JST 318U / HST 318U | Jewish History II: From Medieval to Present
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Natan Meir
TIME/DAY(S): T/R, 5:00-6:50 pm
REMOTE INSTRUCTION | CRN: 45262/45261
How do you tell the story of a people dispersed over much of the world with no obvious political, economic, or military history? Dive into a rich world of religious, cultural, and social developments, and understand how a tiny minority not only survived centuries of sometimes hostile environments but even found places for incredible flourishing and creativity. This survey of Jewish history explores (among many other topics) Jewish-Muslim-Christian relations in the “Golden Age” of medieval Spain, medieval Jewish philosophy, the Crusader massacres of German Jewish communities, the many factors leading to the expulsions of Jews from Spain and other western European countries, the rich and flourishing Jewish cultures that emerged in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire, the struggle for equal rights in 19th-century Europe, intercontinental migrations on a massive scale, the emergence of a Jewish community in the U.S., the Holocaust, and the establishment of the State of Israel. Prepare to be surprised by: homoerotic Hebrew poetry in the Middle Ages… an antisemitic cartoon from medieval England… a Renaissance-era Jewish messianic figure who converted to Islam… anarchist balls on Yom Kippur… Stalinist Yiddish poetry… and much more.
This course has no prerequisites.
Fulfills University Studies cluster requirement: Global Perspectives