HI3xx/RN332 – Foundations of Jewish Politics Fall 2012 Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-3:30

Prof. Simon Rabinovitch [email protected] http://blogs.bu.edu/srabinov

Office hours: 226 Bay State Road, Room 209, tel. 353-9915

Course Outline and Objectives

As a topic, simply defining “Jewish politics” can be difficult. Is it a question about how historically defined their political community? Is “Jewish politics” about self-advocacy with non-Jewish authorities? Is it about participation by Jews in non-Jewish political institutions? Or is it the creation of universal political by Jews? Does “Jewish politics” encompass internal Jewish debate about Jewish society? Perhaps it refers to the politics of self-defined Jewish political ideologies, as “Jewish politics” is today most commonly understood. Is “Jewish politics” all, some, or none of the above? Fundamentally, to ask “what is Jewish politics?” is to ask “what are the Jews?” and the answer may be dramatically different depending on when and where one looks.

This course is intended as a foundational course for the study of Jewish political . From biblical times until today - in , the , and the Middle East - we will seek to gain a broad understanding of the central aspects of the “Jewish political tradition.” The most important objective guiding the course is to understand how Jewish political strategies, self-definition, power, and sovereignty changed over the course of depending upon the particular circumstances in which Jews found themselves. With this course students will gain the necessary historical context to understand the Jewish political developments of the 20th century, in particular the creation of distinctly Jewish political ideologies and the founding of .

The course is divided into four sections:

I. Human and Divine Kingship We examine the religious texts and precepts defining the Jewish political community in the ancient period, and how they changed II. Community and Representation in Medieval and Early Modern Europe We examine Jewish political autonomy and representation before the “era of emancipation” III. Politics of Emancipation We examine the process in which Jewish political rights, responsibilities, and self- definition evolved in different states in the modern period IV. Shifting Conceptions of Jewish Politics: Universalism vs. Particularism We examine some of the key themes of Jewish politics as they developed in the modern period

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Course Requirements

Your final grade will be determined as follows:

Take-home midterm examination: 20%. The examination will be distributed at the end of class on Thursday, October 25. It is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 30.

Analytical essay: 30%. Due November 29. This 8-10 page essay should ask a probing question (or questions) about the historical foundations of modern Jewish politics. Your essay should not only demonstrate that you have attended class and read the necessary primary and secondary material, but more importantly, that you have thought carefully about the material and drawn your own conclusions from it.

Final examination: 30%.

Class participation: 20%. Attendance and informed participation is required. Students should read the class materials beforehand, prepare their own questions, and be prepared for me to call upon them.

All assignments should be completed independently and plagiarism from any source is unacceptable. In all written assignments be sure to properly credit (using proper citations) all ideas, phrases, statements, arguments, and ideas taken from your sources. Cases of suspected academic misconduct will be referred to the Dean’s Office. If they have not already, students should familiarize themselves with the Academic Conduct Code of the College of Arts and Sciences: http://www.bu.edu/cas/students/undergrad-resources/code/

Books to Purchase

Required: David Biale, Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History (New York, 1986)

Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages (Syracuse, 2000)

Pierre Birnbaum and Ira Katznelson eds. Paths of Emancipation: Jews, States, and (Princeton, 1995)

Paul Mendes Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz eds., The in the Modern World: A Documentary History 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1995). Note: Referred to as JMW in the syllabus, these reading assignments are numbered with the corresponding page numbers given in the JMW assignment sheet (to be handed out). These texts will be used for discussion so students should bring their copy of JMW or the relevant pages to each applicable class.

Recommended: John Efron et al eds. The Jews: A History (Prentice Hall, 2008)

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Blackboard All required readings not in the above books will be available in digital format on Blackboard, indicated in the syllabus by *.

Course Schedule and Assignments

September 4 – Introduction to the course

I. Human and Divine Kingship

September 6 - Covenant Daniel Elazar and Stuart Cohen, “An Introduction to the Jewish Political Tradition,” in The Jewish Polity (Bloomington, 1985), 1-41* Selections from the *

September 11 – Kings and Priests Biale, intro and chapter 1 Selections from the Bible*

September 13 – and Sages Biale, chapter 2 Selections from the *

II. Community and Representation in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

October 2 – Legal Frameworks Biale, chapter 3

September 18 – Jewish Autonomy in Medieval Europe Katz, Part II

September 20 – Jewish Autonomy in Early Modern Gershon Hundert, “Community” (chapter 4) in Jews in Poland- in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity (UC Press, 2004)*

September 25 – The Decline of Jewish Corporate Autonomy Katz, Part III Gershon Hundert, “Was there a Communal ‘Crisis’ in the Eighteenth Century?” (chapter 5) Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity (UC Press, 2004)*

September 27 - Jewish Autonomy in the John D. Klier, “The Kahal in the Russian Empire,” Institute Yearbook 5 (2006), 39-40* Israel Bartal, “From Corporation to Nation: Jewish Autonomy in , 1772-1881,” Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 5 (2006): 25-26*

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III. Politics of Emancipation

October 4 – Absolutism and Enlightenment Biale, chapter 4-5 JMW 1

October 9 – no class, substitute Monday

October 11 – The Politics of : An Introduction to Terms Paths of Emancipation, chapter 1 Maud Mandel, “Assimilation and Cultural Exchange in Modern Jewish History,” in Jeremy Cohen and Moshe Rosman eds., Rethinking European Jewish History (2009), 72-92*

October 16 – Jewish Emancipation in Paths of Emancipation, chapter 3 JMW 2

October 18 – Jews in Paths of Emancipation, chapter 4 JMW 3

October 23 – Anglo-Jewry Paths of Emancipation, chapter 5 JMW 4

October 25 – Jews in the Paths of Emancipation, chapter 6 JMW 5 -Take-home midterm examination distributed

October 30 – The Russian Empire Paths of Emancipation, chapter 9 JMW 6 -Take-home midterm examination due

IV. Shifting Conceptions of Jewish Politics: Universalism vs. Particularism

November 1 – Return to “Peoplehood” Judah Leib Gordon, “Awake My People!” in JMW p. 384. Peretz Smolenskin, “The Eternal People,” in Rabinovitch ed. Jews and * , “The Sins of My Youth,” in ed. The Golden Tradition (Syracuse, 1996)*

November 6 – Anti-Jewish Violence and Jewish Political Consciousness

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Antony Polonsky, “The Position of the Jews in the Russian Empire, 1881-1905,” in The Jews in Poland and vol. 2 (Oxford, 2010), 3-39* Monty Noam Penkower, “The Kishinev of 1903: A Turning Point in Jewish History.” Modern 24, no. 3 (October 2004): 187-225 (available on Project Muse)*

November 8 – Self-Emancipation Peretz Smolenskin, “Let us Search our Ways,” and , “Auto-Emancipation,” in Arthur Hertzberg ed. The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader (Philadelphia, 1997)*

November 12 – Return to Soil Israel Bartal, “Farming the Land on Three Continents: , Am Oylom, and Yehe Nahar,” in Jewish History, vol. 21, nos. 3-4 (Sept. 2007): 249-261* Shmuel Ettinger and Israel Bartal, “The First : Ideological Roots and Practical Accomplishments,” in Jehuda Reinharz and eds. Essential Papers on (NYU, 1996)* JMW 7

November 15 – Diaspora vs. Exile Simon Dubnov, “Jews as a Spiritual (Cultural-Historic) Nation among Political Nations” in Rabinovitch ed. Jews and Diaspora Nationalism* Ahad Ha’am “The ” in The Zionist Idea*

November 20 – Labor and Land Nahman Syrkin “The Jewish Problem and the Socialist-,” and Aaron David Gordon, “People and Labor” in The Zionist Idea*

November 27 – The Jewish Proletariat in Europe and the U.S. Fishman, David. “The Bund and Modern Culture,” in Zvi Gitelman ed. The Emergence of Modern Jewish Politics: and Zionism in Eastern Europe (Pittsburgh, 2003). JMW 8

November 22 – no class, Thanksgiving

November 29 – Jews and American Liberalism Rebecca Kobrin, “The 1905 Revolution Abroad: Mass Migration, Russian Jewish Liberalism, and American Jewry, 1904-1914,” and Eli Lederhendler, “Democracy and Assimilation: The Jews, America, and the Russian Crisis from Kishinev to the End of ” in Stefani Hoffman and Mendelsohn eds. The Revolution of 1905 and Russia’s Jews (Philadelphia, 2008), 227-254* JMW 9

December 4 – Jews and American Pluralism Horace Kallen, “Democracy versus the ,” in Rabinovitch ed. Jews and Diaspora Nationalism* David Biale, “The Melting Pot and Beyond: Jews and the Politics of American Identity,” in Insider/Outsider: and Multiculturalism (Berkeley, 1998), 17-33*

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December 6 – A Jewish State or the Jews’ State? Israel Kolatt, “Religion, Society, and State during the Period of the National Home,” in Zionism and Religion (Brandeis UP, 1998), 273-301* Biale, chapter 6

December 11 – last day of class Biale, chapter 7 Gerson Cohen, “The Blessing of Assimilation in Jewish History,” in Jewish History and Jewish Destiny (JTSA Press, 1997)*

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