History 210/American Studies 223
Fall 2014
Ronald Schatz
Office: PAC 306
Office hours: M 4:15-5 p.m., F 10-11:45 a.m.
tel. 860 685-2384, rschatz@wesleyan.edu
American Jewish History, 1492-2001
The two central questions in this course are these: How did American Jews begin, and continue,
to develop an identity distinct from that of Jews elsewhere in the world? And how, in turn, has
America been influenced by their presence?
While we will begin with Christopher Columbus and discuss the colonial and revolutionary eras
(for instance, George Washington’s significant letter to the Touro Synagogue), our primary focus
will be the 19tn and especially the 20th centuries. Among the issues to be explored are the
successive waves of Jewish immigration, business and labor, political expressions, the arts and
popular culture, inter-group relations, regional differences among the Jews; and how
developments in Europe and the Middle East affected American Jews (and how American Jews
affected those regions).
In addition to historical scholarship and primary sources, the class will discuss fiction, poetry,
music, and film. The course will combine lecture and discussion. Although the documents may be
brief, they takes time to interpret The amount of reading will vary from week to week. 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)
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)
Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (1997)
The assignments not listed above will available at Olin Library’s reserve desk or on electronic
reserve.
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.
Eight one-page response papers.
In-class essay exam on September 22nd.
Compose a 1,500-word essay, responding to a document which will be handed out in class on
October 13rd. This essay is due on Friday, October 24th at 1 p.m. .
Your proposal for a final essay is due no later than November 4, 10 a.m. A detailed outline
and annotated bibliography is by Thursday, November 20th, 4 p.m. A draft of the essay is due
by December 3rd, 4p.m. The polished essay (10-12 pp.) is due no later than Friday morning,
December 12th. These dates are firm.
Course grade will be based on class participation (15%), in-class exam (15%), mid-term essay
(20%); the final essay (30%), and weekly response papers (20%).
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 p.m., Friday, 10-11:50 a.m., and by appointment. My telephone number is (860) 6852384; my e-mail address is rschatz@wesleyan.edu.
DISABILITY RESOURCES:
Wesleyan University is committed to ensuring that all qualified students with disabilities are
afforded an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from its programs and services. To
receive accommodations, a student must have a documented disability as defined by Section 504
of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, and provide
documentation of the disability. Since accommodations may require early planning and generally
are not provided retroactively, please contact Disability Resources as soon as possible.
If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact Dean Patey in
Disability Resources, located in North College, Room 021, or call 860-685-5581 for an
appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting accommodations.
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TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS
September 1
Introduction: Jews and American History
September 3
Reading:
New World, New Jews, 1492-1775
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 8
Reading:
The American Revolution and the New Republic
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 and U.S. Constitution;
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, 506-11.
September 10 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 15 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. 156-91.
September 17 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. 109-55.
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September 22 In-class exam
September 24 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. 388-91, 393-94.
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 29 The Goldene Medine
Reading:
E. Lifschultz, “Jewish Immigrant Life in American Memoir Literature,” from
Studies on Modern Jewish Social History, ed. Joshua A. Fishman (1972),
pp. 200-15.
Abraham Cahan, “A Ghetto Wedding,” and Morris Rosenfeld, “My Little Son,”
in Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology, pp. 123-133, 135-36.
m
October 1 Jews, Socialism, and Radical Culture
Reading:
Abraham Menes, “The East Side and the Jewish Labor Movement,” from Voices
from The Yiddish: Essays, Memoirs, Diaries, ed. Irving Howe and Eliezer
Greenberg (1972), pp. 202-18.
Isaiah Trunk, “The Cultural Dimension of the American Jewish Labor Movement,”
in YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, vol XVI (1976), pp. 342-93.
Joseph Opatoshu, “Brothers,” in Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology,
pp. 253-257.
October 6
Reading:
Uptown Jews in the Early 20th Century
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 Department Stores (1994), ch. 2.
October 8
American 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 13 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; reprinted in The Jew in the Modern World,
pp. 317-19, 333-36, 339-42. 527-31.
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October 15 On the Screen, On the Radio, On the Stage & In the Ring
Film:
Warner Bros., “The Jazz Singer,” 1927. Group showing to be announced.
October 22 From Class Struggle to the Struggle for Class
Reading: Congressional Committee on Immigration, “Temporary suspension of Immigration,”
1920, and Henry Ford, “The International Jew,” 1920, reprinted in The Jew in the
Modern World, pp. 568-72.
Anzia Yezierska, "Children of Loneliness (1923)," in Jewish American Literature:
A Norton Anthology (2001), pp. 233-45.
Diner, ch. 6
October 27 FDR & the Jews during the New Deal
Reading: Henry L. Feingold, A Time for Searching: Entering the Mainstream, 1920-1945
(1992), ch. 7.
Horace Kallen, “Democracy versus the Melting Pot,” 1915, excerpts in Jewish
American Literature: A Norton Anthology (2001), pp. 206-217.
October 29 The Nazi Assault
Reading: Henry L. Feingold, A Time for Searching: Entering the Mainstream, 1920-1945
(1992), ch. 8.
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. 716-19, 737-38, 742-44; 762-69,
776-78.
November 3 The Triumph of Zionism & Revelation in Europe
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. 575-76,
580-81.
Deborah Dash Moore, G.I. Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation
(2004), ch. 7
Karl Shapiro, “Israel,” Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology (2001),
p. 556.
November 5-7 Individual meetings re research projects
Rec’d:
Diner, ch. 6
November 10 “The Golden Decade”
Reading:
Diner, ch. 7
Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic,” from Goodbye, Columbus (1959), and Allen
Ginsburg, “Footnote to Howl,” 1956 reprinted in Jewish American Literature:
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A Norton Anthology (2001), pp. 918-44, 834-35.
November 12 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 17 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.
November 19 Feminism & the Jews
Reading:
Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963), ch. 1
Robin Morgan, “Introduction,” Sisterhood Is Powerful, (1970), pp. xiii-xl.
Rachel Adler, “The Jew Who Wasn’t There: Halakha and the Jewish Woman,”
1971, reprinted in The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 875-78.
November 24 Intermarriage, Old and New
Reading:
Diner, pp. 305-10
Max Appel, “The Eighth Day,” Jewish American Literature: A Norton Anthology
(2001), pp. 1073-1081.
December 1
Reading:
After the Holocaust
Spiegelman, Maus
December 3 The “Ever-Dying People”
Reading: Diner, pp. 310-58
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