| Date | Assignments are due on the date to the left. |
| Week 1 | INTRODUCTION, SPINOZA |
| Mon, February 1 | 📌 Spinoza's excommunication (herem)
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| Wed, February 3 | 📖 Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (excerpts, Preface, Ch. 3, Ch. 17 + skim selection of your choosing p. 19-30, 71-88, 287-315 (56 pages))
📌 Willi Goetschel, Spinoza’s Modernity: Mendelssohn, Lessing, and Heine (2004, excerpt) |
| Week 2 | Shabbtai Zvi & False Messiahs of the 17th century |
| Mon, February 8 | 📖 Gershom Scholem, Redemption through Sin (1936 [1971]), 78-141, (63 pages) |
| Wed, February 10 | 📖 The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln, transl. Marvin Lowenthal (Ch. 3, 40-65)
✎ 1-2 page critical response (write) |
| Woche 3 | Mendelssohn & 18th-19th century Emancipation |
| Mon, February 15 | 📖 David Sorkin, Moses Mendelssohn and the Religious Enlightenment (1996) Intro, Ch. 8-9 (41 pages)
📖 Primary documents: Frederick II, Charter Decreed for the Jews of Prussia (1750) + Mendelssohn on Michaelis (7 pages)
👓 Tomer Mangoubi, Karaite Judaism
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| Wed, February 17 | 📖 Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem (1783), Ch. 2, 50-103 (53 pages) |
| Week 4 | Reform Judaism, 19th century
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| Mon, February 22 | 📖 Susannah Heschel, Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus (1998) Ch. 1, 23-49 (27 pages)
📖 Reform Judaism primary documents (The Jew in the Modern World, 1980) 145-168 (24 pages)
|
| Wed, February 24 | Orientalism
📖 John M. Efron, German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic (2015) Ch. 3, 112-160 (49 pages)
📌 Pittsburgh Reform Platform, 1885
📌 Ivan Davidson Kalmar and Derek J. Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, (2005, Intro.)
✎ 1-2 page critical response (write) |
| Week 5 | Zionism, 20th century
|
| Mon, March 1 | 📖 Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (1896), Preface - Ch. 3, 67-122 (54 pages) |
Wed, March 3 | 🚫 Mid-Semester Break—no class |
| Thurs, March 4 | Mid-Semester Make-Up
📖 Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (1896), Ch.4 - Conclusion, 123-157 (35 pages)
📌 Michael Löwy, Redemption and Utopia: Jewish Libertarian Thought in Central Europe (1992, excerpts) |
| Week 6 | |
| Mon, March 8 | 📖 Abraham Isaac Kuk, including "The Land of Israel," "The Rebirth of Israel," "The Experience of Mysticism" (Noveck, 95-128) 34 pages
📖 Todd Presner, “Clear Heads, Solid Stomachs, and Hard
Muscles” (2003, 28 pages) |
| Wed, March 10 | Messianism in Secular Thought
📖 Walter Benjamin, “Task of the Translator,” “Theses on the Philosophy of History” (Illuminations, 1968) 69-82, ,255-266 (26 pages)
📖 Walter Benjamin, “Theologico-Political Fragment,” 312-313 (2 pages) |
| Week 7 |
| Mon, March 15 | 📖 Martin Buber, including The Word “God,” God and the World’s Evil, Jewish Renaissance (Noveck, 243-275) 33 pages
📥 Essay on Messianism. |
| Wed, March 17 | 📖 Martin Buber, I and Thou (1923) First Part, 51-85, 33 pages |
| Week 8 | Buber |
| Mon, March 22 | 📖 Martin Buber, I and Thou (1923), Second - Third Part 87-144, 58 pages
|
| Wed, March 24 | 📖 Martin Buber, I and Thou (1923), Third Part 144-168, 25 pages
✎ 1-2 page critical response |
| Week 9 |
Mon, March 29 | 🚫 Passover—no class
📖 Passover Haggadah. Focus on the section of Magid ("The Telling")
|
| Wed, March 31 | 📖 Franz Rosenzweig, including On Jewish Learning, Hebrew Language, The Builders: Concerning the Law (Noveck, 213-236) 24 pages
📖 Margarete Susman, "God the creator". In: Nahum N. Glatzer (Ed.), The Dimensions of Job: A Study and Selected Readings. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2002 (originally published by Schocken Books, 1969). ISBN 9781592440061. p. 86-92 (7 pages) |
| Woche 10 |
| Mon, April 5 | 📖 Franz Rosenzweig, Star of Redemption (1921, Part 3, Book 1), 317-369. Read for the theme of blood |
| Wed, April 7 | 📖 Susanne Hillman, “'A Germ So Tiny': Margarete Susman's Messianism of Small Steps," Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 96, No. 1 (2013), pp. 40-84. |
| Week 11 |
| Mon, April 12 | 📥 Essay on Jewish Statism, peoplehood.
📖 Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem (Penguin, Ch. 2 and Epilogue), 21-35, 270-279 (25 pages)
📖 Hannah Arendt & Gershom Scholem, "Eichmann in Jerusalem - An Exchange of Letters." Encounter 22:1 (January 1964), 51-56 (6 pages) |
| Wed, April 14 | Reform Judaism in the US
📖 Solomon Breibart, Exploration in Charleston's Jewish History, "A Neglected Figure in American Jewish Reform: The Reverend Mr. Gustavus Poznanski" (55-60) 6 pages
📖 Kaufmann Kohler, including "Evolution and Religion," "The Nature and Purpose of Prayer," "Mission of Israel" (Noveck, 293-326) 34 pages |
| Week 12 | |
| Mon, April 19 | Reconstructionist Judaism
📖 Mordechai Kaplan, including "An Approach to Jewish Religion," "A Conception of God," "The Social Structure of American Jewish Life" (Noveck, 329-368) 40 pages |
| Wed, April 21 | Feminist Jewish Theology
📖 Susannah Heschel, Introduction, On Being a Jewish Feminist, 1983. xiii-xxxvi (20 pages)
📖 Susannah Heschel, The Orange on the Seder Plate (1 page)
📖 Rachel Adler, The Jew Who Wasn't There: Halakha and the Jewish Woman, In: On Being a Jewish Feminist, 1983. [1973], 12-18 (6 pages)
📖 Aviva Cantor, The Lilith Question, In: On Being a Jewish Feminist, 1983. 40-50 (11 pages) |
| Week 13 | |
| Mon, April 26 | 📖 Passover haggadot (Course Reserves, Handout)
✎ Prepare for Essay 3 by completing handout (Canvas)
|
| Wed, April 28 | Hasidism, 18th century to Today
📖 Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch (Ch. 4 & 14, 66-87, 261-284, 46 pages)
✎ 1-2 page critical response (write) |
| Week 14 | |
| Mon, May 3 | 📖 Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch (Prologue, Ch. 1. Ch. 5, 3-32, 88-106) |
| Wed, May 5 | No reading, only
✎ 1 page of the final essay or an outline (write)
|
| Fri, May 14 | 📥 Essay 3 on Passover haggadot. Essay and makeup work due by 12pm noon. |
