San Diego State University
Department of History
Modern Jewish History
HIST 488
Fall 2013
Professor Moshe Naor
Class Days: T-TH (2:00-3:15)
Class Location: P-148
Office Hours: AL 567, TH 11:00-12:00
mnaor@mail.sdsu.edu
Course Description
The course will examine the major developments in modern Jewish history as a
process of tradition and crisis, continuity and change, and the relations between East
and West and between the Levant and Europe. We will study Jewish history from a
comparative viewpoint, looking at Jewish life and Experience as Minority
communities and at the Political, Culture and Social history of Ashkenazi Jews and
Sephardic Jewry. This course will focus on the history of the Jews in Europe and
America but also on the history of the Jews in the Middle East. We will examine
subjects such as Immigration, Nationalism, and Identity in the "West" and among the
Jews of Islamic and Arab countries as well as the relations between Jews, Muslims
and Christians since 1492 to the Post Second World War.
Course Principals
The students are expected to attend all classes, show up on time and to have read the
assigned readings for each session. You can miss two classes without any
consequences. Every missed class not due to a verifiable medical or personal
emergency after that will result in a reduction of your final grade. Mandatory class
readings include the text book and the chapters and articles that are listed in the
syllabus. Primary sources: documents, texts, maps and visual sources will be placed
occasionally on the course blackboard website. The final take-home exam will cover
course materials presented in lectures, the text book, assigned readings and class
discussions. Make sure that your take-home exam is based on your original work.
Footnote your sources, indicate direct quotes, and avoid closely paraphrasing your
sources. Students with disabilities or who need special consideration are requested to
contact me as soon as possible.
Requirements and Grading
- Midterm take-home exam (will be submitted by students on Oct.10) - 35%
- Take-home final exam (will be submitted by students on Dec.10) - 45%
- Attendance and active participation - 20%
Text Book
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, Oxford and New York:
Oxford university press, 2001.
Recommended and Suggested Books
-Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (eds.), The Jew in the Modern World: A
Documentary History, Oxford University Press, 1995.
-Norman A. Stillman, Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, Philadelphia, 2003.
-David Engel, The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews, Pearson, 2000
-David Engel, Zionism, Pearson and Longman, 2009
-Howard N. Lupovitch, Jews and Judaism in World History, Routledge, 2010
- Raymond Scheindlin, A Short History of the Jewish People, Oxford, 1998
Course Topics and Readings
Classes 1&2 (Aug.27&29)– Nation, Religion and the History of the Jewish People
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.1-25
Class 3 (Sept.3) – After 1492: Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews
-Loyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.26-46
Class 4 (Sept.5) – No Class
Classes 5&6 (Sept.10&12) - Exile and Redemption: The Messianic Movement
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.47-60
Classes 7&8 (Sept.17&19) – Mysticism: the Hasidic Movement and Mitnagdim
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.61-94
Documents
- Solomon Maimon, the New Hasidim (1793), pp.387-389
- The Rabbinical Leaders of Vilna, Excommunication of the Hasidim (1772),
pp.390-391
- Rabbi David Moses Joseph of Krynki, the Volozhim Yeshivah (1909), pp.394-395
Classes 9&10 (Sept.24&26) - The Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah)
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.95-127, 162-192
- Michel Meyer, "Moses Mendelssohn: the Virtuous Jew", The Origins of the Modern
Jew, Wayne State University, 1967, pp.11-28
-Israel Bartal, "The Haskalah Movement in Eastern Europe", The Jews of Eastern
Europe, 1778-1881, Philadelphia, 2002, pp.90-101
Documents
-Naphtali Herz Wessely, Words of Peace and Truth (1782), pp.70-74
-David Ben Nathan of Lissa, A Sermon Contra Wessely (1782), pp.74-79
- Perez Smolenskin, Hebrew – Our National Fortress (1868), p.403
Classes 11&12 (Oct.1&3) – Emancipation Reform Judaism and the State
-loyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.128-161
- Michel Meyer, The Origins of the Modern Jew, pp.57-143
Documents
- The French National Assembly, the Emancipation of the Jews of France (1791),
ibid, p.118
- Napoleon's Instructions to the Assembly of Jewish Notables (1806), pp.125-6
- The Assembly of Jewish Notables, Answers to Napoleon (1806), pp.128-133
- The Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews (1822), pp.213-214
- Conference of Reform Rabbis, The Pittsburgh Platform (1885), pp.468-469
Classes 13&14 (Oct.8&10) - Out of the Ghetto: Identity and Antisemitism
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp. 213-242.
-Israel Bartal, "The Jews is coming", The Jews of Eastern Europe, pp.134-156
Documents
- Abrham Mendelssohn, Why I have raised you as a Christian: A Letter to this
Daughter (1820), pp.257-258
- Walter Rathenau, Hear, O Israel (1897), pp.267-268
-Theodor Lessing, Jewish Self-Hatred (1930), pp.272-274
- Wilhelm Marr, The Victory of Judaism over Germandom (1879), pp.331-332
- Theodor Fritsch, The Racists' Decalogue (1883), pp.350-351
Classes 15&16 (Oct.15&17) – Eastern European Jewry, 1881 Pogroms, and the
Immigration to the New World"
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.201-212, 318-334
-Gur Alroey, "Information, Decision, and Migration: Jewish Emigration from Eastern
Europe in the Early Twentieth Century", Immigrants and Minorities, Vol 29, No 1,
March 2011, pp. 33-63.
- Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United States, University of California Press, 2004,
pp.112-154
Documents
- Nicholas I, Delineation of the Pale of Settlement (1835), p.379
- N. Tchaykovsky, the Massacre of Jews at Kishinev (1903), p.409
- Judah Leib Levin, To America or to the Land of Israel (1881), pp.413-414
- The Bilu, Manifesto (1882), pp.532-533.
Classes 17&18 (Oct.22&24) – History and Memory: The Jews of New York
-Gil Ribak, Gentile New York, Rutgers, 2011, pp.52-75
- Film: Hester Street, Director: John Micklin Silver (1975)
Documents
- Abraham Cahan, the Russian Jew in America (1898), pp.474-476
- Solomon Schechter, English and Hebrew must be the Languages of American
Jewry (1904), pp.492-493
- The Anti-Defamation League, A Statement of Policy (1915), pp.507-509
Classes 19&20 (Oct.29&31) – Zionism and Jewish Nationalism
-David Engel, Zionism, Pearson and Longman, 2009, 27-76
-Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism, New York: Schocken Books, 2003, pp.136205.
-Shlomo Avineri, "Zionism as a Revolution", in: The Making of Modern Zionism: The
Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State, New York: Basic Books, 1981, pp. 3-13.
Documents
- Leo Pinsker, Auto-Emancipation (1882), The Zionist Idea, pp.181-198
-Theodor Herzl, A Solution of the Jewish Question (1896), pp.533-537
- The Balfour Declaration (1917), p.582
Classes 21&22 (Nov.5&7) - Jewish Socialism, Territorialism and Autonomism
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.243-266.
- Jonathan Frankel, Prophecy and Politics, Cambridge 1981, pp.49-132
-Gur Alroey, "Zionism without Zion? The Territorial Ideology and the Zionist
Movement, 1882-1956", Jewish Social Studies, 18.1 (Fall 2011), pp. 1-32
Documents
- The Bund, Decisions on the Nationality Question (1899), pp.419-423
- Simon Dubnow, Autonomism (1901), pp.417-419
- Israel Zangwill, A Manifesto (1905), pp.550-552
- Bar Borochov, Program for Proletarian Zionism (1906), pp.552-554
Classes 23&24 (Nov.12&14) – The Jews of Islam
Bernard Lewis, "The Judaeo-Islamic Tradition", The Jews of Islam, Princeton
University Press, 1984, pp.167-106
-Norman A. Stillman, Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, pp.93-140
-Martin Gilbert, In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands, Yale
University Press, 2010, pp.178-207
Documents
- The Alliance Israe'lite Universelle (1860-1895), pp.317-321
- Albert Memmi, Who is an Arab Jew (1975)
- The Damascene Jewish Youth Association (1929), Stillman, p.328.
Classes 25&26 (Nov.19&21) – World Jewry and Palestine in the Interwar Years
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.267-318
Documents
- David Ben-Gurion, On the Arab Question (1937), pp.603-608
- The Peel Commission Report (1937), pp.611-613
Classes 27&28 (Nov.26&Dec.3) - The Second World War and the Holocaust
Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.347-395
-David Engel, The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews, pp-26-80
Documents
- Robert Weltsch, Wear the Yellow Badge with Pride (1933), pp.640-641
- The Nuremberg Laws (1935), pp.646-647
- Chaim Kaplan, A Warsaw Ghetto Diary (1940), pp.666-668
- Emanuel Ringeleblum, Last Letter from Warsaw (1944), pp.676-679
Documentary Film: A Film Unfinished, Director: Yael Hersonski, 2010
Classes 29&30 (Dec.5&10) – World Jewry in the aftermath of 1948
-Lloyd P. Gartner, History of the Jews in Modern Times, pp.396-437.
-David Engel, Zionism, Pearson and Longman, 2009, 131-156
Documents
- Proclamation of the State of Israel (1948), pp.629-630
- The Law of Return (1950), p.633