Anthropology of Jews and Jewishness (ANTH 4953-001 )
Professor Misha Klein
Office: 512 Dale Hall Tower
Office hours: MWF 11:30-12:30, or by appt.
Telephone: 325-5411
Email: misha@ou.edu
University of Oklahoma
Fall 2006
906 Dale Hall Tower
MWF 10:30-11:20am
Course description:
The history of anthropology and of the social sciences more broadly has been marked by the
strong participation of scholars with Jewish backgrounds. Their Jewish upbringings have
affected the development of anthropology, whether or not they have specifically chosen Jews as
an object of study, their experiences giving shape and direction to the field in terms of themes,
theoretical foci, and socio-political concerns. We will briefly explore some of this history in
considering how scholarly biographies have transformed the discipline and the centrality of
Jewishness to the anthropological enterprise.
Most of the course will be dedicated to exploring major anthropological issues through
the lens of ethnography conducted by anthropologists (Jewish or not) in Jewish communities or
addressing Jewish topics, hence the “Jewishness” in the course title. As far back as Franz Boas,
anthropologists have taken up the study of Jews as an approach to exploring current theoretical
problems of broader anthropological interest. Whether studying Jewish communities in India,
Israel, Cuba, South Africa, or the United States, anthropologists have found that the particular
combination of race and religion, ethnicity and identity, and life cycles and gender roles, have
provided challenges to our understanding of cultural continuity and change, some of the central
questions that we have about the human condition.
Required books:
The following books are required for this course. All books are available at the University
Bookstore:
Bucker, Andrew. 2003. After the Rescue: Jewish Identity and Community in Contemporary Denmark.
Palgrave Macmillan.
Levine, Stephanie Wellen. 2003. Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey Among
Hasidic Girls. New York: New York University Press.
Kahn, Susan Martha. 2000. Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Jacobs, Janet Liebman. 2002. Hidden Heritage: The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
Salamon, Hagar. 1999. The Hyena People: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia. Berkeley: University
of California Press.
A course pack of required readings is available at Sooner Copy Center, on the corner of Boyd &
Jenkins, 329-6202. This course pack contains all of the assigned readings that are not in the
required books above.
The weekly themes are guidelines, but many of the topics overlap, and students should be alert
to these interconnections. The syllabus also includes many additional sources that students will
find helpful in developing their research projects.
Course requirements:
Your grade for the course will be determined by the total number of points you have earned on a
1000-point scale. On that scale, 900-1000 pts. = A; 800-899 pts. = B; 700-799 pts. = C, 600-699 pts. =
D; and 599 or fewer = F. Your learning will be evaluated according to the following assignments
and expectations (descriptions below):
Participation and attendance
100 points
Ethnography review
150 points
Midterm exam
250 points
Research paper
350 points
Final exam
150 points
1000 pts. total
Participation: Students are expected to attend class, take notes, and participate in discussion, as
well as attend office hours. The readings and class meetings are complementary, with the
additional material given in class providing necessary background for the readings and
further examples and development of the themes under discussion. Readings are expected to
be completed prior to the class meeting for which they are assigned. Classroom discussion is
to be thoughtful and respectful. Additionally, students will be asked to assist in leading
discussion. If you are shy about talking in class, this will be a good opportunity for you to
begin to develop the necessary skills for distilling and orally presenting reading material and
leading discussion.
Ethnography review: Students will select an ethnography on a Jewish topic (other than the five
required for the course) and write a brief (3-page), thoughtful, critical essay examining the
author’s research approach and theoretical considerations. One of the purposes of this
assignment is to assist students in selecting the topic for their research paper. A detailed
handout will be provided.
Research paper: Students will write a 12-15 page research paper on a pre-approved topic of their
choice that is related to the course. Rather than a summary report about how Jews live in a
particular country, the research paper is to focus on a particular issue of anthropological
significance, exploring that topic through various scholarly sources. A proposal and
preliminary bibliography to be submitted one month before the paper is due will help
students define their research focus. A detailed handout will be provided.
Exams: The in-class midterm and the final exam will be comprehensive of the readings and
additional material provided in class. They will consist of short and long essays. The final
exam will be given on Friday, December 15, 8-10am. I did not pick this time and am not any
more pleased about it than you are. If you have an approved scheduling conflict, it is your
responsibility to communicate with me at least one month in advance to make other
arrangements. University and College of Arts and Sciences regulations regarding final
exams will be enforced. Please plan accordingly.
Extra Credit: The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art in Tulsa has a very interesting
permanent collection that includes archaeological, ritual, and ethnological objects. We will
organize a field trip to the Museum in October, and students will receive extra credit for
participating in the field trip and submitting a brief essay about their observations on the
collection. Those who are unable to participate in the field trip will also have the opportunity
to visit the Museum on their own time and submit an essay.
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Student conduct:
Of primary importance is the thoughtful, considerate participation of all students in class
discussions. The nature of the topic is such that there may be major differences of background,
experience, and opinion among us, and it is paramount that we be able to discuss these
differences and learn from each other in an atmosphere of mutual respect and scholarly inquiry.
Additionally, students are expected to arrive in class on time and remain until the end of
class. Please refrain from eating in class. Cell phones are to be turned off and remain off for the
duration of class. If you must miss a class, please obtain notes from another student, rather than
asking me. If illness or some other emergency arises that prevents you from attending class or
otherwise meeting your course obligations, please communicate with me as soon as possible.
Hard copies of assignments are to be handed in at the beginning of class on the day they are
due. E-mailed papers will not be accepted. Late papers may be turned in to my box in the
Anthropology Department (DHT 521), but will be penalized ½ a letter grade for every 24 hours
they are late.
Cheating and plagiarism are high crimes in academia and will not be tolerated. Familiarize
yourself with the Provost’s statement on Academic Integrity, including definitions, procedures,
and your rights: http://www.ou.edu/provost/integrity/.
Special accommodations:
Students with disabilities: The University of Oklahoma is committed to providing
accommodations for all students with disabilities. Those who require accommodations must
speak with me as early in the semester as possible. Students with disabilities must be
registered with the Office of Disability Services prior to receiving accommodations in this
course. The Office of Disability Services is located at the Goddard Health Center, Suite 166,
telephone 325-3852 (TDD 325-4173).
Religious holidays: It is the policy of the University to excuse the absences of students that result
from religious observances and to provide, without penalty, for the rescheduling of
examinations and additional required class work that may fall on religious holidays. Please
communicate with me at least two weeks prior to the exam or assignment in question in
order for accommodations to be made.
Writing assistance: Students who would like assistance with their writing are encouraged to
contact the Writing Center: 325-2936.
NB: I reserve the right to make changes to the course syllabus and reading assignments over the course of
the semester should the need arise. In no way would these changes adversely affect your workload or your
grade (i.e., there will be no additional assignments and no changes to the grading system).
Lecture series: The OU Judaic Studies Program sponsors monthly lectures on Jewish themes on
Wednesdays at Noon in 109 Gittinger Hall. Students are strongly encouraged to attend these
lectures:
Sept. 6 – “Legitimating Nazism: Harvard University & the Hitler Regime, 1933-1937,” by Prof.
Stephen Norwood, OU Dept. of History.
Oct. 4 – “What is Kabbalah?” by Prof. David Patterson, University of Memphis.
Nov. 1 – “Emmanuel Levinas & the Impact of the Holocaust on Jewish American Fiction” by
Prof. William Henry McDonald, OU Dept. of English.
Dec. 6 – “The Jews of India” by Dr. Mitch Numark, OU Dept. of History.
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Course schedule:
Week 1: August 21, 23, 25: Introduction, Jewish Roots of Anthropology
Required readings:
 Feldman, Jeffrey D. 2004. “The Jewish Roots and Routes of Anthropology.”
Anthropological Quarterly 77(1): 107-125.
 Frank, Gelya. 1997. “Jews, Multiculturalism, and Boasian Anthropology.” American
Anthropologist 99(4): 731-745.
Some additional sources:
 Herskovits, Melville. 1927. “When Is a Jew a Jew?” The Modern Quarterly 4(2): 109117.
 Boas, Franz. 1939. “Heredity and Environment.” Jewish Social Studies 1(1): 5-14.
 Goldberg, Harvey. 1987. “Introduction: Reflections on the Mutual Relevance of
Anthropology and Judaic Studies” in Judaism Viewed from Within and Without:
Anthropological Studies. Albany: SUNY Press, pp. 1-43.
 Hauschild, Thomas. 1997. “Christians, Jews, and the Other in German
Anthropology.” American Anthropologist 99(4): 746-753.
 Konner, Melvin. 2003. Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews. New York: Viking
Press.
 Zborowski, Mark and Elizabeth Herzog. 1995 (1952). Life is with People: The Culture of
the Shtetl. New York: Schocken Books.
Week 2: August 28, 30, September 1: Ethnographic fieldwork on Jews and Jewishness
Required readings:
 Myerhoff, Barbara. 1978. “‘So what do you want from us here?’” in Number Our
Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, pp. 1-39.
 Mitchell, William. 1988. “A Goy in the Ghetto: Gentile-Jewish Communication in
Fieldwork Research,” in Between Two Worlds: Ethnographic Essays on American Jewry, J.
Kugelmass, ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 225-239.
 Markowitz, Fran. 2006. “Blood, Soul, Race, and Suffering: Full-Bodied Ethnography
and Expressions of Jewish Belonging.” Anthropology and Humanism 31(1): 41-56.
 Boyarin, Jonathan. 1992. “Jewish Ethnography and the Question of the Book,” in
Storm from Paradise: The Politics of Jewish Memory. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, pp. 52-76.
Some additional sources:
 Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1995. “Introduction” to Life is with People: The
Culture of the Shtetl, Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog. New York: Schocken
Books, pp. ix-xlviii.
 Dominguez, Virginia R. 1989. “Different and Difference.” Anthropology and
Humanism Quarterly 14(1); 10-16.
 Shokeid, Moshe. 1989. “From the Anthropologist’s Point of View: Studying One’s
Own Tribe.” Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly 14(1); 23-28.
 Avruch, Kevin. 1981. “Fieldwork among an Overly Complex People,” from American
Immigrants in Israel: Social Identities and Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
pp. 199-207.
 Benjamin, Alan. 2002. “Research, a contract, and representation,” and appendices
from Jews in the Dutch Caribbean: Exploring Ethnic Identity in Curaçao. London:
Routledge, pp. 22-33 and 159-177.
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Boyarin, Jonathan. 1996. “Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth
Street Shul,” in Thinking in Jewish. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.8-33.
Boyarin, Jonathan. 1992. “The Other Within and the Other Without,” in Storm from
Paradise: The Politics of Jewish Memory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
pp. 77-98.
Orlove, Benjamin. 1997. “Surfacings: Thoughts on Memory and the Ethnographer’s
Self,” in Jews and Other Differences: The New Jewish Cultural Studies, J. Boyarin and D.
Boyarin, eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp.1-29.
Frank, Gelya. 1995. “The Ethnographic Films of Barbara G. Myerhoff:
Anthropology, Feminism, and the Politics of Jewish Identity,” in Women Writing
Culture, R. Behar and D. Gordon, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press,
pp.207-232.
Zenner. Walter, ed. 1989. “The Issue of Jewishness in Ethnographic Fieldwork,”
special issue of Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly 14(1).
Behar, Ruth. 1996. “The Story of Ruth, the Anthropologist,” in People of the Book:
Thirty Scholars Reflect on their Jewish Identity. Jeffrey Rubin-Dorsky and Shelley Fisher
Fishkin, eds. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 261-279.
Zenner, Walter P. 1980. “Censorship and Syncretism: Some Social Anthropological
Approaches to the Study of Middle Eastern Jews, “in Studies in Jewish Folklore, Frank
Talmage, ed. Cambridge, MA: Association for Jewish Studies, pp. 377-394.
Week 3: September 6, 8: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Anti-Semitism
(September 4 – NO CLASS MEETING, LABOR DAY HOLIDAY)
Required readings:
 Salamon, The Hyena People (entire book)
 Schul, Yaacov and Henri Zukier. 1999. “Why Do Stereotypes Stick?” in Demonizing
the Other: Antisemitism, Racism and Xenophobia, R. Wistrich, ed. Amsterdam:
Harwood Academic Publishers, pp.31-43.
Some additional sources:
 Virginia Dominguez (1993). "Questioning Jews." American Ethnologist 20(3): 618-624.
 Zenner, Walter. 1991. “Anti-Middleman Ideology and the Diffusion of AntiSemitism,” in Minorities in the Middle: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. Albany: SUNY Press,
pp.46-60.
 Zhou Xun. 1999. “Jews in Chinese Culture: Representations and Realities,” in Jewries
at the Frontier: Accomodation, Identity, Conflict, S. Gilman and M. Shain, eds. Urbana,
IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 224-241.
 Wistrich, Robert S. 1999. “The Devil, the Jews, and Hatred of the “Other,” in
Demonizing the Other: Antisemitism, Racism and Xenophobia, R. Wistrich, ed.
Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, pp.1-15.
 Gilman, Sander. 1986. “What Is Self-Hatred?” in Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and
the Hidden Language of the Jews. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
 Bhabha, Homi K. 1998. “Foreword: Joking Aside: The Idea of a Self-Critical
Community,” in Modernity, Culture, and ‘the Jew,’ B. Cheyette and L. Marcus, eds.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. xv-xx.
 Dundes, Alan. 1971. “A Study of Ethnic Slurs: The Jew and the Polack in the United
States.” Journal of American Folklore 84:186-203.
 Dundes, Alan. 1991. “The Ritual Murder or Blood Libel Legend: A Study of AntiSemitic Victimization through Projective Inversion,” in The Blood Libel Legend: A
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Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 336376.
Week 4: September 11, 13, 15: Folklore and Humor
Required readings:
 Dundes, Alan. 1981. “Wet and Dry, the Evil Eye: An Essay in Indo-European and
Semitic Worldview,” in The Evil Eye: A Casebook. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, pp. 257-312.
 Prell, Riv-Ellen. 1988. “Laughter That Hurts: Ritual Humor and Ritual Change in an
American Jewish Community,” in Between Two Worlds: Ethnographic Essays on
American Jewry, J. Kugelmass, ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp.192-221.
 Brandes, Stanley. 1983. “Jewish-American Dialect Jokes and Jewish-American
Identity.” Jewish Social Studies 45(3/4): 233-240.
Some additional sources:
 Alan Dundes (2002) The Shabbat Elevator and Other Sabbath Subterfuges. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield.
 Dundes, Alan. 1997. “Why is the Jew ‘Dirty’? A Psychoanalytic Study of AntiSemitic Folklore,” in From Game to War and Other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore.
Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, pp. 92-119.
 Dundes, Alan. 1989. “Defining Identity Through Folklore,” in Folklore Matters.
Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, pp. 1-39.
 Krieger, Rosalin. 2003. “‘Does He Actually Say the Word Jewish?’ – Jewish
Representations in Seinfeld.” Journal for Cultural Research 7(4): 387-404.
 Patai, Raphael. 1983. On Jewish Folklore. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
 Abrahams, Roger D. 1980. “Folklore in the Definition of Ethnicity: An American and
Jewish Perspective,“in Studies in Jewish Folklore, Frank Talmage, ed. Cambridge, MA:
Association for Jewish Studies, pp. 13-20.
Week 5: September 18, 20, 22: Food and Other Ethnic symbols:
Required readings:
 Plotnicov, Leonard and Myrna Silverman. 1978. “Jewish Ethnic Signalling: Social
Bonding in Contemporary American Society.” Ethnology 17(4): 407-423.
 Buckser, Andrew. 1999. “Keeping Kosher: Eating and Social Identity Among the
Jews of Denmark.” Ethnology 38(3): 191-209.
 Siporin, Steve. 1994. “From Kasrut to Cucina Ebraica: The Recasting of Italian Jewish
Foodways.” Journal of American Folklore 107 (424):269-281.
Some additional sources:
 Douglas, Mary. 2002 (1966). “The Abominations of Leviticus,” in Purity and Danger:
An Analysis of the Concepts of Purity and Taboo. London: Routledge.
 Kugelmass, Jack. 1997. “New York City’s Most Jewish Restaurant: The Food, Its
Meaning and the Secret Language of the Jews,” in The Anthropologist’s Cookbook, J.
Kuper, ed. London: Kegan Paul, pp. 161-165.
Week 6: September 25, 27, 29: Bodies, Blood, “Race,” and Descent
*Ethnography review due in class September 25*
Required readings:
 Kahn, Reproducing Jews (entire book)
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Weiss, Meira. 2002. “The Body as Social Mirror,” in The Chosen Body: The Politics of
the Body in Israeli Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 9-26.
 Glenn, Susan A. 2002. “In the Blood? Consent, Descent, and the Ironies of Jewish
Identity.” Jewish Social Studies 8(2/3): 139-52.
 Sacks, Karen Brodkin. 1994. “How Did Jews Become White Folks?” in Race. S.
Gregory and R. Sanjek, eds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 78102.
Some additional sources:
 Lewis, Herbert. 2001. “Boas, Darwin, Science, and Anthropology.” Current
Anthropology 42(3): 381-406.
 Boas, Franz. 1923. “Are the Jews a Race?” The World Tomorrow 6(1): 5-6.
 Herskovits, Melville J. 1924. “What is a Race?” The American Mercury 2(6): 207-210.
 DellaPergola, Sergio. 1993. “Modern Jewish Demography” in The Modern Jewish
Experience: A Reader’s Guide, J. Wertheimer, ed. New York: New York University
Press, pp.275-290.
 Grün, Roberto. 1998. “Becoming White: Jews and Armenians in the Brazilian Ethnic
Mosaic.” Anthropological Journal on European Cultures 7(2): 107-130.
 Patai, Raphael and Jennifer Patai. 1989. The Myth of the Jewish Race. Rev. ed. Detroit:
Wayne State University
 Stratton, Jon. 2000. “Jews, Race and the White Australia Policy,” in Coming Out
Jewish: On the Impossibility of Jewish Assimilation. London: Routledge, pp.195-219.
 Azoulay, Katya Gibel. 1997. “Black, Jewish and Interracial I” and “Black, Jewish and
Interracial II” in Black, Jewish, and Interracial: It’s Not the Color of Your Skin, but the Race
of Your Kin, and Other Myths of Identity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 89119 and 120-177.
 Boster, James S., Richard R. Hudson, and Steven J. C. Gaulin. 1999. “High Paternity
Certainties of Jewish Priests.” American Anthropologist 100(4): 967-971.
 Marks, Jonathan. 2000. “Heredity and Genetics after the Holocaust,” in Humanity at
the Limit: The Impact of the Holocaust Experience on Jews and Christians, Michael A.
Singer, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 241-249.
 Brodkin, Karen. 1998. How Jews Became White Folks and What that Says about Race in
America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
 Shadmi, Erella. 2003. “Gendering and Racializing Israeli Jewish Ashkenazi
Whiteness.” Women’s Studies International Forum 26(3): 205-219.
 Weiss, Meira. 2002. The Chosen Body: The Politics of the Body in Israeli Society.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Week 7: October 2, 4, 6: Ethnicity (and “Race,” continued)
(Note: Class will be held on Yom Kippur; please let me know if you cannot attend.)
Required readings:
 Buijs, Gina. 1998. “Black Jews in the Northern Province: A Study of Ethnic Identity
in South Africa.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 21(4): 661-682.
 Landes, Ruth. 1967. “Negro Jews in Harlem.” Jewish Journal of Sociology 9(2):175-189.
 Dahbany-Miraglia, Dina. 1988. “American Yemenite Jewish Interethnic Strategies”
in Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish
Experience, W. Zenner, ed. Albany: SUNY Press, pp. 63-78.
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Markowitz, Fran. 1988. “Jewish in the USSR, Russian in the USA: Social Context and
Ethnic Identity,” ,” in Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the
American Jewish Experience, W. Zenner, ed. Albany: SUNY Press, pp.79-95.
Some additional sources:
 Loewe, Ronald. 2002. “Building the New Zion: Unfinished Conversations Between
the Jews of Venta Prieta, Mexico, and Their Neighbors to the North.” American
Anthropologist 104(4):1135-1147.
 Patai, Raphael (1983) “The Jewish Indians of Mexico” (1950) and “Venta Prieta
Revisited” (1965) in On Jewish Folklore. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, pp. 447475 and 476-492.
 Levine, Hal B. 1997. “Jewish Ethnicity in New Zealand,” in Constructing Collective
Identity: A Comparative Analysis of New Zealand Jews, Maori, and Urban Papua New
Guineans. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp.73-117.
 Cohen, Rina and Gerald Gold. 1997. “Constructing Ethnicity: Myth of Return and
Modes of Exclusion among Israelis in Toronto.” International Migration 35(3): 373393.
 Crumbley, Deidre Helen. 2000. “Also Chosen: Jews in the Imagination and Life of a
Black Sanctified Church.” Anthropology and Humanism 25(1): 6-23.
 Benjamin, Alan F. 2002. Jews of the Dutch Caribbean: Exploring Ethnic identity on
Curação. London: Routledge.
Week 8: October 9, 11, 13: Identity
Required readings:
 Jacobs, Hidden Heritage (entire book)
 Glick, Leonard. 1982. “Types Distinct from Our Own: Franz Boas on Jewish Identity
and Assimilation” American Anthropologist 84:545-565.
Some additional sources:
 Segal, Ariel. 1999. “Jewishness in Lima and Iquitos,” in Jews of the Amazon: Self-Exile
in Earthly Paradise. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, pp. 97-124.
 Glazier, Jack. 1988. “Stigma, Identity, and Sephardic-Ashkenazic Relations in
Indianapolis,” in Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American
Jewish Experience, W. Zenner, ed. Albany: SUNY Press, pp. 41-62.
 Segal, Daniel. 1999. “Can You Tell a Jew When You See One? or Thoughts on
Meeting Barbra/Barbie at the Museum.” Judaism 48(2): 234-241.
 Kokosalakis, N. 1981. “Beliefs and Identity,” in Ethnic Identity and Religion: Tradition
and Change in Liverpool Jewry. Washington, DC: University Press of America, pp.181202.
 Salamon, Hagar. 2001. “Ethopian Jewry and New Self-Concepts,” in The Life of
Judaism, H. Goldberg, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 227-240.
 Herskovits, Melville. 1960. “Who Are the Jews?” in The Jews: Their History, Culture,
and Religion, L. Finkelstein, ed. 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Row, pp. 1489-1509.
 Charmé, Stuart Z. 2000. “Varieties of Authenticity in Contemporary Jewish
Identity.” Jewish Social Studies (the new series) 6(2): 133-155.
 Wettstein, Howard. 2002. Diasporas and Exiles: Varieties of Jewish Identity. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
 Sarna, Jonathan D. 1999. “The Cult of Synthesis in American Jewish Culture.”
Jewish Social Studies 5(1): 52- .
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Paine, Robert. 1989. “Israel: Jewish Identity and Competition over “Tradition,’” in
History and Ethnicity, Tonkin, McDonald and Chapman, eds. London: Routledge, pp.
121-136.
Loewe, Raphael. 1965. “Defining Judaism: Some Ground Clearing.” The Jewish
Journal of Sociology 7(2): 153-175.
Buckser, Andrew. 2000. “Jewish Identity and the Meaning of Community in
Contemporary Denmark.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 23(4): 712-734.
Week 9: October 16, 18, 20: Gender and Sexuality
*Midterm in class on October 16*
Required readings:
 Levine, Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers (entire book)
Some additional sources:
 Jacobson, Shari. 2006. “Modernity, Conservative Religious Movements, and the
Female Subject: Newly Ultraorthodox Sephardi Women in Buenos Aires.” American
Anthropologist 108(2): 336-346.
 Boyarin, Jonathan. 1996. “Self-Exposure as Theory: The Double Mark of the Male
Jew,” in Thinking in Jewish. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.34-62.
 Prell, Riv-Ellen. 1996. “Why Jewish Princesses Don’t Sweat: Desire and
Consumption in Postwar American Jewish Culture” in People of the Body: Jews and
Judaism from an Embodied Perspective, H. Eilberg-Schwartz, ed. Albany: SUNY Press,
pp.329-359.
 Alpert, Rebecca. 1992. “Challenging Male/Female Complementarity: Jewish
Lesbians and the Jewish Tradition,” in People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from an
Embodied Perspective, H. Eilberg-Schwartz, ed. Albany: SUNY Press, pp.361-377.
 Wasserfall, Rahel. 1992. “Menstruation and Identity: The Meaning of Niddah for
Moroccan Women Immigrants to Israel,” in People of the Body: Jews and Judaism from
an Embodied Perspective, H. Eilberg-Schwartz, ed. Albany: SUNY Press, pp.309-327.
 Shokeid, Moshe. 1995. A Gay Synagogue in New York. New York: Columbia
University Press.
 Bahloul, Joëlle. 1997. “Gender, Colonialism, and the Representation of Middle
Eastern Jews,” in Judaism Since Gender, M. Peskowitz and L. Levitt, eds. New York:
Routledge, pp. 82-85.
 Pellegrini, Ann. 1997. “Interarticulations: Gender, Race, and the Jewish Woman
Question,” in Judaism Since Gender, M. Peskowitz and L. Levitt, eds. New York:
Routledge, pp.49-55.
 Geller, Jay. 1997. “Circumcision and Jewish Women’s Identity: Rahel Levin
Varnhagen’s Failed Assimilation,” in Judaism Since Gender, M. Peskowitz and L.
Levitt, eds. New York: Routledge, pp. 174-187.
 Bunzl, Matti. 2004. Symptoms of Modernity: Jews and Queers in Late-Twentieth Century
Vienna. Berkeley: University of California Press.
 Prell, Riv-Ellen. 1996. “Terrifying Tales of Jewish Womanhood,” in People of the Book:
Thirty Scholars Reflect on their Jewish Identity. Jeffrey Rubin-Dorsky and Shelley Fisher
Fishkin, eds. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 98-116.
 Sered, Susan Starr. 1996. “The Religious World of Jewish Women in Kurdistan,” in
Jews among Muslims: Communities in the Precolonial Middle East, Shlomo Deshen and
Walter Zenner, eds. New York: New York University Press, pp. 197-214.
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Davidman, Lynn. 1991. Tradition in a Rootless World: Women Turn to Orthodox
Judaism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Boyarin, Daniel, Daniel Itzkovitz, and Ann Pellegrini, eds. Queer Theory and the
Jewish Question. New York: Columbia University Press.
Week 10: October 23, 25, 27: Moments in the Life Cycle
Required readings:
 Zborowski, Mark and Elizabeth Herzog. 1995 (1956). “Making Children into
People,” in Life is with People: The Culture of the Shtetl. New York: Schocken Books,
pp.330-360.
 Markowitz, Fran. 2001. “A Bat Mitzvah among Russian Jews in America,” in The Life
of Judaism, H. Goldberg, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.121-135.
 Myerhoff, Barbara . 1992. “Bobbes and Zeydes: Old and New Roles for Elderly
Jews,” in Remembered Lives. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp.191-218.
Some additional sources:
 Goldberg, Harvey. 2003. Jewish Passages: Cycles of Jewish Life. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
 Goldberg, Harvey. 1990. “Jewish Weddings in Tripolitania: A Study in Cultural
Sources” in Jewish Life in Muslim Libya: Rivals and Relatives. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, pp.52-67.
 Myerhoff, Barbara. 1978. Number Our Days. New York: Simon & Schuster..
 Heilman, Samuel C. 2001. When a Jew Dies. Berkeley: University of California Press.
 Ruth Behar (1996) “Death and Memory: From Santa María del Monte to Miami
Beach,” in The Vulnerable Observer. Boston: Beacon Press, pp.34-89.
 Schoenfeld, Stuart. 1988. “Integration into the Group and Sacred Uniqueness:
Analysis of an Adult Bat Mizvah,” in Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological
Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, W. Zenner, ed. Albany: SUNY Press,
pp.117-135.
 Schoenfeld, Stuart. 1992. “Ritual and Role Transition: Adult Bat Mitzvah as a
Successful Rite of Passage,” in The Uses of Tradition: Jewish Continuity in the Modern
Era, Jack Wertheimer, ed. New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America,
pp. 349-376.
 Perera, Victor. 1986. Rites: A Guatemalan Boyhood. San Diego: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
 Daniel, Ruby and Barbara Johnson. 1995. Ruby of Cochin: An Indian Woman
Remembers. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.
 Myerhoff, Barbara . 1992. “‘Life Not Death in Venice’: Its Second Life,” in
Remembered Lives. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp.257-276.
 Myerhoff, Barbara . 1992. “Surviving Stories: Reflections on Number Our Days,” in
Remembered Lives. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp.277-304.
Week 11: October 30, November 1, 3: Migration, Immigration, and Tourism
*Research paper proposal and preliminary bibliography due in class on November 1*
Required readings:
 Behar, Ruth. 1996. “Los Colados,” in The Jewish Diaspora in Latin America: New Studies
on History and Literature, D. Sheinin and L. B. Barr, eds. New York: Garland
Publishing, pp. 117-126.
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Behar, Ruth. 2005. “While Waiting for the Ferry to Cuba: Afterthoughts about Adio
Kerida,” in Memory, Oblivion, and Jewish Culture in Latin America, Marjorie Agosín, ed.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
 Kliger, Hannah. 1988. “A Home Away from Home: Participation in Jewish
Immigrant Associations in America,” in Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological
Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, W. Zenner, ed. Albany: SUNY Press,
pp. 139-164.
 Schorsch, Ismar and Jackie Feldman. 2001. “Memory and the Holocaust: Two
Perspectives,” in The Life of Judaism, H. Goldberg, ed. Berkeley: University of
California Press, pp. 149-171.
Some additional sources:
 Robert M. Levine (1993) “Diaspora in the Tropics,” and “A Second Diaspora” in
Tropical Diaspora: The Jewish Experience in Cuba. Gainesville, FL: University Press of
Florida, pp. 1-28 and 235-282.
 Stein, Rebecca L. 2005. “‘First Contact’ and Other Israeli Fictions: Tourism,
Globalization, and the Middle East Peace Process,” in Palestine, Israel, and the Politics
of Popular Culture, Rebecca L. Stein and Ted Swedenburg, eds. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
 Stein, Rebecca Luna. 1998. “National Itineraries, Itinerant Nations: Israeli Tourism
and Palestinian Cultural Production.” Social Text 16(3): 91-124.
 Kosansky, Oren. 2002. “Tourism, Charity, and Profit: The Movement of Money in
Moroccan Jewish Pilgrimage.” Cultural Anthropology 17(3): 359-400.
 Stratton, Jon. 2000. “Migrating to Utopia,” in Coming Out Jewish: On the Impossibility
of Jewish Assimilation. London: Routledge, pp. 164-192.
Week 12: November 6, 8, 10: Diaspora and Transnationalism
Required readings:
 Boyarin, Daniel and Jonathan Boyarin. 1993. “Diaspora: Generation and the Ground
of Jewish Identity.” Critical Inquiry 19(4):693-725.
 Stratton, Jon. 2000. “Historicizing the Idea of Diaspora,” in Coming Out Jewish: On
the Impossibility of Jewish Assimilation. London: Routledge, pp. 137-163.
 Zenner, Walter P. 1996. “The Transnational Web of Syrian-Jewish Relations,” in
Urban Life: Readings in Urban Anthropology, 3rd ed. George Gmelch and Walter P.
Zenner, eds. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, pp. 459-472.
 Frankental, Sally. 1999. “A Frontier Experience: Israeli Jews Encounter Diaspora in
Cape Town, South Africa,” in Jewries at the Frontier: Accomodation, Identity, Conflict, S.
Gilman and M. Shain, eds. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 155-184.
Some additional sources:
 Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1994. “Spaces of Dispersal.” Cultural Anthropology
993): 339-344.
 Fredman, Ruth Gruber. 1981. “Cosmopolitans at Home: The Sephardic Jews of
Washington, D.C.” Anthropological Quarterly 54(2): 61-67.
 Clifford, James. 1997. “Diasporas” in Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late
Twentieth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp.244-277.
 Anteby-Yemeni, Lisa. 2005. “From Ethiopian Villager to Global Villager: Ethiopian
Jews in Israel,” in Homelands and Diasporas: Holy Lands and Other Places, André Levy
and Alex Weingrod, eds. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 220-244.
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Rosen-Lapidot, Efrat. 2005. “Défrancophonisme in Israel: Bezertine Jews, Tunisian
Jews,” in Homelands and Diasporas: Holy Lands and Other Places, André Levy and Alex
Weingrod, eds. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 270-295.
Markowitz, Fran. 2005. “Claiming the Pain, Making a Change: The African Hebrew
Israelite Community’s Alternative to the Black Diaspora,” in Homelands and Diasporas:
Holy Lands and Other Places, André Levy and Alex Weingrod, eds. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, pp. 321-350.
Gold, Steven J. 2002. The Israeli Diaspora. London: Routledge.
Levy, André. 2001. “Center and Diaspora: Jews in Late-Twentieth-Century
Morocco.” City and Society 13(2): 245-270.
Week 13: November 13, 15, 17: Urban Jews
Required readings:
 Buckser, After the Rescue (entire book)
 Goldschmidt, Henry. 2006. “The Voices of Jacob on the Streets of Brooklyn: Black
and Jewish Israelites in and around Crown Heights.” American Ethnologist 33(3): 378396.
Some additional sources:
 Kugelmass, Jack. 1996. The Miracle of Intervale Avenue: The Story of a Jewish
Congregation in the South Bronx. New York: Columbia University Press.
 Lederhendler, Eli. 2001. New York Jews and the Decline of Urban Ethnicity, 1950-1970.
Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
 Lederhendler, Eli. 1999. “New York City, the Jews, and ‘The Urban Experience,’” in
People of the City: Jews and the Urban Challenge, E. Mendelsohn, ed. New York: Oxford
University Press, pp. 49-67.
Week 14: November 20: Work, Class, and Political Participation
(NO CLASS ON Nov. 22 & 24 – THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY)
* November 20, last day to submit draft of research paper*
Required readings:
 Silverman, Myrna. 1988. “Family, Kinship, and Ethnicity: Strategies for Social
Mobility,” in Persistence and Flexibility: Anthropological Perspectives on the American
Jewish Experience, W. Zenner, ed. Albany: SUNY Press, pp.165-182.
 Goldstein, Donna. 1997. “Re-Imagining the Jew in Hungary: The Reconstruction of
Ethnicity through Political Affiliation,” in Rethinking Nationalism and Ethnicity: The
Struggle for Meaning and Order in Europe, H.-R. Wicker, ed. Oxford: Berg, pp. 193-210.
 Schwartz, Anita. 1988. “The Secular Seder: Continuity and Change among LeftWing Jews,” in Between Two Worlds: Ethnographic Essays on American Jewry, Jack
Kugelmass, ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 105-127.
Some additional sources:
 Zenner,, Walter. 1991. “The Transformation of a Middleman Minority: Jews in the
United States,” in Minorities in the Middle: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. Albany: SUNY
Press, pp.129-147.
 Lowenstein, Steven. 1988. “Separatist Orthodoxy’s Attitudes Toward Community –
The Breuer Community in Germany and America,” in Persistence and Flexibility:
Anthropological Perspectives on the American Jewish Experience, W. Zenner, ed. Albany:
SUNY Press, pp.208-222.
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El-Or, Tamar. 2001. “Religion, Study, and Contemporary Politics,” in The Life of
Judaism, H. Goldberg, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 213-225.
Deshen, Shlomo. 1989. The Mellah Society: Jewish Community Life in Sherifian Morocco.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Fishman, Sylvia Barack. 2000. “Negotiating Both Sides of the Hyphen: Coalescence,
Judaism, and Historic Syncretism,” in Jewish Life and American Culture. Albany:
SUNY Press, pp.179- 190.
Goldstein, Donna Meryl. 1995. “From Yellow Star to Red Star: Anti-Semitism, AntiCommunism, and the Jews of Hungary.” PoLAr: Journal of Political and Legal
Anthropology 18(1): 1-12.
Week 15: November 27, 29, December 1: National Identity, Citizenship, and Belonging
*Research paper due in class on December 1*
Required readings:
 Markowitz, Fran, Sara Helman, and Dafna Shir-Vertesh. 2003. “Soul Citizenship: The
Black Hebrews and the State of Israel.” American Anthropologist 105(2):302-312.
 Mandelbaum, David G. 1975. “Social Stratification among the Jews of Cochin in
India and in Israel.” Jewish Journal of Sociology 17(2): 165-210.
 Lesser, Jeffrey. 1999. “(Re)Creating Jewish Ethnicities on the Brazilian Frontier” in
Jewries at the Frontier: Accomodation, Identity, Conflict, S. Gilman and M. Shain, eds.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp.209-223.
 Lehrer, Erica. 2003. “Repopulating Jewish Poland – in Wood.” Polin: Studies in
Polish Jewry. 16: 335-355.
Some additional sources:
 Domínguez, Virginia. 1989. People as Subject, People as Object: Selfhood and Peoplehood
in Contemporary Israel. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
 Jeffrey Lesser (2001) “Jewish Brazilians or Brazilian Jews? A Reflection on Brazilian
Ethnicity.” Shofar 19(3): 65-72.
 Rapaport, Lynn. 1997. Jews in Germany after the Holocaust: Memory, Identity and
Jewish-German Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 Stratton, Jon. 2000. “Jews, Representation and the Modern State,” in Coming Out
Jewish: On the Impossibility of Jewish Assimilation. London: Routledge, pp. 117-136.
 Seidler, Victor Jeleniewski. 2000. Shadows of the Shoah: Jewish Identity and Belonging.
Oxford: Berg.
 Gitelman, Zvi. 1998. “The Decline of the Diaspora Jewish Nation: Boundaries,
Content, and Jewish Identity.” Jewish Social Studies 4(2):112  Vieira, Nelson. 1995. “The Jews of Brazil: The Outsiders Within” in Jewish Voices in
Brazilian Literature: A Prophetic Discourse of Alterity. Gainesville, FL: University Press
of Florida, pp. 1-18.
 Levy, André. 2000. “Playing for Control of Distance: Card Games Between Jews and
Muslims on a Casablancan Beach.” American Ethnologist 26(3): 632-653.
 Dominique Schnapper (1983) Jewish Identities in France: An Analysis of Contemporary
French Jewry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 Linke, Uli. 1997. “Gendered Difference, Violent Imagination: Blood, Race, Nation.”
American Anthropologist 99(3): 559-573.
 Buckser, Andrew. 1998. “Group Identities and the Construction of the 1943 Rescue
of the Danish Jews.” Ethnology 37(3): 209-226.
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Buckser, Andrew. 1999. “Modern Identities and the Creation of History: Stories of
Rescue among the Jews of Denmark.” Anthropological Quarterly 72 (1): 1-17.
Rabinowitz, Dan. 1992. “Trust and the Attribution of Rationality: Inverted Roles
amongst Palestinian Arabs and Jews in Israel.” Man 27(3): 517-537.
Mandelbaum, David G. (1981) “A Case History of Judaism: The Jews of Cochin in
India and in Israel,” in Jewish Tradition in the Diaspora, M. M. Caspi, ed. Berkeley:
Judah L. Magnes Museum, pp. 211-230.
Mandelbaum, David. (1939) “The Jewish Way of Life in Cochin.” Jewish Social
Studies 1(4):423-460.
Mandelbaum, David G. 1977. “Caste and Community among the Jews of Cochin in
India and Israel,” in Caste among Non-Hindus in India. Harjinder Singh, ed. New
Delhi: National Publishing House.
Peck, Jeffrey M. 2006. Being Jewish in the New Germany. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press.
Bowes, A. M. 1989. Kibbutz Goshen: An Israeli Commune. Prospect Heights, IL:
Waveland Press.
Spiro, Melford E. 1970 (1956). Kibbutz: A Venture in Utopia. New York: Schocken
Books.
Week 16: December 4, 6, 8: Final considerations and Student Research Summaries
No new readings
Final Exam: December 15, 8-10am.
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