University of Denver

The core course for Winter 2007 is Jews on the Move: Culture, People and Ideas with Foundations of Jewish Communal Service offered as a graduate course.

Jews on the Move: Culture, People and Ideas

Jews on the Move focuses on culture, people and ideas to think about how Jewish lives and communities have changed with the emergence of modernity, particularly in the United States. Jews have been characterized as people perpetually on the move, from early biblical stories of exodus and exile to contemporary narratives of global migration and tourism. Movement in this sense is both literal – in the case of Jews who pack up, pick up, and leave for other places – and metaphorical – in the case of Jews who traverse long distances to adopt new and different identities. We will focus on a specific group and period of time: European Jews and their descendants encountering the modern age of the late 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries in the United States.

Our journey will take us from Europe to the thriving Jewish communities of the United States, particularly New York, Los Angeles, and our own Denver. We will look at how Jews as a group have constantly ‘traveled’ to adapt traditions to new ideas – sometimes as a survival strategy and sometimes in the hopes of creating new kinds of Jews. This course focuses on Jewish social history, cultural production, and cultural artifacts that represent and imagine changing Jewish identities. We’ll be looking at films, the Broadway stage, Yiddish radio, contemporary magazines, museums, new Jewish rituals, heritage tourism, and a little poetry thrown in for good measure.

In the course you’ll explore:

• How Jewish people have imagined, defined, practiced, and adapted what it means to be Jewish in the United States.
• How Jewish people have created vibrant subcultures while also contributing to American culture and society.
• How by comparing the experiences, dilemmas and cultural products of Jewish people in America you can better understand your own identities and communities, whatever those might be.

Texts:

The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, edited by Paul Mendes Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz
New Jews, by Caryn Aviv and David Shneer
Fighting to Become American: Jews, Gender, and the Anxiety of Assimilation, by Riv-Ellen Prell

Class Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to the class, notions of Jewish identity, movement and culture

We will go over the syllabus in the first hour, and then do an in-class exercise and discussion in the second hour.

Some old and new ideas about Jewish modernity, homelands, movement, and culture in Europe

Reading:
- Introduction (3-7), “Charter Decreed for the Jews of Prussia” (22-26), and “Concerning the Amelioration of Civil Status of the Jews" (28-36) and "The Right to be Different" (68-69) all in The Jew in the Modern World
- Preface and Introduction to New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora

Concepts we’ll discuss in class: ghettos, diaspora vs. exile, homelands and movement and rootedness, Jewishness vs. Judaism

Week Two: The Enlightenment and European Jewish Citizenship

Western Europe and Beckoning Calls: Emancipation, Citizenship, Identity, and Secularism

Readings (these are all short excerpts from Jew in the Modern World):
- “Process of Political Emancipation in Western Europe, 1789-1871” (112-113) and Emancipation debates and proclamations from France (114-118)
- “On Changes in Judaism” (194-197)
- “The Society for the Culture and Science of the Jews” and “A Society to Further Jewish Integration” (213-218)
- “My Emergence from Talmudic Darkness” (250-253)

Watch and discuss several excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof

Eastern Europe: Anti-Semitism and Poverty, Socialism and Zionism, or Emigration?

Readings: (all in The Jew in the Modern World)
- East European Jewry (372-374)
- “Awaiting a Pogrom”, “The City of Slaughter,” “The Massacre of the Jews at Kishinev,” (408-411)
-“To America or to the Land of Israel?” (413-414)
-“Off to America!” (463-465)

Watch more excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof

Week Three: Immigration to the “Promised Land”

Arriving in New York, Working in the Garment Industry, Yiddish Culture on the Lower East Side

Readings: (all in The Jew in the Modern World)
- “The Concordance of Judaism and Americanism” (471-472)
- Jewish Immigration into the US (472-473)
- The Russian Jew in America (474-476)
- Women Wage Workers, Sweatshops in Philadelphia, Economic Conditions of the Russian Jew in NYC, and The International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union and the American Labor Movement (478-485)

Read “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus in class, watch first half of Hester Street
Concepts: push/pull migration models, assimilation/acculturation/melting pots/hybrids

Introducing Jewish Anxieties about Gender
Readings:
-Introduction and Chapter One: Ghetto Girls in Fighting to Become American: Jews, Gender, and the Anxiety of Assimilation

Watch Hester Street

Week Four: Second Generation Jews: Negotiating Identities

New York’s Jewish Vaudeville Stars
Reading:
- “A Republic of Nationalities” by Judah Magnes (493-496 – Jew in the Modern World)
- In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture, introduction and Chapter 1 until page 40 (don’t read past the section beginning with “2nd Generation Jewish Masculinity”) – scanned on Blackboard under Course Documents

Watch first half of Funny Girl

Gender Politics, Race, and Assimilation
Readings:
-remainder of Chapter 1 in In Their Own Image pp.40-60 (scanned on Blackboard under Course Documents)

Watch and analyze the rest of Funny Girl

Shema Event: The Last Temptation of Moses: A Night of Sacred Story, The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham Street in Lakewood

Week Five: Hollywood Beckons, WW II and the Cold War

Readings:
- “Mogul-dom” and “Hollywood’s Jewish Question” (on Blackboard under Course Documents)

Watch first half of An Empire of Their Own

Readings:
- Chapter 4: Fading Feuds: The Eerie Silence of the War Years in Fighting to Become American

Shema Event: Peter Cole http://www.yale.edu/opa/v35.n1/story20.html

Week Six: Fighting the War, Coming Home, Moving to the ‘Burbs

American Jewish men fighting in the US Army
Readings:
- “War and Identity,” and “Liberation and Revelation” from GI Jews (on Blackboard under Course Documents)

Watch first half of Marjorie Morningstar

Readings:
-“On the Move: 1945-1967” from A New Promised Land (on Blackboard under Course Documents)
-Chapter 5: “Strangers in Paradise: The Devouring Jewish Mother” in Fighting to Become American

Watch last half of Marjorie Morningstar

Shema Master Class with Amichai Lau-Lavie
Making Maven Matter: Reclaiming the Oral Art of Biblical Translation

Week Seven: Post-War Challenges and Changes: Building New Jewish Cultures and Institutions

Jewish counter-cultures
Readings:
-Hasidism in the Age of Aquarius (on Blackboard under Course Documents)

American Jewish Museums
Readings:
- Temples of American Identity: Jewish Museums in Los Angeles, from New Jews

Guest lecture with Joanne Kauvar, Executive Director of the Council on American Jewish Museums

Week Eight: The 1980’s: Rise of the “JAP” stereotypes, emergence of Jewish Feminism

Readings:
- Chapter 6: “The Jewish American Princess” from Fighting to Become American
Watch excerpts from Private Benjamin

Re-inventing themselves: Jewish Women, Changing Traditions
Readings:
- “Becoming a Ritual Innovator” and “Democracy, Open Access, and Jewish Feminism” from Inventing Jewish Ritual, by Vanessa Ochs

Shema Events with Ari Kelman, University of California, Davis
Public Lecture
Station Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio in America

Rimon:Master Class
The Sound of the Sacred

Week Nine: Postmodern Heeb Culture

Who are Heebs, and what’s their deal?
Readings:
- “The New Jews: Reflections on Emerging Cultural Practices” (on Blackboard under Course Documents)

Analyze Heeb magazine
Check out www.yideoz.com
Watch first half of The Hebrew Hammer

Gender Politics, Heeb-American style
Readings:
- “Guardians, Millionaires, and Fearless Fighters: Transforming Jewish Gangsters into a Usable Past” (on Blackboard, under Course Documents)
- Chapter 7: “Talking Back through Counter-Representations” in Fighting to Become American
Finish watching The Hebrew Hammer

Week Ten: Modern Pilgrimages in Search of Roots: Youth Heritage and Identity Travel to Eastern Europe and Israel.

Searching for an Elusive Past
Readings:
-“Encounters with Ghosts: Youth Tourism and the Diaspora Business,” from New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora
Watch first half of Everything is Illuminated

Coming full circle
Readings:
-Epilogue from New Jews
Today we’ll eat pizza, watch remainder of Everything is Illuminated and discuss what we’ve learned together.


Foundations of Jewish Communal Service

This course has two main goals. The first goal is to introduce and orient students to major historical and contemporary themes of American Jewish communities. How have American Jewish communities come to look like they do, and how have they changed over time and in different places? The second goal is to explore the rich, diverse, and complex landscape of organized Jewish life and Jewish communal practice in the United States. We will use a case study approach, looking at different kinds of organizations, their missions, and their relationships to social work practice. Students will explore the development, range, and changing nature of Jewish agencies that have provided philanthropic, educational, and social services to Jewish communities across the United States for the past 150 years.

Course Outline:

1. Overview of American Jewish History and Important Communal Institutions

Readings: none for today, we will learn about each other and the class. I will provide several handouts of key historical documents for discussion and analysis.

2. The Field of Jewish Communal Service: Important Ideas, Structures, Practices, and Challenges

Readings:
• “Reinventing North American Jewish Communal Structures: The Crisis of Normality,” by Jeffrey Solomon, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Spring/Summer 2001.
• “Principles of Jewish Communal Life for the New Millenium,” by Marla Eglash Abraham and Steven Windmueller, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Summer 2000.
• “Excellence in Practice: An Examination of the Field of Jewish Communal Service from the Standpoint of the Professional,” by Howard Rieger, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Winter 2004
• “Recruitment and Retention: Imperatives for the Field of Jewish Communal Service,” by Larry Moses, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Fall 2001.

3. Jewish (Participatory) Philanthropy: Federations, Women’s Leadership, and Institutional Change

Readings:
• “Jewish Foundations: An Introduction,” by Jeffrey Solomon, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Fall/Winter 2005
• “Parallel Power Structures, Invisible Careers, and the Changing Nature of American Jewish Women’s Philanthropy,” by Susan Chambre, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Spring 2000.
• “Federation Philanthropy for the Future,” by Charles Edelsberg,” Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Winter 2004.

4. Jewish Family Services: Challenging Program Areas, Healing Clients and Professionals, and Professional Staff Issues

Readings:
• “Marriage of JFS and Criminal Justice System,” by Chana Widawski and Shoshannah Frydman, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Winter/Spring 2007.
• Understanding the Jewish Near Poor: An Analysis of the Population and How the Jewish Community Can Serve Them,” by William Rapfogel, Ilene Marcus, Esther Larson, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Winter/Spring 2007.
• “Creating Opportunities for Spiritual Awareness and Growth Within a Jewish Family Service Agency,” by Rabbi Lenore Bohm, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Winter/Spring 2007.
• “Addressing the Professional Leadership Crisis in the Jewish Family Service Field,” by Jaclynn Faffer and Seymour Friedland, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Winter/Spring 2007.

5. Variations in Jewish Education, possible guest lecture and discussion with Risa Buckstein, director of Youth Programs at Colorado Jewish Agency for Education (CAJE)

Readings:
• “On Truth, Tradition, and Respect in Jewish Education,” by Zohar Raviv, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Summer 2000.
• “Reaching and Teaching Jewish Youth: A Study of Post B’nai Mitzvah Retention and Engagement,” by Sharon Ravitch, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Summer 2002.

6. Jewish Summer Camps as Formative Identity-Building Experiences

Readings:
• “Research Findings on the Impact of Camp Ramah,” by Ariela Keysar and Barry Kosmin

7. Jewish Aging and Eldercare Issues, possible facilitated discussion with Sue Stark

Readings:
• “Preparing Communal Professionals to Support Jewish Aging,” by Susan Shevitz, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Spring 2006
• “Is Aging for Us? Toward a Dialogue on Jewish Long-Term Care,” by David Dunkelman, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Winter 2000.
• “Forsake Them Not: The Jewish Community and Elders in Non-Jewish Long-Term Care Facilities,” by Rabbi Dayle Friedman, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Spring 2006

8. Jewish Community Relations Organizing: Political Power and Advocacy in America

Readings:
• “The Jewish Community and American Public Policy,” by Earl Raab, Judaism, 2000.

9. Complex Relationships between American and Israeli Jews

Readings:
• “The Growing Gap Between American Jews and Israel: Two Views,” by Ardie Geldman and Steven Bayme, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Fall 2001.
• “The Future of the North American Jewish Community- Israel Relationship,” by Steven Nasatir, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Fall 2002.

10. Global Opportunities and Challenges

Readings:
• “Assuring Jewish Responsibility in a Changing World,” by Steven Schwager, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Fall/Winter 2005
• “Leadership Training for a Global Jewish Civil Service,” by Gerald Bubis, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Spring 2000.


Bibliography:

Bayme, S. (Ed.) (1989). Facing the Future. Tel Aviv, Israel: Ktav Press.

Cohen, S. (1996). Reengineering the Jewish Community. Journal of Jewish
Communal Service, Vol. 73, 6-13.

Deutsch, E. (1995). Women in Leadership Roles in Federations: An Historic Review.
Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Vol. 72, 96-101.

Dubin, D. (1983). Essential Competencies for the Jewish Communal Professional.
Journal of Jewish Communal Service, 60, 11-14.

Elazar, D. (1997). Jewish Communal Structures Around the World. Journal of Jewish
Communal Service, Vol. 74, 20-131.

Elazar, D. (1995). Community and Polity. New York, NY: Jewish Publication Society.

Goldberg, J. (1996). Jewish Power: Inside the American Jewish Establishment. New
York, NY: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

Kimelman, R. (1989). Taking Risks for Jewish Unity. Journal of Jewish Communal
Service, Vol. 65, 197-203.

Liebman, C. (1979). Leadership and Decision-Making in a Jewish Federation: The New
York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. American Jewish Year Book. New
York, NY: American Jewish Committee.

Mendes-Flohr, P., and Reinharz, J. (1995). The Jew in the Modern World: A
Documentary History. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Schor, J. and Cohen, S. (2002). Centering on professionals: The 2001 Study of JCC
Personnel in North America. New York, NY: Jewish Community Center Association.

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