COURSE SYLLABUS
The Jewish Experience in America: Fall, 1996
Professor J. Grabiner

Office: Fletcher 222, ext. 7-3160; secretary: 7-3061.
email: jgrabiner @pitzer.edu
Office hours (tentative): MW 9-10:30, Tu 1:30-2:30, & by appointment.

The history of the Jews in the United States can be viewed as the history of an immigrant ethnic group or of a religious group. This history illuminates the structure of opportunities and barriers experienced by ethnic minorities, immigrants, and members of non-Christian religions. Through readings in fiction, sociology, and history, through film and field trips, through comparisons with the experiences of other ethnic and religious groups, and through a project in the community, students will learn about the Jewish experience and about the wider society. No previous knowledge will be assumed, and students from all ethnic and religious backgrounds are welcome.

Required books (in bookstore & on reserve at Honnold):
L. Dinnerstein, R. Nichols, and D. Reimers, Natives and Strangers: Blacks, Indians, and Immigrants in America, 2d edition, Oxford, 1990.
N. Glazer, American Judaism, 2d. ed., University of Chicago, rev. 1989.
P. Mendes-Flohr and J. Reinharz, The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, 2d ed., Oxford, 1995.
I. Metzker, A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward, Ballantine, 1972.
Potok, C., The Chosen, Fawcett, 1967. {not on reserve--sorry}
Steinberg, M., Basic Judaism, Harbrace, 1975.
Yezierska, A., The Bread Givers, Braziller, 1975.
Short selections (to be made available) from: the Bible; the Talmud; A. Miller, God of Daniel S.: In Search of the [male] American Jew; L. Grinker, ed., The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women; H. Sachar, Farwell España: The World of the Sephardim Remembered; M. Zborowski and E. Herzog, Life is with People: The Culture of the Shtetl.
Writing Handbook: "Write-On": A Concise Handbook for Pitzer Students, ed. J. Levering-Sullivan, 4th ed., September, 1996 (I have them for you: absolutely free)
Films: "Hester Street," "Gentleman's Agreement," "Schindler's List." (Times will be negotiated.)
Community experiences and/or field trips, short papers and short in-class reports: individually designed, assigned as appropriate.

Please note: You are responsible for finding out about any assignment or handouts if you should miss class. Ask a classmate or ask me.
The Jewish Experience in America: Tentative Calendar
Subject to change as our intellectual adventures warrant: stay tuned.

Sept. 5: Introduction: Who Are American Jews?

Sept. 10-12: The Chosen. (Rosh Hashanah is Sept. 14-15)

Sept. 17-19: Life is with People, 88-123 (handout)
Selections from Talmud Berakhot (handout)
(Option: trip to Museum of Tolerance is on Friday, Sept. 20; phone 74176)

Sept. 24-26: The Bread Givers (Yom Kippur is Sept. 23)

Oct. 1-3: A Bintel Brief
Film: "Hester Street"

Oct. 8-10: Mendes-Flohr, The Jew in the Modern World, The U. S., 449-528
Sachar, Farewell España, 347-387 (handout)

Oct. 15: Glazer, American Judaism, xiii-xxix, 1-186
(No class Oct. 17: finish Glazer on your own)

Oct. 22: No class, fall break
Oct. 24: Readings on the Holocaust, Mendes-Flohr, 634-699

Oct. 29-31: Readings on Zionism, Mendes-Flohr, 529-633;
Film: "Schindler's List"

Nov. 5-7: (Vote on Tuesday!) Guest Lecture, Rabbi Leslie Bergson, Jewish Women in America; Dinnerstein, chapters 8-10

Nov. 12-14: Individual reports on Dinnerstein, chapters 1-7

Nov. 19-21: Reports on the Anglo-Jewish Press ; Film, "Gentleman's Agreement" Start reading Steinberg.

Nov. 26: Steinberg, Basic Judaism (Nov. 28: Have a Happy Thanksgiving)

Dec. 3-5: Brief report in class on your projects; writeup due December 3.

Dec. 10-12: Final version of paper, responding to comments, due Dec. 10.
Individual reports on selections from Mendes-Flohr, chapters 1-8, conclude the course. Assignments:

This is a writing-intensive course. Emphasis will be on short writing assignments which help you sharpen and focus your understanding of materials from the course. Assignments will be made in class.
In addition, for each film, you will write a film review (instructions will be provided).

You will always have the chance to rewrite your papers in the light of my comments; in fact this will be required.

This is also a seminar, so there will be several occasions for you to report on a reading to your classmates. A brief write-up will also be required.

Each student will do some sort of project which gets him or her out in the community. This can be a field trip (e.g., to the Museum of Tolerance, to a complete religious service of a sort the student has never attended, or a tour of Jewish Los Angeles), or a volunteer experience in the Jewish community in L. A. or the San Gabriel Valley or through McAlister. I'll have a conference with each of you about your project, to help you find something that interests you.
The last paper in the course will be a reflection on this project in the light of what you have learned in the course. Some outside reading may be appropriate, and if so I'll help you find it, but generally the course materials will suffice. This paper will be due December 3. I will comment on it, and a final version will be due December 10. Also, students will share their experiences with the class on December 3-5.

The weighting of grades on assignments will be roughly proportional to the length of the assignment, except that if your work improves significantly over the semester I will count the second half-semester's work more. Late work will be docked 10% per CALENDAR (not class) day, unless you've explained your (valid) reason to me ahead of time.

Electronic Assistance:
The class will have a Bulletin Board on Pitzer's Hobbes computer.
To subscribe from your e-mail account (Get one! You'll find it has many benefits.), simply send a message to
listserv@hobbes.pitzer.edu
with subject line blank, and with message reading exactly thus:
subscribe grabiner_seminar-l
(that is, grabiner underscore seminar dash lower-case letter l)

Messages on the list will automatically appear in your e-mail mailbox or inbox; if you want to send a message in reply to an individual, just do so; if you want to send a message to the whole list, send it to:
grabiner_seminar-l@hobbes.pitzer.edu
If you want to send a private message to me, send it to
judith_grabiner@email.pitzer.edu
Also, check out the Jewish-interest sites on my page on the World Wide Web:
Go to http://www.pitzer.edu/~jgrabine/ (Note that there's no "r" at the end of my name on the Web.)