1. Traditions of Political Self-Understanding and Behavior in Relationship to External Political Authority. the Practices of A
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Political History of European Jewry, 1550-1750: Parity and Privileges History 79000 Thursday 6:30-8:30; Professor Sorkin; [email protected] Office hours: Tuesday, 3-5, room 5301; tel.: 212-817-7235 This course will explore the ways in which the nature of Jewish politics changed in the early modern period. The course will follow three themes: 1. Traditions of political self-understanding and behavior in relationship to external political authority. The practices of “quietism,” “autonomy,” “intercession” and the “vertical alliance,” on the one side. On the other side the competing tradition of “messianism” that entailed “revolt” or “rebellion” in the name of a restored “sovereignty.” 2. The changing political status of Jews in Europe from 1550 to 1750. We will focus on the acquisition of increased privileges in the ancien régime, especially in cities and towns (municipal citizenship or rights). These privileges sometimes approximated parity with other groups. We will also consider the beginnings of the discussion of a radical transformation of the Jews’ status in society. 3. The internal politics of the Jewish community, especially the growth of lay-leadership and oligarchy at the expense of the rabbinate and the poor. Assignments: The goal of the course is for you to write a 20 page paper on a relevant topic of your own choosing. In preparation for that paper you will write two 2-3 page article reviews. Review an article we have not yet discussed in class. Reviews are due on September 27th and November 8th. All readings will be posted on Blackboard. Recommended Books for Purchase (but not required): David Biale, Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History (New York: Schocken, 1986) Jonathan Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750 (Oxford, 1991) Gershon Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity (California, 2004) Antony Polonsky, The Jews in Poland and Russia (Littman Library, 2010-12) volume 1 David Halperin, Sabbatai Zevi, Testimonies to a Fallen Messiah (Oxford: Littman Library, 2007) Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah (Princeton, 1973) August 30: Legacies and Traditions David Biale, Power and Powerlessness, 10-57 Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, “’Servants of Kings and not Servants of Servants’: Some Aspects of the Political History of the Jews,” Tam Institute for Jewish Studies, Emory University (2005) 7-29 Ismar Schorsch, “On the History of the Political Judgment of the Jew,” in idem., From Text to Context: the Turn to History in Modern Judaism (Brandeis, 1994) 118-32. Gil Graff, Separation of Church and State: ‘Dina De-Malkhuta Dina’ in Jewish Law, 1750-1848 (University, Alabama, 1985) 8-29 (notes, 140-53) R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, “Messianism in Jewish History,” in Marc Saperstein ed., Essential Papers on Messianic Movements and Personalities in Jewish History (New York: NYU, 1992) 35-52 Joseph story: Genesis 37:39-41; 47:1-26; Exodus 1:1-14 Book of Esther Maccabees I:1-2 September 6: Transitions: from the Middle Ages to a New Conjuncture Robert Chazan, Reassessing Jewish Life in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2010) 1-15, 133-157 David Biale, Power and Powerlessness, 58-86 Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World, “Charter of the Jews of the Duchy of Austria,” (1244) 28- 32; “Josel of Rosheim,” 198-99; “Expulsion from Spain,” 51-55. Jonathan Israel, European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism, 1550-1750, 5-69 (chs 1-3). Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, “Between Amsterdam and New Amsterdam: The Place of Curaçao and the Caribbean in Early Modern Jewish History,” American Jewish History 2 (1982) 172-93. September 13: Southern Tier: Ancona, Venice & Livorno Benjamin Ravid, “A Tale of Three Cities and their Raison d’État: Ancona, Venice, Livorno and the Competition for Jewish Merchants in the Sixteenth Century,” in Alisa Meyuhas Ginio ed., Jews, Christians and Muslims in the Mediterranean World after 1492 (London, 1992) 138-62 Ancona Bernard Dov Cooperman, “Portuguese Conversos in Ancona: Jewish Political Activity in Early Modern Italy,” in idem. ed., In Iberia and Beyond: Hispanic Jews between Cultures (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998) 297-352 Venice Bernard Cooperman, “Venetian Policy Towards Levantine Jews in Its Broader Italian Context,” in G. Cozzi ed., Gil Ebrei e Venezia, Secoli XIV-XVIII (Milan, 1987) 65-84 Benjamin Ravid, “The Venetian Government and the Jews,” in Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid eds., The Jews of Early Modern Venice (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2001) 3-30 David J. Malkiel, “The Ghetto Republic,” in Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid eds., The Jews of Early Modern Venice (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2001) 117-142 Simone Luzzatto, “The Hebrews among the Nations,” Commentary 3 (1947) 474-478 Livorno “La Livornina,” 1593 (trs. Bernard Cooperman) Francesca Trivellato, The Familiarity of Strangers: The Sephardic Diaspora, Livorno, and Cross-Cultural Trade in the Early Modern Period (New Haven: Yale, 2009) 70-101 (ch. 3). September 20: Northern Tier: Bordeaux, Amsterdam, London Yosef Kaplan, “The Sephardim in North-Western Europe and the New World,” in Haim Beinart ed., Moreshet Sepharad: the Sephardi Legacy 2 vols. (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992) 2:240-287 Bordeaux Frances Malino, The Sephardic Jews of Bordeaux: Assimilation and Emancipation in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France (University of Alabama, 1978) 1-26 Silvia Marzagalli, “Atlantic Trade and Sephardim Merchants in Eighteenth-Century France: The Case of Bordeaux,” in Paolo Bernardini & Norman Fiering eds., The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450-1800 (Berghahn Books, 2001) 268-286 Amsterdam Peter van Rooden, “Jews and religious toleration in the Dutch Republic,” in R. Po-chia Hsia & H.F.K. Van Nierop eds., Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age (Cambridge, 2002) 132-47 Daniel Swetschinski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam (London, 2000) 1-53, 165-224 Jonathan Israel, “Religious Toleration in Dutch Brazil (1624-1654),” 13-34 in Jonathan Israel & Stuart B. Schwartz, The Expansion of Tolerance: Religion in Dutch Brazil (1624-1654) (Amsterdam University Press, 2007) 13-34. London Todd M. Endelman, The Jews of Britain, 1656-2000 (California, 2002) 15-38 Menasseh Ben Israel, “How Profitable the Nation of the Jews Are (1655), The Jew in the Modern World, 9-11 Jacob R. Marcus, “The British West Indies,” (ch. 5) in The Colonial American Jew, 1492-1776 2 vols. (Wayne State, 1970) 1:95-140 September 27: Poland-Lithuania (charters) Gershon Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century, 21-47 Jacob Goldberg, “The privileges granted to Jewish communities of the Polish Commonwealth as a stabilizing factor in Jewish support,” in Chimen Abramsky, Maciej Jachimczyk & Antony Polonsky eds., The Jews in Poland (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986) 31-54 Gershon Hundert, “On the Jewish Community in Poland during the Seventeenth Century: Some Comparative Perspectives,” Revue des Études Juives 142 (1983) 349-72 Adam Teller, “The Legal Status of the Jews on the Magnate Estates of Poland in the Eighteenth Century,” Gal-ed 15-16 (1997) 41-63 Antony Polonsky, The Jews in Poland and Russia 3 vols. (Littman Library, 2010-12) 1:68-90 October 4th Poland-Lithuania (self-government) Antony Polonsky, The Jews in Poland and Russia 3 vols. (Littman Library, 2010-12) 1:40-67 Shmuel Shilo, “The Individual versus the Community in Jewish Law in Pre-Eighteenth Century Poland,” in Antony Polonsky, Jakub Basista, and Andrzej Link-Lenczowski eds., The Jews in Old Poland (London, 1993) 219-34 Scott Ury, “The Shtadlan of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Noble Advocate or Unbridled Opportunist, Polin 15 (2002) 267-299 Gershon Hundert, Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century,79-98 Adam Teller, “Radziwill, Rabinowicz and the Rabbi of Swierz: The Magnates’ Attitude towards Jewish Regional Autonomy in 18th Century Poland-Lithuania,” in idem., ed., Studies in the History of the Jews in Old Poland: In Honor of Jacob Goldberg (Jerusalem, 1998) 246-76 October 11: Central Europe: Holy Roman Empire Adam Teller, “Telling the Difference: Some Comparative Perspectives on the Jews’ Legal Status in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire,” Polin (2009) Stephan Wendehorst, “Imperial Spaces as Jewish Spaces –the Holy Roman Empire, the Emperor and the Jews in the Early Modern Period. Some preliminary Observations,” Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 2 (2003) 437-74 Stefan Ehrenpreis, “Legal Spaces for Jews as Subjects of the Holy Roman Empire,” Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 2 (2003) 475-487 Christopher R. Friedrichs, “Jews in the Imperial Cities: A Political Perspective,” in R. Po-chia Hsia & Hartmut Lehman eds., In and Out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile Relations in late medieval and early modern Germany (Cambridge, 1995) 275-288 J. Friedrich Battenberg, “Jews in Ecclesiastical Territories of the Holy Roman Empire,” in R. Po-chia Hsia & Hartmut Lehman eds., In and Out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile Relations in late medieval and early modern Germany (Cambridge, 1995) 247-274 October 18: Central Europe: Territorial States Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, “Jewish Minorities in German Towns, 1450-1650,” in Hugo Soly & Alfons K.L. Thijs eds., Minderheden in Westeuropese steden; Minorities in Western European Cities (Brussel, 1995) 157- 171 Jonathan Israel, “Central European Jewry during the Thirty Year’s War,” Central European History 16 (1983) 3-30 Rotraud Ries, “German Territorial Princes and the Jews,” in R. Po-chia Hsia & Hartmut Lehman eds., In and Out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile Relations in late medieval and early modern Germany (Cambridge, 1995) 215-45 Michael Graetz, “Court Jews in Economics and Politics,” in Vivian B. Mann and Richard I. Cohen eds., From Court Jews to the Rothschilds: Arts, Patronage, and Power, 1600-1800 (Munich: Prestel, 1996) 27-43 Mordechai Breuer, “The Early Modern Period,” in Michael A. Meyer ed., German-Jewish History in Modern Times 4 vols.