Syllabus Contemporary Jewry and Jewish Education - 63015

Last update 28-10-2018

HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Melton Blended Masters in Jewish Education

Academic year: 0

Semester: 1st and/or 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Yossi Goldstein

Coordinator Email: [email protected]

Coordinator Office Hours: -Wednesday 4:00 PM-6:00 PM (Israeli time). For Skype meeting please contact me by mail.

Teaching Staff: Dr. yossi goldstein

page 1 / 6

Course/Module description: This course is designed to give students the knowledge and tools to understand contemporary Jewish communities. It opens with a survey of the demographic changes that have impacted world Jewry since the mid-nineteenth century and then explores the impact of the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union on this state of affairs. After giving to the students the tools by which to examine Jewish communities, they will then investigates a selection of such communities in the European, South and North American continents.

Course/Module aims: 1. Acquire systematic knowledge about the Jewish World Today and Contemporary Jewish History and Communities. 2. Enhance and promote a comparative perspective between different Jewish Communities. 3. Understand Contemporary Jewry and Jewish Education based on academic criteria.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: Students should be able to evaluate critical events in recent Jewish history and explain their impact on the contemporary Jewish condition. Students should be able to formulate criterion by which they can examine a contemporary Jewish community. Students should be able to use the prism of Jewish education as a means to interpret the relationship of Jews to their wider national context. Students should conclude that the Jewish experience in Diaspora Jewish communities is profoundly influenced by the context in which Jewish communities operate. Students should be able to compare different Jewish communities and their respective historical experiences.

Attendance requirements(%): Attendance will be evaluated using the active participation of students in the attendance activities of each class: forum and assignments: 80% at least.

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: The course utilizes multiple video clips, typically no more than fifteen minutes in length accompanied by power point presentations. Students are expected to participate in the 'Forum,"

page 2 / 6

complete reading assignments and submit two assignments during the course and one at its conclusion.

Course/Module Content: 1) Demographic changes and their impact on the Jewish world in Contemporary times. 2) Criterion for Studying Diaspora Jewish communities. 3&4) The Impact of the Holocaust on Contemporary Jewry and Jewish Education. 5&6) The Influence of the USSR and of post-Soviet societies in Israel and the Jewish World. 7) Israel in Contemporary Jewry and Jewish Education. 8) American Jewry. 9) Jews of Argentina. 10) Jews of South Africa. 11) German Jewry. 12) French Jewry. 13) Conclusion.

Required Reading: Uziel Oscar Schmelz and Sergio DellaPergola Demography Encyclopedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. Vol. 5. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. pp. 553-572.

Emil Fackenheim, The Commanding Voice of Auschwitz, Gods Presence in History: Jewish Affirmations and Philosophical Reflections, New York, 1968.

Abba Kovner, section from 'Mission of the Last Survivors' (in 'Catastrophe of European Jewry', Yad Vashem, 1976).

M. Beizer, "Jews of Struggle: The Jewish National Movement in the USSR,1967-1989," Jews of Struggle: The Jewish National Movement in the USSR, 1967-1989, Exhibition Catalogue. Ed. R. Schnold. Beit Hatefutsoth: Tel-Aviv,2007. p. 140-110. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/6641349/The_Jews_of_Struggle._The_Jewish _National_Movement_in_the_Soviet_Union_1967-1989

Netanel Lorch - Major Knesset Debates 1948-1984 Vol. 3 pp. 703-745 "Reparations from Germany" https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Politics/JCPAReparationsGermany.pdf

The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel http://www.mfa.gov.il/mf a/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/declaration%20of%20establishment%20of%20st

page 3 / 6

ate%20of%20israel.aspx

Ben Halpern, 'America is Different: The American Jew (Herzl Foundation, NY 1956), pp. 11-33. http://www.pewforum.org/files/2013/10/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture- survey-overview.pdf Theodore Sasson in the Tablet magazine http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/151506/young-jews-opt-in

Steven Cohen in Mosaic http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/11/can-intermarriage-lead-to-an- increase-in-the-number-of-jews-in-america/

J.J. Goldberg in the Forward newspaper: http://forward.com/opinion/185461/pew-survey-about-jewish-america-got-it-all- wrong/

Steven Weil of Jewish Action: The Magazine of the Orthodox Union https://www.ou.org/jewish_action/06/2014/jonahs-sukkah/

Yossi J. Goldstein assisted by Drori Ganiel, "Jewish Education in Latin America: Challenges, Trends and Processes", in H. Miller, L. Grant and A. Pomson (eds.), International Handbook of Jewish Education, Ed. Springer, 2011, Part Two, pp. 1253-1270.

"South African Jewry 20 Years into Democracy" The Jewish People Policy Institute, annual assessment 2013-2014, No. 10. pp. 173-190 http://jppi.org.il/uplo ads/South_African_Jewry_20_Years_Into_Democracy.pdf

Toby Axelrod, 'Jewish life in Germany: Achievements, challenges and priorities since the collapse of communism'; JPR Reports, November 2013, http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID18533

Alain el-Mouchan, 'The Twilight of French Jewry, the Twilight of France,' in Mosaic, October 7, 2015. http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2015/10/the-twilight-of-french- jewry-the-twilight-of-france/

Alex Pomson, "Introduction: Jewish Schools, Jewish Communities A Reconsideration", in A. Pomson and Howard Deitcher (Eds.), Jewish Day Schools, Jewish Communities, Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2009, pp. 1-28

page 4 / 6

Additional Reading Material: Evyatar Friesel, Atlas of Modern Jewish History (Carta, Jerusalem 1986) Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population 2013. Available at http://www.jewishdatabank.org/studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID3113

Shaul Magid, 'The Holocaust and Jewish identity in America : memory, the unique, and the universal.'; Jewish Social Studies 18,2 (2012) 100-135.

Gal Beckerman, When They Come for Us, Well Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, Mariner Books 2010; Reprint edition (September 13, 2011).

Fred A. Lazin, The Struggle for Soviet Jewry in American politics: Israel versus the American Jewish establishment, (Lexington Books, 2005).

Israel on my mind: Israel's role in world Jewish identity: a Symposium http://www.ajc .org/atf/cf/%7B42D75369-D582-4380-8395-D25925B85EAF%7D/IsraelOnMyMind_20 05.pdf

Review of Shimoni book cited below by Jocelyn Hellig (School of Social Studies, University of the Witwatersrand) http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id10367

Gideon Shimoni. Community and Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa. Hanover: University Press of New England, 2003.

Julius Carlebach, 'Jewish Identity in the Germany of a New Europe' in, Weber, J (ed.) Jewish Identities in the New Europe, (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1994).

S. Fox, I. Scheffer and D. Marom (Eds.), Visions of Jewish Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, Introduction: "Envisioning Jewish Education", pp. 5-12.

Course/Module evaluation: End of year written/oral examination 0 % Presentation 0 % Participation in Tutorials 0 % Project work 0 % Assignments 0 % Reports 0 % Research project 0 % Quizzes 0 % Other 100 % as detailed below

page 5 / 6

Additional information: Participation in Forum (at least two posts): 30 % Two written assignments (2 x 15 %): 30 % Final written assignment: 40%

page 6 / 6