This a draft and may be changed somewhat. Also some citations are not complete.

History 74900, Topics in American Jewish History Professor Thomas Kessner Spring 2012; Tu 2:00-4:00 [email protected]; 212. 817.8437

For those who would understand the history of the and its diverse people the history of the Jews in the US is significant; for those who would understand Jewish history, the role of the Jewish community in the United States is crucial.

Less than one hundred years ago many would have questioned this latter statement. After all, the important centers of world Jewry were located across the Atlantic and much that was important in Jewish life transpired there. But troubles and tragedies triggered a series of migrations that brought millions of Jews to the U.S. and today the U.S. has the largest Jewish population in the world.

We will be investigating some of the uprooting forces that accounted for the waves of Jewish immigration. They came (especially in the period 1880-1920) in the millions, and confronted many of the conventional immigrant challenges; and others that were quite unique. In time this previously marginal population formed an influential minority populating America’s large cities and lending their institutions a piquant cultural tone.

It is of course too simple to speak of a single American Jewish community or culture for they came from many places with a variety of backgrounds. Is there a center that held these disparate historical elements together? Can America’s Jews legitimately be described as a community? Do they share values and outlooks? Are they defined by religion or culture or social relationships, or is there something else, perhaps external, that is even more important?

What was the process of their Americanization? What were the forces – economic, political, social, cultural and religious- that shaped their experience here? Moreover, it was far from a passive experience. Jews had a large, perhaps disproportionate, impact on the American nation and we will seek to study that impact on society, thought, culture and politics.

And what of Judaism? How did it fare in the free, largely Protestant atmosphere of the US? We will discuss the rise of Reform and Conservatism and the resurgence of a diverse American Orthodoxy. We will also look at other themes, both benign and cataclysmic: Zionism, Socialist thought, the Holocaust, .

Over the past thirty years a generation of freshly conceived studies about American Jewish life have given this field a vigor and standing that it had not attained before. Historians of the American Jewish experience have fashioned a rigorous body of systematic work that is informed by theory and broad questions. They have crafted a textured complex past from the lives of immigrants, artists, political ideologues and religious thinkers; from philanthropists, workers, women, and idealists.

Many of these imaginative and at times provocative monographs have tended to isolate their topics, viewing them narrowly to create a field of brilliant fragments. Our challenge will be to bring these important segments together to shape an understanding of American Jewish history.

Course learning objectives:

Over the course of the semester students will be expected to demonstrate: • An understanding of key texts in American Jewish History • An understanding of the role of politics, economics, social forces, culture and technology in shaping American Jewish life • Knowledge of the American Jewish experience and an appreciation for its complexity • An understanding of the role of America’s Jewish population on the larger historical forces of the nation • An understanding of the role of the American Jewish community on the larger world Jewish community. • An ability lead a class discussion on a topic in American Jewish history. • An ability to critically review and analyze historical studies • Achieve a familiarity with important research resources including archives, web sources, and source collections in the field • An ability to write a well defined, carefully researched and cogently argued research paper in the field of American Jewish history

Weekly Assignments:

The assignments in this course are designed to train students for research, writing and teaching. Reading, leading class discussions and participating in them are integral to successfully completing the work for this class. Each session will have a discussion leader who will also prepare a short synopsis of a supplemental reading. The weekly discussion will begin with a report on the supplementary book and then move to a full discussion of the assigned readings. A second reader will offer a critique of the reading that will include a consideration of the review literature.

Required Readings are drawn from the following:

Jonathan D. Sarna, Ed., The American Jewish Experience (Holmes & Meier, 2nd edition, 1997). ISBN-10: 0841913765: AJE Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism: A History, ( Press, 2004). ISBN-10: 0300109768: AJH Jacob Rader Marcus, ed., The Jews in the American World: A Sourcebook (Wayne State University Press, 2004). ISBN-10: 0814325483; JAW Eli Faber, A Time for Planting: The First Migration, 1654-1820 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).ISBN-13: 978-0801851209 Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976). ISBN-10: 184212000X Moses Rischin, The Promised City: New York's Jews 1870-1914 (Harvard University Press, rev.ed. 1977). ISBN-10: 0674715012 Leonard Dinnerstein, Anti-Semitism in American Life (Oxford University Press, 1994). ISBN-10: 019510112X David A. Gerber, Anti-Semitism in American History (University of Illinois Press, 1986). ISBN-10: 0252012143 Tony Michels, A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York, (Harvard Univ. Press, 2005). ISBN-10: 0674032438 ,ed. The Legacy of Jewish Migration (Atlantic Research, 1883). ISBN-10: 0880330260: DBLJM Jerome Karabel, The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton (Houghton, Mifflin, 2005). ISBN-10: 061877355X John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (Rutgers University Press, 2002). ISBN-10: 0813531233 Beth S Wenger, New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise (Yale University Press, 1996). ISBN-10: 0815606176 David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (New York: Garland Pub., 1989). ISBN-10: 159558174X Melvin Urofsky, American Zionism: From Herzl to the Holocaust (Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1995). ISBN-10: 0803295596 Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life (Mariner Books, 2000). ISBN-10: 0618082328

Supplemental Readings:

Emily Bingham, Mordecai: An Early American Family (Hill and Wang, 2003). ISBN-10: 0809027569 Naomi Wiener Cohen, Encounter with Emancipation: The German Jews in the United States, 1830-1914 (Jewish Publication Society, 1984). ISBN-10: 0827602367 Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers, (Persea, 3d edition, 2003) ISBN-10: 0892552905 Susan Glenn, Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation (Cornell University Press, 1990), ISBN-10: 0801497590 Alexander Bloom, Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World (Oxford University Press, 1986). ISBN 0-19-503662-X Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (Anchor Books, 1988). ISBN-10: 0385265573 Michael Alexander, Jazz Age Jews (Princeton University Press, 2003). ISBN-10: 0691116539 , At Home in America (Columbia University Press, 1981). ISBN-10: 0231050631 Deborah E. Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933- 1945 (Free Press, 1986). ISBN-10: 0029191610 Michelle Mart, Eyes on Israel: How America Came to View the Jewish State as an Ally (State University of New York Press, 2006). ISBN-10: 0791466884 Cheryl Greenberg, Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century, (Princeton University Press, 2006). ISBN-10: 0691146160 Paul Cowan, An Orphan in History: Retrieving a Jewish Legacy, (New York: Quill, 1996) ISBN- 10: 068814604X. Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad- Lubavitch (Schocken Books; Reprint edition 2005). ISBN-10: 0805211381

1. Jews and Judaism The foundational books: Siddur, Chumash, Gmarrah, Tur, ShulchanAruch David Sorkin, “Is American Jewry Exceptional? Comparing Jewish Emancipation in Europe and America,” American Jewish History, 96:3 (Sept., 2011), 175-200: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_jewish_history/v096/96.3.sorkin.pdf Jacob R. Marcus, “The Periodization of American Jewish History,”Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, March, 1958, 125-133; http://350th.org/history/histo_marcus.html Sarna, AJE, xiii-xix Sarna, AJH, xiii-xx Jonathan D. Sarna, “The Cult of Synthesis in American Jewish Culture,” Jewish Social Studies, New Series, 5: 1/2, (Fall, 1998-Winter, 1999), 52-79 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467542 Eli Lederhendler, “Historical Reflections on the Problem of American Jewish Culture,” Jewish Social Studies, ns, 5:1/2, (Fall, 1998-Winter, 1999), 40-51: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467541

2. Jews in Early America Jacob Marcus, "The American Colonial Jew," AJE, 6-19 JAW, 29-33, 42-43, 73-78, 95-98, 108-114, 136-38, 142-43, 171-76, 177-83, 206-9 Sarna, AJH, 1-61 Faber, Time for Planting, 4-127, 142-143 Sarna, "The Impact of the American Revolution on ," AJE, 20-30 Malcolm H. Stern, "The 1820s," AJE, 31-37 Noah Gelfand,“A Transatlantic Approach to Understanding the Formation of a Jewish Community in New Netherland and New York," New York History, Fall, 2008, 275-396. David Sorkin, “The Port Jew: Notes Toward a Social Type” ------50: 1999, No. 1, 87-97. Lois Dubin, “Port Jews in the Atlantic World " Jewish History, 20: 2, (2006), 117-127: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20100974 Jonathan D. Sarna,“Port Jews in the Atlantic: Further Thoughts, Jewish History, 20: 2, (2006), 213-219: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20100978 Shalom Goldman,“Joshua/James Seixas: Jewish Apostasy and Christian Hebraism in Early Nineteenth-Century America,” Jewish History, 7:1 (Spring, 1993), 65-88, *Emily Bingham, Mordecai: An Early American Family.

3. The German Jewish Era Marcus, JAW, 190-195, 220-226 240-44 253, 278-282, 290-96. Sarna, AJH, 62-134 Stefan Rohrbacher, "From Württemberg to America," AJE, 44-59 Michael Meyer, "America," in AJE, 60-83, Naomi W. Cohen, "The Christian Agenda," AJE, 84-98 Barry E. Supple, "A Business Elite," AJE, 99-112 John J. Appel, “The Trefa Banquet,” Commentary (Feb., 1966), https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-trefa-banquet/ *Naomi Wiener Cohen, Encounter with Emancipation: The German Jews in the United States, 1830-1914, 3-212

4. Eastern European Emigration Jonathan Frankel, “The Crisis of 1881 As a Turning Point in Modern Jewish History,” DBLJM, 9-20. Michael Stanislawski, “The Transformation of Traditional Authority in Russian Jewry: The First Stage,” 21-47, DBLJM Steven Zipperstein, Russian Maskilim and the City, 31-48, DBLJM Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers, 5-66 Moses Rischin, Promised City: New York's Jews 1870-1914, 51-114 Gur Alroey, "And I Remained Alone in a Vast Land: Women in the Jewish Migration from Eastern Europe,” Jewish Social Studies, ns 12:3 (Spring-Summer, 2006) 39-72 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467746 *Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers

5. The Way They Lived Then Howe, World of Our Fathers, 67-286 Rischin, Promised City, 51-115 Annie Polland, “May a Freethinker Help a Pious Man? The Shared World of the ‘Religious’ and ‘Secular’ Among Eastern European Jewish Immigrants to America,” American Jewish History, vol. 93, no. 4 (Dec. 2007): 375-408. Deborah Dwork, “Immigrant Jews on the Lower East Side,” AJE, 120-137 Paula E. Hyman, “Immigrant Women and Consumer Protest,” AJE, 153-65 “New York Chooses a Chief Rabbi,” PAJHS, 1955, 129-198 Leonard Dinnerstein, “The Funeral of Rabbi Jacob Joseph,” David Gerber, ed,. Anti- Semitism in American History Ed O’Donnel, Hibernians vs. Hebrews, Journal of the GAPE, 6 (April, 2007), 209-225. *Susan Glenn, Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation.

6. Leaning Left Andrew Heinze, “Adapting to Abundance,” AJE, 166-84 Tony Michels, Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York, Howe, 287-350 Rischin, 171-194 Moses Rischin, “Abraham Cahan, Guide Across the American Chasm,” 73-84, DBLJM. Lucy S. Dawidowicz, “The Jewishness of the Jewish Labor Movement,” AJE, 183-96 Tony Michels,” American Jewish History, 88: 4 (Dec., 2000), 521-546: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_jewish_history/v088/88.4michels.html *Bloom, Alexander. Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World

7. Toward the Mainstream JAW, 332-35, 340-42, 349-350, 355-56, 361-63, 371-80, 426-428. Thomas Kessner, “The Selective Filter of Ethinicity: A Half Century of Immigrant Mobility,” 169-186, DBLJM Howe, 360-554 Naomi Cohen, “The Ethnic Catalyst: The Impact of the East European Immigration on the American Jewish Establishment,” 131-148,” DBLJM Rischin, 115-170 Sarna, AJH, 135-207 Jeffrey Gurock, "The Emergence of the American Synagogue," AJE, 219-35 Abraham Cahan, The Rise of David Levinsky. *Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (Anchor Books, 1988), pp. 1-183.

8. The “Other” JAW, 406-412 Leonard Dinnerstein, Anti-Semitism in American Life, 3-104 Irving Howe, “Pluralism in the Immigrant World,” 149-156, DBLJM John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925,

Karabel, Jerome. The Chosen: Admission and Exclusion 1-139 Jonathan Sarna, “The ‘Mythical Jew’ & the ‘Jew Next Door’ in Nineteenth Century America,” D. Gerbrer, ed., Anti-Semitism in American History, 57-78. Ralph R Boas, “Jew-Baiting in America,” Atlantic Monthly (May, 1921), 658-665 Review of The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, by Walter Laqueur, 216 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v026/26.2.thompson.html *Michael Alexander, Jazz Age Jews, 133-179

9. Depression Jewry Sarna, AJH, 208-271 Jenna Weissman Joselit, “The Jewish Home Beautiful,” AJE, 236-44 Beth S Wenger, New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise. *Moore, Deborah Dash, At Home in America

10. America and the Holocaust Thomas Kessner, Fiorello H LaGuardia and the Making of Modern New York, 520-526 Thomas Kessner, Flight of the Century: Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation, 224-240; David Nasaw, The Patriarch, 353-367, 501-503, 507-509 David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews, Henry Feingold, "Who Shall Bear Guilt for the Holocaust?" AJE, 274-93 JAW 464-467, 480-486 Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life, 19-59, *Deborah E. Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933-1945

11. Zionism and Israel Melvin Urofsky, American Zionism: From Herzl to the Holocaust Melvin Urofsky, "Zionism," AJE, 245-57 JAW: 381-389. Medoff, Rafael. "Recent Trends in the Historiography of American Zionism," American Jewish History 86 (March 1998), 117–134. *Mart, Michelle, Eyes on Israel: How America Came to View the Jewish State as an Ally.

12. American Jews and Judaism at the end of the 20th Century

JAW, 549-562 Sarna AJH, 273-374 Charles Liebman, Orthodoxy in American Jewish Life, American Jewish Yearbook 66 (1965) 21-98 Sarna, AJH, 272-306 Arthur Goren, "A 'Golden Decade' for American Jews,” AJE, 294-313 Deborah Dash Moore, "Jewish Migration in Postwar America," AJE, 314-29 Todd M. Endelman In Defense of Jewish Social History,” Jewish Social Studies, ns 7: 3 (Spring - Summer, 2001), 52-67: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467610 Steven J. Zipperstein "Commentary" and American Jewish Culture in the 1940s and 1950s,” Jewish Social Studies, 3:2 (Wint., 1997), 18-28: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4467494 Marc Lee Raphael, “The Emergence and Development of Tradition in Reform Jewish Worship, 1970-1999” Jewish History, 15: 2 (2001), 119-130: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20101439 Pamela S. Nadell, “The Impulse to Jewish Women's History at the Tercentenary,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, ns: 94: 4, (Autumn, 2004), 637-642: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1455597 *Cheryl Greenberg, Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century *Paul Cowan, An Orphan in History: Retrieving a Jewish Legacy *Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad- Lubavitch

Bibliographies:

There are many helpful bibliographies that are easily accessible on the web. Here are a number of general sites that you may wish to consult. In addition there are a number of specialized bibliographies for focused research on a given topic. http://350th.org/history/bibliography.html http://www.ajhs.org/reference/essential_readings.cfm http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/jewishhistory/ http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/jewishhistory/getItems.cfm/majorCatID=10 http://www.jtsa.edu/x1215.xml http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/annotated-bibliography-and-guide-to-archival-resources-on- history-of-jewish-wom

Collateral Assignments:

The assignments are keyed to specific sessions.

Session 3: Submit a research proposal for your paper. 500 words Session 5: Write a 1000 word review of the book that you are assigned to report for class. Session 11: Submit your paper

The Paper. Choose a topic in American Jewish history between 1865 and 1970 and based upon research in newspapers (The New York Times is an obvious choice, but if there is a reason to use another paper then you can substitute) write a documented analytic essay approximately 15 pages in length. The objective of the essay is to identify, categorize and analyze your topic’s relationship to the larger questions we are studying in the course.

The paper will obviously be limited in scope. But you can look at an issue as it was reported - recognizing that errors often do creep into reports when an observer writes against a deadline, is forced to depend upon random testimony, and often lacks context - and with discretion, use the information. Do not settle upon a single circumstance or event; build a base of information that can be related thematically to your topic.

Your paper should be based exclusively on what can be learned from the primary research. You may use one secondary source to provide the context, but not for information. Footnote your material with brief citations.

Start early. Reserve a good bit of time to organize and write the paper.

By the third session you will need to hand in a brief outline of your subject and your secondary source. The paper will be due the first week in May. There is a one week grace period. If you hand in your paper late your grade will reflect the tardiness.

Feel free to consult me with any problems or questions. If you want a copy back submit two copies of your paper.

Alternatively you may choose to do a historiographic essay on an approved topic.