History 210/American Studies 223
Fall 2012
Ronald Schatz
Office: PAC 306
Office hours: M 4:15-5:15p.m., W 1:15-2:30p.m.
tel. 860 685-2384, rschatz@wesleyan.edu
American Jewish History, 1492-2001
“Everyone over there can find salvation his own way. . . . Even if Europe should become
a single prison there is still another loophole of escape, namely America, and thank God!
The loophole is after all larger than the prison itself.” - Heinrich Heine, circa 18391
“The Jews could survive everything that Europe threw at them.
I mean the lucky remnant. But now comes the next test—America.
Can they hold their ground or will the U.S.A. be too much for them?” - Saul Bellow, 19892
This course will explore the history of Jews in the United States, beginning in the colonial period
but mainly the 19th and 20th centuries. We will discuss a wide range of topics including
immigration; labor, business, and living conditions; religious, marriage and family practices;
politics; popular culture; intergroup relations and prejudices; Southern Jewry; and the impact of
developments in Germany, Russia, and the Middle East on American Jews. The unifying theme,
will be how the Jews changed by being in America and how America in turn was changed by
their presence.
We will be reading secondary works, primary documents, and literature, watch films, and hear
music. Although the documents may be brief, they take time to decipher. The secondary
assignments are longer but should not be hard. The amount of reading will inevitably vary. Plan
ahead.
OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE:
a) To help students acquire greater understanding of American Jewish history and, because they
are connected, the history of Jews in other parts of the world and U.S. history generally; b) to
help students learn how to interpret and discuss primary documents; c) to help students learn how
to conduct research; and d) help students improve their writing ability.
READINGS:
The following titles will be available on reserve at Olin Library and can be purchased at Broad
Street Books and other booksellers.
Hasia R. Diner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (2004)
Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World:
A Documentary History, 3nd edition (2011)
Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers (1976)
Jules Chametzky, et al., eds., Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology (2001)
Marcie Cohen Ferris and Mark I. Greenberg, eds., Jewish Roots in Southern Soil (2006)
Tony Michels, ed., Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History (2012)
The assignments besides those in those books will be available at Olin Library’s reserve desk or
on electronic reserve.
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2
Quoted in Hasia Diner, The Jews in the United States, 1654 to 2000 (2004), p. 88.
Saul Bellow, The Bellarosa Connection (1989), p. 65.
WRITING TUTORS:
Two excellent students, Eliza Sankar-Gorton (esankargorto@wesleyan.edu) and Earl Y. Lin
(elin@wesleyan.edu), will be working with us as writing tutors. They will meet the students to
discuss drafts of the mid-term and final essays.
I recommend Kate Turabian, et al., A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 7th ed. (2007) for guidance on your
essays. Copies are available in the Reference floor and in the Reference Office of Olin Library.
The call number is LB2369.T8 2007. If you own another comparable guide, feel free to use it. If
you don’t have a good thesaurus, I recommend The Oxford Thesaurus: American Edition.
REQUIREMENTS:
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Conscientious reading and regular attendance.
Bring notes and/or reading which will be discussed in class.
In-class essay exam on September 27th.
Meet with a writing tutor to discuss the drafts of your mid-term and final essays.
Compose a 1,500-word essay, responding to a document which will be handed out in class on
Tuesday, October 2nd. This essay is due on Tuesday, October 23 at 4 p.m. .
Your proposal for a final essay is due by 4 p.m., Friday, Nov. 2. A detailed outline and
annotated bibliography is due in class, Thursday, November 22 4. A draft of the essay is due
by Friday, Dec. 2th at 2 p.m., and the polished essay (10-12 pp.) is due no later than Friday,
Dec. 14th, 10:30 a.m. These dates are firm.
Course grade will be based on class participation (15%), in-class exam (25%), mid-term essay
(25%); and the final essay (35%).
Grades will be lower for students who miss more than three classes or who do not contribute to
the class discussions.
Please turn off cell phones before class begins. Although you are welcome to bring coffee, tea, or
the like, please don’t bring food to class.
OFFICE HOURS, E-MAIL, TELEPHONE:
I would be happy to talk with students after class, during office hours, and by appointment.
My office is in Public Affairs Center, room 306; my office hours this semester will be Monday,
4:15-5:15 p.m., Wednesday, 1:15-2:30p.m., and by appointment. My telephone number is (860)
685-2384; my e-mail address is rschatz@wesleyan.edu.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
It is the policy of the university to provide reasonable accommodations to students with
documented disabilities. Students are responsible for registering with Disabilities Services, in
addition to making requests known to me in a timely manner. If you require accommodations in
this class, please make an appointment with me within the first two weeks of class, so that
appropriate arrangements can be made. The procedures for registering with Disabilities Services
can be found at http://www.wesleyan.edu/deans/disability-students.html.
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TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS
September 4
Introduction: Jews in American History
September 6
Reading:
Jewish Settlements in the Americas, 1492-1776
Diner, introduction, ch. 1.
Peter Stuyvesant petition to expel the Jews from New Amsterdam, Sept.
22, 1654; Reply to Stuyvesant’s Petition, April 26, 1655, Rights of the Jews in
New Amsterdam, March 13, 1656, in The Jew in the Modern World, 3rd ed.,
pp. 501-503.
September 11 The American Revolution and the New Republic
Reading:
Diner, ch. 2.
Mark I. Greenberg, “One Religion, Different Worlds: Sephardic and Ashkenazic
Immigrants in Eighteenth-Century Savannah,” in Jewish Roots in Southern
Soil, pp. 27-45
Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, 1776; the Constitution of the
U.S.A.; letters between the Hebrew Congregation of Newport and George
Washington, August 1790; Rebecca Samuel, “An Observant Jewish Woman in
America,” 1791; Rachel Mordecai Lazarus, “A Country Where Religious
Distinctions Are Scarcely Known,” 1815, in The Jew in the Modern World, 3rd
ed., pp. 504, 506-511. .
September 13 Immigration from Central Europe and the Market Revolution
Reading:
Diner, ch. 3
L. Kompert, “Off to America!” (May 6, 1848), in The Jew in the Modern
World, 3rd ed., pp. 517-18.
Hasia Diner, “Entering the Mainstream of Jewish History: Peddlers and the
American Jewish South,” in Jewish Roots in Southern Soil, pp. 86-108.
September 18 Transformation of Judaism in Nineteenth-Century America
Reading:
Diner, ch. 4
Isaac Mayer Wise, “The Confirmation of Girls,” 1854; David Philipson,
“Dedication of Hebrew Union College,” 1875; Conference of Reform Rabbis,
“The Pittsburgh Platform,” 1885; H. Pereira Mendes, “The Beginning of the
Jewish Theological Seminary,” 1886; declaration issued by the Orthodox
Congregational Union of America, 1898, Kaufmann Kohler, “The Concordance
of Judaism and Americanism,” 1915, reprinted in The Jew in the Modern
World, 3rd ed., pp. 518-26
Isaac Mayer Wise, “The Fourth of July (1858),” in Jules Chametzky, et al., eds.,
Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology (2001), pp. 84-86
Gary Phillips Zola, “The Ascendancy of Reform Judaism in the American South
in the Nineteenth Century,” in Jewish Roots in Southern Soil, pp. 156-191.
September 20 Southern Jews, the Civil War, and Race Relations in the Latter 19th Century
Reading:
Robert N. Rosen, “Jewish Confederates,” and Eric L. Goldstein, “‘Now Is the
Time to Show Your True Colors’: Southern Jews, Whiteness, and the Rise of
Jim Crow,” in Jewish Roots in Southern Soil, pp. 109-155.
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September 25 Transformation in the Pale and Early Emigration
Reading: “Awaiting a Pogrom in Vilna,” 1882; N. Tchaykovsky, “The Massacre of the
Jews at Kishinev,” 1903; Haim Naham Bialik, “The City of Slaughter,” 1903;
and “To America or to the Land of Israel,” 1881, in The Jew in the Modern
World, 3rd ed., pp. 388-391, 393-394.
I. L. Peretz, “The Dead Town,” and Lamed Shapiro, “Eating Days,” in
A Treasury of Yiddish Stories, ed. Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg (1953,
1990).
Rec’d:
Photographing the Jewish Nation,Pictures of S. An-sky’s Ethnographical
Expeditions, ed. Eugene M. Avrutin, et al. (2009)
September 27 American Jews in Politics, 1820-1920
Reading:
Diner, ch. 5
Howe, ch. 11
October 2 The Goldene Medine
Reading: Howe, chs. 3-6
Abraham Cahan, “A Ghetto Wedding,” in Jewish American Literature: A Norton
Anthology, pp. 123-133, 135-36.
October 4
Reading:
Jews, Socialism, and the Labor Movement
Abraham Bisno, “When I Went Home I Was Aflame,” 1925; Bernard Vaynshteyn,
“The Birth of the Knee-Pants Makers’ Union,” 1924; Rose Pastor Stokes,
“The Right to Control Birth,” 1916; Louis Waldman, “Leon Trotsky on Second
Avenue,” 1944, “Unions with Brains,” in Jewish Radicals: A Documentary
History, ed. Tony Michels (2012), pp. 27-40, 88-90, 104-08; 133-35, 214-18
October 9
Reading:
Culture and Intellectual Life on the Lower East Side
Howe, chs. 7-8, 16
October 11 Uptown Jews in the Early 20th Century h
Reading: Israel Friedlaender, “The Division between German and Russian Jews,” 1915;
Louis Marshall, “The American Jewish Committee,” January 12, 1906;
Jacob H. Schiff, “The Galveston Project,” 1907, reprinted in The Jew in the
Modern World, 3rd ed., pp. 545-49.
Leon Harris, Merchant Princes: An Intimate History of the Jewish Families
Who Built Great Depression Stores (1994), ch. 2.
October 18 Zionism in Early 20th Century America
Louis Brandeis, “The Jewish Problem and How to Solve It,” reprinted in
The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader, ed. Arthur Hertzberg (1997),
pp. 514-17
October 23 Nativism, Anti-Semitism & Immigration Legislation
Reading: Adolf Stoecker, “What We Demand of Modern Jewry,” 1878; Houston Steward
Chamberlain, “The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century,” 1899;
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” 1902; “The Manhattan Beach Affair”
(1879); Henry Adams, “The Jews Make Me Creep,” 1896;
“Leo Frank Lynched,” 1915; Henry Ford, “The International Jew,” 1920,
reprinted in The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 317-19, 333-36, 527-531, 570-572.
Howe, ch. 12
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October 25 From Class Struggle to the Struggle for Class
Reading: Anzia Yezierska, "Children of Loneliness (1923)," in Jewish American Literature:
A Norton Anthology (2001), pp. 233-45.
October 30 Crisis in Faith
Reading: Mordecai M. Kaplan, “The Reconstruction of Judaism,” reprinted in The Jew in the
Modern World, 3rd ed., pp. 558-561.
Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United States, pp. 253-58.
Film:
Warner Bros., “The Jazz Singer,” 1927. Group showing to be announced.
November 1 The Jews, Franklin Roosevelt, and American Liberalism
Reading: Henry Feingold, “From Equality to Liberty: The Changing Political Culture of
American Jews,” in The Americanization of the Jews, eds. Robert M. Selzer and
Norman J. Cohen (1995), pp. 97-118.
November 5-6 Individual meetings re research projects
Rec’d:
Diner, ch. 6
November 8 The Nazi Assault
Reading: Adolf Hitler, “A Letter on the Jewish Question,” 1919; ibid., Mein Kampf (1923);
“The Operation Against the Jews, Nov. 9-10, 1938”; A. Hitler, Speech before the
Reichstag, Jan. 30, 1939; Jewish Fighting Organization, “Call for Resistance, Jan.
1943; Mordecai Anielewicz, “Last Communication as Commander,” April 23,
1943; Emanuel Ringelblum, “Last Letter from Warsaw,” March 1, 1944;
Juergen Stroop, “The Jewish Residential Area in Warsaw Is No More,”
May 16, 1943; “Bermuda Conference Joint Communique,” May 1, 1943;
Shmuel Zygelboym, “Where is the World’s Conscience?” June 1943;
Heinrich Himmler, “A Secret Speech on the Jewish Question,” October 8, 1943,
in The Jew in the Modern World, 3rd ed., pp. 716-719, 737-38, 742-744; 762-69,
776-778.
November 13 The Triumph of Zionism in America
Reading:
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, “Toward American Jewish Unity (1943),” and
“American Jewry in War and After (1944),” in The Zionist Idea: A Historical
Analysis and Reader, ed. Arthur Hertzberg (1997), pp. 590-602
“The Columbus Platform,” 1937; American Council for Judaism, “A Statement
of Policy,” Feb. 1944, from The Jew in the Modern World, 3rd ed., pp. 575-84.
Samuel Weiss, “Give Up the Illusion of Building a Jewish Homeland,” from
Jewish Radicals, ed. Tony Michel, pp. 308—11.
November 15 “The Golden Decade”
Reading:
Diner, ch. 7
Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic,” from Goodbye, Columbus (1959), reprinted in
Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology (2001), pp. 918-944.
November 20 Jews and Feminism
Reading:
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), ch. 1
Robin Morgan, “Introduction: The Women’s Revolution,” from Sisterhood Is
Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement,
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ed. Robin Morgan (1970), pp. xiii-xl.
Rachel Adler, “The Jews Who Wasn’t There: Halakha and the Jewish Woman,”
1971, reprinted in The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 875-878.
November 27 Black-Jewish Relations, the Civil Rights Movement, and Southern Jewry
Reading:
Clive Webb, “A Tangled Web: Black-Jewish Relations in the Twentieth-Century
South,” and Stuart Rockoff, “The Fall and Rise of the Jewish South,” in
Jewish Roots in Southern Soil, pp. 192-209, 284-303.
November 29 The Apex of Jewish-American Support of Israel, 1967-76
Reading:
Arthur Hertzberg, “Israel and American Jewry,” Commentary, 44:2
(August 1967), pp. 69-73.
December 4 After the Holocaust
Reading: Karl Shapiro, “Lord, I Have Seen Too Much (1944),” Elie Wiesel, Night
(1958, 1960), and Art Spiegelman, MAUS II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My
Troubles Begin, reprinted in Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology,
pp. 555, 899-906, 1093-1104.
George Steiner, “A Kind of Survivor (1965),” reprinted in The Jews in the
Modern World, pp. 861-865
December 6 The “Ever-Dying People”
Reading: Diner, ch. 8
Jerome R. Mintz, Hasidic People: A Place in the New World (1992), selection
to be announced
“Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns
is one that threatens to disappear irretrievably.” – Walter Benjamin3
3
Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, p. 255.
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