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Jonathan Zatlin Hi 443 Jews in Modern German History

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Jonathan Zatlin Hi 443 Jews in Modern German History JONATHAN ZATLIN Office Tel: 3-8310 M12-3, 226 BSR Room 304 Office: 226 Bay State Rd., #405 Email: [email protected] Office hours: M3-4, W11-12, F11-12 HI 443 JEWS IN MODERN GERMAN HISTORY COURSE DESCRIPTION This course explores the transformation of Jews in German-speaking lands from emancipation to the Shoah (Holocaust) and afterward. Beginning with the struggle for Jewish civil rights, the course aims to arrive at an understanding of minority identity-formation in western societies by taking up the German-Jewish example. In addition to examining the social and economic transformation of German Jews, we will examine the consequences of Jewish acculturation and assimilation, including the changing modes of modern Jewish religious expression (Reform, Neo- Orthodoxy, Conservativism); the invention of scholarly approaches to the study of Judaism and the Jews; modern Jewish political ideologies and movements, including socialism and Zionism; modern anti-Jewish sentiment and Jewish responses; Jewish life under the Nazis. We will end the course with a consideration of German-Jewish history, the vitality of the current German-Jewish community, and post-1945 German attitudes toward Jews. REQUIREMENTS Grades will be determined by your performance on the following assignments: Class participation 15 percent Presentation and response 15 percent Two five-page papers (Oct. 1 and Nov. 5) 30 percent One 10 to 15-page paper (Dec. 10) 40 percent PARTICIPATION It is your responsibility to attend class regularly and contribute to the class discussion. Note that one-third of your grade is based on your contribution to class discussion. Participation is not simply a matter of speaking up in class. It also entails demonstrating your engagement with the assigned texts, asking relevant questions, respecting the opinions of others, and having the courage to make mistakes. Making mistakes is integral to learning; it is only through mistakes that you can clarify confusions and deepen your understanding of the subject. For this reason, you will not be graded on the content of what you say, but rather on how much you contribute constructively to the class. PRESENTATION To facilitate discussion, each student will be asked to make one oral presentation during the course of the semester. The oral presentation, which you will undertake with other students, should not assume the form of a dry exposition of the week’s readings, but rather involve an attempt to engage your peers in a discussion of what you consider to be the key questions brought up by the readings. Your presentation can take any form you think will be most effective in starting discussion; I encourage you to be as creative as you can in carrying out this assignment. RESPONSE In addition, the week after your presentation, you will be asked to prepare a response to the next presentation. Once again, the idea is to facilitate discussion. Having survived your own presentation, your new job is to glean the most important points from the assigned readings. Rather Zatlin - 2 than preparing anything for presentation, your job is to respond spontaneously to the oral presentation for that week, with an eye to engaging with your peers. PAPERS Students will be asked to write three papers. The first two assignments are five-page papers based on an analysis of the week’s readings (Oct. 1 and Nov. 5). In these short papers, you will be asked to engage one argument or problem that appears in the readings up to that week and evaluate its consequences. In contrast, the final and longer paper will involve researching a topic at greater length using at least two outside sources. You will be asked to hand in a brief description of the paper on November 19, which is intended to get you thinking about possible topics. The papers themselves are due on December 10. Please turn papers in on time. “On time” means at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Late papers will be marked down one letter grade per day. CHEATING Cheating is a serious infraction of scholarly conduct, and will earn an automatic F for the course. Cheating includes plagiarism, which is defined as the use of intellectual material produced by another person without appropriate acknowledgment. Plagiarism includes three words or more in order taken from a source without attribution. Please read the Boston University Academic Conduct Code carefully, and the section on plagiarism in particular. REQUIRED READING The following books are available for purchase at Barnes and Noble: Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism (Vintage, 1955) Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise, trans. Ronald Schechter (Bedford, 2003) Paul Mendes-Flohr and Yehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World (OUP, 2nd edition) Helmut Walser Smith, The Butcher's Tale. Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town (Norton, 2002) All readings marked with an asterisk (*) can be found online at the CourseInfo website; all articles marked with a second sign (§) can be found via JSTOR, Project Muse, or BU’s online catalogue. RECOMMENDED READING If you are unfamiliar with the general outlines of German history from 1790 to 1990, you may have difficulty following the course. To gain a sense of both the turning points in German history and the reduction by historians of German-Jewish history to the history of antisemitism, I strongly urge you to read a synthetic history, such as James J. Sheehan, German History, 1770-1866 or Dietrich Orlow, A History of Modern Germany, 1871 to the Present. September 10: Introduction Film: Paul Wegener, The Golem (1920), 85 minutes September 17: Jews and Germans in Historical Perspective *Salo W. Baron, “Ghetto and Emancipation,” in Leo Schwarz, ed. The Menorah Treasury, 50-63. *Michael Meyer, “Where Does the Modern Period in Jewish History Begin?” Judaism (Summer 1975), 329-338. *Monika Richarz, “Introduction,” in Jewish Life in Germany, 1-38. *Gershom Scholem, “Against the Myth of the German-Jewish Dialogue” (1964) *Gershom Scholem, “The Science of Judaism – Then and Now,” in Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism, 304-313. §Jacob Katz, “The Unique Fascination of German Jewish History,” Modern Judaism 9 (1989), 141-50. Zatlin - 3 §Shulamit Magnus, “German Jewish History,” Modern Judaism 11 (1991), 125-146. §Michael A. Meyer, “Modernity as a Crisis for the Jews,” Modern Judaism 9 (1989), 151-64. September 24: Enlighteners and Maskilim Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise, parts one and two Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: Frederick II, “The Charter Decreed for the Jews of Prussia;” Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, “Concerning the Amelioration of the Civil Status of the Jews;” Joseph II, “Edict of Tolerance;” Johann David Michaelis, “Arguments against Dohm;” Moses Mendelssohn, “Response to Dohm,” “Remarks Concerning Michaelis’ Response,” “The Right to be Different,” and “On the Curtailment of Jewish Juridical Autonomy;” “Mendelssohn Visits the Seer of Koenigsberg,” 22-49, 61, 68, 87-90. *Jakob Katz, Out of the Ghetto, chaps. 4-5 *David Sorkin, The Transformation of German Jewry, 13-78. *H.D. Schmidt, “The Terms of Emancipation, 1781-1812,” LBIYB 1 (1956), 28-47. October 1: Towards Emancipation Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World: Naphtali Herz Wessely, “Words of Peace and Truth;” Ezekiel Landau,” Sermon on Wessely;” Mendelssohn, “Judaism as Revealed Legislation;” Saul Ascher, “Leviathan;” Lazarus Bendavid, “Notes Regarding the Characteristics of the Jews;” Bruno Bauer, “The Jewish Problem;” Richard Wagner, “Jewry in Music;” eds., 74, 77-80, 97-105, 321-4, 327-330 Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Question” (available online at marxists.org) *Eduard Silbermann, Itzig Hamburger, and Moses Seligmann, in Richarz, 80-93, 124-33, 141-7. *Klaus L. Berghahn, “Lavater’s Attempt to Compel the Conversion of Moses Mendelssohn;” Julius Schoeps, “Moses Mendelssohn Writes Jerusalem;” David Sorkin, “The Final Volume of Moses Mendelssohn’s Edition of the Pentateuch Appears;” Moshe Pelli, “The Haskalah Begins in Germany;” Deborah Hertz, “Madame de Staël Pays a Visit,” in Gilman and Zipes, Jewish Writing and Thought, 61-7, 88-107, 116-123. *Herbert A. Strauss, “Pre-Emancipation Prussian Policies toward the Jews, 1815-1847” LBIYB 11 (1966), 107-136. §Simone Lässig, “How German Jewry Turned Bourgeois: Religion, Culture, and Social Mobility in the Age of Emancipation” Bulletin of the GHI 37 (2005), 59-73. §Marion Kaplan, “Friendship on the Margins,” Central European History 34 (2001), 471-501. Film: Pawnshop scene from Werner Herzog, Woyzeck (1979) First Short Paper Due October 8: No class – Columbus Day (substitute Monday for Tuesday) October 9: The Transformation of Jewish Cultural and Religious Practice Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz: Introduction; “Constitution of the Hamburg Temple;” Eliezer Liebermann, “The Light of Splendor;” Hamburg Rabbinical Court, “Words of the Covenant;” Moses Sofer, “A Reply;” Meyer Israel Bresselau, “The Sword;” Reform Rabbinical Conference, “Hebrew” and “The Question of Messianism;” Salomon Jehuda Leib Rappoport, “Open Rebuke;” Zecharias Frankel, “On Changes in Zatlin - 4 Judaism;” Samson Raphael Hirsch, “Religion Allied to Progress;” Akiba Joseph Schlesinger, “An Ultra-Orthodox Position;” Hirsch, “Secession of the Orthodox;” Eduard Gans, “A Society;” “Immanuel Wolf, “On the Concept;” Leopold Zunz, “On Rabbinic Literature;” Moritz Steinschneider, “The Future;” Abraham Geiger, “Jewish Scholarship and Religious Reform;” Samson Raphael Hirsch, “A Sermon;” Martin Buber, “Jewish Scholarship;” Simon Dubnow, “Documenting Jewish History,” 155- 176, 178-185, 188-206, 215-35, 241-5. *Susannah Heschel, “Abraham Geiger;” Céline Trautmann-Waller, “Leopold Zunz;” Mordechai Breuer, “Samson Raphael Hirsch,” in Gilman and Zipes, 193-211. *David H. Ellenson, “German Jewish Orthodoxy: Tradition in the Context of Culture,” in Jack Wertheimer (ed.), The Uses of Tradition, 5-22. *Derek Penslar, “Philanthropy, the ‘Social Question’ and Jewish Identity in Imperial Germany,” LBIYB 38 (1993), 51-73. *Ismar Schorsch, “Zacharias Frankel and the European Origin of Conservative Judaism,” Judaism (Summer 1981), 344-354.
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