History
408C/JWST 409C
The
Construction of Jewish Knowledge
Fall
Term, 2006
TLF
2108
Tuesdays
10-12
Bernard
D. Cooperman
Taliaferro
2130
301.405.4271
cooperma@umd.edu
This
course asks two kinds of questions. The first, and most important in terms of
your research deals with what Jews mean when they say that they ÒknowÓ
something. What may appear a simple and straightforward statement is, in
fact, a very complex claim that is based on intertwined epistemological,
historical, and sociological assumptions and multiple constructions of meaning.
We
will be looking into several aspects of this question. Here are a few examples:
a)
The term ÒknowledgeÓ is a claim to authority, to legitimacy, to the right to
decide between truth and non-truth. This course asks: who has this right in the
Jewish world? how do they get that right? and how can they use it?
b)
To say something is ÒknowledgeÓ is inherently to imply that there are other
things that are not
knowledge. What are they? Error? Sin? ÒMereÓ opinion? Or might they be
something else, simply something not worth knowing? This course will ask what
are the criteria by which something is defined as knowledge in the Jewish
tradition. Are these criteria different for Jewish thinkers than they are for
others?
c)
What makes something specifically ÒJewishÓ knowledge: the language in which it
is expressed? its relation to sacred text(s)? the ethnic origin of the author?
the level of his/her religious practice? Must Jewish knowledge adhere to
universal categories of proof, or does Jewish (and for that matter, any other
specific cultural realm of knowledge) create its own categories of truth, of
relevance, and of association within which it literally Òmakes senseÓ?
d)
Who is the Jewish intellectual (sage; teacher)? What is his/her source of
authority, and what is the extent of that authority? Who is allowed to call
him/herself a sage and how does Jewish society agree on who are its sages?
In
class sessions, we will analyze some of the core issues involved in the Jewish
claim to knowledge. We will be looking for both the content of the claim
and how that content changed over time. Students are expected to read
extensively in both primary and secondary materials, and will be called upon to
summarize and critique these texts in class.
The
course also asks a broader, and paradoxically more personal, set of
pedagogical/epistemological questions related, but not identical, to what was
mentioned above. We are interested in what people in general, and you in
particular, mean when you say you ÒknowÓ something. We all hope that physicians
and auto mechanics, not to mention airplane pilots and taxi drivers, really
ÒknowÓ their fields. The proof that they do so is proudly displayed in their
places of work by degrees, licenses, or special uniforms. But do you feel that you
really know the subjects you have studied in high school or university? What do
you think you ÒknowÓ? What do you have to do to ÒknowÓ something? Is preparing
for an examination the same as really knowing something? (If you only get a
ÒDÓ—do you know the subject? How long did it take you to forget what you
ÒknewÓ in your freshman math course? Now that youÕve forgotten it, can you say
you ÒknowÓ it?
Knowledge
involves organization. On a basic level, we use elaborate ÒfilingÓ
systems of one sort or another to keep track of what we know and to make sure
we can find it again. We can use an alphabetical system (as in a dictionary or
encyclopedia), a set of numbers and letters arbitrarily assigned to subjects
(as in a library), or other visual signs like colors or icons (as in sports
teams). But any organizational format is these days quickly overwhelmed by the
sheer quantity of available data. You may feel that computers have solved that
problem: cheap memory has made it possible to store everything in multiple and
redundant copies, and powerful search engines will recover information quickly.
What is true on an individual level would appear to be potentially true for all
human knowledge: through the web we have been able to give up on organizing,
alphabetizing, and filing. A search engine will find the information wherever
it is, wonÕt it? Perhaps not, if what we are looking for is on the 10,000th
page out of the 3,000,001 that Google found.
Organization
is crucial not only for storing and retrieval; it is also central to the
presentation of facts, to the discovery of relationships between facts—in
other words to the creation of knowledge out of isolated data. What is
knowledge—a list of all students at the university by name and birthday,
or a summary paragraph that tells you how many men, how many women, how many
18-year-olds, 19-year-olds, 20-year olds, etc. there are? Moreover, we often
discover ÒnewÓ knowledge by changing the organization format. (For example, if
we stop looking at Jewish women as a sub-category of all Jews and begin to look
at them as a sub-category of all women, generalizations about their relative
rights and social role might change.) To get back to our infinite unstructured
storage of information on the world-wide web, finding hits has in no way solved
our real problem: creating meaning. How do we evaluate the hits for
reliability? How do we prioritize them? According to what categories do we
decide which are significant? And for that matter, what criteria did the search
engine use to present the hits in the order that it did? Is it possible that
the search engine itself has biased criteria?
Finally,
knowledge is socially defined and conditioned. Something you know will be of
significance in one context and totally irrelevant in another. Authority varies
from context to context. (For instance, a rabbi might be expected to tell his
congregation that the world was created in six days less than 6000 years ago,
citing Genesis 1 as his source. But if he made the same statement at a
convention of physicists, neither his title nor his source would be considered
significant.) It is very important to remember that scholarship itself is
socially organized: that political scientists and historians will ask different
questions about the same phenomenon; that medical doctors and sociologists
understand events differently. What are the social conditions that determine your
knowledge? Do you know the same things with your parents as you do with your
friends? Has your major affected the way your understand things? In general,
how do specifics of language, time, and geography change the meaning of your
words, the valence of your ideas, your paradigms of significance.
While
the bulk of your work for this course will focus on the history of Jewish
knowledge, you should never forget these broader issues. A number of exercises
will ask you to explore contemporary definitions of knowledge and to explain
how these may differ from understandings that were common in times past. You
are expected to complete four of these assignments over the course of the
semester.
In
addition to preparing for the weekly discussion and the four short assignments,
students are required to write a longer research paper (approximately
15–20 pages including bibliography and footnotes) exploring a theme
linked to the class topic. Topics must be chosen in consultation with the
instructor. Formatting must follow an accepted set of academic standards. (I
prefer Chicago Style Manual but will accept the MLA style guidelines if you
insist.) Please meet with me early in the semester to begin picking your
paper topic.
Your
grade for the course will be calculated as follows:
Weekly
preparations: 20%
Three
short assignments: 30%
Research
paper: 50%
Even though readings for the class will be available in English,
students are expected to read texts in the original Hebrew if they are able to
do so. If students feel they would like a tutorial to help them with rabbinic
and medieval Hebrew, I will be happy to arrange an extra weekly session devoted
to that.
Short
Assignments
The
first exercise is required. Choose three others, but you may not submit two
topics from the same category. All work must be typed and follow standard style
manual rules for text, foot/endnotes and bibliography.) More options for
exercises will be added later in the semester, so check back often if you donÕt
like these.
I.
Bibliographical Exercise:
(1)
Using RAMBI,
electronic data-bases (both full text and other), and library catalogues at
McKeldin, Library of Congress, and at least one other university library
develop a research bibliography for a topic of relevance to this course. (You
might try to pick something about which you think you would like to write your
research paper.) Preface your bibliography with a statement of one paragraph
explaining your topic and the methodology you expect to use. Your bibliography
must include at least ten different items, including both primary and secondary
sources, books and journal articles (including one not available
electronically), and at least one item that you will have to order through
Inter-Library Loan. For each item, describe briefly why your have included it
and what you expect to find. At the end of your list, explain in one or two
paragraphs how you understand the arrangement of books on your topic in
McKeldin (why are they located where they are?) and what subject headings are
assigned to them in bibliographies and library catalogues. How are subject
categories developed, and are they useful?
II.
Encyclopedia Article
(2)
What is an
encyclopedia? Pick a topic related to the theme of Jewish biblical exegesis
generally or to one of the exegetes we will read in this course (see especially
the material assigned for October 3). Find an entry on this item in at least
three encyclopedias (the Jewish Encyclopedia is online) and then compose your
own entry. It should be between 300 and 600 words. Submit the entry to
Wikipedia. Students are encouraged to discuss their topic with me before
starting. Due in class October 24.
III.
Traditional Thinking. Study a
traditional text be-havruta
(with a partner) and answer the question. Your answer should be approximately
two pages (600 words).
(3)
What is the
relationship between Mishna, Tosefta, Talmud and commentaries? What did the
authors think they were doing in composing these texts? For whom did they
write? What presuppositions can we discover beneath the texts? [Specific texts
and questions to be announced.]
(4)
How does halakhic
ritual organize the natural world? Use a single topic of Jewish ritual law to
investigate the differences between how halakha categorizes the natural world,
and how we might do so in our every-day (or our scientific) descriptions of the
world. Suggested topics include the following. To pick something else, please
consult with me. The bibliography after each suggested topic is offered by way
of suggestion because I know these books are in McKeldin. You are free to pick
other sources.
a)
The Laws of Milk and Meat. A good starting point might be the idea of bitul
be-shishim or Ònullification in
a ratio of one to sixty.Ó When and why does something normally forbidden become
halakhically irrelevant?
Yehoshua
(Jeffrey) Cohen, The Laws of Meat and Milk. New York: Judaica Press, 1991. [=Annotated
translation of Abraham Danzig, Hokhmat Adam (1812), Chapters 40–50].
Binyomin
Forst, The Laws of Kashrus. Brooklyn,
NY: 1993.
b)
The Laws of Blessings. A good starting point might be the blessings for
bread and bread products. What makes something bread? What takes bread out of
this category?
Yisroel
Pinchos Bodner, Halachos of Brochos. Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1996.
c)
The Laws of Eating Legumes on Passover.
Sh.
D. Eider, Halachos of Pesach.
Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1998. Section IVa, pp. 49–51.
Alfred
S. Cohen. ÒKitniyot in Halachic Literature, Past and Present,Ó in Journal of
Halacha and Contemporary Society
6 (1983), pp. 65–77. KitniyotInHalachicLiterature.pdf
d)
Laws Governing Sexual Activity.
B.
Freundel. ÒHomosexuality and Judaism,Ó in Journal of Halacha and
Contemporary Society 11 (1986),
pp. 70–87. HomosexualityinJudaism.pdf
e)
Laws of the Sabbath. A good starting point might be the laws of borer [sorting; II, pp. 381 ff.] or ofeh [baking; II, pp. 551 ff.]
David
Ribiat. The 39 Melochos.
Jerusalem: Feldheim, 2001. Sorting; II, pp. 381 ff.; baking; II, pp. 551 ff.
IV.
Structuring Jewish Education
(Pick one from the following list. Your reply should be approximately two pages
in length.)
(5)
Find a syllabus for
a university-level course in some aspect of Jewish history, literature, or
thought. Identify and evaluate the analytical categories and, if you can, the
rhetorical devices around which the instructor used to create the course. (Think
in terms of discipline, social context, foci, and the like.) Suggest and
justify an alternate structure with a completely different required reading
list of at least ten items.
(6)
What are the goals
of a Jewish education? By examining curricula and curricular change in various
kinds of Jewish schools, we can begin to understand the purpose and dynamics of
Jewish education. Contact a local Jewish school, meet with a teacher or
administrator, and by examining the syllabus and text books, decide what the
educational goal of the course was, whether it could be realized, what the
limits of that particular approach might be.
(7)
Visit a museum that
has an exhibit of relevance to Jewish history. Analyze the underlying
assumptions of the exhibit designer. What did he or she think significant? What
was the point they were trying to make? What did they omit that could have been
usefully added? Baltimore has a Jewish museum; Washington has a museum of local
history (Small Museum) as well as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. There are
many others.
Honor Code
The University of Maryland, College Park has a
nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student
Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at
Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you
are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very
important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication,
facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic
Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.shc.umd.edu.
To further exhibit your commitment to academic
integrity, remember to sign the Honor Pledge on all examinations and
assignments: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any
unauthorized assistance on this examination (assignment)."
Readings
All
readings are available in McKeldin Library on Reserve. To the extent possible,
we have also made them available electronically. Thus almost all articles and
book chapters will be scanned and made available through the libraryÕs ÒCourse
ReservesÓ. [Go to the home page; click on ÒcatalogueÓ; click on Òcourse
reservesÓ; from the drop down menu choose Search by ÒCourse numberÓ and enter
Òhist408cÓ. In order to view those items available online, you need to use the
course password: hist408ccoo
Some
articles are attached directly to this syllabus. Click on the link to read
them.
One
book, to be read in its entirety, is in the book stores. All students are
expected to have prepared readings for the class under which they are listed.
Available
at the Book Stores.
Steven
Harvey. FalaqueraÕs ÒEpistle of the Debate.Ó An Introduction to Jewish
Philosophy. Cambridge Ma: Harvard University Press, 1987.
[Assigned for Sept. 26.]
Students
are urged to own, read regularly, and use a usage manual such as the Merrian
Webster Dictionary of English Usage
or Paul M. Lovinger, Penguin Dictionary of Amercan English Usage and Style. There are many others. This is in addition to a
good thesaurus and a good dictionary.
Schedule
of Classes
Sept.
5 Introduction.
Sept.
12 The
Jewish Claim to Traditional Knowledge. Were Talmudic Rabbis Intellectuals?
Reading:
Mishna,
Tractate Avot.[1] MishnaTractateAvot.pdf Skim the entire text
but pay special attention to I:1–2 and chapter 6.
Maimonides,
Mishneh Torah. Introduction.
We will use the English translation of Moses Hyamson, Mishneh Torah. The
Book of Knowledge MishnehTorah.pdf
Jeffrey
L. Rubinstein, Rabbinic Stories
(New York: Paulist Press, 2001), ÒIntroduction,Ó pp. 1–22,RabbinicStories1.pdf and chapters 10,
12–14, and 17RabbinicStories2.pdf.
Jacob
Neusner, ÒThe Meaning of Torah she-BeÕal Peh.Ó The Solomon Goldman Lectures.
I (Chicago: Spertus College of
Judaica, 1977), pp. 29-41. MeaningofTorahshe-Be-alPeh.pdf
Richard
Lee Kalmin, The Sage in Jewish Society of Late Antiquity. New York: Routledge, 1999. [On
reserve in McKeldin BM177 .K35 1999]. Pages 5–13.
Sept.
19 The
Nature of Halakhic Thought. Is the Halakha Aware of Change over Time? Halakha
and Aggada.
Reading:
Ephraim
E. Urbach, The Halakhah, Its Sources and Development . ([Ramat Gan]: Masadah , 1986)
BM520.5.U7313 1986
Louis
Jacobs. ÒHistorical Thinking in the Post-Talmudic Halakhah.Ó History and Theory 27, No. 4, Beiheft 27: Essays in Jewish
Historiography (December, 1988), 66-77 [available through JSTOR]
Hayyim
Nahman Bialik. "Halachah and Aggadah" in idem, Revealment And
Concealment: Five Essays with an
Afterword by Zali Gurevitch (Jerusalem: Ibis, 2000).
PJ5053.B5 A23 2000[2]
Marc
Bregman. ÒIsaak HeinemannÕs Classic Study of Aggadah and Midrash,Ó available
online at: http://www.uncg.edu/rel/contacts/faculty/Heinemann.htm
Sept.
26 The
Medieval Jewish Intellectual. I. Faith and Reason; Jewish and Alien Wisdom;
Permitted and Forbidden Knowledge
Reading:
Maimonides,
Guide to the Perplexed,
trans. by Shlomo Pines (Chicago, 1963), Opening Letter (pp. 3–4);
Introduction (pp. 15–17); Book III:51: "The Parable of the
Palace."[3] [McK
BM545.D33P5]
Idem,
ÒLetter on Astrology,Ó published by Alexander Marx in HUCA [Hebrew Union
College Annual] 3 (1926), pp.
349–58 in R. Lerner and M. Mahdi, eds., Medieval Political Philosophy:
A sourcebook (New York: Free
Press, 1963), pp. 227–236.[4]
ÒFaith
vs. ReasonÓ and ÒThe Ban of Solomon ben AdretÓ translations printed in Jacob
Marcus, ed., The Jew in the Medieval World (1937), pp. 248–259 and 214–218.
Obadiah
Sforno, ÒIntroduction to the Commentary on the Ethics of the Fathers,Ó
(Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, 1996).
Steven
Harvey. FalaqueraÕs ÔEpistle of the Debate.Õ An Introduction to Jewish
Philosophy. Cambridge MA:
Harvard University Press, 1987. McK B759.F33 I3534 1987. This title is
available in the bookstore.
Strauss,
Leo. Persecution and the Art of Writing. Glencoe, Ill., Free Press, 1952 Chapters 1–2, pp.
7–37. If you have time, you might also skim chapter 3 on MaimonidesÕ
Guide. [McK B65 .S8]
Aviezer
Ravitzky, ÒSome Remarks on the Study of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle AgesÓ
in Baruch M. Bokser, ed., History of Judaism. The Next Ten Years. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1980. Pages 63–80.
A slightly updated version was published as ÒAl Heker ha-Pilosofiya ha-Yehudit
bi-Ymei ha-BeinayimÓ [Hebrew] in Ravitzky, Al Daat Ha-Makom (Jerusalem: Keter, 1991), pp. 129–141.
Oct.
3 The
Medieval Jewish Intellectual. II. Exegesis or Isogesis? Mysticism and
Messianism.
Reading:
Abraham
ibn Ezra, ÒIntroduction to Commentary to the TorahÓ in Irene Lancaster, Deconstructing
the Bible : Abraham Ibn Ezra's introduction to the Torah (London and New York: Routledge
Curzon, 2003). BM755.I24 L36 2003
Moses
ben Nahman, ÒIntroduction to Commentary to the Torah,Ó in Perushe ha-Torah
le-rabenu Mosheh ben Nahman (RaMBaN),
ed. Hayyim Dov Shavel, revÕd edition (Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kuk, 1959-60) McK
BS1225 .M6655 1959[5]
and in English as Commentary on the Torah [by] Ramban
(Nachmanides), translated and
annotated by Charles B. Chavel (New York: Shilo, [1971-76]) McK
BS1225 .M66553.
Isaac
Abravanel. Introduction to Wellsprings of Salavation.
Zohar
III: 149a–b; 152a; 27b–28a. Annotated English translation in Isaiah
Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar. An Anthology of Texts, tr. David
Goldstein (Washington and London: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 19??
), III, pp. 1124–27 and 1133–37.
Ira
Robinson. Moses Cordovero's Introduction to Kabbalah: An Annotated
Translation of His ÔOr Ne'erav.Õ
(New York: Ktav Pub. House, 1994). McK BM525 .C65413 1994 Pp. 3–5;
19–23; 39–43.
Gershom
Scholem. On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time & Other
Essays. Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1997) McK BM45 .S44132 1997: ÒThree
Types of Jewish Piety,Ó pp. ?? (also available in AriÕel 32 (1973) which the library owns and which is also online at http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH01pa0 ). A Hebrew version appeared in Dvarim
be-Go (2nd
revised edition, 1976), pp. 541–556 [McK DS102.5 .S361].
Oct.
10 A
New Kind of Jewish Intellectual? The Maskil and the Rabbi. Education and Career.
Naphtali
Herz (Hartwig) Wessely, ÒWords of Peace and Truth,Ó in J. Reinharz and P.
Mendes-Flohr, eds., The Jew in the Modern World, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford Univ.
Press, 1995), pp, 70–74.
Moses
Mendelssohn. Jerusalem, or On Religious Power and Judaism, tr. Allan Arkush (Hanover, NH and London:
Brandeis University Press, 1983), pp. 59–75.
Solomon
Maimon, An Autobiography,
with Introduction by Michael Shapiro (U. of Illinois Press, 2003)
Dagmar
Barnouw, ÒOrigin and Transformation: Salomon Maimon and German-Jewish
Enlightenment Culture,Ó in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish
Studies 20,4 (Summer 2002), pp.
64-80 [available online through Project Muse]
Bialik,
H.N. ÒShort FridayÓ in Random Harvest: The Novellas of C. N. Bialik tr. David Patterson and Ezra Spicehandler
(Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1999) [PJ5053.B5 A6 1999], pp. ??;
ÒHa-matmidÓ and ÒKulam Sahaf ha-RuahÓ
Oct.
17 The
Reinvention of Judaism in Modern Terms. Wissenschaft des Judentums. Jewish
Studies and Jewish Encyclopedias.
Reading:
Gershom
Scholem. On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time & Other
Essays. Philadelphia:
Jewish Publication Society, 1997) McK BM45 .S44132 1997.
ÒReflections on Modern Jewish studies [1944], pp. 51-71. A Hebrew version appeared in Dvarim be-Go (2nd revised edition, 1976), pp. 385–403
[McK DS102.5 .S361].
Kafka,
Franz. ÒBefore the LawÓ in The Complete Stories, ed. Nahum N. Glatzer (New York: Schocken, 1971),
pp. 3–4.
Oct.
24 The
Modern Jewish Intellectual in an Alien Context. ÒNon-JewishÓ Jews?
Reading:
Paul
Mendes-Flohr, Divided Passions. Jewish Intellectuals and the Experience of
Modernity. Detroit: Wayne State
University Press. 1991. McK DS 113.M424 1991. Pp. 23–53: ÒThe Study of
the Jewish Intellectual: A methodological Prolegomenon.Ó
Abrams,
Nathan ÒA Profoundly Hegemonic Moment: De-Mythologizing the Cold War New York
Jewish Intellectuals,Ó Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish
Studies 21,3 (Spring 2003), pp.
64-82.
Thorstein
Veblen, ÒThe Intellectual Pre-eminence of Jews in Modern Europe,Ó Political
Science Quarterly 34 (1919), pp.
33–42
Isaac
Deutscher, ÒThe Non-Jewish JewÓ in The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays (London: 1968), pp. 25–41.
Allan
Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: 1987), pp. 47–67.
Saul
Bellow, Ravelstein (New York:
2000), pp. 160–181.
Michael
Mack. German Idealism and the Jew. The Inner Anti-Semitism of Philosophy and
German Jewish Responses (U. of Chicago Press, 2003).
David
A. Hollinger, ÒJewish Intellectuals and the De-Christianization of American
Public Culture in the Twentieth Century,Ó in Science, Jews, and Secular
Culture. Studies in Mid-Twentieth-Century American Intellectual History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1996), pp. 17–41.
Oct.
31 Tradition
Reclaimed. The Invention of the Modern Jewish Rabbinic Scholar. Isolated
Intellectuals in America. Daat Torah. YeshaÕya Leibowitz. Joseph Soloveitchik Remembered. Tradition
and Scientific Thought.
Reading:
Lawrence
Kaplan. ÒDaas Torah: A Modern Conception of Rabbinic Authority,Ó in Moshe
Sokol, ed., Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomy (Northvale, NJ and London: 1992), pp.
1–60.
Jacob
Katz. ÒDaÕat Torah. The Unqualified Authority Claimed for Halachists.Ó The
Harvard Law School Program in Jewish Studies. The Gruss Lectures. Available
on-line at http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/Gruss/katz.html.
Reprinted in Jewish History
11 (1997), pp. 41–50. [McK PerStk DS101.J46556]
Sol
Schimmel, ÒThe Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs in Modern Orthodox Jews: a
Psychological Analysis.Ó
Joseph
B. Soloveitchik. Halakhic Man.
(Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1983), pp. 3–29
[BM723 .S6613 1983]; The Halakhic Mind. An Essay on Jewish Tradition
and Modern Thought New York:
Free Press, 1986 BL51 .S6165 1986; ÒThe Lonely Man of Faith,Ó Tradition 7:2 (Summer 1965), republished in book form (New
York: Doubleday, 1992).
Jeffrey
S. Gurock. ÒHow ÔFrumÕ was Rabbi Jacob JosephÕs Court? Americanization Within
the Lower East SideÕs Orthodox Elite, 1886–1902,Ó Jewish History (1994), pp. 1–14; reprinted in Gurock, American
Jewish Orthodoxy in Historical Perspective (New York: Ktav, 1996), pp. 103–116, and notes pp.
399–403 [McK BM205.G87 1996].[6]
Gil
Perl and Yaakov Weinstein, ÒA ParentÕs Guide to Orthodox Assimilation on
University Campuses.Ó An on-line pamphlet.
Students should by now be well on their way with their papers.
Please make an appointment with me and bring a rough draft, including a thesis
statement, rough outline, and proposed bibliography.
Nov.
7 Gendered
Knowledge. Women as Intellectuals.
Reading:
Hannah
Arendt. Rachel Varnhagen. The Life of a Jewish Woman. revised edition (New York and London: Harcourt
Brace, 1974); an expanded version was edited by Liliane Weissberg (Baltimore
and London: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1997).
Tamar
El-Or. Next Year I Will Know More. Literacy and Identity among Young
Orthodox Women in Israel.
Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002.
Idem,
Educated and Ignorant. Ultraorthodox Jewish Women and their World. Boulder. Lynne Rienner Publishers. 1994.
BM390 .E4 1994
Nov.
14 History
and Memory. Jewish Historical Knowledge. Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and its
Deniers.
Reading:
Yosef
H. Yerushalmi. Zakhor
(Seattle and London: University of Washington Press: 1982) pp. 81–103.
Alon
Confino, ÒCollective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method,Ó in AHR (1997), pp. 1386–1403. The paper,
published as part of a ÒforumÓ on ÒHistory and MemoryÓ includes a useful
bibliography on the debate about Israeli memory (n. 1). Available through
JSTOR.
Robert
Wistrich, ÒIsrael and the Holocaust Trauma,Ó European
Judaism 29,2
(1996), pp. 11-19.[7]
Nov.
21 In
the Service of the Nation. Zionist and Israeli Intellectuals. The Debate over
Memory in Israeli Historiography
Reading:
Menachem
Brinker, ÒJewish Studies in Israel from a Liberal-Secular Perspective,Ó in
Seymour Fox, et al., eds., Visions of Jewish Education (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003),
pp. 95-121.
Podeh,
Elie ÒHistory and Memory in the Israeli Educational System: The Portrayal of
the Arab-Israeli Conflict in History Textbooks (1948-2000),Ó History &
Memory 12:1 (Spring/Summer
2000), pp. 65-100. Available on-line.
Nov.
28 Summing
Up and Review
Dec.
5 & 12 Paper
Presentations.
Dec.
19 Final
Corrected Papers due in my office.
[1] Tractate Avot has been printed often, both in
complete editions of the Mishna (it is the second last tractate in Seder
Nezikin—The
Order of Damages) and as a separate volume (English: Ethics of the Fathers).
[2] Also available as Chaim Nachman Bialik. Law
and Legend: or Halakah and Aggada.
Translated from Hebrew by Julius L. Seigel (New York: Bloch, 1923) and in Nahum
N. Glatzer, Modern Jewish Thought. A Source Reader (New York: Schocken, 1977), pp. 55–64 from
Contemporary Jewish Record 7
(1944), pp. 663–67, 677–80.
[3] This text is available online at
http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/BCooperman/NewCity/Perplexed.html
[4] An abbreviated version is available in I.
Twersky, ed., A Maimonides Reader
(New York: Behrman House, 1972), pp. 463–473.
[5] A vocalized version of the Hebrew text is
available as Perush ha-Ramban 'al ha-Torah
le-Rabenu Mosheh ben Nahman (Jerusalem: A.
Blum, 1992 or 1993) McK
BS1225 .M67 1992.
[6] The longer essay, ÒResisters and Accommodators: Varieties of Orthodox Rabbis in America, 1886–1983,Ó ibid., pp. 1–62 and nn. on pp. 352–385 is a much fuller treatment, but could not be assigned b/c of its length.
[7] Other versions appeared in Jewish Studies Quarterly 4 (1997), Jewish
History 11 (1997) and (in Hebrew) Zionut ve-Hinukh le-Zionut 7 (1997).