Ithaca College
Fall Semester 2004

Jews in the Modern World

Topics for Analysis Papers, second half of course

You must write three papers, chosen from these topics, before the final exam. There are a variety of due dates – choose carefully to give yourself enough time to write the papers.

The papers should be at least 3 pages long (longer if you tend to write more verbosely, although not more than 6 pages). The questions ask you to engage in analysis and to make an argument. The papers should not be just a list of facts, or just a statement of your opinion. Your argument should be backed up by reference to the relevant facts and events.

USE ONLY THE SOURCES LISTED UNDER READINGS, or other works that you find relevant among the course books. DO NOT USE THE INTERNET FOR THESE PAPERS. IF YOU USE THE INTERNET, YOU WILL BE PENALIZED. By the same token, AVOID PLAGIARISM. If you need a definition of plagiarism, consult my Ithaca College web site.

The papers should be typed, double-spaced, with a one-inch margin all the way around. Since these are short papers using a limited number of sources, cite your sources using in-line citations, giving the author’s name and the page number, in this form: (Scheindlin 33). Please give a Works Cited list at the end of the paper.

1. Religious Changes of Modernity — due November 9

Readings: Katz, pp. 124-160; Scheindlin, pp. 168-71; Mendes-Flohr, 155-161, 177-185, 194-197, 197-202, and 202-205; Simon, pp. 65-83 (article by Zvi Zohar on religious changes in Middle Eastern Judaism)

Enlightenment and Emancipation had a great effect upon Jewish religious life, first in Europe and then in other parts of the Jewish world. How did modernity give rise to the various Jewish movements in Europe? In contrast, what were the effects of modernity upon Jewish religion in the Middle East, and how did they differ from the changes in Europe, and how does Zvi Zohar in his article account for the differences between the Middle East and Europe?

2. Impact of European colonialism and modernization on Middle Eastern Jews — due Nov. 9

Readings: Stillman, pp. 3-46; Simon, pp. 19-24; Simon, pp. 65-83 (religious life); Simon, pp. 242-250 (changing roles of women); Mendes-Flohr, pp. 316-321 (Alliance Israelite Universelle).

What were the political, cultural, and economic changes that European colonialism and modernity brought to the Jews of the Middle East? Discuss especially the contrasting experiences of Jews who lived under French rule (the Jews of Algeria) and those living in the Ottoman Empire, especially in the central Ottoman lands (Turkey itself)

3. Eastern European Jewish culture and politics — due November 11, in class

Readings: Scheindlin, pp. 173-187; Mendes-Flohr, pp. 372-380 (Russian anti-Jewish measures), pp. 381-386 (Haskalah), 394-397 (Musar), 402-405 (Yiddish vs. Hebrew); 408-411 (pogroms), 417-423 (Jewish socialism); Course Reader #5: David Biale, "A Journey Between Worlds," pp. 799-834.

Due to the nature of the Russian regime, Jews in living in the Pale of Settlement were not given the chances at emancipation that Jews in Western Europe had. What were some of the important Jewish movements that arose in the 19th century to cope with the Jewish situation in the Russian Empire? For example, how did the Haskalah develop among Russian Jewish intellectuals? What was the impact of the Musar movement upon the life of the yeshivot? How did Hasidism change in the 19th century? Why did so many Jews turn to socialism to solve their problems? (discuss one of these topics in your paper)

4. American Jewry — due November 16, in class

Readings: Scheindlin, pp. 187-197; Mendes-Flohr, pp. 449-465; pp. 468-470 (Reform & Orthodox Jews), 472-476 (immigration), 509-512 (restrictions on immigration), 517-518 (Reform Jews).

The case has often been made for an American "exceptionalism" with regard to Jews — that the United States is uniquely welcoming to Jews and that Jews have flourished in America due to essential American qualities. Is this argument correct? Read the sources listed above on Jewish settlement in the United States and assess this argument, pro and con.

5. Zionism— due November 18, in class

Readings: Scheindlin, pp. 217-226; Simon, pp. 165-172 or Stillman, pp. 65-91; Mendes-Flohr, pp. 529-538 (Herzl), 541-543 (First Zionist Congress), 548-549 (Palestine as goal), 558-562 (Arabs in Palestine), 568-571 (religious anti-Zionism), 582 (Balfour Declaration).

Zionism was one of several competing Jewish ideologies in 19th and 20th century Europe and the Middle East that proposed to solve the "Jewish question" of the place of Jews in the modern world. What did the various Zionist groups propose — for example, settlement in Uganda or in Palestine — and how did they answer their Jewish and non-Jewish critics?

6. Jewish life in the interwar period — due November 30, in class

Readings: Roth, pp. xi, 1-67; Stillman, pp. 47-64 and 93-112.

A. Joseph Roth, in The Wandering Jews, describes very acutely the situation of eastern European Jews between the wars, both in their homes in the east and when they emigrate to western European cities. What are the most important characteristics of their lives? How are they regarded by their western European brethren, and how does he believe they should truly be understood?

or (see next page)

B. What was the situation of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa after World War I — what were the effects of the fall of the Ottoman Empire, European colonialism, and the rise of Arab nationalism?

7. Anti-semitism, due November 30, in class

Readings: Roth, pp. 121-137; Stillman, pp. 93-112; Mendes-Flohr, pp. 302-303, 309-310 (Fichte), 313-315 (Damascus Affair), 327-334 (racial anti-semitism), 343-346 (Treitschke), 363-367 (Protocols of the Elders of Zion), 512-514 (Henry Ford), 636-639 (Hitler).

The anti-semitic ideology that led to the Holocaust was substantially different from the religiously-based anti-Jewish feeling that had existed in Christian Europe for many centuries. Why and how did racial and political anti-semitism develop in 19th century Europe? What distinguished this ideology from earlier Christian anti-semitism? What was the impact of European anti-semitism upon the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

8. The Shoah — due December 2

Readings: Scheindlin, pp. 199-215; Stillman, pp. 113-139; Mendes-Flohr, p. 642 (Aryan paragraph), 645-649 (Nuremberg laws), 656-658 (Hitler’s Jan. 1939 speech), 662-665 (Wannsee conference), 666-673 (life in the Warsaw Ghetto), 686-690 (Rudolf Hoess), p. 696 (Jewish deaths).

A. Historical arguments about the Shoah often center around the issue of whether Hitler, or the Nazi Party as a whole, intended from the beginning to try to exterminate all the Jews of Europe, or whether this was a goal that developed gradually, especially after the beginning of World War II in September, 1939. Discuss these two theories, using the evidence of the above readings — which do you find more convincing, given the available evidence?

or

B. The impact of the Shoah on the Jews of Europe is best known, while knowledge of what happened to the Jews of North Africa under the Vichy Regime is less well-known. What were Nazi plans for the Jews of Jews of North Africa, and what was the impact of Vichy laws on the Jews in those countries? (for your sources: read the Scheindlin and Stillman chapters).

9. Founding of Israel — due December 7

Readings: Scheindlin, pp. 227-238; Simon, pp. 172-179; Stillman, pp. 141-180; Mendes-Flohr, pp. 589-594 (Palestine mandate), 609-611 (Jabotinsky), 613-617 (White Paper), 626-627 (UN resolution), 629-630 (Proclamation of the state)

Describe the historical forces that gave rise to the establishment of the state of Israel. In your answer, consider the roles of the Zionist movement, British colonialism in Mandatory Palestine, the effects of World War II, the stance of the American government, and the actions of the United Nations.

 

This page maintained by: Rebecca Lesses
Last revised October 26, 2004