JWST 7520

Jewish Cities

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

This course at the intersection of studies in Jewish and urban culture draws on a wide range of textual and other evidence, from the Babylonian Talmud to contemporary American literature, to gain an understanding of how Jews have helped to shape and been shaped by their city neighbors. Topics may include Rabbinic law governing shared courtyards; the place of Jews in medieval European cities; the formation of the shtetl in Eastern Europe; North African Jews "between" French colonizers and their Muslim neighbors; memoirs of the golden age of Berlin Jewry; and the immigrant "ghetto" of the Lower East Side.  This will afford ample consideration of the involvement of urban Jewish communities in processes such as modernization and colonialism.  Readings include historical, ethnographic and literary materials.

When Offered Fall.

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