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This course will survey the social, economic, political, religious and cultural history of East European Jewry from the thirteenth century to the post-World War II period. Topics to be covered include: Jewish autonomy, the economic and political relationship between the Jews and non-Jewish authorities, Sabbatianism, Frankism, Hasidism, the partitions of Poland, Jewish life in the Russian and Habsburg Empires in the nineteenth century, the rise of mass politics and new forms of Jewish self-expression (nationalism, socialism, Zionism, Yiddishism), World War I, the Russian Revolution and Bolshevism, the reemergence of independent Poland, Jewish life in Poland and Russia in the inter-war years, modern anti-Semitism, the destruction of East European Jewry in World War II, and the culture of memory about East European Jewry that has emerged in its aftermath. Primary and secondary readings, as well as novels, short stories and films, will be used.

The following books are available for purchase at the Rutgers University Bookstore:

Nathan Hannover, The Abyss of Despair (Transaction Books, 1983).

Lewis Begley, Wartime Lies (Random House, 1992).

Lucy Dawidowicz, The Golden Tradition (Syracuse University Press, 1997).

Michael Marrus, The Holocaust in History (New American Library, 1987).

Charles Powers, In Memory of the Forest (Penguin, 1998).

Isaac Bashevis Singer, In My Father's Court (Noonday Press, 1991).

Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Slave (Noonday Press, 1988).

Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Earth is the Lord's (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1995).

Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World (JMW) (Oxford, 1995)

*Required course packet from Pequod Copy Center.

Course Requirements: Students are required to prepare the course readings and to participate actively in class. Please note that some weeks have more reading than others, so try to pace yourself accordingly. All of the assigned readings have been put on reserve at Undergraduate Reserves (first floor of Alexander) or at the Center for the Study of Jewish Life, 12 College Avenue. Class participation is required and students should bring the assigned readings to class, when possible. There will be an in-class midterm examination (10/23) and an in-class final (12/18). Students will have the option of writing either two analytic papers (approximately 1200-1500 words each) or one 2500-3000 word research paper. The analytic papers are due on 10/5 and 12/4 respectively. The research paper is due on 12/7. The analytic papers require the ability to synthesize both historical information and interpretive concepts and to present them in a coherent informed argument. The research paper option is designed to allow students to explore a topic in depth. The topic must be discussed with the professor beforehand. No late work will be accepted under any circumstances. The exams will include identifications and essay questions based upon the lectures as well as upon assigned readings (even if those materials were not discussed in class).

Attendance and class participation:10%

Midterm Exam: 25%

Papers: 15% each or 30%

Final Exam: 35%

http://history.rutgers.edu/under/hist_essay.html

http://history.rutgers.edu/under/classroometiquettepolicy.htm

Bernard Weinryb, The Jews of Poland, pp. 3-32. (ALEX Reserve)

Norman Davies, God's Playground, vol. 1, pp. 23-33, 53-60. (packet)

Gershon David Hundert, "Some Basic Characteristics of the Jewish Experience in Poland," Polin, vol. 1, (1986), pp. 28-34. (packet)

Map of 13th-15th century Poland. (packet)

Weinryb, pp. 33-70.

Robert Chazan, Church, State and Jew in the Middle Ages, pp. 88-93. (packet)

Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis, pp. 3-43, 52-179. (ALEX Reserve)

Weinryb, pp. 71-78.

E. E. Urbach, "Tosafot," in The Encyclopedia of Religion. (packet)

Kenneth Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe, pp. 135-153. (ALEX Reserve)

Weinryb, pp. 79-106.

Haym Soloveitchik, "Religious Law and Change: The Medieval Ashkenazic Example." (packet)

Chava Weissler, "The Traditional Piety of Ashkenazic Jewish Women." (@CSJL, 12 College Ave.)

Weinryb, pp. 107-155, 179-205.

Excerpts from Nathan of Hannover, Abyss of Despair. (packet)

Map of Poland-Lithuania, 16th-17th centuries. (packet)

recommended: M. J. Rosman, "Jewish Perceptions of Insecurity and Powerlessness in 16th-18th Century Poland," Polin, 4, 1989, pp. 19-27.

Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis, pp. 183-194. (ALEX Reserve)

Weinryb, pp. 213-216, 220-261.

Two Accounts of Jacob Frank. (packet)

Map of Eighteenth-Century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (packet)

Katz, pp. 195-213.

Hundert, Essential Papers on Hasidism, pp. 25-85, 209-243, 299-330. (ALEX Reserve)

Weinryb, pp. 262-303, 321-330.

JMW, pp. 387-393.

Selections from In Praise of the Ba'al Shem Tov. (packet)

Map of "Early Hasidism." (packet)

recommended: Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, "Hasidism: The Last Phase."

Judah Reinharz and Paul Mendes-Flohr, The Jew in the Modern World, pp. 381-383, 385.

Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto, pp. 42-79, 161-175. (ALEX Reserve)

Lucy Dawidowicz, The Golden Tradition, pp. 113-148. (ALEX Reserve)

map: "The Lands of Partitioned Poland, 1795-1918." (packet)

Joseph Perl, Revealer of Secrets, Prologue and selected letters. (packet)

recommended: Arnold Springer, "Enlightened Absolutism and Jewish Reform: Prussia, Austria, and Russia," California Slavic Studies, 1980, pp. 237-267.

Salo Baron, The Russian Jew under Tsars and Soviets, 13-42. (ALEX Reserve)

Michael Stanislawski, Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews, pp. 13-34, 97-122. (ALEX Reserve)

JMW, pp. 372-379, plus map on following page.

Dawidowicz, pp. 148-168.

recommended: Richard Pipes, "Catherine II and the Jews: The Origins of the Pale of Settlement," in Soviet Jewish Affairs, 1975, pp. 3-20.

David Fishman, Russia’s First Modern Jews, pp. 7-45. (ALEX Reserve)

Allan Nadler, The Faith of the Mitnaggdim, pp. 1-28. (ALEX Reserve)

Immanuel Etkes, "Rabbi Israel Salanter and His Psychology of Mussar." (@CSJL)

JMW, pp. 381-386; 394-398.

Joseph Lichten, "Notes on the Assimilation and Acculturation of Jews in Poland,1863-1943." (packet)

Adam Mickiewicz, Excerpts from "Pan Tadeusz." (packet)

Shaul Stampfer, "Gender Differentiation and Education of the Jewish Woman in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe." (@CSJL)

recommended: Abraham Ain, "Swislocz: Portrait of a Jewish Community," in Deborah Dash Moore, editor, East European Jews in Two Worlds, pp. 22-50.

Michael Stanislawski, For Whom Do I Toil?, pp. 45-67. (ALEX Reserve)

Dawidowicz, pp. 273-297.

JMW, pp. 400, 402-403.

S. Y. Abramovitsh, "The Brief Travels of Benjamin the Third." (packet)

recommended: Eli Lederhendler, The Road to Modern Jewish Politics, pp. 119-133.

Baron, pp. 43-62.

JMW, pp. 380, 405-424.

Dawidowicz, pp. 426-434.

Excerpts from Theodor Herzl and Ahad Ha-Am. (packet)

I. L. Peretz, "If Not Higher," "Bontsha the Silent." (packet).

recommended: Koppel Pinson, "Arkady Kremer, Vladimir Medem, and the Ideology of the Jewish Bund," Jewish Social Studies, 1945, pp. 233-264.

Baron, pp. 156-186.

Lionel Kochan, ed., Jews in Soviet Russia, Introduction and pp. 1-28. (ALEX Reserve)

Nicholas Riasanovsky, A History of Russia, pp. 465-473.

JMW, pp. 428-436, 439-440.

Isaac Babel, "Gedali," "The King," "How It Was Done in Odessa." (packet)

Kochan, pp. 44-98, 125-187.

JMW, pp. 446-448.

Riasanovsky, pp. 474-508.

Davies, God's Playground, vol. 2, pp. 378-392. (ALEX Reserve)

JMW, pp. 437-439, 440-446.

Ezra Mendelsohn, The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars, pp. 11-83. (ALEX Reserve)

Isaac Bashevis Singer, In My Father's Court, entire (or) The Slave, entire.

Davies, God’s Playground, vol. 2, pp. 393-434. (ALEX Reserve)

recommended: Ezra Mendelsohn, On Modern Jewish Politics.

Lucy Dawidowicz, From That Time and Place.

JMW, pp. 634-660.

Felix Gilbert, The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present, pp. 185-191, 270-299. (ALEX Reserve)

Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews, pp. 48-69. (ALEX Reserve)

Michael Marrus, The Holocaust and History, pp. 8-30. (ALEX Reserve)

Lewis Begley, Wartime Lies, entire.

Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews, pp. 197-260.

JMW, pp. 662-684.

recommended: Tadeusz Borowski, "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen," and "The Man with the Package," in This Way for the Gas & Other Stories.

Emmanuel Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Kochan, pp. 269-287.

Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews, pp. 279-310.

Marrus, pp. 31-54.

Yad Va-Shem Testimony, 03/6147, Moshe Blumen, on the Volhynian town of Luboml, the creation and liquidation of its ghetto. (packet)

Primo Levi, "Beyond Judgment." (packet)

Salo W. Baron, "Responses at the Eichmann Trial," American Jewish Yearbook, 1962. (@CSJL)

Reuben Ainsztein, "Soviet Jewry in the Second World War," and Bernard D. Weinryb, "Anti-Semitism in Soviet Russia," in Kochan, pp. 269-319. (ALEX Reserve)

Zvi Gitelman, "Politics and the Historiography of the Holocaust in the Soviet Union," in Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR, pp. 14-42. (ALEX Reserve)

---. A Century of Ambivalence, pp. 225-294. (ALEX Reserve)

Michael Steinlauf, Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust, pp. ix-xii, 43-88. (ALEX reserve)

Lukasz Hirszowicz, "The Jewish Issue in Post-War Communist Poland," in The Jews in Poland, pp. 199-208. (ALEX Reserve)

Julian Tuwim, "We, the Polish Jews." (packet)

recommended: Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation.

Poetry selections by Abraham Sutzkever, Aleksander Wat, Czeslaw Milosz and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. (packet)