Dickinson College

The core course is Secular Jews from Spinoza to Seinfeld with the following as supporting courses: American Jewish Literature, Representations of the Holocaust in American and German Culture, Israeli Politics and Society, Jewish Women Writers of Latin America, and History of Eastern Europe.

Secular Jews from Spinoza to Seinfeld

This course traces the development of secular Judaism through an analysis of key figures in Western Jewish thought and culture. We will seek to understand how these figures have
understood themselves and their place within the societies in which they lived.
We will examine the many forms that secular Judaism takes, and the many different ways that secular Jews have found to relate to their Jewish heritage. The course will conclude with a look of recent films and television episodes that explore secular Jewish themes.

Course Outline:

1. Intro to Course: What is the “secular realm”?
2. Katz, Identity and Assimilation
3. Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
4. Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza
5. Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza
6. Meyer, Origins of the Modern Jew; Lesssing, Nathan the Wise
7. Common hour “human beat box” concert on Middle East peace
8. Mendelssohn, Jerusalem
9. Dinner/discussion on “Why Should Jews Believe in God?”
10. Mendelssohn, Jerusalem [PAPER #1 DUE]
11. Freud, Future of an Illusion
12. Common hour concert, “From the Shtetl to the Present”
13. Gay, Godless Jew
14. Gay, Godless Jew
15. Kafka, “Metamorphosis”
16. Kafka, “Letter to My Father”
17. Eve lecture, “The Jews of St. Louis”
18. Lazarus, poems [PAPER #2 DUE]
19. Schor, Emma Lazarus
20. Multicultural seder with Afro-Semitic Experience
21. Schor, Emma Lazarus
22. Herzl, Jewish State
23. Herzl, Jewish State
24. Cahan, “Yekl,” Rise of David Levinsky
25. Cohen, Tough Jews
26. Eve lecture on Kabbalah
27. Eve lecture on reparations to Holocaust survivors
28. Cohen, Tough Jews; Doctorow, Billy Bathgate
29. Odets, Awake and Sing!
30. Miller, Death of a Salesman
31. Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles; Desser and Friedman article
32. Woody Allen, Annie Hall [PAPER #4 DUE]
33. AJIS Survey; Seinfeld episodes
34. Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes

Required Texts:

Rich Cohen, Tough Jews
Peter Gay, A Godless Jew
Rebecca Goldstein, Betraying Spinoza
Theodore Herzl, The Jewish State
Peter Levine, Ellis Island to Ebbets Field
Esther Schor, Emma Lazarus


American Jewish Literature

Jews are known as the “people of the book,” and this has perhaps been nowhere so true as
in America, where Jewish writers have had a tremendous influence on the course of twentieth century American literature. The works of Jewish writers have often dealt with the conflict between being Jewish and being American, between the experience of being an outsider and the longing for full acceptance. This course will include a variety of different types of literature, from novels about the immigrant experience to short stories about present-day Jewish identity. We will look at how different writers have grappled with the meaning of their Jewishness in an open society that, while it presented fewer barriers to religious expression than Jews had encountered throughout their history, also provided more enticements to abandon age-old Jewish belief and practice. As more secular forms of Judaism flourished in this country, the reading and writing of Jewish literature has itself become--for both Jews and non-Jews--an increasingly important way to understand and explore Jewish culture.


Course Outline

1. Intro to Course: Meet and Greet
2. Aleichem’s Tevye stories
3. Aleichem (cont.)
4. Clarke Center discussion on Israel-Hezbollah War
5. Library discussion—Aleichem’s Tevye stories
6. Film screening—Hester Street
7. Cahan’s Rise of David Levinsky
8. Cahan (cont.)
9. Cahan (cont.)
10. Yezierska, Bread Givers
11. Yezierska (cont.)
12. Yezierska (cont.)
13. Library discussion—Yezierska’s Bread Givers
14. Simon, Bronx Primitive
15. Klezmer performance by Chopped Liver River Band
16. Simon, Bronx Primitive
17. Roiphe, 1185 Park Avenue
18. Grace Paley Reading/Talk on Campus
19. Roiphe (cont.)
20. Roiphe (cont.)
21. Common Hour on Israeli and Palestinian Dance
22. Library discussion—Roiphe’s 1185 Park Avenue
23. Roth, American Pastoral
24. Jewish Yoga Service by Rabbi Heather Altman
25. Jewish Yoga Service by Rabbi Heather Altman
26. Havdalah Service by Rabbi Heather Altman
27. Roth (cont.)
28. Library discussion—Roth’s American Pastoral
29. Malamud short stories
30. Malamud (cont.)
31. Common Hour with Sara Felder, lesbian Jewish juggler
32. Malamud (cont.)
33. Malamud (cont.)
34. Talk by Danya Ruttenberg, Jewish feminist scholar
35. Goldberg, Bee Season
36. Goldberg (cont.)
37. Goldberg (cont.)
38. Contemporary short stories—hand-out
39. Short stories (cont.)
40. Library discussion—Goldberg’s Bee Season
41. Course Wrap-Up

Required Texts:

Sholem Aleichem, Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories
Abraham Cahan, The Rise of David Levinsky
Myla Goldberg, Bee Season
Bernard Malamud, The Complete Stories
Anne Roiphe, 1185 Park Avenue
Phiip Roth, American Pastoral
Kate Simon, Bronx Primitive
Anya Yezierska, Bread Givers


Syllabi for other supporting courses will be posted when available.

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