Content:
This course will explore in detail the mass immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the first half of the course we will explore the roots of the immigrants in their Eastern European homelands, including the origins of Jewish life in the region, forms of cultural and religious expression and the social and political turmoil that led many to seek a better life on this side of the Atlantic. The second half will focus on the ways immigrants reconstituted their lives in the United States, investigating the challenges presented by American work patterns and mass culture, the transformation in Jewish culture and values, and the problems of antisemitism and immigration restriction

Readings:
Readings will consist mainly of book chapters and articles placed on on-line reserve. These can be accessed by EUCLID, but it will be simpler to visit the web version of this syllabus at http://userwww.service.emory.edu/%7Eegoldst/EE.htm and click on the links which will be posted regularly.

Particulars:
Students will complete several short response papers on the assigned readings. In addition, they will complete an original research paper (15-20 pages) using relevant primary and secondary sources (specific guidelines will be distributed later in the semester). Aspects of the final research paper (proposal, bibliography, outline, rough draft, etc.) will be due on specific dates during the term and will be the focus of in-class workshops. Your final grade will be composed of the following:

-- Attendance and participation: 20%
-- Short assignments: 30%
-- Final paper: 50%

This course fulfills General Education Requirement I.C (Advanced Seminar). It also fulfills the Emory College Post-Freshman Writing Requirement.

Class Schedule:

January 21
NO CLASS - MLK, JR.'S BIRTHDAY

January 28
Jews in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Reading:
M. J. Rosman, The Lord's Jews: Magnate-Jewish Relations in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1990), chs. 1 ("Poland and the Magnates"), 3 ("Jews as Latifundium Residents") and conclusion.

Assignment: In one paragraph or less, summarize what you consider to be the thesis statement of Rosman's study of Jewish life in early modern Poland. What dominant view does he seem to be arguing against? As you read the chapters, underline those sentences which you consider to be key in expressing this argument and have them ready to point out in class.

February 4
Jewish Policies After the Partitions
Reading:
*Richard Pipes, "Catherine II and the Jews: The Origins of the Pale of Settlement," Soviet Jewish Affairs 5 (1975): 3-20.
*Michael Stanislawski, "The Conscription of the Jews," in Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews: The Transformation of Jewish Society in Russia, 1825-1855 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1983), 13-34.
*Arnold Springer, "Enlightened Despotism and Jewish Reform: Prussia, Austria and Russia," California Slavic Studies 11 (1980): 237-67.

SECOND HOUR: TOUR OF WOODRUFF LIBRARY

Assignment: Write an essay of no more than three pages explaining the evolution of Russian policy toward the Jews from the Partitions of Poland through 1855. Explain the objectives of Russian rulers in regard to the Jews, the problems they faced in carrying out these objectives and the reasons their policies had changed by the mid-nineteenth century. Be sure you have a clear thesis statement and are able to support it with examples from the readings. This assignment is designed to help you work on identifying the main points of an article and summarizing them in a clear and concise way. Thus, try to focus in on what you consider the most important aspects of the readings and avoid including extraneous information.

February 11
Jewish Communal Organization and Authority
Reading:
*Israel Cohen, Vilna (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1943), chapters 7 ("Administration and Organization" -- see handout) and 7 ("Religious and Political Leadership").
*Abraham Ain, "Swislocz: Portrait of a Jewish Community in Eastern Europe" YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science 4 (1949): 86-114.
*Shmuel Ettinger, "The Hasidic Movement-Reality and Ideals," in Gershon D. Hundert, ed. Essential Papers on Hasidism (New York: NYU Press, 1991), 226-43.

Assignment: In no more than two paragraphs, explain what the powers of the Jewish communal establishment in Eastern Europe were (list as many as you can)? Under what circumstances did challenges to the power of the communal establishment emerge? What caused these challenges to either succeed or fail?

February 18
Modernization I: Economics and Urbanization
Reading:
*Ezra Mendelsohn, "The Jewish Proletariat" in Class Struggle in the Pale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 1-26.
*Steven Zipperstein, "Historical Background," ch. 1 of The Jews of Odessa: A Cultural History, 1794-1881 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986), 9-40.
*Susan Glenn, "A Girl Wasn't Much," in Daughters of the Shtetl: Life and Labor in the Immigrant Generation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 8-49 (see handout)..

Assignment: List three specific social and economic changes that occurred in the Russian Empire during the 19th century, explaining briefly how each affected the lives of Russian Jews.

SECOND HOUR: TOPIC BRAINSTORMING

February 25
Modernization II: Politics and Culture
Readings:
*Stanislawski, "Metamorphases of Authority" in Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews, 123-54.
*Eli Lederhendler, "Modernity Without Emancipation or Assimilation? The Case of Russian Jewry" in Jonathan Frankel and Steven Zipperstein, eds., Assimilation
and Community: The Jews of Nineteenth Century Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 324-343.
*David Fishman, "The Politics of Yiddish in Tsarist Russia" in Jacob Neusner, et al., eds. From Ancient Israel to Modern Judaism, vol. 4 (Atlanta: Scholar's Press, 1989), 155-71.

Assignment: List three ways in which the communal structure and culture of Russian Jews became "modern" in the 19th century. In addition, list three ways in which social and political circumstances kept Russian Jews from following the path of modernization charted by the Jews of Western Europe and America during the same period.

March 4
1881 and its Aftermath
Readings:
*Edward H. Judge, Easter in Kishinev: Anatomy of a Pogrom (New York: NYU Press, 1992), chapter 4 ("Pogrom!") and chapter 5 ("Repercussions and Reverberations").
*Alexander Orbach, "The Development of the Russian Jewish Community, 1881-1903," in John D. Klier and Shlomo Lambroza, eds., Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 137-163.

SECOND HOUR - PEER REVIEWS OF PROPOSALS

Assignment:
1) List at least three results of the pogroms that occurred in Russia in the years 1881 and 1903-1905.

2) Submit a one-paragraph topic proposal and a provisional bibliography for your project (your list of sources will no doubt change as you continue with your research). The bibliography must have at least five primary sources and ten secondary sources (no more than five of the secondary sources can be from the class readings). Bring in one of the primary sources and be able to explain the larger historical context into which it fits. What can we learn from it and from your larger project about Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe?

March 11
NO CLASS - SPRING BREAK

March 18
Who Were the Immigrants?
Readings:
*Arthur Hertzberg, "The Russian Jews Arrive," chap. 10 of The Jews in America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989).
*Arthur Goren, "Preaching American Jewish History: A Review Essay," American Jewish History 79 (Summer 1990): 538-52 (a review of Hertzberg).
*Simon Kuznets "Immigration of Russian Jews to the United States: Background and Structure," Perspectives in American History 9 (1975), excerpt.

Assignment: Both Hertzberg and Goren rely on the work of Simon Kuznets, but each make very different arguments about the "selectivity" of the flow of Russian immigrants to the United States (in other words, which Jews from Russia came over). In an essay of no more than two pages, explain who you think is reading Kuznets' findings more correctly and why?

March 25
Arrival and Settlement
Readings:
*Gerald Sorin, "New York as the Promised City," in Time for Building (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 69-108.
*Lee Shai Weissbach, "East European Immigrants and the Image of Jews in the Small-Town South" American Jewish History 85 (1997).

SECOND HOUR - PEER REVIEW OF THESIS STATEMENTS / OUTLINES

Assignment: List as many differences as you can (no less than four) between the life Eastern European Jewish immigrants made in New York and the life they made in the small-town South. Were there any similarities?

THESIS STATEMENT (Two paragraphs) AND OUTLINES DUE

April 1
Immigrant Religion
Readings:
*Andrew Heinze, "The Holy and the Mundane," and "Luxuries, Holidays and Jewish Identity," in Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass Consumption and the Search for American Identity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 51-67 and 68-85.
*Moses Weinberger, People Walk on Their Heads: Jews and Judaism in New York, ed. Jonathan D. Sarna (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1982), chap. 1 ("Synagogues"), 40-45; and chap. 10 ("Chazanim"), 98-106.
*Abraham Karp, "New York Chooses a Chief Rabbi," Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 44 (Mar. 1955): 129-98.

Assignment: List three major differences in the way Judaism was practiced in Eastern Europe and in America. For each difference, be prepared to argue why this change was positive and why it was negative. Be sure you prepare both sides of the argument, regardless of what your true opinion is.

April 8
Work, Protest and Identity
Readings:
*Susan Glenn, chaps. 2, 4 and 5 of Daughters of the Shtetl, 50-89, 132-66, 167-206.

Assignment: List at least three ways in which the work patterns of immigrant Jews in the United States altered the way that young women saw themselves and their roles. To what extent do you think these same changes also affected men? Explain.

April 15
Yiddish Culture in America
Readings:
*Tony Michels, "'Speaking to Moyshe': The Early Socialist Yiddish Press and Its Readers," Jewish History 14 (2000): 64-5. PICK UP THIS READING FROM THE MAILBOX OUTSIDE DR. GOLDSTEIN'S OFFICE AT 122 BOWDEN

SECOND HOUR: PEER REVIEW OF ROUGH DRAFTS

Assignment: List three ways in which Amercian Yiddish culture was a product of the American environment.

ROUGH DRAFTS DUE - mandatory meetings with Dr. Goldstein this week to be scheduled in class.

April 22
Immigrants, American Jews and the Problem of "Community"
Readings:
*Arthur Goren, "The Tradition of Community" and "The Limits of Community," chaps. 1 and 11 of New York Jews and the Quest for Community: The Kehillah Experiment, 1908-1922 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 1-24 and 245-52.

Assignment: List three ways in which the "Tradition of Community" described by Goren was transformed in the American setting.


April 29
From Melting Pot to Exclusion
Readings:
*Nathaniel Shaler, The Neighbor (1903), excerpts (THIS DOCUMENT WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AND ANALYZED IN CLASS - YOU DO NOT NEED TO READ IT IN ADVANCE)
*John Higham, "The Rise of Social Discrimination," in Send These to Me: Immigrants in Urban America, revised ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 117-52.

Assignment: Clearly, Jews were not always warmly embraced on America soil. How were the attitudes and actions of non-Jews toward Jews different in America than they were in Russia? How were the challenges these attitudes and actions presented to Jews different than they were in Russia?

May 6
FINAL PAPERS DUE by 5:00pm in my box in the History Department (221 Bowden Hall). NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED!