Jew and the City
Sample Mid-Term Questions [2005]

NOTE: The questions on the final will be similar to, or the same as, those that follow. The exam is 50 minutes long. Time indications are meant to indicate how long you should spend on each question, and the relative worth of each answer to the final grade. Be sure to spend the most time on the questions with the most points.

Your answers should offer a clear definition of terms and then seek examples drawn from our readings to illustrate the points you have made. The best answers will offer multiple examples, comparing and contrasting cases.

I. 30 minutes:

Choose one of the following terms, define what you mean (and what you do not mean) by it, and illustrate its importance for the study of the Jewish urban experience from the readings we have done:

(1) urban riot (2) ethnicity and ethnic competition (3) foundation myth (4) monumental self-definition (5) ghetto (6) jurisdiction

II. 20 minutes:

Answer one of the following. Though you may, of course, refer here to the same documents you treated in part I, you should avoid the temptation to rewrite your earlier answer. Focus on a different issue.

(1) The stories we read from Josephus and Philo both date from the First Century CE even though they refer to different eras (and different places). Both deal with the place of religious belief/practice in defining the relation between Jews and various elements in the non-Jewish world. Outline key differences in how the two authors conceive the relation between Jews and non-Jews, and offer an explanation for these differences?

(2) Jews are admitted/invited into pre-modern cities because of a specific economic function that they perform. Provide examples of this and explain what these tell us about the nature of the city.

(3) Outline what the story of the Tower of Babel tells us about the Bible's attitude to urban life.

(4) How did the phenomenon of suburbanization affect the nature of Jewish communal and cultural life in America?

(5) How, according to Steinberg, have American ideologies concerning the positive value of pluralism emerged? what do they ignore? and how do they distort historical reality?

(6) The medicalization of social problems (such as poverty) is one example of the broad modern tendency to scientifically based understandings of difference. Discuss with reference to the place of Jews in urban America.

Sample Mid-Term Questions [2004]

Your answers should present a clear thesis or argument and then provide examples to document your position. Feel free to draw on the assigned readings, your research and homework assignments, as well as the films/videos you have seen. Good luck!

I. 30 minutes
Answer one of the following.
a) At various times Jews have lived apart in defined sections or areas within the urban environment. Drawing on your readings from the entire course describe at least two different circumstances under which such spatial separation occurred. Compare the motives and causes for the two instances, and discuss the impact of the separation on the Jews and the other residents of the city.
b) How have features of the modern city affected and determined Jews’ economic and cultural fate? Begin your answer with a clear statement of how you distinguish the modern city from earlier forms, and address at least two separate issues of modern urban life.

II. 15 minutes
Answer any one of the following.
a) Violence is a common feature of urban life. Discuss the circumstances under which such violence can occur and the way in which the potential for violence has shaped the Jewish urban experience through the ages.
b) For cultural historians, tourism is as much a form of viewing as it is a recreational experience. Explain what this might mean and illustrate your understanding with at least two examples of touristic viewing of Jewish urban life over the ages. Video as well as textual sources may be used.
c) How does attention to gender aid us in analyzing and categorizing Jewish urban life? Your answer may draw on videos as well as more traditional readings.

III. 5 minutes
Briefly define and give an example of one of the following terms in the context of Jewish urban history.
a) foundation myth b) shtetl c) rate of urbanization d) kehillah e) ethnicity