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JEWS
AND NATIONALISM IN THE MODERN ERA
5-23 July, 1999
Course Director:
Michael K. Silber
Resource Persons:
Israel Bartal
Richard Cohen
Immanuel Etkes
Jonathan Frankel
Judit Frigyesi
György Haraszti
Hillel Kieval,
András Kovács
Maria Kovács
Ezra Mendelsohn
Viktor Neumann
Michael Stanislawski
The past few years have witnessed a remarkable
revival of interest in nationalism. A field that was thought to be all
but exhausted two decades ago, has become the focus of great intellectual
ferment producing an impressive number of strikingly innovative studies
and generating much theoretical debate. It is to this debate that we wish
to bring the case-study of the Jews. What are the Jews? The nature of their
collective identity-religious, racial, ethnic, national-has been the focus
of much interest and intense
debate during the last two centuries,
up to our very day. Over the years, Jews and non-Jews, scholars and laymen,
have expressed a broad range of views, mostly unambiguous, on the subject.
In this course we would like to re-examine the subject of Jewish collective
identity and nationalism by turning to the historical record of the past
two hundred years. In the spirit of current inquiry we would like to
problematize many of the cherished notions
not only of Jewish nationalists and their opponents, but also of various
theories of nationalism. The Jews can serve as an ideal case-study to test
the contrasting notions of such key theoreticians as Hobsbawm, Gellner,
Anderson, Armstrong and Smith in the eighties, as well the newer crop of
scholars of the nineties. Hopefully, there will emerge from the course
a better understanding not only of Jewish history, but also of nationalism.
The first part of the course opens with
a survey of various theories of nationalism and turns to examine the nature
of Jewish collective identity in the pre-modern era. Traditional religious
and often mystic ideas, both Jewish and Christian, came to interact with
new, secularized conceptions of the Jewish collectivity in the course of
the early modern era. These notions became highly problematic in the era
of emancipation and integration ushered in with the French Revolution.
How to preserve a legitimate form of Jewish collective identity within
the newly emerging nation-states with their exclusivist demands, became
the overriding concern of the first century of the emancipation era, and
even beyond. The initial response was to insist on the religious nature
of Jewish identity, denying or "denationalizing" its Jewish national components.
This "contraction" permitted Jews in principle to adopt the national identity
of their host nations. The interaction of Jews with different forms of
European nationalism greatly varied, never remained static, displaying
a dynamic over time.
The varieties of nationalisms in several
European countries and the evolving Jewish strategies of integration and
distinctiveness in the different settings is examined in the second part.
The last two decades of the nineteenth
century witnessed the rise of Jewish nationalism, first in Eastern Europe
and later in Central and Western Europe. Dissatisfied with the prevailing
paradigms of a "confessionalized" Jewishness, a small minority of European
Jews sought to construct a national Jewish identity. How this was done
in areas as diverse as literature, art, music, even architecture, in both
the Diaspora and Palestine is the focus of the fourth part.
This construction of a national identity
was sharply contested at every turn by a wide spectrum of opponents ranging
from liberal assimilationists, traditional and reformed religious leaders,
to socialist revolutionaries, the theme of part three.
Part five will examine in greater depth
the interaction of the two great rivals of nationalism in the modern era,
religion and socialism.
The sixth part will turn to the increasing
acceptance of Jewish nationalism after World War I both within Jewish society
and the international scene, culminating in the recognition of the Jews
as a national minority in Eastern Europe by the Versailles Treaties and
the creation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine by the Balfour Declaration
and the League of Nations. But this triumph, especially the establishment
of the State of Israel, has not put to rest nagging questions on the nature
of Jewish identity and the limits of Jewish nationalism, but rather has
generated soul-searching in both Israel and the Diaspora.
Finally, the course concludes
on a reflective note, re-examining the theme of Jews and theories of nationalism.
Because the course will re-examine the
course of Jewish history during the last two centuries from the vantage
point of one specific problematique, it will be assumed that even those
who are well acquainted with the modern Jewish history or the history of
the Jews in their own region, will find much of the material new. Thus
the course hopes to satisfy both the advanced student of Jewish history
as well as the scholar who is just making his acquaintance with the subject.
The course will be conducted primarily
as a series of advanced lectures on a graduate level, but with considerable
time set aside for reading primary sources and discussion. Several sessions
will be set aside for students' workshops where papers on the theme of
the course will be presented and discussed. Students will be encouraged
to prepare in advance such papers and applicants for the course should
mention their proposed presentations in the application.
There will be intensive reading for the
course and students are expected to come prepared for the classes. A extensive
reader will be prepared that will also contain further recommended readings.
Course Calendar
I. Jewish Collective Identity from
Pre-Modern to Emancipatory Times
1. Introduction to the Course (Silber)
2. Theories of Nationalism (M.
Kovács)
3. Jews and Christians on Jewish Collective
Identity in Early Modern Europe (Cohen)
4. The Emancipatory Offer (Silber)
5. Evolving Patterns of Jewish Collective
Identity (Silber)
II. The Jewish Encounter with European
Nationalisms
6. German Nationalism (Cohen)
7. French Nationalism (Cohen)
8. Hungarian Nationalism (Silber)
9. Romanian Nationalism (Neumann)
10. Czech and German Nationalism in
the Habsburg Lands (Kieval)
11. Russian Nationalism (Stanislawski)
12. Polish Nationalism (Mendelsohn)
13. Jews and the Construction of National
Narratives (Mendelsohn)
III. Jewish Nationalism and its Opponents
14. The Rise of Jewish Nationalism in
Eastern Europe (Stanislawski)
15. The Emergence of Jewish Nationalism
in Central and Western Europe (Kieval)
16. Resisting Jewish Nationalism (Stanislawski)
17. Zionism and its Opponents in the
West (Kieval)
18. Theoretical Intermission (faculty)
IV. Jews and the Creation of National
Cultures
19. Nationalism and Culture (Mendelsohn)
20. Nationalism and Music (Frigyesi)
21. Creating a Jewish National Culture
in Palestine (Bartal)
22. Nationalism and Architecture
(Klein)
V. Nationalism and its Rivals
23. Religion and Jewish Nationalism
I (Etkes)
24. Religion and Jewish Nationalism
II (Etkes)
25. Socialism and Jewish Nationalism
I (Frankel)
26. Socialism and Jewish Nationalism
II (Frankel)
VI. The Dilemmas of a Triumphant Jewish
Nationalism
27. International Recognition in the
Interwar Period (Frankel)
28. Zionism and Israel (Bartal)
29. The Conflict over Jewish Identity
in Israel (Bartal)
30. Searching for a Diaspora Alternative
in Europe (A. Kovács)
VII. Conclusion
31. Jews and Theories of Nationalism
I (M. Kovács)
32. Jews and Theories of Nationalism
II (Silber)
Other activities
19 July afternoon: Field trip to the
Jewish Museum and Archives (Haraszti & Silber)
22 July afternoon: students' presentations
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