The Jews of Europe, 1450-Present (42.405/505)
M. Hickey Office: OSH 130 phone: 389-4161 e-mail: mhickey@bloomu.edu
Office hours: T-Th, 2-3:30; W. 3:30-5:30, or by appointment
Final exam due by 4:00 on Tuesday, 28 April. I will not accept papers by e-mail. You must turn in a physical paper!
Navigate this page:
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Link to Bibliography from Oxford University Library at http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/libraryit/faclib/jewish.htm
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Warning re. plagiarism! Using endnote citation form
Brief Description:
This course is a survey of European Jewish history from 1450 to the present. Our discussions will concentrate on specific topics that link chronological periods. These include the problem of Jews’ legal status; Jewish participation in national politics; Jewish-Gentile relations (inlcuding but not limited t the issue of anti-Semitism); 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 relatively little time on Jewish religious history or religious culture.
Although I may give short lectures, this is 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 linked to this syllabus, which serve as the starting point for our discussions.
Your final grade is based upon a 1,000 point scale:
Your grade will be based upon class participation (20 percent); an in-class book analysis presentation (10 percent); a brief book analysis essay (20 percent); two brief document analysis papers (10 percent each); and a final exam paper (30 percent).
My primary concern is your paper's accuracy, clarity, and logic, but I will also take into consideration such "technical" matters as grammar and use of proper citation form.
Class Participation will account for 20 percent of your grade. Complete all assigned readings on time and take notes so that you are prepared to discuss the readings in class. Ask and answer questions, but also be a good listener. I am concerned with the quality rather than the quantity of your contributions, but 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.
LATE PAPERS and papers sent by e-mail: Papers are due at the end of the day indicated in the syllabus. You must either put them in my hand, put them in my mailbox in the Department of History office (OSH 103), or send them to me by e-mail in Word (or pasted into the e-mail itself) within an hour after the deadline. I will NOT accept papers sent in other file formats (such as the .odt format).
A paper that is put in my mailbox (etc) or that is e-mailed more than an hour after the deadline will be considered late. I will deduct a letter grade for each day (including Saturdays and Sundays) that a paper is late, with the late period beginning one hour after university offices close on the due date (that is, from 6 pm).
In-Class Book Analysis Presentation: (10 percent).
Each student will pick a European empire or country on which they will do independent readings. Your choices will be: The Austro-Hungarian Empire (or one of its territories); England; France; Germany; Italy; the Ottoman Empire (specifically, its European territories); Poland (which was not an independent nation-state in this period, but on which there is a discrete literature); or the Russian Empire. To ensure that our discussions cover a broad geographic area, no more than three students will focus on the same country/empire.
Once you have picked a territory, you will identify several different scholarly monographs on the history of Jewish-Gentile relations and/or antisemitism in that territory in the period between 1750 and 1914. You will be looking at secondary sources only! You must bring me a typed bibliographic list of your possible readings for approval by the end of Week IV. Together, we will pick one book for your report/presentation.
Once I have approved your readings, you must locate, obtain, and read "your" book. You must have these readings completed by Week X of the semester, so you cannot delay!
In class sessions during Weeks X and XI, students will present 15 minute oral reports that explain:
o The precise topic of the book that you read
o Who wrote the book, as well as where, when and by whom it was published
o The organizational structure of the book
o The main arguments (theses) of the book
o The major points of evidence that the author raises to support each f these main arguments.
You also must be ready to answer questions about the readings from me and from other students.
Your grade will be based upon the accuracy, clarity, and logic of your presentation.
Book analysis paper: (20 percent).
Using the same book as you used for your oral report, you will write a 5-6 page paper (not counting references) that explains:
o The precise topic of the book that you read
o Who wrote the book, as well as where, when and by whom it was published
o The organizational structure of the book
o The main arguments (theses) of the book
o The major points of evidence that the author raises to support each f these main arguments.
You must use endnotes for all citations, and you must cite all quoted or paraphrased material. I will base your grade primarily on the accuracy, clarity, and logic of your essay, but I will also take into consideration such "technical" matters as grammar and use of proper citation form. Due Week XI.
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 weeks 2-3 and is due at the end of Week 3.
Document Analysis Two must be on any document assigned for weeks 4-6 and is due at the end of Week 6.
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?
I will base your grades primarily on the accuracy, clarity, and logic of your essays, but I will also take into consideration such "technical" matters as grammar and use of proper citation form.
Final Exam Paper: (30 percent)
You will have a Final Exam paper instead on an in-class exam. In Week 13 of the semester, I will give you a set of questions for your final paper. These will require that you think about the relationship between Samuel D. Kassow’s book Who Will Write Our History?: Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto (Bloomington, 2007) and other books that we have read this semester. You will pick one of these questions and write an essay that answers the question in 10-15 pages, not counting endnote citations.
I will base your grade primarily on your essay's accuracy, clarity, logic, and use of evidence. But I will also take into consideration such "technical" matters as grammar and use of proper citation form.
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).
Pierre Birnbaum and Ira Kaznelson, eds., Paths of Emancipation: Jews, States, and Citizenship (Princeton, 1995).
Jonathan Frankel and Stephen Zipperstein, eds., Assimilation and Community: The Jews of Nineteenth Century Europe (New York, 2003).
Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish Century (Princeton, 2006)
Samuel D. Kassow, Who Will Write Our History?: Rediscovering a Hidden Archive from the Warsaw Ghetto (Bloomington, 2007)
In addition, I will give you a handout of one of my own essays, on Jewish social history in 1450-2000. Also, you must read the documents linked to this syllabus.
Graduate Students:
Graduate Students will also write a short research paper on a topic that they will pick in consultation with me. That paper must be at least 10 pages long (not counting references), and will be substituted for half of your participation grade (so it will equal 10 percent of the course grade). I will base your grade primarily on the accuracy, clarity, and logic of your essay, but I will also take into consideration such "technical" matters as grammar and use of proper citation form. It will be due on at our final exam session.
Weekly Schedule:
Section 1: The Jews of Europe During the Renaissance, Reformation, and "Counter-Reformation
Week I (12-16 January):
Tuesday Session: Introduction. What are we studying this semester? What is a Jew? Themes in Jewish Historiography.
Thursday Session: Discussion of reading: M. Hickey, "The Jews and Anti-Semitism" in Peter Stearns, ed., The Encyclopedia of European Social History, 1450 to the Present (Handout)
Week II (19-23 January):
Tuesday Session: The Expulsion of the Jews from Western Europe.
Readings: Israel, European Jews, Preface-Chapter 1 also, three documents
The documents are:
· 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 (handout from Edwards, The Jews in Western Europe, 1400-1600)
Thursday session: Europe’s Jews in the Reformation and "Counter-Reformation"
Readings: Israel, chapter 2 also, three documents
The documents are:
· A Christian Hebraist: John Reuchlin (handout 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)
· The Jew and the Renaissance: Italy, 1571-1600 (handout from Edwards, The Jews of Western Europe)
Section 2: The Jews of Europe in the Enlightenment and the French Revolution
Week III (26-30 January): Jewish Life in the 17th Century, Part I
Readings: Israel, chapters 3-6 also 3 documents:
(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)
Document Analysis Paper One DUE by the end of the week
Week IV (2-6 February): Jewish Life in the 17th Century, Part II
Readings: Israel, chapters 7-9 also, 2 documents:
· Declaration Protecting the Interests of Jews Residing in Holland (1657) (handout, from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
· Emporer Leopold, Appointment of Samson Wertheimer as Imperial Court Factor (1703) (handout, from Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World)
The deadline for approval of historiography bibliography is Thursday!
Week V (9-13 February): The Enlightenment and Europe’s Jews
Readings: Israel, chapters 10-11.
Section 3: The Jews of Europe in the "Long Nineteenth Century"
Week VI (16-20 February): The Question of Jewish Emancipation, I
Readings: Birnbaum and Katznelson, Preface, chapter 1, chapter 3, chapter 2, chapter 4 and document
· The Assembly of Jewish Notables: Answers to Napoleon (http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/363_Transp/Sanhedrin.html)
Document Analysis Paper TWO DUE by the end of the week
Week VI (23-27 February): The Question of Jewish Emancipation, II
Readings: Birnbaum and Katznelson, Chapters 5, 7, and 8 and documents.
· Anti-Semitic Legends (translated and/or edited D. L. Ashliman), that appeared in early 19th century Germany (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/antisemitic.html)
SPRING BREAK: 28 February-8 March
Week VIII (9-13 March): Assimilation and Community I
Readings: Frankel and Zipperstein
For TUESDAY:
Frankel chapter ("Assimilation and the Jews"): Hickey will report
Albert chapter ("Israelite and Jew") assigned to: Williams, Richmond, Kendall, Kantner, Gilliand
Hyman chapter ("The social contexts of assimilation") assigned to: Nystrom, Graham, Johnson, Arduino
Cohen essay ("Nostalgia and the 'return to the ghetto'") assigned to: Kubik, Bertelsen, Herring, Diangeles
For Thursday:
Graetz chapter ("Jewry in the modern period") assigned to Williams, Graham, Diangelis
Sorkin chaper ("The impact of emancipation" assigned to Richmond, Johnson, Kubik
Kaplin chapter ("Gender and Jewish history") assigned to Kendal, Nystrom, Herring, Kantner
Rozenblit chapter ("Jewish assimilation in Habsburg Vienna") assigned to Gilliand, Arduino, Bertelsen,
Week IX (16-20 March): Assimilation and Community II
Readings: Frankel and Zipperstein
For Tuesday:
Kieval chapter ("The social vision of Bohemian Jews") assigned to Williams, Richmond, Kendall, Gilliand, Herring
Fienstein chapter ("Jewish emancipationists in Victorian England") assigned to Graham, Johnson, Nystrom, Arduino
Endelman chapter ("German Jews in Victorian England") assigned to Diangelis, Kubik, Kantner, Bertelsen
For Thursday:
Sibler chapter ("The entrance of Jews into Hungarian society") assigned to Kantner, Gilliand, Johnson, Kendall, Diangelis
Lederhendler chapter ("Modernity without emancipation or assimilation") assigned to Nystron, Bertelsen, Williams, Arduino
Zipperstein chapter ("Ahad Ha'am and the politics of assimilation") assigned to Graham, Kubik, Richmond, Herring
SIGN UP IN CLASS FOR HISTORIOGRAPHIC PRESENTATION TIMES!
Week X (23-27 March): Historiographic Presentations on Jewish-Gentile Relations and Antisemitism in the period 1750-1914, I.
Week XI (30 March-3 April): Historiographic Presentations on Jewish-Gentile Relations and Antisemitism in the period 1750-1914, II.
Historiographic Essay DUE at the end of this week!
Section 4: The Jews of Europe in the Twentieth Century
Week XII (6-10 April): Slezkine’s View of “The Jewish Century” I
Readings: FIRST ˝ of Slezkine book
Week XIII (13-17 April): Slezkine’s View of “The Jewish Century” II
Readings: SECOND ˝ of Slezkine book
Week XIV(20-24 April): History, Memory and the Holocaust
Readings: Kassow (entire book)
Final Paper Due at Final Exam