Course Descriptions
Required Courses
Central European Jewish History
I - The Medieval Period and Renaissance:
Beginning with the earliest Jewish settlement in Central Europe
in the tenth century and ending on the eve of Emancipation, this
course will examine the wide range of Jewish experience in Europe.
Areas studied will include the earliest accounts of itinerant merchant
Jews; the establishment of Jewish communities in urban centers;
the rise of Church-sponsored anti-Semitism and its effects on the
Jewish community; the complex relationship of Jews to Medieval kings;
the economic lives of Jews; the internal religious developments
from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance; and the rise of Sabbatianism
in the 17th century and Hasidism in the 18th
century as populist movements that broke with rabbinic authority.
The course will describe Central European Jewish life in general,
using Prague as a case study. Prague presents itself as a unique
laboratory to explore Jewish history of the Middle Ages, as it has
maintained several synagogues and a cemetery in the former Jewish
Quarter. Special attention will be given to the legendary Golden
Age of Prague Jewish history in the late 16th and early
17th century, during which the legendary Rabbi Judah
Loew and the famed financier Mordechai Maisel led the community.
Classroom discussions will be expanded in trips around the Josefov
district and indeed in other parts of Prague that contain pieces
of the city’s Jewish past.
Central European Jewish History
II - The Modern Period:
Starting with th Emancipation period of the 1780s, this course
will examine the diverse Jewish responses to modernity, both within
European society and within the Jewish world. It will explore the
background behind Emancipation from the perspective of Hapsburg
efforts at modernization. The course will examine the European
debate over Emancipation hand-in-hand with the internal Jewish debate,
as the same laws that broke down segregation and persecution also
marked the breakdown of the Jewish community as a cohesive unit
of identification. The course will then analyze Jewish life inside
a rapidly modernizing European society: the intense gusto for assimilation,
marked by Jewish involvement in almost all areas of European political,
economic, scientific and cultural life, and the resulting decline
of Judaism as a defining identity as Jews entered mainstream society.
The course will explore the various Jewish movements that arose
in the 19th-century in response to Emancipation, including
the religious Reform movement, Bundism and Zionism. The course will
then study the rise of modern anti-Semitism from its earliest forms
as a backlash against Emancipation and, later, as a product of nationalist
movements gaining ascendancy throughout Europe. It will end with
an analysis of the success and limits of Jewish integration into
European society by the end of the 1930s.
Elective Courses
The City as a Work of Art:
At the turn of the twentieth century, Prague city authorities
implemented a massive urban renewal project in the Jewish quarter
of Josefov to eradicate fire and health risks in what had become
a modern slum. The ghetto clearance razed most of the twisting,
angled streets of the neighborhood, and irrevocably altered the
appearance and feel of the streets. Luckily, ancient cemeteries
as well as a wealth of synagogues dating from the 13th to 19th centuries
were spared. In this course, we will experience the city itself,
examining the unique artistic and social significance of these extant
landmarks. Through a series of walking tours and personal explorations,
we will discover how the streets, municipalities and synagogues
of the Jewish quarter reveal much about how Jews lived, worked and
prayed throughout history. Although the existence of these segregated
enclaves owed much to anti-Semitic persecution, they gave Jews the
security to develop a unique religious and social culture in a semi-sovereign
zone. In the design of their buildings and public spaces, Jewish
communities adapted popular architectural motifs of the Christian
world but catered them to specific Jewish needs and sensibilities.
We will study documentary photographs and models of Prague’s Jewish
quarter prior to the slum clearance to gain a better idea of what
life was like in an overcrowded, segregated quarter. In addition,
we will compare and contrast Jewish life Bohemia, Moravia and Poland
by exploring additional Jewish neighborhoods in field trips to such
cities as Mikulov, Krakow and Warsaw.
Franz Kafka - Jewish Writer:
This course will elucidate a paradox of Franz Kafka’s life: Whereas
there is only a single overt reference to Jewish life in his novels
and stories, his diaries are replete with intense explorations of
his Jewish roots and identity. The course will examine Kafka as
the product of an assimilating and modernizing community that saw
religious tradition as a detriment to integration into the larger
society. Kafka’s relation to Judaism was intrinsically bound in
his difficult relations with his father, whom he viewed as the embodiment
of a Jewish generation that had lost touch with its roots. In his
effort to connect to spiritual truth and to community, Kafka looked
to Eastern European Jews as the source of what he considered a pure
form of spirituality and community. Particularly at the beginning
of the 20th century, Czech Jewry was considered thoroughly
Western, and indeed many Czech Jews resented Jewish refugees from
further East as a reminder of traditions they had sought to escape.
Kafka was different. Russian Jewish refugees who were housed in
Prague’s Jewish Town Hall on the eve of the First World War fascinated
him, and he fully embraced the world of the Yiddish theater when
a troupe from Eastern Europe arrived in Prague. Towards the end
of his life, Kafka even sought marriage with the daughter of a Hasid.
The class will examine Kafka’s relation to Judaism in the context
of his life as a young intellectual in fin de siecle Prague. It
will explore key passages from his diaries, his Letter to His Father,
and several stories (e.g., Report to an Academy, Josephine the Mouse
Singer) that reveal both Kafka’s ambivalence and his intense yearning
for Jewish roots. It will also explore the evolving views of Kafka
as a Jewish writer since his death in 1924.
Holocaust - Reflections Over a Half-Century:
Almost sixty years after the greatest catastrophe in modern
Jewish history, the questions of how the world’s most civilized
continent could engage in genocide continue to perplex philosophers.
Home to a dwindling population of Holocaust survivors, Prague presents
a unique environment to examine these questions. In many ways,
Central and Eastern European reflections on the Holocaust are unique
from those of Western Europe, Israel and America. Central and Eastern
Europe fell under the yoke of new totalitarian regimes soon after
Nazism was vanquished. As such, individuals and nations did not
have the full opportunity to reckon with their pasts. Indeed, Communist
regimes downplayed or eliminated the specifically Jewish nature
of the Holocaust, portraying it instead as a struggle of Fascism
against the proletariat. Only after 1989 were these countries able
to openly explore the horrors they had engaged in. The decades-long
suppression of memory has affected the way many Central and Eastern
Europeans encounter the Holocaust. The process of discovery, acceptance
of responsibility and of recognizing the lessons of the Holocaust
continues to this day. This course will examine the actual apparatus
of the Holocaust by visiting specific ghettoes, concentration camps
and death camps. It will include a wide range of learning materials,
including short stories, essays, and video testimonies from survivors
in the region. Through visits to several Holocaust memorials throughout
the region, the course will explore the evolving manner in which
Central Europeans are coming to grips with the horrors of the last
century. In addition, the course will explore the extent to which
the lessons of the Holocaust have been applied to more recent events
in the region, including the war in the former Yugoslavia and the
struggle for equal rights among Romanies. The course will also
examine the Holocaust from an internal Jewish perspective, exploring
the ramifications of the Holocaust on contemporary Jewish theology,
culture and thought.
Golem - Interpretations and Reinterpretations:
The automaton known as the Golem is the most indelible figure of
Prague Jewish imagination. The image of the 16th-century
Rabbi Judah Loew creating a man out of soil has been a source of
inspiration to writers, filmmakers and artists throughout the world.
Often thought of as a uniquely Bohemian invention, the legend of
the Golem actually stretches back to Talmudic times. Jewish mystics
once used the creation of Golems to display their mystical powers.
In some cases, the mystic wished to borrow the power of God; in
other cases, he used the Golem to demonstrate the power of
God. Only in the Prague story does the Golem take on the life of
a superhuman creature created to protect the Jews. This course
will explore the spiritual, cultural and social significance of
the Golem throughout Jewish history. It will pay special attention
to the story of the Prague Golem, as well as the evolution of that
story in Jewish and popular culture. The course will explore the
fertile creative period of 16th century Prague under
the reign of Rudolf II, which inspired countless tales of “Magical
Prague and indeed gave the city a lasting mythological appeal.
Sifting through legend and fact, we will determine the extent of
Rudolf II’s influence on Jewish community life during the period
known as the Golden Age of Prague Jewish history. The course will
chart the rise of the Prague Golem story centuries later, and will
explore the circumstances in the early 19th century that
might have inspired Jewish storytellers to imagine a superhero that
protected Jews. We will read and watch modern permutations of the
Golem in a variety of media, from Paul Wegener’s classic German
expressionist film The Golem, through Holocaust stories of the Golem,
through modern permutations from authors including Cynthia Ozick
and Michael Chabon.
Post World War II Jewish Literature From
Central Europe:
The Iron Curtain that separated Central and East Europeans from
their counterparts in West Europe inspired unique literary concerns
among writers living under Communism. Jewish intellectuals who
came of age in the post-war period often dealt not only with the
horrors of the Holocaust, but also with life in the modern police
state. In the years following the war, many if not most Jewish
intellectuals embraced Communism, as the Soviets had liberated many
concentration camps. In addition, Communism promised a utopian
world order in which Jews would not be persecuted on the basis of
their religion. By the early 1960s, when it became clear that Communist
regimes engaged in virulent anti-Semitism, many Jewish writers began
to write from a dissident perspective. Questions of individual
freedom and the imperatives of dissent appear frequently in Jewish
writing in this period. With some exceptions, however, Jewish writers
did not pursue overtly Jewish themes. This can be contrasted, for
instance, with American Jewish writers of the 1960s and 70s, who
examined Jewish life from a wide range of perspectives. Although
some would argue that this was due to pressure from an often anti-Semitic
Communist state, the relative disinterest in Jewish themes was partly
due to the wide-scale assimilation among those who chose to remain
in Central and Eastern Europe following the war. Indeed, Jewish
society had become so shattered and fragmented in many parts of
the region that many Jewish writers simply lacked a base of Jewish
knowledge and experience from which to draw. Specifically Jewish-themed
literature was often based not on present experience but on the
past: on the horrors of the Holocaust or on nostalgia for the past.
Nonetheless, Jews contributed enormously to post-war literature
throughout the region. Instead of concentrating on uniquely Jewish
concerns, Jewish writers generally lent their voices to matters
of universal conscience and the individual struggle for freedom.
By studying a wide range of Jewish writing in the post-war period,
we will explore the involvement of Jewish intellectuals in European
society, as well as the contours and limitations of Jewish experience
in Central Europe today.
A Central European Journal - Experiences,
Thoughts, and Feelings:
The goal of this course is to engage the students’ Central European
experience through a wide range of cultural and social activities,
readings and lectures on a variety of topics and issues. At the
beginning of the course, students will be given a schedule of events,
readings and lectures to guide them in their discovery process.
Various instructors, guest lecturers and artists will lead field
trips inside and outside of Prague. Students, in concert with their
fellow students and the course instructor, will create a subject
journal to describe, analyze, and critique their experiences as
preparation for a final paper. By keeping responses to lectures,
various cultural and social events, background readings, students
are engaged actively in searching for the main ideas contained in
them. The 10 - 12 page final paper will express the student’s ideas
about three related topics as informed by class lectures, readings,
field trips, and personal experience. Students will be expected
to demonstrate both a clear understanding of the concepts and information
presented in the readings, lectures and discussions on each topic.
Students may choose to explore a particular period of Jewish history,
to explore the contemporary Jewish community, or to explore issues
relating to their own identity as a Jew or Gentile experiencing
Jewish life in Central Europe.
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