 Research and Teaching Interests: Modern Jewish History; Eastern Europe; European Women's History.
Personal Statement: My research and teaching interests have evolved and expanded considerably over the years. As a graduate student at Columbia, I studied both Eastern European and Modern Jewish history and developed a particular interest in Jewish communal history in the Balkans. My first book, The Jews of Yugoslavia, has become the definitive work on this subject. My early fascination with Jewish nationalism and student movements in Vienna developed into my second book, Jewish Politics in Vienna, 1918-1938. During my first years at Temple, I mainly taught surveys of Jewish history and modern Jewish history, as well as courses on comparative Jewish communities and Jewish identity. I soon branched out into teaching American Jewish history and a course on Israel and the Arabs as well.
Since the mid-'eighties, I have become increasingly interested in women's history, at least partially as a result of teaching Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own in Intellectual Heritage. I began teaching a course on Women in Modern European History and then created my favorite course, Jewish Women in Historical Perspective. I introduced both a graduate course and an undergraduate course on Gender, Class and Nation in Modern Europe and also enjoy teaching the Core course on Gender and History and a new course on Love, Marriage and the Family. My latest research project, a collective biography of 460 Jewish women who studied at Central European universities in the early twentieth century, resulted in a recently published book, entitled Female, Jewish, and Educated. Today, researching and teaching in the field of women's history brings me much personal joy and fulfillment.
Although my courses in Jewish history span a wide chronological and geographical range and I also regularly teach a course on twentieth century Eastern Europe, my research has always dealt with European Jewry in the era preceding World War II. Since Spring '98, as a response to student demand and the requirements for Studies in Race courses, I have been offering a course entitled "Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Racism," which has been very well received by students. Once again, my research and teaching interests overlap, since many of the women whose lives I have been studying are Holocaust survivors.
Representative Publications:
The Jews of Yugoslavia: A Quest for Community (1979).
Jewish Politics in Vienna, 1918-1938 (1991).
"Jewish Identity and the 'New Woman': Central European Jewish University Women in the Early Twentieth Century," in Tamar Rudavsky, ed., Gender and Judaism (1995).
"Aletta Jacobs in Historical Perspective," in Aletta Jacobs, Memories (1996).
"Jewish Women Physicians in Central Europe in the Early Twentieth Century," Contemporary Jewry, 17 (1996).
Ambler History Co-ordinator
E-Mail: hfreiden@temple.edu
Office hours: Tu/Th 9:15-10:00 & 1:30-2:30, and by appointment
Office: Widener Faculty Offices 224 (& West Hall by appointment only)
Voice mail: 215-204-8928
Fall 2007
History 2706 (112)/Jewish Studies 2706 (121), The Jewish Diaspora, MW 9:10-10:30
History 1708 (C065)/Women's Studies 1708 (C065), Gender and History, MW 10:40-12:00
Office Hours: MW 12:00-1:00 or by appointment
Office: 224
Widener Hall Phone number: 267 468-8224 or 267 468-8217
215 736-2893 (home)
Main Campus Office: 928 Gladfelter |
