HISTORY AND MEMORY: MEDIEVAL TO MODERN JEWISH HISTORY
HIST 534
Hebrew College Spring 2014
Ilan Fuchs
Ilan.fuchs1@gmail.com
This course will investigate some of the major themes in the history of the Jews from the
high middle ages to the modern era. Jews constituted a classic, nearly continuous
minority in the pre-modern world, and one of the purposes of the course is to examine the
ways in which the Jewish community interacted with and experienced other societies,
cultures, and politics. It will follow two trajectories that the readings and assignments
will revolve around questions of historiography and the process of transformation from a
religious community to a community that uses modern national terminology in its selfreferencing.
Program Outcomes:

This course aims to teach students about significant historical moments and
cultural developments in Jewish history and cultures.

It will prepare students to employ knowledge of Jewish culture, history, religion,
and social structure, to critically consider, interpret, and explicate relevant cultural
artifacts, and past, present, and future developments in the Jewish world and their
relationship to broader geo-temporal trends and issues.

It will help students to acquire knowledge of important approaches to the study of
Jewish civilization and the presuppositions underlying them; various analytical
techniques employed in the humanities and the social sciences for the study of
Jewish civilization, the Jews, and their representation.

This course will also prepare students for further courses in Jewish Studies.
Learning Outcomes:
Students will understand the challenge of Diaspora in Jewish history and how
modern nationalism influenced Jewish communities
Students will be familiar with the processes of integration and emancipation in early
modern Europe.
Students will learn about the new Jewish politics that arose after the failure of
integration in Eastern Europe.
After finishing the course, students will understand the restructured Jewish map of the
early modern period, and know the background that developed American Jewry
and Zionism.
Assessment:
Students are expected to participate each week in the discussion forums. Each unit
includes questions that need to be addressed on the discussion boards, each student is
expected to post at least 2 responses to the questions and also one response to other
students posts. (35 points)
Final project – at the end of the semester students will submit a paper of up to 10 pages.
The paper will be an interpretive essay on a topic of your choosing, not a full-fledged
research paper, but an essay that poses and seeks to answer an historical question or
problem. You will need to do some outside reading for this assignment, use can use
wither MLA or Chicago citation rules.
Since the course focuses on different forms of Jewish identity and the development of
modern Jewish nationalism you can for example write about how one era discussed in the
course manifests the emergence of a national Jewish identity.
Each paper must include a careful analysis of at least one primary source, which should
help elucidate the “problem” that you are investigating, or around which you are
constructing an argument.
Before choosing the topic for your paper or if you have trouble deciding what topic to
write about please contact me so we can discuss it.
Office Hours
In order to discuss questions in a different format than the discussion threads, I will
conduct office hours using Google+, that will allow several participants to take part in a
discussion. We will meet each week on Thursday at 8:00 PM EST.

Medieval Jewish Life
Kenneth Stow, Alienated Minority: the Jews of Medieval Latin Europe, 89-100; 158-199.
Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World, 121-150. [primary Sources]
Discussion questions:
1. In what ways would Jewish-Christian relations be more complicated than paganChristian relation?
2. The texts you read mention the sense of security of Jewish communities in
Christendom. What affect did this have on Jewish culture?

Jewish Life in Muslim Lands
William Hallo, David Ruderman, and Michael Stanislawski eds., Heritage, Civilization,
and the Jews: a Source Reader 82-93, 125-127. [primary Sources]
Reuven Firestone, “Jewish Culture in the Formative Period of Islam, in Cultures of the
Jews: A New Hisory, (David Biale ed.) 267-310. [access through Ebrary]
Raymond Scheindlin, Merchants and Intellectuals, Rabbis and Poets: Judeo-Arabic
Culture in the Golden Age of Islam, in Cultures of the Jews, 313-388. [access through
Ebrary]
Discussion questions:
1. Why were Jews writing about Jewish topics in Arabic but not in Latin?
2. Is the Golden age a myth or a valid description of Muslim-Jewish relations in the
medieval period?

The Impact of the Spanish Expulsion
Haim Beinart, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 1-50, 244-279
The edict for the expulsion of the Jews [primary Sources]
http://sephardicstudies.org/decree.html
Discussion questions:
1. What is the situation the expulsion came to solve?
2. Is this a mere religious clash?

Jewish Philosophy in the Medieval period
Eliezer Segal, Introducing Judaism, 70-85.
Sa’adia Gaon, Book of Doctrines and Beliefs, Prolegomena & Ch. 3 [primary Sources]
Discussion questions:
1. is there “Jewish philosophy” or is it “Jewish Theology”?
2. How would the Text written by Rav Saadya Gaon be used in a polemic debate?

Rabbinic literature in the middle ages
This unit will include a discussion that will analyze translated rabbinic texts on a specific
topic: laws about debt collection.
Menachem Elon, Jewish Law: History, Sources, Principals, 1017-1138
Discussion questions:
1. How does Halacha differ from a national legal system?
2. Why is there “Oral Torah”? What is the importance of keeping it verbal rather than
textual?
6. Rabbinic Literature in the modern period
This unit will include a discussion that will analyze translated rabbinic texts on a specific
topic: abortion.
Menachem Elon, Jewish Law: History, Sources, Principals, 1453-1524
Discussion questions:
1. is rabbinic Judaism a “democratic” model of religion?
7. Jewish Mysticism and Shabatai Tzvi
Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism ch. 1,
Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment (Daniel Matt Trans.) 127-132 [primary Sources]
Gershom Sholem, “Shabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah” in Essential Papers on
Messianic Movements and Personalities, 289-329.
Discussion questions:
1. Why is mysticism a corpus of texts that is kept secret?
2. Do esoteric texts have the power to create religious revolutions?
3. Is the Sabatian movement a precursor to modern values?
4. Were Shabtai Tzvi and Yaakov Frank leaders of Jewish groups?
8. Hasidism: stories, prayer, life, leadership
Gershon Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century, 1-56.
Gershom Sholem, Major trends of Jewish Mysticism, 325-350
Tanya English translation with introduction, notes and commentary by I. Greenberg
(Brooklyn, N.Y. :Kehot Publication Society, 1995) ch. 32 [primary Source]
http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/1087494/jewish/Chapter-32.htm
Discussion questions:
1. How is Hasidism different from Kabbala?
2. How should religious life look according to Hasidic teaching? How is it different from
non-Hasidic perspective?
9. Enlightenment and Haskalah and Emancipation
Michael Meyer, Response to Modernity, pp. 62-99.
Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (eds.), The Jew in the Modern World: A
Documentary History, 114-116. [primary sources]
Discussion questions:
1. Why did the supporters of reformation change the name of the Jewish worship house
from synagogue to temple?
2. Is emancipation a tool for multiculturalism, acculturation or assimilation?
10. Eastern European Haskalah
Gershon Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of
Modernity, pp. 160-210.
Howard Shahar, “The Growth of Jewish Socialism” in The Course of Modern Jewish
History (1990) pp. 332-358
Lucy Dawidowicz, The Golden Tradition: Jewish Life and Thought in Eastern Europe,
113-135. [primary sources]
Discussion questions:
1. How is Eastern European Haskalah different from German Haskalah? Discuss the
following criteria: religion, nationalism and russification?
11. The rise of Zionism
Moshe Maor, “The History of Zionism,” Mitchel Bard (ed.) The Israel Studies
Anthology http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/isdf/text/maor.html
Zeev Tzahor, “The Struggle between the Revisionist Party and the Labor Movement:
1929-1933” in Modern Judaism Vol. 8, No. 1 (Feb., 1988) pp. 15-25
Revisionists, Zionist [Encyclopaedia Judaica]
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_16687.html
Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (eds.), The Jew in the Modern World: A
Documentary History, 533. [primary sources]
Discussion questions:
1. Is Zionism a Jewish movement? What makes it Jewish?
2. Is Zionism different from other modern national movements?
12. Holocaust
Dan Stone (ed.) The Historiography of the Holocaust Ch. 1,2,5,14
http://www.ereading.org.ua/bookreader.php/135878/The_Historiography_of_Holocaust.pdf
Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (eds.), The Jew in the Modern World: A
Documentary History, 636-639, 642, 676-679. [primary sources]
Discussion questions:
1. Is the Holocaust a Jewish event?
2. Is modern Anti-Semitism completely different from medieval hatred of Jews?
13. Israel
Asher Cohen, “Changes in the Orthodox Camp and their Influence on the
Deepening Religious-Secular Schism at the outset of the 21st century”, Alan
Dowty (ed.) Critical Issues in Israeli Society Ch. 4.
Ilan Fuchs, “Religion in Israel”, Mitchel Bard (ed.) The Israel Studies Anthology
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/isdf/text/fuchs.pdf
Discussion questions:
1. Is the Schism between religion and Secularism in Israel related to Nationalism?
14. American Judaism
Jonathan Sarna (ed.), The American Jewish Experience, chapter 2 and 5.
The Columbus Platform of the reform movement
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Columbus_platform.html
Discussion questions:
1. Is American Judaism representing a different model of Jewish identity?
2. Has the American-Jewish project been a success or a failure? If so how?