Prof. Jonathan D. Sarna
Spring 2016
x62977
Lown 211
sarna@brandeis.edu
Office hours: Tues 3:30-6 or by apptmt.
THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
This course uses history to shed light on the issues and challenges facing the contemporary American
Jewish community. It asks how the community assumed its current shape, and uses a series of historical
case studies to examine past crises and the lessons that might be learned from them. The goal of the
course is to help students craft a “usable past” – one that employs the hindsight of history to
understand the present and plan ahead for the future.
Four-Credit Course (with three hours of class-time per week)
Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of
study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
Students with documented disabilities: Students with disabilities certified by the Coordinator of Academic
Accommodations for Students with Disabilities in the Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs and First Year
Services will be given reasonable accommodations to complete required assignments. Disabilities that are not
documented and approved by the Office of Academic Affairs will not be given accommodations.
Academic Honesty: In your writing, you must follow rules of attribution, meaning that you must cite all sources
consulted in preparing your papers. As stated in the Student Handbook, “Every member of the University community
is expected to maintain the highest standards of academic honesty. A student shall not receive credit for work that
is not the product of the student’s own effort.” Examples of penalties for a student found responsible for an
infringement of academic honesty are no credit for the work in question, failure in the course, and the traditional
range of conduct sanctions from disciplinary warning through permanent dismissal from the University.
1.
Overview: The Changing Structure of the American Jewish Community (1/19)
These are the most difficult readings of the course, but provide invaluable background on the
American Jewish community and how political scientists understand it. The Elazar article places
America in a world context, demonstrating that other Jewish communities are differently
organized. Windmueller demonstrates how the American Jewish community has changed in
recent decades. In class, we will unpack these concepts. Keep these readings in mind as the class
proceeds.
Daniel Elazar, People and Polity: The Organizational Dynamics of World Jewry (1989), 17-93.
Steven Windmueller, “The World of the Synagogue and the Second American Jewish Revolution:
Some Reflections,” http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-world-of-the-synagogue-andthe-second-american-jewish-revolution-some-reflections/
2. From Synagogue Community to Community of Synagogues: Why American Judaism Looks the
Way it Does (1/26)
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How come American Judaism differs so much from Judaism in Israel and Europe? Why doesn’t
America have a chief rabbi? What are the pros and cons of the American system of Judaism?
Jonathan D. Sarna, American Judaism (2004), 36-61 (especially).
“Jewish Law and American Civil Liberty” Documents (to be discussed in class)
3. Revivals, Awakenings and Religious Recessions – Then & Now (2/2)
American Jews often believe that religion declines in linear fashion from one generation to the
next. Supposedly, immigrants start off Orthodox, and their descendants, several generations
later, intermarry and disappear. Students of American religion, by contrast, posit cycles of
religious revival and decline. Sometimes, what one generation seeks to abandon the next seeks
to recover. The readings here examine the second model, which we will discuss in detail, but in
class let’s also consider which model is correct and why it matters.
Jonathan D. Sarna A Great Awakening: The Transformation that Shaped Twentieth Century
American Judaism and its Implications for Today (1995)
William G. McLoughlin, Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform (1978), 1-23
Robert T. Handy, “The American Religious Depression,” Church History 29 (March 1960), 3-16.
4. Lessons from the Great Depression (and its successors) (2/9)
What happens when needs go up and means go down? What decisions did the American Jewish
community make? What might it have done better? What lessons can be learned from the
Great Depression that are applicable to our day?
Sarna, American Judaism, 255-258.
Jonathan B. Krasner, The Benderly Boys (2011), 159-183.
Beth Wenger, New York Jews and the Great Depression (1999), esp. 1-9, 54-79,166-196 [reports
on other chapters]
5. The Great Challenge: How to Combat Antisemitism (2/23)
The tide of American antisemitism began to rise in the late 1870s, peaked during the interwar
years, and ebbed following World War II. What do we learn from this history and what options
are available to those who seek to combat antisemitism today? We will look at a few cases.
Jonathan D. Sarna, “American Anti-Semitism,” History and Hate, ed. David Berger (1986), 115128
J.Reinharz (ed.) Living With Antisemitism: Modern Jewish Responses, 3-15, 313-332.
L.Zakim, Confronting Antisemitism: A Practical Guide (2000), 5-11, 43-59
J.D. Sarna, “Fighting Intellectual Antisemitism” Present Tense 9:3 (September 1982), 10-12.
Online documents (to be discussed in class)
6. Contrasting Visions of Jewish Destiny and Responsibility (JDC vs. ZOA) (3/1)
The inter-war years witnessed a great debate in American Jewish circles between Zionist
supporters of a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel and others, particularly leaders of the Joint
Distribution Committee, who advocated for Jewish agricultural colonies in the Soviet Union.
What underlay this dispute? Whom do you think was right? What do we learn from the dispute
in retrospect? Please read up on the dispute either in these readings (below) or from the JTA or
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other contemporary sources. We will assign roles for part of the class to re-enact a debate over
this issue.
Yehuda Bauer, My Brother’s Keeper (1974), 57-104.
Jonathan L. Dekel-Chen, Farming the Red Land (2005), 69-79.
7. World War II Battles among American Jewish Organizations and their Contemporary
Implications. (3/8)
The Holocaust posed unprecedented challenges for American Jewish leaders. Should they work
quietly, behind-the-scenes to aid Jews, or operate noisily through mass demonstrations and
media events? Should they focus on saving Jews by winning the war, or risk delaying the war in
order to rescue Jews from imminent destruction? Should they employ only legal means to save
Jews, or given the urgency of the situation might illegal means also be employed, such as ransom
payments to the Nazis and other violations of laws banning trade with the enemy? Should they
explore every avenue of rescue, even temporary ones, or should they demand, above all else,
throwing open the gates of Palestine, so as to create a permanent home for the Jewish people?
Finally, should they exert special efforts to save certain groups of Jews (rabbis? scholars? labor
leaders?), or should all lives be considered equally valuable and holy? The readings illuminate
some of these questions. In class we will reenact the battle over the boycott of Germany, discuss
other intra-communal debates, and consider their implications for our day.
Moshe Gottlieb, “The First of April Boycott and the Reaction of the American Jewish
Community,” American Jewish Historical Quarterly 57 (June 1968), 516-556.
Moshe Gottlieb, American Anti-Nazi Resistance 1933-1941 (1982), 391-396 [key documents]
Efraim Zuroff, “Rescue Priority and Fund Raising as Issues During the Holocaust: A Case Study of
the Relations Between Vaad Ha-Hatzala and the Joint, 1939-1941,” American Jewish
History 68 (March 1979), 305-326.
Monty N. Penkower, “In Dramatic Dissent: The Bergson Boys,” American Jewish History 70
(March 1981), 281-309
[See Lucy S. Dawidowicz, What is the Use of Jewish History (1992), 179-201 for strong critique of
Bergson Boys and defense of the established Jewish organizations].
8. Seeing Red – The Postwar Jewish Community Confronts Communism (3/15)
The postwar Jewish community purged active Communists from the ranks of Jewish communal
organizations. It argued that Communism was beyond the pale of acceptable American Jewish
behavior, both because of Communist actions in Europe and because Communists were being
disloyal to America in the midst of the Cold War. The McCarthy hearings and the Rosenberg trial
serve as background to these decisions, but we now know that some American Jewish
Communists were in fact taking money and orders from the Soviet Union. The questions posed
by the purge of Communists from Jewish communal organizations continue nevertheless to
reverberate. What are the boundaries of acceptable politics in American Jewish organizational
life? What puts one “over the line”? Should the exercise of “free speech” and “freedom of belief”
ever entail consequences for a Jewish professional? Looking back, how should the Jewish
community have dealt with Communists in its midst in the 1950s and how should it deal with
dissidents today?
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Stuart Svonkin, Jews Against Prejudice (1997), 161-177 (“The Anticommunist Campaign in the
Jewish Community”)
Paul Lyons, “Philadelphia Jews and Radicalism: The American Jewish Congress Cleans House,”
Philadelphia Jewish Life, ed. Murray Friedman (1986), 107-124.
9. Falling Barriers – How a Better America challenges Jewish Distinctiveness (3/22)
The 1950s saw Jews gain greater acceptance into the American mainstream. Judaism
increasingly became a “coequal” American religion, part of what Will Herberg in a bestselling
book labeled “Protestant-Catholic-Jew.” The question in this new world where even Marilyn
Monroe was converting to Judaism and marrying a Jew was what still defined Jews and Judaism
as distinctive? Could it be that “good news” for American society – more and more people
marrying across religious, ethnic and racial lines –actually spelled “bad news” for Jewish
continuity? How, in this new world, could Jews promote endogamy? How could they make the
case that Jews are different? Should they make that case at all? These questions only began to
take form in the 1950s. Today, they are the defining questions of American Jewish life, and every
Jewish leader must confront them.
Arthur A. Goren, “The ‘Golden Decade’: 1945-1955,” The Politics and Public Culture of American
Jews (1999), 186-204.
Lila Corwin Berman, Speaking of Jews (2009), 143-173.
Jonathan D. Sarna, “Intermarriage in America: The Jewish Experience in Historical Context,”
Ambivalent Jew: Charles Liebman in Memoriam, eds Stuart Cohen & Bernard Susser (2007), 125133.
10. The Sixties Revolution in Jewish Life (3/29)
The “Turbulent Sixties” introduced many of the themes, and many of the conflicts, that continue
to characterize American Jewish life. What are those themes and what do we make of them
almost half-a-century later? How did Jewish leaders in the 1960s confront the changes swirling
around them? What can we learn from their mistakes? Read the speech that Hillel Levine
famously delivered in 1969 before the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Boards. If, this year, you were asked to deliver an update, what would you say and how
would you say it? On another sensitive topic, see Shirley Frank’s 1977 response to the Jewish
“population panic.” Looking back, do you think she was right?
Jack Wertheimer, A People Divided (1993), 18-39 (“The Turbulent Sixties”)
Hillel Levine, “To Share A Vision,” Jewish Radicalism: A Selected Anthology, eds. J.N.Porter &
P.Dreier (1973), 183-194.
Shirley Frank, “The Population Panic,” The Jewish 1960s: An American Sourcebook, ed. Michael
E. Staub (2004), 340-48.
11. Christmas, Chanukah and the Church-State Dilemma of American Jews (4/5)
Notwithstanding the First Amendment to the Constitution, Christmas is a national holiday in the
United States and Christmas decorations adorn public spaces. In recent decades, the ChabadLubavitch organization has promoted menorahs in the public square as well. Are these public
displays of religion legal? How should Jewish organizations respond to these and other
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“breaches” of the “wall of separation” between religion and state? Is the “wall of separation”
good public policy? Good Jewish policy?
Jonathan D. Sarna, “Church-State Dilemmas of American Jews,” Jews and the American Public
Square, eds. A. Mittleman, J.D.Sarna & R. Licht (2002), 47-68.
Jonathan D. Sarna and David G. Dalin, Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience
(1997), 216-223, 288-300.
12. To Be Decided (4/12)
13. The Future and what the Past Has to Say About It (4/19)
Predications concerning the future of the Jews date back to antiquity. What does the history of
predictions about Jews teach us about contemporary predictions? What do we see today as we
look ahead? What role should the future play in our lives as Jewish leaders?
Stephen J. Whitfield, “The Future of American Jewry: A History,” American Jewish Year Book 104
(2004), 3-31 available at http://ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/2004_3_SpecialArticles.pdf.
Thomas B. Morgan, “The Vanishing American Jew,” Look (May 5, 1964), 43-46.
REQUIREMENTS
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Reading
Attendance
Participation
Class Presentation (20-30 minutes) in which you use history to shed light on some
contemporary issue or challenge. Try to pick an example where the past provides valuable
insights on how a particular issue may be addressed or resolved. The goal is to demonstrate
how you learn from history. You may make your presentation on the subject of your final
paper (#5 below) but that is not required.
(5) Final paper (well-researched with proper footnotes) in which you use history to shed light
on some contemporary issue or challenge. Try to pick an example where the past provides
valuable insights into how a particular issue may be addressed or resolved. The goal is to
demonstrate how you learn from history. Example 1: You are a community leader of the
Jewish community of the Hamptons. Orthodox members of your community come to
discuss the establishment of an “eruv” so that they may safely carry on the Sabbath
(including carrying young children to synagogue) without violating Jewish law. Other
members of your community, however, insist that the eruv is an impermissible breach of
church-state separation and must be opposed. Provide a history of this issue that helps you
decide what to do. Example 2: You are a Jewish leader in Florida, and are urged by Black
ministers, evangelical leaders and proponents of Jewish day schools to support a bill that
permits businesses and individuals to direct a percentage of what they would otherwise owe
in taxes into a fund that supports private and parochial schools. Some see this as a creative
means to alleviate the day school tuition crisis and foster better inter-group relations.
Others insist that the plan will harm the public school system, lead to “excessive
entanglement” between religion and state, and contravene longstanding Jewish policies
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that oppose all forms of state support for religious education. Provide a history of this issue
that helps you decide what to do. Example 3: You are the director of a new Jewish
museum. Your board know that Saturday is the biggest day of the week for museum-going
and seeks to open the museum on Saturday. Orthodox leaders in your community strongly
protest, insisting that the museum, by closing on Shabbat, reinforces a critical Jewish value.
Provide a history of this issue that helps you decide what to do.
Feel free to select one of these issues or another of your choice. Make sure that whatever
issue you select has policy implications and involves conflict. Your paper should be 10-20
pages long, double-spaced, well-researched, and footnoted. You may work with one other
student on this paper.
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