Stern College Syllabi -- Spring and Fall 2021-2022 courses --- JHIS (Jewish History)

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ARTS1975H/JPHI4933H/JHIS4934: Jewish Illuminated Manuscripts: Torah as Art in Medieval Ashkenaz
(2021-01) Koenigsberg, Sima
Jewish illuminated manuscripts are among the treasured artifacts that have survived the trials of Jewish history and whose imagery provides a window into the Torah worldview of the Jews that commissioned them hundreds of years ago. The Leipzig Mahzor, produced in Worms, Germany in the 14th century, is a collection of piyyutim for holidays whose vibrant imagery reflect the teachings of the community’s famed rabbi, R. Eleazar of Worms, the preeminent student of R. Judah the Pious, who led the Hasidei Ashkenaz movement. This course will trace the origins and structure of the Jewish communities of the German Rhineland and will provide an overview of their unique teachings and customs related to prayer, repentance, biblical exegesis, and piety. Primary text readings will be complemented with visual studies of the imagery found in the Leipzig Mahzor which was used by the community of Worms on holidays in the synagogue. Images from other contemporaneous Jewish illuminated manuscripts will also be considered. The course will also address the process of writing and illuminating Jewish manuscripts, art and Jewish-Christian relations, and issues related to art and Halakhah.
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HIST 2303: History of Palestine, 1917-1948
(Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Kosak, Hadassa
The course will examine the history of modern Jewish settlement in Palestine under the Ottoman rule and the British Mandate, up to the establishment of the state in 1948. We will begin with a discussion of Zionism, its rise in the second half of the 19th century, in an era of secular nationalist movements, and an era marked by imperialism, colonialism, and the attendant theories of race. The growing popularity of Zionism resulted in the in Jewish settlement (Yishuv) in Palestine, where it encountered Palestinian Arabs and the British authorities. The material covered will reflect the history of British colonial politics, the social, economic, and ideological factors that shaped the emergence of the institutions of the Yishuv and of the Palestinians, and the political and national aspirations of the two communities. ¶COURSE OBJECTIVES: To introduce students to the specific ways historians, gather and interpret source material and how they construct a narrative from this material • The inclusion in the syllabus of numerous primary documents will introduce students to their own experience in practicing the skill of critical reading and their own interpretation of the past • The project of the final paper for the course will reflect students’ ability to assess digitized journalistic materials by asking relevant questions who wrote them and why, and to construct their own understanding of the past
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HIST 2304 - B Modern Israel / JHIS 1511 - B Modern Israel
(2021-01) Kosak, Hadassa
COURSE DESCRIPTION: While the course will address the topic of Israel and the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict, our discussions will include topics of social, cultural, and political history of Israel since 1948 to the present. Starting with the nation building enterprise such as challenges of absorption and modernization of the state and society, we will also survey the rise of Palestinian national movement; the role of ethnicity in Israeli politics; global political developments as a factor in the changing Israeli economy and politics; the social and cultural divisions in Israel; and, finally, challenges facing Israel in the twenty-first century.
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JHIS 1001 - J Survey Jewish History
(2021-01) Orenbuch, Cali
Course Objectives: Gain broad based knowledge of Jewish History from the Persian period, the Hellenistic Era, the 2nd Commonwealth (בית שני ), the period of the Mishna and Gemara ___ Political, social, economic, and cultural currents in the history of the Jews from the Second Commonwealth through modern times. First semester: Second Commonwealth, late Roman period, and Jewry in the orbit of Islam; second semester: the Jews in medieval Christendom; the development of modern Jewish history. 1.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours
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JHIS 1150 - M History of Jerusalem
(2021-09) Katz, Jill C.
Course Description This course surveys the religious, political, and cultural history of Jerusalem over three millennia. The course content will focus on the transformation of sacred space as reflected by literary and archaeological evidence by examining the testimony of artifacts, architecture, and iconography in relation to the written word.
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JHIS 1150 - M History of Jerusalem
(2021-01) Katz, Jill C.
Course Description This course surveys the religious, political, and cultural history of Jerusalem over three millennia. The course content will focus on the transformation of sacred space as reflected by literary and archaeological evidence by examining the testimony of artifacts, architecture, and iconography in relation to the written word.
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JHIS 1201 - L Classical Jewish History
(2021-09) Hidary, Richard J.
This course will survey the history of the Jews during the Diaspora, Second Temple and Rabbinic periods (600BCE-600CE). This period is witness to the development of many aspects of Judaism as we know it today, such as, the holidays of Purim and Hanukkah, the fast days, the canonization of Tanakh, the publication of the Mishnah and Talmud, and the rise of the Rabbis. But this period is also interesting for the variety of forms of Judaism and groups of Jews that did not gain hegemony: Samaritans, Hellenists, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and the Dead Sea sect, among others. Each of these groups had to respond to and a find a way to survive two destructions and exiles, many wars and revolts, strong influences from foreign cultures, and internal strife while at the same time remaining committed to monotheism and the Biblical tradition. Not all of these groups were successful; we will try to figure out why. The relevance of this material for understanding our own identities and for evaluating the current state of Judaism and its future prospects will become obvious. In addition to these themes and questions, class discussion will focus on historical analysis and critical evaluation of primary sources. We will learn to think and write like historians. By identifying all relevant literary and archaeological sources, recognizing the interpretive difficulties presented by these sources, and evaluating the methodological issues confronting the modern historian, we will be able to formulate not only what we know, but also how we know it, how sure we are of it, and what gaps are there in the historical record. As with everything in life, you’ll only get as much from this course as you put into it, so let’s dig in!
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JHIS 1235 - K Dead Sea Scrolls
(2021-01) Hidary, Richard J.
Welcome to the exciting world of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This archaeological treasure has given us a window into the critical junction between the Bible and the Mishnah. Some of these texts may seem strange and surprising but hopefully you will also find them fascinating and relevant to your own understanding of Judaism and Second Temple politics and polemics.
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JHIS 1301: Medieval Jewish History
(Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-01) Levin, Chaviva
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Studying Jewish history provides students with an awareness of the different events that have befallen the Jewish people within the Land of Israel and in the countries of their sojourns in the Diaspora. Jewish history courses focus not only on events but also on intellectual history, major figures in the history of transmission of the Torah, and the development of halakhah and of customs. At times, the intellectual history is deeply connected to its historical context, such as customs that developed as a reaction to the Crusades, or the effect the advent of printing had on the study of Torah. Studying Jewish history therefore not only provides added background and meaning to customs and texts our students are familiar with but also provides the context they might be missing. Students also benefit from the context the study of Jewish history provides for other areas of Jewish studies, such as parshanut, with an added appreciation of when important commentators lived and what they might have been influenced by or reacting to in their time and in their writing.¶ Muslim and Christian cultures; and the attitudes Jews adopted toward those cultures. We will focus on considering the ways in which members of majority and minority cultures in a society interact and how they affect one another. Class discussions are an important component of this course.¶ COURSE OBJECTIVES: In this course you will become knowledgeable about the range of Jewish experiences in the Middle Ages. You will also learn how historians try to make sense of the past. This course will emphasize the processes by which historians try to understand the past. We will therefore focus significantly on primary sources, both visual and textual, produced by those whom we are trying to understand. You will learn how historians approach primary texts, consider what kinds of questions can be asked of texts, and explore how historians use evidence to construct a historical narrative. In other words, you will begin to think like a historian about the medieval Jewish experience. Through the course’s written assignments you will gain proficiency in expressing yourself clearly and effectively in writing while you explore at first hand some of the issues confronted by historians.
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JHIS 1321 - F Jews In Christendom
(2021-01) Levin, Chaviva
In this course we will explore the experiences of Jews in the Middle Ages in the orbits of Christianity. We will examine Jewish cultural and intellectual developments in the contexts in which they occur as well as study Jewish modes of self government; the legal, social and economic roles played by Jews in medieval Christian cultures; and the attitudes Jews adopted toward those cultures. We will focus on considering the ways in which members of majority and minority cultures in a society interact and how they affect one another. This course aims to explore positive as well as negative encounters between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages and to consider the changing position of Jews in Christian society along with Jewish responses to those changes. Class discussions are an important component of this course.
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JHIS 1327H - NPG The Tosafists
(2021-09) Kanarfogel, Ephraim
The literary and juridical creativity of Ashkenazic scholarship in the 12th and 13th centuries. 2.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours
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JHIS 1329H: Topics in the History of Halakhah
(Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Kanarfogel, Ephraim
This course will analyze several variegated topics related to מסכת עבודה זרה , using a wide range of texts of the rishonim. Through careful consideration of the historical and conceptual underpinnings of these works and the intellectual milieu of their authors, significant interpretative methods and patterns will be identified and developed. Critical secondary studies and other relevant academic publications will be assigned in order to anchor and enhance the ongoing analysis of the primary sources (which will be distributed in courses packets).
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JHIS 1335 - K The Jews of Medieval Spain
(2021-09) Perelis, Ronnie
This course will investigate the cultural history of the Jews of Spain (the Sephardim), from the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 until the expulsion of 1492. Medieval Spain, with its vibrant Muslim and Jewish populations, was one of the most complex and culturally rich European societies of its time. It served as a bridge for intellectual, artistic and scientific imports from the east to the European north. Its experiment with convivencia –“the living together” of three different religions within the same society – was unheard of in pre-modern Europe. With convivencia as our lens, we will examine the possibilities and limitations of multi-cultural tolerance by studying the socio-political and cultural trajectory of the Sephardim and their Christian and Muslim neighbors. The course will explore the rich intellectual and artistic heritage of the Sephardim. We will read a wide range of Sephardic writing: the poets of the Andalusian Golden age, the neo-Aristotelian philosophers and scientists, travel diaries, converso dramatists and the music of the Aljamas as preserved in Ladino ballads.
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JHIS 1344: Jewish Exegetical Polemics
(Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Grunhaus, Naomi
¶This course explores the strategies Jews employed in response to Christian interpretations of Tanakh. The course traces the conflict between the two religions from its beginnings until modern times, concentrating specifically on approaches to biblical interpretation. ¶Some of the questions to be answered are: Why does/did Tanakh interest Christians? In what fundamental ways do the assumptions of Jewish and Christian interpreters of Tanakh differ? Why do/did Christians usually care more about Jewish interpretation of Tanakh than Jews care/d about Christian interpretation of Tanakh? How did Jews respond to Christian interpretations? What changes took place in Jewish-Christian arguments over the centuries? ¶Students will deepen their own approaches to Tanakh, while at the same time they will develop a sophisticated understanding of the use of perushim and other media to respond to alternative interpretations. Students are encouraged to consider the PRIMARY TEXTS before class, which will enhance their understanding of the material and facilitate classroom discussions. At all times, we will attempt to keep the discourse open, critical, and respectful. All articles on the syllabus and translations of many course materials are available through the library’s electronic reserve system. No prior knowledge of the subject matter is assumed. If you do not use your ymail address, please forward your Canvas mail to an e-mail address that you check regularly. ¶N.B. This course is similar to (but not exactly the same as) the course previously taught as BIBL1165. Materials labelled with that course number may be used interchangeably for this course.
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JHIS 1401 - N Modern Jewish History
(2021-01) Olson, Jess J.
Modern Jewish history – what is it? When does it begin? Why is it important? While for other eras of Jewish history, these questions seem self-explanatory, in the case of the modern period they have sparked no small amount of debate. In this course, we will begin to unpack these questions. As we do, we will learn to appreciate the unique facets of the Jewish experience in recent centuries leading up to our own. We will strive to understand together the various ways in which Jews have understood themselves and been understood by the populations among whom they dwelt. We will explore how Jews in different parts of the modern world reflected their own identity and their relationship with others through culture, politics and religious expression. Perhaps most importantly, together we will gain insight into the large arc and many of the unique details of the modern Jewish experience. __ The basic format of this course is interactive lecturing. While I will use our class time together to introduce and explore the topics under our investigation, I will also expect you to be involved and engaged fellow explorers in the ideas we study. Your participation in the form of questions and observations in class are not just welcomed, but encouraged (even expected!). This course is YOUR course – your chance to not only engage in those areas of modern Jewish history that I, as your instructor, provide as a framework for our progress, but also bring in your own and add to the texture of our work together.
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JHIS 1401 Modern Jewish HIstory
(2021-09) Karlip, Joshua
Course Description: This course is a survey of the history of the Jews and Judaism in the modern age, from 1650 to the present. The course will examine the very different ways in which Jews reacted to modernity in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, the Ottoman Empire, America, and Israel. ___ Course Goals and Objectives: After the completion of this course, students will have an understanding of the major events and movements of Jewish history in the modern era. These events and movements include: the definition of Jewish modernity and its differing features in different regions; the various religious movements that arose in nineteenth-century Central Europe; the cultural and social ferment in nineteenth-century Russia that led to the rise and spread of Zionism, Diaspora Nationalism, and socialism; the unique political and cultural positions of the Jews of the Habsburg Empire; the contrasting fate of Jews in the Soviet Union and the Polish Republic during the interwar era; the place of the Holocaust within the larger context of modern Jewish history; the interconnected but very different two major post-war Jewish communities of the United States and Israel. Through the written assignments, students will gain the skills to analyze both primary and secondary sources from an historical perspective.
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JHIS 1401: Modern Jewish History
(Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-09) Olson, Jess
¶Modern Jewish history – what is it? When does it begin? Why is it important? While for other eras of Jewish history, these questions seem self-explanatory, in the case of the modern period they have sparked no small amount of debate. In this course, we will begin to unpack these questions. As we do, we will learn to appreciate the unique facets of the Jewish experience in recent centuries leading up to our own. We will strive to understand together the various ways in which Jews have understood themselves and been understood by the populations among whom they dwelt. We will explore how Jews in different parts of the modern world reflected their own identity and their relationship with others through culture, politics and religious expression. Perhaps most importantly, together we will gain insight into the large arc and many of the unique details of the modern Jewish experience. ¶The basic format of this course is interactive lecturing. While I will use our class time together to introduce and explore the topics under our investigation, I will also expect you to be involved and engaged fellow explorers in the ideas we study. Your participation in the form of questions and observations in class are not just welcomed but encouraged (even expected!). This course is YOUR course – your chance to not only engage in those areas of modern Jewish history that I, as your instructor, provide as a framework for our progress, but also bring in your own and add to the texture of our work together.
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JHIS 1402: Modern Jewish History
(Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, 2022-01) Karlip, Joshua
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is a survey of the history of the Jews and Judaism in the modern age, from 1650 to the present. The course will examine the very different ways in which Jews reacted to modernity in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, the Ottoman Empire, America, and Israel.¶ COURSE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: After the completion of this course, students will have an understanding of the major events and movements that shaped Jewish history in the twentieth century. These events and movements include: World War One, the Russian Revolution and the pogroms of the Russian Civil War; the very different paths of Soviet and Polish Jewries during the interwar years; the Jews of Palestine under the British Mandate; the rise and spread of Nazism; the Holocaust; the rise of the State of Israel and the new state’s political, social, and cultural history; Stalinist repression of Soviet Jewry; trends in the post-war American Jewish community; the Six Day War and its aftermath, the polarization of American Jewry in the latter decades of the twentieth century. Through the written assignments, students will gain the skills to analyze both primary and secondary sources from an historical perspective.
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JHIS 1415 - E History of Zionism
(2021-01) Paldiel, Mordecai
Rise and development of modern Jewish nationalism against the backdrop of contemporary Western civilization and the scope of Jewish history; writings of major Zionist ideologues; role of Zionism within the major Diaspora communities; impact of the rise of the Jewish state movement on the world political and diplomatic scene. 1.000 TO 5.000 Credit hours Course Objective: The history of modern Zionist thought; political efforts to obtain recognition of Eretz Israel (Palestine) as the Jewish National Home; the British Mandate and culminating in Israel’s War of Independence.
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JHIS 1452 - M History of Polish Jewry
(2021-01) Karlip, Joshua
Course Overview: In this course, we will examine the history of East European Jewry from its communal origins in the thirteenth century through 1945. Special emphasis will be placed upon religious, intellectual, cultural, political, and social movements that impacted the Jewish modern experience, even beyond Eastern Europe itself. This course will thus examine large themes of East European Jewry and their discussions by historians. Another aim of the course is to familiarize the students with primary sources from the East European Jewish experience. ___ Topics covered in the class will include: the Golden Age of Polish Jewry, the Chmielnicki Massacres, the rise of Hasidism and Lithuanian Mitnagdism; the Russian Haskalah and its relationship to Tsarist policies toward the Jews; the Mussar Movement and the rise of the Lithuanian yeshivot; the rise of Yiddish and Hebrew literature; the lives of Jewish women and families; the crisis of 1881-1882 and the birth of modern Jewish politics in the forms of Zionism, Bundism, and Diaspora Nationalism; Russian-Jewish and Polish-Jewish relations, the fate of East European Jewry during World War One, and a comparison of interwar Polish and Soviet Jewries. The course will end with a discussion of the destruction of East European Jewry in the Holocaust. ___ Course Learning Outcomes: By the completion of the course, students will be able to: 1. Have knowledge of the basic chronology of events in the East European Jewish experience and, more generally, of modern Jewish history. 2. Understand the similarities and differences between the various religious movements that arose in Eastern Europe and discuss their historical contexts. 3. Understand how the policies of the empires under which East European Jews lived impacted upon the growth of various modern Jewish ideologies. 4. Discuss how the complex interplay between Jewish tradition, governmental policies, and Jewish ideologies impacted the daily lives of Jews.