University at Albany

The core course is Secular Jewish Identity and Culture with the peripheral courses Jews and the Secular Descendants of Jews in Latin America, Shifting Identities in Modern Jewish Fiction and Hollywood and the Jews: A Secular Analysis of Ethnic Stereotyping in the American Cinema.

Secular Jewish Identity and Culture

This course is an exploration of the creation of a secularized Judaism. Since the onset of the Enlightenment (if not earlier), many Jews have sought to construct expressions of Judaism that are not contingent upon religious obligations and practices. After an introduction in which we will discuss some of the tensions between secular and religious Judaism in contemporary times, we will explore several ancient and medieval challenges to normative Judaism (Hellenism, messianism, and historical consciousness) that helped to set the foundation for the shaping of modern secular Judaism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We will then look at several “snapshots” of secular Judaism in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first centuries in the regions of Europe, Russia, the United States, and Israel. At the end of the course, we will consider the possibility of a “post-secular” Judaism.

Texts:

Elisa Albert, How This Night is Different: Stories
Solomon Maimon, An Autobiography
Chaim Potok, My Name is Asher Lev
Naomi Pasachoff and Robert J. LIttman, A Concise History of the Jewish People
Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
Ruth R. Wisse ed., A Shtetl and other Yiddish Novellas

Course Outline

1. Introduction
Shalom Auslander, “Prophet’s Dilemma” [R]

2. The Making of a Secular Jew
Chaim Potok, My Name is Asher Lev, Chapters 1-6

3. The Making of a Secular Jew II
Chaim Potok, My Name is Asher Lev, Chapters 7-12

4. Rabbinism as Normative Judaism
Naomi Pasachoff & Robert J. Littman, “Rabbinic Period, 70-600 C.E. in A Concise History of the Jewish People

Adin Steinsaltz, The Essential Talmud, excerpts; Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis, excerpts [R]

5. Premodern Challenges to Rabbinism - Case #1: Hellenism
Naomi Pasachoff & Robert J. Littman, “Second Temple Period” in A Concise History of the Jewish People

Dan Cohn-Sherbok, “Philo”; Philo, On the Migration of Abraham, 1-5; Erich S. Gruen, “Hellenistic Judaism” [R]

6. Premodern Challenges to Rabbinism - Case #2: Messianism
Naomi Pasachoff & Robert J. Littman, “The Karaites,” “The Bible of the Jewish Mystics: The Zohar,” “Kabbalists at Safed” “The Chmielnicki Massacres,” & “The Shabbetai Zevi Affair” in A Concise History of the Jewish People

Steven Bayme, “Jewish Messianism & Sectarianism”; Allan Levine, “Physicians, Poets, and a False Messiah: Constantinople, 1666” [R]

7. Premodern Challenges to Rabbinism - Case #3: Historical Consciousness
Joan Comay, “Josephus Flavius”; Josephus Flavius, “Prefaces to the Jewish War & Antiquities” & “Antiquities 18.1”; Soloman bar Samson: “The Crusaders in Mainz, May 27, 1096”; David Gans, “Offspring of David”; Nathan Hannover, “Deep Mire” [R]

8. Godless Jews: Spinoza, Marx, & Wolf
Dan Cohn-Sherbok, “Baruch Spinoza”; Benedict Spinoza, Theological-Political Treatise, excerpts; The Sephardi Community of Amsterdam, “Writ of Communication Against Baruch Spinoza”; Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Question”; Im-manuel Wolf, “On the Concept of a Science of Judaism” [R]

9. Jewish Secularism in Germany - 19th Century Snapshot
Solomon Maimon, Autobiography

10. Jewish Secularism in Russia - late 19th Century Snapshot
I. M. Weissenberg, “A Shtetl”; S. Ansky “Behind a Mask”; Mendele Mocher Sforim, “Of Bygone Days” in Ruth R. Wisse ed., A Shtetl and other Yiddish Novellas

11. Jewish Secularism in the United States - 20th Century Snapshot
Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint

12. Jewish Secularism in the United States - 21st Century Snapshot
Elisa Albert, How this Night is Different: Stories

13. Jewish Secularism in Israel - 21st Century Snapshot
Bernard Avishai, “Saving Israel From Itself: A Secular Future for the Jewish State”; Tom Segev, Elvis in Jerusalem, Post-Zionism and the Americanization of Israel, excerpt; [R]

14. Towards A Post-Secular Judaism?
Eliezer Schweid, “The ‘Post-Secular’ Era” [R]


Jews and the Secular Descendants of Jews in Latin America

This course aims to document how Jews and their descendants succeeded in preserving their culture (including their religious culture) as well as their secular identities (however they preferred to identify themselves) in a world in Latin America that promised to be New but that maintained many familiar prejudices of the Old World. The course is divided into three chronological sections, and it proceeds geographically by region in each section from Central America to South America through the islands of the Caribbean. Section One examines the Colonial Period (from 1492 to the beginning of Independence in 1810); Section Two covers the period of Early Independence (from 1810 to the beginning of World War I); Section Three deals with the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The readings for the course provide a cultural history of all periods, while the course lectures place emphasis on individual biographies that typify the main characteristics of each period.

Course Outline:

PART I: THE COLONIAL PERIOD
1. (1500's) Introduction; syllabus; class rules;
2. Was Columbus of Jewish descent?
3. Descendants of Jews who assisted Columbus
4. (1600's) The Inquisition in Mexico: the Carvajal family
5. The Great Conspiracy of Lima
6. Pernambuco and the Sugar Industry I
7. Pernambuco, Brazil, and the Sugar Industry I I
8. From Pernambuco to Barbados (and New York)
9. (1700s) Alexander Hamilton’s Jewish Roots in Nevis
10. Antonio José da Silva (1739)
11. Marquis of Pombal and the destruction of records about Jews
12. Jews and the Slave Trade: Fact and Calumny

PART II: INDEPENDENCE
1. 1800s: From North Africa to the Amazon
2. Louis Hartwig Brie (Argentina)
3. The Navarros of Argentina
4. Luis Schlesinger in Guatemala
5. Francisco Rivas Puigcerver in Mexico
6. Limantour and the Porfiriato
7. José Martí and the Jews of Cuba
8. Jews in Jamaica in the 1800s
9. 1800s: Jews in the Dutch Islands
10. Early 1900s: Baron Maurice de Hirsch

PART III: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

1. The Jewish Colonization Association I
2. JCA II Alberto Gerchunoff
3. JCA III: Brazil
4. Some Jews Enslave Women in Argentina
5. Other Jews Fight the Exploitation of Women
6. January 1919: Tragedy in Buenos Aires
7. Peddlers on the Panama Canal
8. Jews in Cuba before Castro
9. Jews in the Dominican Republic
10. The Impact of Nazi Persecution: South America
11. Impact of Nazi Persecution: Central America
12. Impact of Nazi Persecution in the Islands
13. Twentieth-Century Anti-Semitism: South America
14. Twentieth-Century Anti-Semitism: Central America
15. Anti-Semitism in the Islands

Required Reading:

Judith Elkin, The Jews of Latin America, New York: Holmes and Meier, 1998


Shifting Identities in Modern Jewish Fiction

The 19th century witnessed the birth of secular literature in two Jewish languages, Yiddish and Hebrew, as well as Jewish writing in other European languages that would blossom in the 20th century, in the process putting issues of Jewish identity and history on the world literary map. This course will examine important works of modern Jewish fiction that explores the many ways in which Jews have reinvented Jewish identity in modern times: sometimes by exploring areas of religious belief and practice that did not exist earlier, at other times rejecting religion altogether in favor of other means of self-expression. Over the course of the semester, then, fiction will serve as a powerful lens through which to view some of the most important transformations in Jewish life in the past century and a half.

Modern Jewish writing, in many different languages, has flourished in Europe and the Americas over the last century, as well as in Israel. In all of these regions, Jewish fiction has been, and continues to serve as, an important vehicle for exploring the constantly changing place of Jews in the modern world by examining such issues as the tension between tradition and modernity, the relationship between Jews and the surrounding society, antisemitism, new avenues of religious observance, the quest for a Jewish homeland, and mass migrations. All of these issues, and others, play important roles in how Jews have come to see themselves in modern times, and such issues weave in and out of the stories and novels students will be reading in this course.

Required texts:

Isaac Babel, Collected Stories
Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated
Alberto Gerchunoff, The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas
Myla Goldberg, Bee Season
David Grossman, See Under: Love
Philip Roth, The Ghost Writer
Operation Shylock
Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories
Isaac Bashevis Singer, Satan in Goray

Course Schedule:

1. Introduction: European Jewry Enters the Modern World
Nahman of Bratslav, “The Sage and the Simpleton” (CP)

2. Modernity Comes to the Shtetl
Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman

3. Questioning Secularism (I)
S. Ansky, Behind a Mask (CP)
I. L. Peretz, “If Not Higher” (CP)
“Between Two Mountains” (CP)
S. Agnon, “To Father’s House” (CP)

4. New Frontiers
Isaac Babel, The Odessa Stories
Abraham Cahan, Yekl
Alberto Gerchunoff, Selections from The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas

5. America: Golden Land or America the Thief?
Abraham Cahan, The Imported Bridegroom
Anzia Yezierska, “Children of Loneliness” (CP)

6. Revolution and the New Soviet Jew
Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry

7. The Gathering Storm
Isaac Bashevis Singer, Satan in Goray

8-10. Destruction and Rebuilding
David Grossman, “Momik,” from See Under: Love
Cynthia Ozick, “Envy, or, Yiddish in America” (CP)
Savyon Liebrecht, “Morning in the Park With Nannies” (CP)
Bernard Malamud, “The Jewbird,” “The Last Mohican,” “The Lady of the Lake” (CP)
Philip Roth, “Eli, the Fanatic” (CP) and The Ghost Writer

11. Teach Your Children Well
Grace Paley, “The Loudest Voice” (CP)
Philip Roth, “The Conversion of the Jews” (CP)
David Bezmozgis, “An Animal to the Memory” (CP)
Myla Goldberg, Bee Season

12-14. Everything Old is New Again
Philip Roth, Operation Shylock
Nathan Englander, “The Gilgul of Park Avenue” (CP)
Cynthia Ozick, “Actors” (CP)
Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated


Hollywood and the Jews: A Secular Analysis of Ethnic Stereotyping in the American Cinema

Required Reading:

Gary Crowdus, The Political Companion to American Film
Mona Z. Smith, Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee

Course Outline:

1. Course Introduction
The Power of Images: Three “unidentified” clips
Jewish Celluloid Stereotypes: The Athlete as “Non”-Athlete
Clips:
Taxi (1932), directed by Roy Del Ruth
The Mayor of Hell (1933), directed by Archie Mayo
Cimarron (1931), directed by Wesley Ruggles, based on a novel by Edna Ferber
The Kid From Cleveland (1948), directed by Herbert Kline
The Shamrock Handicap (1926), directed by John Ford
Hot Curves (1930), directed by Norman Taurog
Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), directed by Busby Berkeley
The Chosen (1981), directed by Jeremy Kagan, based on a novel by Chaim Potok

2. Contemporary Racial Stereotypes:
Clips:
What Women Want (2000), directed by Nancy Meyers
Executive Decision (1996), directed by Stuart Baird
Urban Class Differences: Lower East Side vs. Park Avenue
Clip:
Humoresque (1946), directed by Jean Negulesco, written by Clifford Odets, Zachary Gold, based on a novel by Fannie Hurst
Crowdus: “African-American Filmmakers” chapter, pages 3-9
Crowdus, “Blacks in American Cinema” chapter, pages 41-50
Crowdus, “Dixon, Thomas” chapter, pages 115-117
Crowdus, “Jews in American Cinema” chapter, pages 214-223
Crowdus, “Native Americans in Hollywood Films” chapter, pages 292-300
Crowdus, “Poitier, Sidney” chapter, pages 307-309
Crowdus, “Robeson, Paul” chapter, pages 355-359
Crowdus, “Van Peebles, Melvin” chapter, pages 441-443

3. Jews and Hollywood Mythology
My Favorite Year (1982), directed by Richard Benjamin
Clips:
The Goldbergs (television series, 1949-1956)
Come Blow Your Horn (1963), directed by Bud Yorkin, written by Norman Lear, based on a play by Neil Simon
Mr. Cohen Takes a Walk (Father Takes a Walk) (1935), directed by William Beaudine
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), directed by Michael Curtiz, William Keighley

4. THE PRODUCTION CODE OF 1930 and FILM: O’BRIEN TO RYAN TO GOLDBERG -FACT, FICTION, AND CULTURAL STEREOTYPES IN BASEBALL FILMS should be read by this date
The Upwardly Mobile First-Generation American
Counsellor at Law (1933), directed by William Wyler, written by Elmer Rice, based on his play
Clip: My Man Godfrey (1936), directed by Gregory La Cava

5. Woody Allen’s “Jewish Issues”
Deconstructing Harry (1997), directed and written by Woody Allen
Clips:
Annie Hall (1977), directed by Woody Allen, written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
Mo’ Better Blues (1990), directed and written by Spike Lee
Crowdus, “Allen, Woody” chapter, pages 9-12
Crowdus, “Lee, Spike” chapter, pages 245-249

6. Counterbalancing the Stereotype
Body and Soul (1947), directed by Robert Rossen, written by Abraham Polonsky
Crowdus, “Garfield, John” chapter, pages 167-170
Crowdus, “Polonsky, Abraham” chapter, pages 333-336
Crowdus, “Rebel Hero” chapter, pages 342-346

7. Counterbalancing the Stereotype
Maria Full of Grace (2004), directed and written by Joshua Marston
Clip: Greenwich Village (1944), directed by Walter Lang

8. Counterbalancing the Stereotype
House of Sand and Fog (2003), directed and co-written by Vadim Perelman, based on a novel by Andre Dubus III

9. BECOMING SOMETHING: THE STORY OF CANADA LEE, by Mona Z. Smith, should be read in full by this date
Counterbalancing the Stereotype
12 Angry Men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Reginald Rose
Crowdus, “Lumet, Sidney” chapter, pages 255-257

10. Counterbalancing the Stereotype
The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), directed by Alfred E. Green
Clips:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1927), directed by Harry Pollard, based on the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Bend of the River (1952), directed by Anthony Mann
Bedside (1934), directed by Robert Florey
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), directed by H.C. Potter

11. The Power of the Media
A Face in the Crowd (1956), directed by Elia Kazan, written by Budd Schulberg
Crowdus, “Kazan, Elia” chapter, pages 232-235
Crowdus, “Schulberg, Budd” chapter, pages 365-368
Crowdus: “Television As Seen By Hollywood” chapter, pages 432-437

12. The Roots of the Hollywood Blacklist
Clips:
Tender Comrade (1943), directed by Edward Dmytryk, written by Dalton Trumbo
All My Sons (1948), directed by Irving Reis, based on a play by Arthur Miller
Daughters Courageous (1939), directed by Michael Curtiz
Pride of the Marines (1945), directed by Delmar Daves, written by Albert Maltz
Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), directed by Elia Kazan, written by Moss Hart, based on a novel by Laura Z. Hobson
On the Waterfront (1954), directed by Elia Kazan, written by Budd Schulberg
People Will Talk (1951), directed and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
High Noon (1952), directed by Fred Zinnemann, written by Carl Foreman
The Red Menace (1949), directed by R.G. Springsteen
Big Jim McLain (1952), directed by Edward Ludwig

13. The Blacklist as History
The Front (1976), directed by Martin Ritt, written by Walter Bernstein
Clip: The Defiant Ones (1958), directed by Stanley Kramer, written by Nathan E. Douglas (Nedrick Young), Harold Jacob Smith
Crowdus, “Anti-Communist Films” chapter, pages 26-31
Crowdus, “The Communist Party in Hollywood” chapter, pages 66-70
Crowdus, “Farmer, Frances” chapter, pages 131-133
Crowdus, “Foreman, Carl” chapter, pages 153-154
Crowdus, “The Hollywood Blacklist” chapter, pages 193-199
Crowdus, “Lardner, Ring, Jr.” chapter, pages 241-242
Crowdus, “Lawson, John Howard” chapter, pages 243-244
Crowdus, “Losey, Joseph” chapter, pages 252-254
Crowdus, “Maltz, Albert” chapter, pages 258-260
Crowdus, “Ritt, Martin” chapter, pages 347-348
Crowdus, “Trumbo, Dalton” chapter, pages 429-431
Crowdus, “The Unfriendly Hollywood 19” chapter, pages 437-440
Crowdus, “Wayne, John” chapter, pages 463-468
Crowdus, “Wilson, Michael” chapter, pages 480-482

14. In conclusion

Back to Sample Course Descriptions