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University of Oregon Department of History
History 358: American Jewish History Winter 2012
CRN: 23071
Instructor: William Toll
Class Meetings: T Th 4-5:20 in 175 Lillis
My Office: 340X McKenzie
Office Hours: T Th 2:15 -3:30 PM & by appoint.
Office Tel: 541-346-4826
email: bill_toll@yahoo.com; btoll@uoregon.edu
Course Description
Introduction to course content
This course will examine how Jewish immigrants from Europe created new
communities and identities as American Jews. The evolution of capitalism in the United
States has continually created new markets that have required all Americans – including
Jews—to seek new economic niches and to migrate round the country. In addition,
America’s political culture, based on individual citizenship rather than on group rights,
has required that Jews --and all others-- respond to their new civil status by creating new
public identities. We will pay particular attention to the way the religious ideologies of
Reform and Conservative Judaism, and the secular philosophies of trade unionism and
Liberal Pluralism have facilitated Jewish reinvention as American citizens. We will also
examine how Ameri-can Jewish leaders have reconciled their new status with a
revitalized Jewish nationalism (Zionism) and to the new state of Israel after 1948.
The course will proceed chronologically, beginning with the experiences of
European Jewry in the 17th century. Jews, though living in a variety of settings from
Holland to Poland, were everywhere stigmatized and subject to the interests of the ruling
dynasties. In response, Jews moved around Europe in search of opportunity or security,
and as part of that migration settled in Holland and England and some of their colonies in
the Americas. We will examines the revolutionary changes in status and identity that
began there. We will then focus on the American Revolution and the federal Constitution,
which for the first time disallowed a national government from supporting an official
church or from stigmatizing religious communities. This freedom from stigma created
the context for a distinctively American Jewish identity.
In the mid-19th century, America’s expanding geography drew millions of
persons, including hundreds of thousands of Jews, to settle along new trade routes.
Economic opportunity, civic equality, and pioneer status promoted among Jewish leaders
a desire to transform Judaism. Rabbis changed Judaism from a culture made sacred by
religious law into a “rational religion” that focused on practical ethics, similar in some
respects to forms of Protestant Christianity. But in America Jews also encountered a
familiar stereotypes, which in the late 19th century came to be labeled “anti-Semitism.”
We will examine how in America’s expanding economy, liberal democracy, and multiracial society, anti-Semitism had very different conse-quences than in most of Europe.
The middle portion of the course will analyze the migration of about two million
Jews from Eastern Europe, as well as several thousand from the Ottoman Empire, to the
United States between 1880 and World War I in response to America’s insatiable demand
for industrial labor. We will examine how large groups of Jews, in conjunction with other
east and south European immigrants, became a new proletariat that settled into dense
industrial neighborhoods. Many immigrant Jews at this time had their world view shaped
less by religion than by Socialism and trade unionism. The presence of so many
immigrants, including Jews, aroused an aggressive nativist xenophobia that demanded
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legislation limiting immigration. By the 1920s Jews –and others—were cut off from their
European cultural roots. We conclude this portion of the course by comparing Jewish
social mobility in the 1920s –including a large migration to Los Angeles-- with the
imposition of comprehensive immigration restriction.
The third portion of the course will examine how American Jewry from the mid1930s through the 1960s faced the rise of domestic anti-Semitism and then the crises of
the Holocaust and the founding of a Jewish state (Israel). After World War II, American
Jewish communities engineered their own further integration into the American middle
class, while a leadership cadre created continuing support for Israel. We will examine
how many younger Jews in the 1960s were working for an America in which civil rights
became a political goal and cultural pluralism the philosophy of a new America. Major
Jewish organizations, however, were occupied with a different political campaign to
assure Israel’s survival. We conclude the course by examining how a new Jewish sense
of place in a pluralistic America has affected the community’s public agenda.
Required Readings:
Books & a packet are available at U. of Oregon Book Store;
1. Jenna Joselit, The Wonders of America, Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880-1950
2. Isaac Metzker, editor, A Bintel Brief
3. Chaim Potok, The Chosen
4. Packet for History 358: American Jewish History
5. Required readings
Writing Assignments: [80%] Due dates are listed on the class schedule
Four writing assignments are required to complete this course successfully. Each
one will require students to utilize themes developed in the lectures and assigned readings
to respond to a set of questions.
The four essay assignments are expected to be about five to eight pages in length
and to be documented with references to the assigned readings. Memos that provide the
specific questions on which your essays must focus will be provided about ten days
before each paper is due.
The first essay assignment is attached to this syllabus.
Class Participation [20% of grade]
This portion of the grade will be based on class participation, which will depend
on the individual student asking questions and participating in class discussions. Students
can –and should-- initiate class discussion by bringing questions from the assigned
reading to class. In the past some students have expressed to me a reticence to speak in
class. I encourage students to speak up, in part so I can help engage students with the
assigned readings. But I will never reduce a student’s grade below what she or he has
earned through written work because of a reticence to speak in class. Class
participation can –and should-- improve a student’s grade.
First Essay Assignment;
This essay will be due in class on Thursday, January 26, 2012
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Question:
Instructions: Answer each of the following two questions in about three pages each.
Should you find it easier, you may combine the two questions and write one longer (six
page) answer. You MUST use examples from many of the readings and you MAY use
examples from the lectures to VERIFY your conclusions.
1. What were the primary economic and political pressures that forced or induced
Jews in particular to move around Western Europe in the 17th century, and why did
specific groups of Jews in the 17th and 18th centuries then choose to move to specific
places in the Americas? (Use specific European locales like Amsterdam or London and
American locales like Curacao or New York to illustrate how these pressures were
manifested in the lives of Jews.)
2. How were the challenges for redefining a Jewish identity in the new
independent United States (1780 to 1820) different from what the challenges had been in
17th century Amsterdam? Specifically, how did the issues raised by the American
Revolution-- with its emphasis on democracy and equality—shape a new view of what an
American Jewish community should be?
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History 358: American Jewish History
CRN: 23071
Winter 2011
Class Schedule & Assigned Readings
Wk Dates
Lecture Topics
Assigned Readings
th
1
1/10
Jewish Status in 17 C Europe J Gerber,”Westward Journey,” B
1/12
Jewish Migrations & Reinven- H Williams, “Atlantic Perspective on
tions: Amsterdam
Jewish Struggle” B
2
1/17
Jews in Colonial North
Kiros, “Myth 1654”; H. Snyder, “Queens of
America
Household,” Platt, “Slave Trade Lopez” B
1/19
American Revolution: State & J. Sarna, “Revolution in American Synag; B
Religion
Wenger, “Sculpt American Jewish Hero” B
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1/24
German Jews & Settling of
V. Carosso, “Financial Elite (NY) ”; Danzi1/26
America, 1840s-1870s
ger, “Jews in San Francisco”; Sarna, Sort of
st
Paradise for Hebrews” (Cincin) B;
*1 Paper due
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1/31
Reform Judaism in America
"Dr Kohler’s Paper;” Sarna, “Mythic Jew &
Jew Next Door”;
2/2
Anti-Semitism & 19th C
J. Higham, “Social Discrimination B
American Culture
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2/7
East European Jewish
Ohrbach, “Russian Jewish Community”
Emigration
Gottheil, “Kishineff”; Poole, “Cahan”;
Cahan,“Rabbi Joseph”
2/9
East European Jews in NY
Metzker, Bintel Brief; Bingham, “Foreign
Criminals”; Ross, “Hebrews of East Europe
in America”
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2/14
Jews as Ethnic Group: NY
Joselit, Wonders of America, 55-265
2/16
Jews as settlers: Los Angeles
“Warner Brothers”
*2nd Paper due
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2/21
“Jew-Baiting” & Jewish
H. Ford, “Jews in Motion Pictures,” Ford,
Americanization
Apology to Jews;” Boas, “Jew-Baiting”
2/23
Anti-Semitism & Jewish
Angoff, “Nazi Jew-Baiting in America”;
Reactions in USA: 1930s
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2/28
American Jews & Holocaust
Potok, The Chosen
3/01
American Jews & Holocaust
Stone, Teller essays on Israel
*3rd Paper due
Founding Israel & Amer Jews
3/8
USA, Israel, American Jews
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3/13
Civil Rights & the Redevelop- Bernstein, McWilliams, Clark, Sobel,
ed City
Wattenberg essays; “Jewish Elan,”
3/15
Jews of the Western Sunbelt
Kotkin essays on Los Angeles
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*4th Paper due
B designates available on Blackboard for History 358.
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3/6
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History 358: American Jewish History
Winter, 2012 Instructor:
William Toll
Packet of Required Readings
1. Jonathan Sarna, “The Revolution in the American Synagogue,” in
Creating American Jews, Historical Conversations About Identity
(National Museum of American Jewish History, 1998), 10-23
2. Vincent P Carosso, “A Financial Elite: New York’s German-Jewish
Investment Bankers, “American Jewish Historical Quarterly (September,
1976), 67-88.
3. Gustav A Danziger, “The Jew in San Francisco, the Last Half Century,”
Overland Monthly (April, 1895), 381-410.
4. “Conference Paper of Dr. K Kohler,” in Proceedings of the Pittsburgh
Rabbinical Conference [1885]
5. Jonathan Sarna, “The ‘Mythical Jew’ & the ‘Jew Next Door’ in
Nineteenth Century America,” in Anti-Semitism in American History, ed
David Gerber (University of Illinois Press, 1986), 57-78.
6. Richard Gottheil, “Kishineff,” The Forum ( July, 1903), 149-60
7. Theodore Bingham, “Foreign. Criminals in New York” North American
Review (September, 1908), 383-94;
8. E. A. Ross, “The Hebrews of Eastern Europe in America,” The Century
Magazine (1914), 785-92.
9. Ernest Poole, “Abraham Cahan, Socialist, Journalist, Friend of the
Ghetto,” Outlook (Oct 28, 1911), 467-478
10. Abraham Cahan, “The Late Rabbi Joseph, Hebrew Patriarch of New
York,” American Review of Reviews, XXVI (September, 1902), 311-14
11. Louis Brandeis, The Jewish Problem, and How to Solve It [pamphlet]
(1915)
12. Judah Magnes, “Jewry at the End of the War: A Review,” The Nation
(May 4, 1921) 647-51.
13. Henry Ford, “Jewish Supremacy in Motion Picture World,” Dearborn
Independent, (Feb 19, 1921); Henry Ford’s Apology to Jews,” Outlook
(July 20, 1927), 372-74
14. “Warner Brothers,” Fortune (December, 1937), 110-13, 206--;
15. Charles Angoff, “Nazi Jew-Baiting in America,” Nation (May 1, 1935),
501-03
16. I.F. Stone, “Born Under Fire,” New Republic (May 31, 1948), 12-14;
I.F. Stone, ”Against All Rules,” New Republic (June 14, 1948),14-17; J.L.
Teller, “The New Nation in the Middle East,” New Republic (November
22, 1948),11-15
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17. David Bernstein, “Jewish Insecurity and American Realities,”
Commentary (February, 1947),119-27.; Carey McWilliams, “Does Social
Discrimination Really Matter?” Commentary (November, 1947), 408-15;
Kenneth B Clark, “Candor About Negro-Jewish Relations, Commentary
(February, 1946), 8-14.
18. The Jewish Elan,” Fortune (February, 1960)
19. B Z Sobel & May L Sobel, “Negroes and Jews: American Minority Groups
in Conflict,” Judaism (Winter, 1966),3-22.
20. Ben Wattenberg & Richard Scammon, “Black Progress and Liberal
Rhetoric, Commentary (April, 1973), 35-44.
21. Joel Kotkin, “Jews and Latinos,” Los Angeles Times, Opinion, (March
25,2001) (on-line); Joel Kotkin, “Jews Stick to Their Turf,” Jewish Journal
of Greater Los Angeles (Jan 3, 2003).(on-line)
Additional Required Readings available on Blackboard for History 358
Jane S Gerber, “The Westward Journey,” chapter 7 of The Jews of Spain, A
History of the Sephardic Experience ( New York: The Free Press, 1992),
177- 211.
James H. Williams, “An Atlantic Perspective on the Jewish Struggle for
Rights and Opportunities in Brazil, New Netherlands, and New York,”
Yosef H Yerushalmi, ”Between Amsterdam and New Amsterdam: The
Place of Curacao and the Caribbean in Early Modern Jewish History,
American Jewish History (1982) 172-92
Arthur Kiron, “Mythologizing 1654,” Scholarship at Penn Libraries (2004),
on-line
Virginia B. Platt, “’And Don’t Forget the Guinea Voyage’: The Slave Trade
of Aaron Lopez of Newport,” William & Mary Quarterly
Holly Snyder, “Queens of the Household, the Jewish Women of British
America,” in P Nadell & J Sarna, eds., Women and American Judaism,
Historical Perspectives (Hanover & London: Brandeis University Press,
2001), 15-45
Beth S. Wenger, “Sculpting an American Jewish Hero: The Monuments,
Myths and Legends of Haym Salomon,” in Divergent Jewish Cultures
Israel & America, eds Deborah D Moore & S Ilan Troen (New Haven:
Yale U Press, 2001) 123-151.
Jonathan Sarna, “’A Sort of Paradise for the Hebrews’: The Lofty Vision of
Cincinnati Jews,” in Henry Shapiro and Jonathan Sarna, eds., Ethnic
Diversity and Civic Identity, Patterns of Conflict and Cohesion in
Cincinnati Since 1820 (Urbana: U of Illinois Press, 1992), 131-64.
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John Higham, “Social Discrimination Against Jews,” in John Higham, Send
These to Me, Jews and Other Immigrants in Urban America (Atheneum,
1975), 138-73.
Alexander Orbach, “The development of the Russian Jewish Community,
1881-1903, in John H Klier & Shlomo Lambrozo, eds., Anti-Jewish
Violence in Modern Russian History (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press,
1992), 137- 60.