42.460 Topics in European History: The Jews of Europe, 1450-2000
Prof: M. Hickey Office: OSH 130 Office hours: M-W-F 10-11:45 or by appointment
phone: 389-4161 e-mail: hickey@planetx.bloomu.edu
web site: http://planetx.bloomu.edu/~hickey/homepage%20index.htm
Brief Description: This course is a survey of European Jewish history from 1450 to the present. It presents an overview of Jewish history during the Renaissance, the Reformation and "Counter-Reformation," the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the "Long Nineteenth Century," World War One, the Russian Revolution, the Nazi Regime and the Holocaust, and the Cold War. In our discussions we will concentrate on specific topics that link each chronological period. These include the problem of Jews’ legal status; social and economic relations between Jews and dominant communities; Jewish participation in national politics; antisemitism and anti-Jewish mobilization; Jewish political self-organization and communal organization; Jewish family life and gender relations; and the demographics of Jewish communities. (Please note that we will spend little time on the important topics of Jewish cultural and religious history).
Although I will give a number of short lectures, this is primarily a reading seminar. We will read a number of texts and documents in common, and we will then discuss them in class. You will find study questions for our readings on my web site. These will serve as the starting point for our discussions.
Assignments and Evaluation:
Your final grade is based upon a 1,000 point scale. A=1,000-920; A-=919-900; B+=899-880; B=879-820; B-=819-800; C+=799-780; C=779-720; C-=719=700; D+=699-680; D=679-600; E=599-0
Your grade will be based upon class participation (20 percent); a brief historiographic essay (20 percent); two brief document analysis papers (10 percent each); and a term paper that functions as our final exam (40 percent).
Class Discussion will account for 20 percent of your grade. Complete all assigned readings on time, take notes that answer the study questions (on my web site), and be prepared to discuss them in class. Ask and answer questions, but also be a good listener. While I am concerned with the quality rather than the quantity of your contributions, I do expect you to join in the discussion as often as possible. Your grade will be based upon attendance (your grade will fall in direct proportion to your absences) and the quality of your contributions, including your contribution to a group presentation.
Group presentation: I will divide the class into groups of two or three students and assign each group to be discussion leaders for one particular class session. Each group will then work together on a strategy (a lesson plan) for "its" class session and prepare questions or other in-class assignments for that session’s readings. Groups must communicate their plans, questions, etc., with each other and with me via e-mail well in advance of their class sessions.
Historiographic essay: (20 percent). Choose a topic from the list below. (Only one student may write on each topic.) Search for books and/or articles on that topic. (We will discuss search strategies in class.) Your aim is to compare and contrast what at least three different historians have written on your topic. (Therefore you will be looking at secondary sources only.) Your paper must be at 4-5 pages long, not counting references. You must use endnotes for all citations, and you must cite all quoted or paraphrased material. Due by the end of Week 8.
1) The Inquisition and the Jews (in Spain, Portugal, or in any Italian city)
2) The Expulsion of the Jews (from any particular country of princedom)
3) Crypto-Jews and New Christians
4) Martin Luther and Attitudes towards Jews during the Reformation
5) The Catholic "Counter-Reformation" and Attitudes towards Jews
6) The Growth of Jewish Communities in Poland (in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), 1500-1750
7) The Readmission of the Jews (to any particular country or princedom)
8) Jewish Economic Life, 1500s, 1600s, and/ or 1700s (regional or in any one country or princedom)
9) The Impact of the Thirty-Years War on the Jews
10) Anti-Jewish Violence in the 1600s (regional or in any one country or princedom)
11) Jewish Community Life between 1450 and 1750 (regional or in any one country or princedom)
12) Enlightenment Philosophers and Attitudes Toward Jews
13) The French Revolution and the Emancipation of the Jews
14) The Creation of (and Jewish Policies in) the Pale of Settlement before 1860.
15) The Jewish Enlightenment and Jewish Identity (regional or in any one country)
16) Assimilation and Jewish Identity in the early 1800s (regional or in any one country)
17) Jewish Economic Life and Early Industrial Capitalism
18) The Nature of Antisemitism in the Early 1800s
19) The Demographics of Jewish Communities, 1750s-1850s (regional or in any one country)
20) You Define the Topic (but I must approve it!)
Brief Document Analysis Papers:
You will write two document analysis papers (10 percent each). They must be 2-4 pages long, not counting citations. Document Analysis One must be on any document assigned during the first five weeks of class, and is due by the end of Week 5. Document Analysis Two must be on an assigned document dealing with Nazi Jewish policy or the Holocaust, and will be due by the end of Week 13.
The document analysis papers must present a thesis (a main point) based upon detailed, close analysis of a specific document. Be sure that you answer the following questions: Who produced the document, when, and in what context? What is the main point of the document? What does the document tell us about Jewish history or the history of Jewish relations with the dominant community?
Term Paper: Your term paper (40 percent) can be either an extended historiographic essay or a research paper. It must be at least 10 pages long, not counting citations. You must formulate a research question and obtain my approval for that topic. (You need to have you topic approved by Week 5.) You will then either conduct primary source research or read a large variety of secondary sources to answer that question. (I expect that you will use a minimum of ten separate volumes of sources.) If you do a historiographic essay, then your paper must compare and contrast the arguments that several historians have made regarding your question (in addition to the authors we have read in common), then you must come to a conclusion about how you think the question is best answered. If you do a research paper, then you will use your primary sources (and secondary sources, too) to formulate a thesis that answers your question. The term paper is due at our scheduled final exam time.
Course Readings:
Jonathan I. Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750, 3rd ed.
(London, 1998).
David Vital, A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789-1939 (New York, 1999).
Bernard Wasserstein, Vanishing Diaspora: The Jews of Europe since 1945 (Cambridge,
MA, 1996).
In addition, I will give you several handouts and we will read several documents linked to my web site.
Weekly Schedule:
Section 1: The Jews of Europe During the Renaissance, Reformation, and "Counter-Reformation
Week 1: Introduction. What are we studying this semester? What is a Jew? Themes in Jewish Historiography. The Expulsion of the Jews from Western Europe.
Readings: Israel, European Jews, Preface-Chapter 1.
Synod of Castilian Jews, 1432 (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1432synod-castile-jews.html)
The Expulsion from Spain, 1492 CE (a first-hand account) (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1492-jews-spain1.html)
The Expulsion Edict, 1492 (from Edwards, The Jews in Western Europe, 1400-1600)
Week 2: Europe’s Jews During the Reformation and "Counter-Reformation"
Readings: Israel, chapter 2.
A Christian Hebraist: John Reuchlin (from Edwards, The Jews of Western Europe)
Martin Luther: Letter to George Spalatin, Wittenberg, January or February, 1514. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1514luther.html)
Martin Luther: The Jews and Their Lies (1543) (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/luther-jews.html)
The Jew and the Renaissance: Italy, 1571-1600 (from Edwards, The Jews of Western Europe)
Section 2: The Jews of Europe During the Enlightenment and the French Revolution
Week 3: Jewish Life in the 17th Century, Part I
Readings: Israel, chapters 3-6
The first two documents are from the late 16th century, but illustrate points that Israel makes in chapters 2 and 3.
Giorgio Dati in Antwerp makes elaborate plans for inducing rich Portuguese Jews to settle in Tuscany (1545) (http://www.medici.org/jewish/jdoc8.htm)
Francesco I seeks permission from Philip II of Spain to allow Levantine Jews to transship goods (1576) (http://www.medici.org/jewish/jdoc7.htm)
Cosimo II permits…a Jewish actor…to travel…without an identifying badge (1611) (http://www.medici.org/jewish/jdoc4.htm)
Week 4: Jewish Life in the 17th Century, Part II
Readings: Israel, chapters 7-9
Declaration Protecting the Interests of Jews Residing in Holland (1657) (from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
Emporer Leopold, Appointment of Samson Wertheimer as Imperial Court Factor (1703) (from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
Week 5: The Enlightenment and Europe’s Jews
Readings: Israel, chapters 10-11; Vital, A People Apart, Preface, Contents, Introduction.
Voltaire: A Treatise on Toleration (1763) (http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/voltaire.html)
Voltaire, Jews (from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
On Jews and Christians Living in the Same Place A Quo Primum: Encyclical of Pope Benedict XIV promulgated on June 14, 1751. (http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/church/papal/benedict.xiv/b14aquo.html)
Week 6: The French Revolution and the Question of Jewish Emancipation
Readings: Vital, Part I, chapter 1 (pp. 29-98)
Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789 (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/rightsof.htm)
Hourwitz, Vindication of the Jews (1789) (From Hunt, The French Revolution and Human Rights)
Petition of the Jews of Paris, 1790 (From Hunt, The French Revolution and Human Rights)
LaFare, Opinion on the Admissibility of Jews (From Hunt, The French Revolution and Human Rights)
The Assembly of Jewish Notables: Answers to Napoleon (http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/363_Transp/Sanhedrin.html)
Documents on the Status of German Jewry and the Debate over Jewish Emancipation (from Goldstein and Boyer, Nineteenth century Europe)
Section 3: The Jews of Europe During the "Long Nineteenth Century"
Week 7: Responses to Emancipation
Readings: Vital, chapter 2
Anti-Semitic Legends (translated and/or edited D. L. Ashliman), that appeared in early 19th century Germany (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/antisemitic.html)
Reform Rabbinical Conference at Brunswick, The Question of Patriotism (from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
Week 8: Jews, Capitalism, and Nationalism in the Nineteenth Century
Readings: Vital, chapter 3
Documents:
Marx, "On the Jewish Question" (from Kamenka, The Portable Karl Marx)
Week 9: The Pogroms of 1881 and Their Impact
Awaiting a Pogrom (from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
The May Laws (1882) (from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
Week 10: Jewish Nationalism and Anti-Jewish Nationalism
Herzl, The Jewish State(from Goldstein and Boyer, Nineteenth century Europe)
Drumont, Jewish France (from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
Protocols of the Elders of Zion (read the first protocol)
For an example of a politically-motivated source that argues that these protocols represent the true aims of the "world Jewish conspircacy," see (ftp://ftp.std.com/obi/Rants/Protocols/The_Protocols_of_The_Learned_Elders_of_Zion)
Section 4: The Jews of Europe and the Twentieth Century
Week 11: War and Revolution
Readings: Vital, chapters 7-8
Week 12: Towards the Nazi War Against the Jews
Readings: Vital. chapters 9-Epilogue
Documents:
Adolf Hitler's First Antisemitic Writing September 16, 1919 (http://h-net2.msu.edu/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/hitler2.html)
Adolf Hitler Speech of April 12, 1921 (http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111hit1.html)
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (from Kishlansky, Documents in World History)
T.S. Eliot, Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar (http://www.bartleby.com/199/14.html)
Week 13: World War Two and the Holocaust
Readings: To be assigned
Documents:
Der Giftpilz (The Toadstool) (from Calvin College German Propaganda Archive) (http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/thumb.htm)
Each student will pick a document from one the following collections:
The Wiesenthal Center Special Collections, Institute of Documentation in Israel:
The Warsaw Ghetto in English (http://motlc.wiesenthal.org/specialcol/instdoc/d07c01/index.html)
We Shall Never Forget The Final Solution (http://motlc.wiesenthal.org/specialcol/instdoc/d07c11/sol1z3.html)
Long Dark Nazi-Years (http://motlc.wiesenthal.org/specialcol/instdoc/d08c01/index.html)
or from the documents section at
The Holocaust History Project (http://www.holocaust-history.org/)
or from documents printed in
Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919-1945, vol. 1.
Week 14: In the Wake of the Holocaust
Readings: Wasserstein, Vanishing Diaspora, Preface-chapter 5
Week 15: A Vanishing Diaspora?
Readings: Wasserstein, chaper 6-Afterthoughts
Term Paper Due at Final Exam Period