[Wesleyan Home Page] [Wesmaps Home Page] [Availability Statistics Search] [Course Description Search] [Dept. Search]

HIST332

American Jewry since the 1880s
HIST332 FA

Photo Caption and Credits

Fall 96 Availability (Last Updated on Thu Apr 17 05:01:13 EDT 1997 )

Section  Limit  Enrollment  Available
  01       13      0         13

What did the call to Americanize mean to Jewish immigrants? That is the theme which runs through this seminar which will emphasize the Eastern European Jews and emphasize such topics as the conditions which prompted the mass migration, the immigrants' early reactions to life in American cities, Jewish workers and trade unions, Jews in the Socialist and Communist parties, relations between the new immigrants and Jews already established here, the reconstruction of Judaism, the history of anti-Semitism, Jews in the motion-picture industry and sports, Jewish responses to Nazism, the rise of Zionism, social mobility, relations between American Jews and Israelis, and post-1967 Jewish politics.

MAJOR READINGS

(subject to change)
Mary Antin, THE PROMISED LAND (1912)
Irving Howe, THE WORLD OF OUR FATHERS (1976)
Mordecai M. Kaplan, JUDAISM AS A CIVILIZATION: TOWARD A
RECONSTRUCTION OF AMERICAN-JEWISH LIFE (1934)
Henry Feingold, A TIME FOR SEARCHING: ENTERING THE
MAINSTREAM, 1920-1945 (1992)
Michael Rogin, BLACKFACE, WHITE NOISE: AMERICAN JEWS IN THE
HOLLYWOOD MELTING POT (1996)
Aaron Berman, NAZISM, THE JEWS AND AMERICAN ZIONISM,
1933-1948 (1990)
Hillel Levine and Lawrence Harman, THE DEATH OF AN AMERICAN
JEWISH COMMUNITY (1992)
Plus a large collection of primary documents and articles.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Four five-page essays

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Admission by interview. Students with knowledge of 20th century European or U.S. history or Judaism. I would hope to have not only Jewish students but others as well. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: SBS HIST

Prerequisites: None

Section 01
Schatz, R
Times: .T..... 7:00PM;
Grading Mode: A/F
Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 1, Jr: 1, So: 2, Fr: 0
Major Preference Given

Last Updated on MAR-10-1997



About the Photo:

A Jewish scribe at his painstaking work in New York's East Side.

Reference:

Rogers, Alisdair. PEOPLES AND CULTURES, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992



Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions.

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459