Course Descriptions

What can we learn about Latin American social worlds when we look at the place of Jews within it? Conversely, what we learn about Jewish social worlds when they unfold in Latin America?  This course examines both of these questions. Specifically, we consider the role of Latin America as both a refuge from and a source of anti-Semitism, a hub of immigration, a site of Zionism, and of Jewish success and philanthropy.  We also address themes of displacement, longing, belonging, marginalization, prejudice, immigration, community, cultural continuity, and memory, while considering Sephardi and Ashkenazi difference, and inter-generational conflict among Jewish Latin Americans. Overall, through reading, writing exercises, independent research and in-class films, the course is designed to provide students with an understanding of how Jews constructed individual lives and vibrant communities in predominantly Hispanic, Catholic countries of Latin America.

With these themes in mind, the course is divided into four units:

1. Historical literacy is a substantive introductory unit, which provides basic context from 1492 until the post-World War II period;
2. Jewish group identities in Latin American features readings on Jewish life and cultural forms in select national contexts (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic and others);
3. Memoir and personal narrative engages students in critical reading of creative non-fiction and quasi-ethnography that focuses on individual lives;
4. Contemporary realities explores current events, contemporary trends and popular culture in Jewish Latin America.

Finally, over the course of the semester, drawing on course motifs, students will produce their own research papers addressing a specific research question in the Latin American national context of their choice.

*Enjoy Latin American breakfast beverages served in class*

Note: This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present.

This class focuses on over a century of Yiddish-based contributions to American culture. Starting from the premise that Yiddish speakers who came to the Promised Land of America brought with them a nuanced ability to deal with hostile environments, this class will look at a variety of readings and movies which manifest the qualities of poignancy, ambition, irony, heart, resiliency, and, of course, humor.

Writers include Isaac Bashevis Singer, Woody Allen, and Michael Chabon; musical content comprises folk and popular standards, as well as contemporary klezmer bands; and movies will run the gamut from Tevye to the Marx Brothers to Blazing Saddles.

Grading:

• 1/3 on class participation
• 1/3 on two 4-page writing assignments
• 1/3 on one 8-page research paper

Texts:

• Henry Roth, Call It Sleep
• Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
• Course packet

May be repeated for credit. Tutorially directed research in Jewish Studies. Prereq: Upper-division standing and consent of instructor.

The first use of the term "Israel" occurs on an Egyptian stela from around 1200 BCE. It simply describes a group of people rather than a town or city or any other geographical entity, although they are situated in what will later be the borders of ancient Israel. Between that time and the later rule of Kings Saul, David, Solomon, and others is a 200-year period when ancient Israel emerges, first from the rugged highlands and later over a much larger territory. From this premonarchic era we have a series of narratives of men and women called, variously, saviors or deliverers or "judges."  This class will cover the book of Judges in its entirety, from the earliest poetry through the narratives of the deliverers, including the book's editing and placement within the Bible, ending with the disturbing final chapters of the book that speak of deceit, rape, and war.

Texts

• Common English Bible
• Judges (Old Testament Library), by Susan Niditch
• various readings to be provided

Grading

• Attendance in class, 10%
• Quizzes over the reading, 20%
• Oral reports, 20%
• Report on a scholarly article 20%
• Research paper, 30%

The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with some of the outstanding Jewish writers, filmmakers, and other creators from Latin America, with special emphasis on those who portray in their work the situation of the Jewish communities of their respective cities and countries.  The readings will include works by both Ashkenazic and Sephardic writers and from a range of Spanish-speaking Latin American countries, along with one Brazilian author and several who represent U.S. Latino Jewish writing in English, in addition to relevant films. Another topic will be the Jewish themes that appear prominently in some of the writings of a non-Jewish author, the renowned Jorge Luis Borges.

            One of the requirements of the class is to write a term paper of at least 1700 words (approximately 6-7 pages in normal-size type) on a topic not covered in the syllabus.  Each student will need to analyze literary works that are not in the course readings, although other writings by the same author may appear in the syllabus.  Any student with a reading knowledge of Portuguese is welcome to write his or her term paper on a Brazilian Jewish writer. The alternative to writing a literary analysis for the term paper is to research and write a paper on a Latin American Jewish creative figure working in some other medium, such as a painter, sculptor, or film director.  

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ISRAELI CONSTITUTIONAL LAW Dr. Yoseph M. Edrey

The legal system of any nation comprises several layers: the main two are the Constitution and laws (including government regulations), while the courts are responsible for interpreting both these components.

The Founding Fathers of the U.S bestowed a fascinating legal framework by drafting the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments. These reflect and express the basic principles of U.S. society, which include basic human rights and the government's institutions and their powers. In 1803 the U.S. Supreme Court shaped the doctrine of Judicial Review: the Supreme Court ruled that the federal courts have the duty to review the constitutionality of the acts of Congress and to declare them void (i.e., to strike down such an act when it is contrary to the Constitution).

The State of Israel was established in 1948. Surprisingly, there is no comprehensive written document which is termed the Israeli Constitution. Instead, the Knesset (the Israeli legislature) has enacted a series of Basic Laws. These are to be gathered into a single document and are planned to eventually be recognized as the Israeli Constitution.

In 1992 the Knesset enacted the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, and the Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation. The Supreme Court referred to this event as a “constitutional revolution.”

Course Outcomes:

To understand the process, sources, and significance of the role of the Knesset, together with the Supreme Court, in shaping the values of the Israeli society. In addition we will identify the trends and directions the Israeli society is moving to, and will predict how the Israeli Constitution Law evolves in a “Jewish and democratic state.”

Course Materials:

• Y. M. Edrey. “The Israeli Constitutional Revolution/Evolution, Models of Constitutions, and A lesson from Mistakes and Achievements,” American Journal of Comparative Law: 53. pp. 77–123 (2005).
• Israel Supreme Court decision:  CA 6821/93 Bank Mizrahi v. Migdal Cooperative Village
• Israeli Supreme Court Decision: HCJ 366/03 Commitment to Peace and Social Justice v. Minister of Finance
• Israeli Supreme Court Decision: HCJ 141/82 M. K. Rubinstein v. Chairman of the Knesset
• Israeli Supreme Court Decision: HC 3267/97 Rubinstein v.Minister of Defense
• Israeli Supreme Court Decision: HCJ 4124/00 Yekutieli v. Minister of Religious Affairs
• Course packet: with Xeroxed Court's decisions, journal articles and book chapters

Grading:

• 3 quizzes (each 10% of grade)
• Final take-home exam (70% of grade)

The Zionist movement and the immigration to the Land of Israel have generated a real change in the history of the Jewish people in modern times. During the course of seventy years only the Zionists succeeded in establishing a state for the Jews and to fulfill their nationalistic goals. The current course aims to examine the Zionist ideology and the immigration process from the formative years of 1880s until the present days, and focuses on various issues relating to the Zionist ideology, patterns of migration, migration policy, patterns of settlements and colonization, political conflicts and Zionist parties.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Lecture questions ....…………….……………………………….........................    5%

Class participation ………………………..……………......................................   10%

Quizzes ....…………….…………………………………….................................  20%

2 Assignments ...…………………………………….............................................  25%

Final exam ....…………………………………………..........................................  40%

100%

COURSE OUTLINE:

The Zionist ideology and the origins of the State of Israel

• Shimoni, Gideon. The Zionist ideology. Hanover: University Press of New England [for] Brandeis University Press, 1997, pp. 85-126.
• Hertzberg, Arthur. The Zionist idea: a historical analysis and reader. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1997, pp. 179-198; 201-230.

Five waves of Migration, 1882-1939

• Sachar, Howard. A history of Israel: from the rise of Zionism to our time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996, pp. 3-35; 71-85.
• Alroey, Gur. “Galveston and Palestine: Immigration and Ideology in the early Twentieth Century”. American Jewish Archives Vol. L VI1 2004: 129-150.

• Hyamson, Albert Montefiore. Palestine under the Mandate, 1920-1948. London: Methuen, 1950, pp. 51-69.

Patterns of Jewish Settlements in Palestine

• Curtis, Michael and Chertoff, Mordecai S. (eds.). Israel: Social Structure and Change. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, c1973, pp. 95-135.
• Eckardt, Alice L. and Eckardt, Roy A. Encounter with Israel: a challenge to conscience. New York: Association Press, 1970, pp. 419-432.

The Zionist Parties until 1948

• Horowitz, Dan and Lissak, Moshe. Origins of the Israeli polity: Palestine under the mandate. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978, pp. 120-156.
• Sachar, Howard. A history of Israel: from the rise of Zionism to our time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996, pp. 188-194.

The Birth of Israel

• Sachar, Howard. A history of Israel: from the rise of Zionism to our time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996, pp. 279-309; 315-347.

Immigration to the State of Israel

• Sachar, Howard. A history of Israel: from the rise of Zionism to our time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996, pp. 395-424.
• Curtis, Michael and Chertoff, Mordecai S. (eds.). Israel: Social Structure and Change. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, c1973, pp. 333-347.

Israeli society – Demographic profile

• Smooha, Sammy. Israel: Pluralism and Conflict. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978, pp. 48-69.
• en Rafael, Eliezer, and Peres, Yohanan. Is Israel One?: Religion, Nationalism, and Multiculturalism Confounded. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Sectors in Israeli Society

• Dowty, Alan (ed.). Critical issues in Israeli Society.Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004, pp. 109-126.

• Curtis, Michael and Chertoff, Mordecai S. (eds.). Israel: Social Structure and Change. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, c1973, pp. 409-418.
• Dowty, Alan (ed.). Critical issues in Israeli Society. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004, pp. 71-93.
• Eckardt, Alice L. and Eckardt, Roy A. Encounter with Israel: a challenge to conscience. New York: Association Press, 1970, pp. 73-79.

• Ben Zadok, Efraim. Local communities and the Israeli polity: conflict of values and interests. Albany: State University of New York Press, c1993, pp. 189-208.

Israel and its Arabs Neighbors

• Bickerton, Ian J. and Klausner, Carla L. A history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010, pp.1-14; 390-400.

Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism and Post-Colonialism

• Dowty, Alan (ed.). Critical issues in Israeli Society.Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004, pp. 223-247.
• Laqueur, Walter. A history of Zionism. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, c1972, pp. 589-599.

• Shapira, Anita. "Politics and Collective Memory: The Debate over the 'New Historians' in Israel". History and Memory 7(1), 1995: 9-40.

This course explores the history and culture of Jews in Eastern Europe. Focusing on the Jewish societies in the Russian and Austrian Empires, the course seeks to map the Jewish experience from the late 1700s until the first decades of twentieth century through topics such as secularization, urbanization, migration, antisemitism, political movements, and war. We study the destruction of the Jewish societies in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust as well as Jewish memory and renewal in Eastern Europe since the end of Communism. 

Course Goals

• Examine the cultures of Jews in Eastern Europe as well as the historical forces that transformed these societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
• Explore a variety of primary source materials and discuss their use as historical evidence.
• Write analytical, thesis-driven essays based on close reading of the course materials.

Required Course Books

• Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001).
• Henryk Grynberg, The Jewish War and The Victory (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2001).
• Eva Hoffman, Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews (New York: Public Affairs, 2007).
• Israel J. Singer, The Brothers Ashkenazi (Orig. 1936, New York: Other Press, 2010).

Electronic Readings

*The YIVO Encyclopedia of the Jews of Eastern Europe.  The YIVO Encyclopedia can be accessed using this link: http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/

Assignments and Grading

• Attendance and Participation, 10%
• Article Response (Sept. 30), 10%
• Midterm (Oct. 14), 20%
• Essay Ashkenazi (Nov. 9), 25%
• Take-Home Final Exam (Dec. 8), 35%

**All readings and other course materials are required.**

The way people choose to resist repression or persecution is shaped by many things, including their convictions, the situation they face, and their internalization of traditional models. In this course we will focus on the way traditional narratives of Jewish resistance and martyrdom have been created, and how they have shifted over the centuries (from antiquity to modern times) in response to changing historical experience. We will examine how the “athletic” Jewish martyrs of the Hellenistic period gave way to the pious and suffering types of the medieval period, and how modern events produced Jewish narratives that glorified physical resistance and decried “passivity.”

Among the questions we’ll ask are the following: How have Jews weighed their choices in responding to oppression and persecution? In what circumstances have they favored martyrdom; in what circumstances have they rejected it? How have they viewed the option of physical resistance? When have they viewed dissimulation (deception, concealment) as the best course of action?  How have their attempts to memorialize episodes of resistance favored certain responses and minimized others?

Texts:

David Biale, Power in Jewish History.

James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak.

Tessa Rajak, “Dying for the Law: The Martyr’s Portrait in Jewish-Greek Literature.”

Miriam Bodian, Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World

Jonathan Huener, “Auschwitz and the Politics of Martyrdom and Memory, 1945-1947,” Polin 20.

Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli  National Tradition.

Oz Almog, The Sabra: The Creation of the New Jew.

Grading:

The final grade will reflect class participation (10%) and grades received on a short paper (20%) a mid-term exam (30%) and a final exam (40%).

Course description

Why have Jews been hated and mistrusted for so long? How, if at all, does judeophobia differ from other types of xenophobia or racism?  In which societies have we historically seen intense hatred or mistrust of Jews? Where do we see it today? And where do we see the opposite phenomenon: philosemitism?

In this upper-level undergraduate course, we tackle these and related questions. We identify distinct types of judeophobia/antisemitism over 2,500 years, identifying continuity and change in antisemitic discourse.

Although our primary focus is on antisemitism in contemporary and historical Christian and Muslim societies, we begin in the antisemitic bedrock—Ancient Greece and Rome. We also look at antisemitism in peripheral societies which have had few Jews, if any (e.g., Japan). Finally, we consider judeophobia among Jews themselves—that is, the enduring phenomenon in which some Jews have not only internalized anti-Semitic discourse but have become “self-hating.”

Throughout the course, we use antisemitism to explore more general ideas in social theory, including globalization, and the nature of conflict related to race, ethnicity, class, and ideology. Perhaps most surprising and disturbing—this being a university—we look at the repeated role of intellectual elites in generating and justifying new forms of judeophobia, and in so doing, perpetuating this ancient hatred.

The events of the Holocaust changed Western culture in fundamental ways. Not only was a great part of Jewish culture in Europe destroyed, the circumstances of the Nazi genocide as a modern, highly rationalized, efficient form of mass murder which took place in the heart of civilized Europe changed the conception of the progress of modernity and the Enlightenment in fundamental ways. This course explores the historical, political, psychological, theological, and cultural fall-out, as well as literary and cinematic responses in Europe and the U.S. to these events as they first became known, and as one moved further away from it in time and came to understand its pronounced and often problematic after effects. Central to our inquiry is the realization that the events of the Holocaust have left indelible traces in European and U.S. culture and culture production, of which a closer look (first, decade by decade, then moving on to a number of themes and questions), reveals profound insights into current day culture, politics, and society. 

Texts:

• Levi and Rothberg, The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings
• Art Spiegelman, Maus I & II
• Ruth Klüger, Still Alive: a Girlhood Remembered
• Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
• Elie Wiesel, Night
• Additional course packet

Films:

• Nuit et Brouillard
• Holocaust (excerpts)
• Shoah (excerpts)
• Schindler's List (excerpt)

Requirements:

• Attendance/participation, 15%
• Response papers (2), 10%
• Class presentation, 10%
• Presentation paper, 15%
• Midterm exam, 20%
• Final research paper, 30% (proposal, bibliography, outline + 1st ¶, 5% each, paper: 15%)

ISRAELI BUSINESS LAW & FOREIGN INVESTMENTS Dr. Yoseph M. Edrey

Israel is a small country, yet it attracts significant foreign direct investments (FDI). For the last 20 years or so, most of the FDI were funneled to the high-tech industries (including start-up projects) and gas explorations.

The course provides a brief survey of the economic developments in Israel and tries to explore business opportunities available for foreign investors, especially those that are encouraged by government incentives.

The following are the main topics covered by the course:

• A general overview of the state of Israel;
• A brief introduction to the Israeli economy (including the major factors of production, i.e., real capital, human capital and social capital);
• Overview of the Israeli high-tech industry and its venture capital;
• Business and economic structures;
• Business organizations (firms, legal entities employees’ organization and trade unions);
• Capital markets;
• Business environment;
• Introduction to the Israeli legal system;
• Introduction to the Israeli tax system;
• Investment incentives and trade advantages;
• Foreign exchange control and prevention of money laundering.

Course Outcomes:

To get acquainted with the Israeli business opportunities; to understand the economic and legal environments foreign investors may encounter with. In addition we will identify the trends, directions, risks and chances the Israeli economy faces.

Course Materials:

• International Book Publishing: Israel Business Law Handbook (2007)
• Dan Marglit, Doing Business in Israel (2010)
• Ruth Levush, Israeli Law Guide http://www.llrx.com/features/israel3.htm
• Russell D. Mayer, “Legal Aspects of Running a Business in Israel” (2010)
• Israeli Supreme Court Decision:  CA 2026/92 Income Tax Assessor v. Sadot
• Israeli Supreme Court Decision: HCJ 2605/05 Academic Center of Law and Business v. Minister of Finance
• Course packet: with Xeroxed Court's decisions, journal articles and book chapters

Grading:

• 3 quizzes (each 10% of grade)
• Final take-home exam (70% of grade)

Course Description

In the contemporary world of mass migration movements, our history has much to teach us about the human face of such complex issues as racial and national profiling, religious in-fighting, linguistic and cultural controversies, economic and legal marginalizations, immigrant detention and deportation, and other headlines in our daily news. This course takes a centennial look back in history to explore the “gateway experience” of  hundreds of thousands of Jews who fled the pogroms of the Russian Pale of Settlement in the  early years of the 20th century-- frequently with the aid of governmental and immigrant aid societies--and found themselves on the doorsteps of such unlikely places as Galveston, Texas and a newly Zionist "Palestine." Drawing on primary document research, original oral histories, and secondary texts from each of these sites, this course will elucidate the complex ideological, political, legal, economic and social factors involved in  the  organized migration and settlement of Jews in the US and what is now Israel, primarily, and the lessons learned about the relative “success”  or “failure” of  each of these migration “experiments.”  

This course will be "team taught"--using a video conferencing system--by two migration scholars of the Jewish immigrant experience: Dr. Suzanne Seriff at UT, and Dr. Gur ALroey at Haifa University in Israel. We will combine our classes for the middle portion of the semester, so that students at UT and students at Haifa University will have the benefit of learning from each other, dialoguing about timely issues of immigration, both past and present, and having the privilege of meeting immigrant descendants, writers, and artists from this unique moment in each of our histories. Drawing on primary document material, we will lead our students in a comparison between   those who came to Palestine in the early  20th century and those who landed in Galveston’s port in the same period of time.  The aim of this course is threefold: first, a focus on the migration policies  which characterize the immigration to Palestine and Galveston; second, an  exploration of the demographic composition of the Jewish immigrants who debarked  in Galveston between 1907 and 1914 compared to the composition of immigration to  Palestine during the same years; third, since both cases — the Zionist and the  “Galvestonian” — involved attempts to deliver a productive population of  immigrants capable of self-sufficiency to the destination countries, a  determination about which of the two was more "successful." In so doing, the course will compare and contrast the  attitudes toward “alien foreigners” in both countries, exploring the particular interrogation procedures at each port of entry which were designed either to encourage newcomers, or  restrict entry of those thought to be “undesirable” and  "un-assimilatable".

List of Proposed Texts

Gur Alroey, Bread to Eat and Clothes to Wear: Letters from Jewish Migrants in the Twentieth Century.

Bernard Marinbach, Galveston: Ellis Island of the West

Bryan Stone: The Chosen Folks: Jews on the Frontiers of Texas

Eric Goldsten: The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race and American Identity

Gur Alroey: The Quiet Revolution: Jewish Emigration from the Russian Empire, 1875-1924

Boas Neumann, Land and Desire in Early Zionism

Eithne Luibheid, Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border

Proposed Grading Policy

Students will be graded on a plus/minus grading system, based on two 5 page papers and a final research project/presentation which will involve original primary or secondary document research or ethnographic fieldwork with immigrant descendants from this time period.

Israel has the highest proportion of migrants of any country in the world. The notion of absorption—the social and economic integration of Jewish immigrants—has remained an explicit ideal since the founding of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Yet absorption is also an ideological tool that often runs counter to the contemporary lived experience of citizenship, participation, nation building, minority rights, and the conflicting interests of today’s multicultural publics. Taking these tensions as a starting point, this course explores the complex social fabric that comprises contemporary Israeli society, and that shapes Israeli identity, practice and politics. We will focus on the lived experience of Israel’s increasingly diverse population. This includes populations associated with the majority: veteran Ashkenazim and Mizrahim; more recent Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, Latin America and France; religious communities such Haredim and modern-Orthodox. It also includes ethnic and religious minorities such as Arab-Israelis/Palestinians, Bedouins, Christians, Muslims, Druze, and Black Hebrews, as well as laborers from all over the globe who migrate to Israel for work. How fluid are boundaries between these groups? How different are their interests, tastes and desires? How committed are various publics to a coherent nation-building project and to contemporary Zionism? To explore the breadth of multicultural Israel without sacrificing cultural specificity and theoretical depth, the course is organized into three integrated units: a) historical background of Israel and its populations; b) Israel’s citizen-state relationships, identity and belonging, and c) ethnographic case studies of Israel-specific multicultural issues, and general contemporary multicultural theory.                   

Note: This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present. 

Supervised individual reading and research for one semester, followed by writing substantial honors thesis during the second semester. Restricted to Jewish Studies majors. Prereq: For 679HA, admission to the Jewish Studies Honors Programs, and for 679HB, Jewish Studies, 679HA.

Supervised individual reading and research for one semester, followed by writing substantial honors thesis during the second semester. Restricted to Jewish Studies majors. Prereq: For 679HA, admission to the Jewish Studies Honors Programs, and for 679HB, Jewish Studies, 679HA.