Michael L. Miller Central European University Winter 2013

Anti-Judaism and in Historical Perspective

Anti-Jewish sentiment goes by many names, including anti-Judaism, Jew-hatred, Judeophobia, and, of course, Antisemitism – a term that was coined in 1879 to give scientific legitimacy to the “longest hatred.” This course will explore the ancient origins of Jew-hatred, examining its development and transformation in the course of the past two millennia, paying particular attention to the shifting theological, ideological, cultural, political and scientific trends that impacted the perception of and Judaism in the modern period.

Course Requirements:

Regular attendance and participation One in-class presentation One term paper (12-15 pages)

Jan. 10 Session 1 Introduction

David Berger, “Anti-Semitism: an overview,” in David Berger, ed., History and Hate, 3- 14; Yehuda Bauer, “In Search of a Definition of Antisemitism,” in Michael Brown, ed., Approaches to Antisemitism, 10-23.

Recommended: Richard Levy, Antisemitism in the Modern World, Introduction, 1-27; Gavin I. Langmuir, “Toward a Definition of Antisemitism,” in Helen Fein, ed., The Persisting Question, 86-127.

Jan. 17 Session 2 Judeophobia in the Pagan and Early Christian World

Peter Schäfer, Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World, pp. 15-65, 136-160; selections from the New Testament and Church Fathers

Recommended: R.R. Ruether, “The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism,” in Helen Fein, ed., The Persisting Question, 23-45; Kenneth R. Stow, Alienated Minority, 6-40.

Jan. 24 Session 3 Jewish-Christian Relations in the Medieval and Early Modern World David Biale, Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol between Jews and Christians, 81-122; Jacob Rader Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315-1791, 121-141, 151-158

Recommended: Robert Chazan, Medieval Stereotypes and Modern Antisemitism (1997); Joshua Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews: the Medieval Conception of the Jew and its Relation to Modern Antisemitism (1904)

Jan. 31 Session 4 Reformation, Expulsion and Inquisition

Jeremy Cohen, “Traditional Prejudice and Religious Reform: The Theological and Historical Foundations of Luther’s Anti-Judaism,” in Sander Gilman and Steven T. Katz, eds, Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis, 81-102; Jacob Rader Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315-1791, 165-178; Y.H. Yerushalmi, “Assimilation and Racial Anti-Semitism: the Iberian and the German Models,” 1-27.

Recommended: Haim Beinart, “Order of the Expulsion from Spain: Antecedents, Causes and Textual Analysis,” in Benjamin Gampel, ed., Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World, 1391-1648, 79-94

Feb. 7 Session 5 Enlightenment, Emancipation and the “Jewish Question”

Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, 34-47; Voltaire, “Philosophical Dictionary” (1756), in Richard Levy, Antisemitism in the Modern World, 37-46; Isaac de Pinto, “An Apology for the Jewish Nation” (1762), in JMW, 305-307; Voltaire, “Response to de Pinto” (c. 1762), in JMW, 308.

Recommended: Jacob Katz, Out of the Ghetto: The Social Background of Jewish Emancipation, 1770-1870, 57-103; Christian Wilhelm Dohm, “Concerning the Amelioration of the Civil Status of the Jews” (1781), in JMW, 28-36; Johann David Michaelis, “Arguments Against Dohm” (1782), in JMW, 42-44; Ronald Schechter, Obstinate Hebrews: Representations of Jews in France, 1715-1815 (2003).

Feb. 14 Session 6 (Guest lecturer: Judit Frigyesi) The Jew as a Cultural Danger

Richard Wagner, “Jewry in Music” (1850), in JMW, 327-331; Leon Botstein, “The Aesthetic of Assimilation and Affirmation: Reconstructing the Career of Felix Mendelssohn” in R. Larry Todd, ed., Mendelssohn and HisWorld, 5-42.

Recommended: Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, ch. 14-17, 175-220; Jacob Katz, The Darker Side of Genius: Richard Wagner’s Anti-Semitism (1986). Tuesday, Feb. 19 6 p.m. Public Lecture

Judit Frigyesi (Bar-Ilan University) “A stranger to his native language”: a new look at Mendelssohn’s (Jewish) musical tradition

Feb. 21 Session 7 Left-Wing Anti-Semitism

Bruno Bauer, “The Jewish Problem” (1843), in JMW, 321-324; Karl Marx, “On the Jewish Problem,” (1844), in JMW, 324-327; Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, ch. 12-13, 147-174.

Recommended: Robert Wistrich, Socialism and the Jews: the Dilemmas of Assimilation in Germany and Austria- (1982).

Feb. 28 Session 8 The Anti-Semitic Movement: Case Studies

Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, ch. 20-21, 245-272

Choose the readings for one of the following:

(A) Hungary

Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, ch. 22, 273-280; Gyözö Istóczy, “Jews, the Iron Ring Around Our Necks” (1878), in Richard Levy, Antisemitism in the Modern World, 100-103.

Recommended: Nathaniel Katzburg, Anti-Semitism in Hungary, 1867-1914 (1969)

(B) Germany-Austria

Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, ch. 23, 281-291; Selections from JMW

Recommended: Peter Pulzer, The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (1964); Shulamit Volkov, “Antisemitism as a Cultural Code – Reflections on the History and Historiography of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany,” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 23 (1978): 25–46.

(C) France Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction, ch. 24, 292-300; Eduoard Drumont, “The Jews Against France” (1899), in Richard Levy, Antisemitism in the Modern World, 107- 112

Recommended: Stephen Wilson, Ideology and Experience: Antisemitism in France at the Time of the Dreyfus Affair (1982)

(D) Russia

“Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” in Richard Levy, Antisemitism in the Modern World, 147-165; Heinz-Dietrich Löwe, “Anti-Semitism at the Close of the Czarist Era,” in Herbert Strauss, ed., Hostages of Modernization: Studies on Moodern Antisemitism, 1038-1062.

March 7 Session 9 Jewish Responses to Anti-Semitism I: Self-Defense and Self-Hatred

Arnold Pauker, “The Jewish Defense against Antisemitism in Germany,” in Jehuda Reinharz, ed., Living with Antisemitism, 104-132; “Alliance Israélite Universelle,” in JMW, 316-321.

Sander Gilman, Jewish Self-Hatred: Antisemitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews, 1-21; Otto Weininger, “The Jew Must Free Himself from Jewishness” (1903), in JMW, 269-272; Theodor Lessing, “Jewish Self-Hatred” (1930), in JMW, 272-274; Franz Kafka, “My Father’s Bourgeois Judaism” (1919), in JMW, 254-255

Recommended: Jehuda Reinharz, ed., Living with Antisemitism (1987).

March 14 Session 10 Jewish Responses to Anti-Semitism II: Zionism

Arthur Herzberg, The Zionist Idea, Selections; Theodor Herzl, “A Solution to the Jewish Question” (1896), in JMW, 533-538; Max Nordau, “Jewry of Muscle” (1903), in JMW, 547-548.

March 21 Session 11 Nazi Anti-Semitism

Jacob Katz, From Persecution to Destruction, ch. 25, 303-317; Peter Pulzer, The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria, Epilogue, 285-323; selections from JMW, 636-639, 645-647, 655, 662-665, 684-685

Film: Jud Süss (Germany, 1940)

March 28 Session 12 Anti-Semitism after the Shoah Bernard Lewis, “The Arab World Discovers Anti-Semitism,” in Sander L. Gilman and Steven T. Katz, Antisemitism in Times of Crisis, 343-352; Yevgeny Yevseev, “Fascism under the Blue Star” (1971), in Richard Levy, Antisemitism in the Modern World, 259- 266; Yehuda Bauer, "Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism - New and Old" in Robert Wistrich, ed., Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism in the Contemporary World, 195-207

Recommended: Paul Lendvai, Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe (1972); Dariusz Stola, “The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland, 1967-1968,” Jewish Studies at the Central European University 2 (2002): 191-203; Deborah Lipstadt, Denying : the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (1994).