JHI 1400: Modern Jewish History

Abstract

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.