something your brother or sister did. Now try to interpret the same event looking at it from your sibling’s point of view. Trying to make sense of those two wildly different perspectives is, in fact, the study of history.

Books
     I will generally require you to read a number of works each week offering a variety of perspectives on a given topic. Consequently, much of your reading will consist of downloaded articles or handouts. Still, the recent 350th anniversary of the Jewish presence in America has led to two significant texts which demand a closer reading. You are required to purchase both the Diner and Sarna books, the American history textbook is optional.


Readings and Assignments

Week 1: Introductions

Week 2: Jewish American and American Historiographies

Week 3: The American Colonial Project and the Jews of Colonial America
The First presentations (on Colonial America) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 4: The Revolution and the Early Republic: The Early Democratization of American Jewry
The Second presentations (on the American Revolution, the Constitution, Federalism, and Jeffersonian Democracy) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 5: The Market Revolution and Jacksonian America: The Marketplace of Religious Ideas and Jewish Responses to Anti-Semitism, Circa 1820s-1860s

Week 6: The Conquest of the West and Westward Expansion: Jews and Western Diversity. Also The Relative Absence of an American-Jewish Historiography of the West.
The Third Presentations (Where is the West? Western Expansion, War in the West, Exploration of the West, Mining Booms, Land Booms) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 7: The Civil War: Internal Divisions in American Jewry
The Fourth Presentations (Slave Compromises—3/5s rule, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, Kansas Nebraska Act—Bleeding Kansas, Sherman’s March, Civil War Amendments, Reconstruction) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 8: The Turn of the Century and Industrial America
The Fifth presentations on (The Spanish American War, The Industrial Revolution, Marxism, Socialism, WW I, Woodrow Wilson, The League of Nations, The Treaty of Versailles, etc) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 9: A Century of Migration and A Century of Jewish Life in America: Readings and Discussion on Hasia Diner’s The Jews of the United States

Week 10: Two Worlds of American Judaism and An Anxious Subculture: Readings and Discussion on Jonathan Sarna’s American Judaism

Week 11: The American Jewish Community During Tragedy and Triumph: The Interwar Years, WWII and the Holocaust, & Israel
The Sixth presentations on (The Immigration Act of 1924, The Ku Klux Klan, the Roaring Twenties, The Great Depression, The New Deal, WW II, The Holocaust, etc.) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 12: The Golden Cities: The Consumer Society and the Jewish Spread to the South and West
The Seventh presentations (on the Consumer Society, the Sunbelt, Levittown and other suburbs, “The Organization Man, etc.) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 13: Faith and Activism: Jewish Responses to Modern Spirituality and Societal Inequity
The Eighth presentations (on the Civil Rights Movement, The March on Washington, Vietnam War and Protests, etc.) will be held followed by a lecture.

Week 14: Religion in the Golden Cities

Week 15: Conclusions