Hayim Lapin
2102Q Francis Scott Key Hall
x54296 • hlapin@umd.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 12:30–1:30
or by appointment
HIST 408B/JWST409D
The Jewish Diaspora Experience
Tues 5–7, 0142 Holzapfel Hall
This course examines aspects of the history and historiography of Judaism from the vantage point of the diaspora. While Palestine/Israel/the Holy Land plays a central role in the Jewish imagination, the both numerically and chronologically, the history of Jews has been overwhelmingly a diaspora experience. The history of the Jewish diaspora therefore is both interesting in its own right, and serves as a useful model for understanding the dynamics and problems of diasporas in the contemporary world and in the past.
Requirements:
The major requirement for this class is the successful completion of a major research paper (±20pp.; 70 pts.). There are a number of steps required along the way that will affect your grade: attendance of the library session on (5 pts.); timely submission of a topic, topic paragraph, and preliminary bibliography (10 pts.). A draft of the paper is due three weeks before the end of the class. The grade for the draft may be changed through a significant rewrite. The final draft of the paper is due on the assigned day of the final for this class.
In addition, you will be asked to present a capsule description of your paper during the last sessions of class (10 pts.)
General class participation is will count as 5 pts. of your final grade. Participation includes reading for class and participating in informed discussion. If necessary I will require weekly response papers which will each be worth 2pts. (cumulatively: aprox. 20%) of your grade and will recalculate the remainder.
Readings:
Ordered at the bookstore:
Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross
Gilman, The Jews' Body
Gitelman, Century of Ambivalence
Gruen, Diaspora: Jews among Greeks and Romans
Nirenberg, Communities of Violence
Rubenstein, Culture of the Babylonian Talmund
To be bought (omitted from the book order available new and used from Amazon, etc.):
Yerushalmi, Zakhor
1/31 |
1. Introduction to class; Biblical paradigms (handout) |
2/7 |
2. Some Theoretical Considerations G. Sheffer “Is the Jewish Diaspora Unique? Reflections on the Diaspora's Current Situation,” Israel Studies 10.1 (2005), 1–31 (Available through project Muse via ResearchPort)
|
2/14 |
Library Session with Librarian Yelena Luckert
|
2/21 |
3. Hellenistic Diaspora E. Gruen, Diaspora: Jews Among Greeks and Romans (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002).
|
2/28 |
4. Talmudic Culture: A Diaspora Identity? Rubenstein, Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). Topics, topic paragraphs, and preliminary bibliographies due
|
3/7 |
5. Middle Ages: Legacy of Antiquity? M. Cohen, Between Crescent and Cross (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1995)
|
3/12 (Sun) |
Conference: History, the Past, and the Making of Israel 2309 Art Soc.
|
3/14 |
6. Middle Ages: Cultures of Violence D. Nirenberg, Communities of Violence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
|
3/21 |
Spring Break: No Class
|
3/28 |
7. Modernity and its Discontents S. Gilman, The Jew's Body (London: Routledge, 1991).
|
4/4 |
8. Soviet Jewish Experience Z. Gitelman, Century of Ambivalence rev. ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001).
|
4/11 |
9. Zionism: A Diaspora Ideology? Hertzberg, The Zionist Idea (rpt. Philadelphia: JPS, 1997), Introduction.
|
4/18 |
10. Historians Look Back S. W. Baron, “Ghetto and Emancipation,” (1928) rpt. in Leo Schwartz, ed., The Menorah Treasury (Philadelphia: JPS, 1973), 50–63. Draft of paper due
|
4/25 |
11. American Jews D. Biale, “American Jews and Contemporary Diaspora Power,” in Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History (New York: Schocken, 1986), 177–205.
|
5/4 |
Student Presentations
|
5/11 |
Student Presentations
|