SYLLABUS

Fall 2004

SYD 4606 WORLD JEWISH COMMUNITIES

and

SYD 5607 ADVANCED WORLD JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, FIU, University Park Campus

Wednesdays, 5-7:45 PM

Dr. Abraham D. Lavender, Professor

DM 322B, UP Campus, 305-348-2247

Website: www.fiu.edu/~lavender

E-mail address: abelavender@aol.com

Brief note on the professor: His doctoral dissertation (1972) was on generational changes in Jewish identity in the United States. He currently is president of The Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies (see the professor=s website and www.cryptojews.com). He also is a member of Temple Beth Tov in West Miami, a small conservative synagogue which has a large number of Latins who have returned and/or converted to Judaism, and which integrates Sephardic and Ashkenazic interests. The course, of course, is taught from an entirely secular and sociological perspective, and about equal attention is given to Ashkenazim and Sephardim..

Although modeled on a course previously taught by this professor at the University of Maryland (in the 1970s) and the University of Miami (in the 1980s), this is a new course at Florida International University, being taught for the first time in Fall 2003 at the Biscayne Bay Campus and now for the first time at the University Park Campus. It can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit, although most students will be undergraduates. Graduate students are required to do a research paper and make a presentation to the class. Undergraduate students can do so for extra credit, but it is not required. For all students, there will be one test near the middle of the semester, and a second test at the end of the semester. Each test will have a number of short essay questions covering both readings and class lectures/discussions. Attendance will be taken, and the professor reserves the right to lower a grade if more than one-fourth of classes are missed. The first part of the course will deal with major issues such as different ways of defining Jewish identity, population size, languages, types of religious identity, ways of interacting with the larger society, etc. After this part is completed, attention will turn to specific communities throughout the world, with more specific attention being given to population changes, concepts, demographics, etc., for each country and part of the world. The major topics in the first part of the course will be looked at in more detail when discussing specific communities.

Purpose of the Course

Jewish communities throughout the world represent a great diversity of patterns of interaction with larger societies, and exemplify a great diversity of sociological principles of interaction ranging from total assimilation to extermination. In addition to obtaining specific sociological knowledge of Jewish communities throughout the world, a knowledge of theoretical approaches`` to the Jewish Diaspora helps students to understand principles of minority-majority group interactions and to better understand possible future changes in these communities. More attention to world Jewish communities also can help to understand in more depth current events in the Middle East involving Israel and its Arab neighbors, how and why Jewish communities in the Diaspora relate to this conflict, and how other nations in the world relate to the Middle East conflict. The increasing interaction between different parts of the world means that students have a special need to have more in-depth knowledge of different parts of the world as well as theoretical knowledge to better understand interactions between countries and groups.

Topics to be Covered

Following are the topics to be covered:

I. An analysis of Jewish communities throughout the world:

A. Settlement patterns: brief origins and reasons for settlement

B. Population sizes, changes over time, and reasons for changes

C. Effects of major events such as the Inquisition, regional changes (trade routes, local wars, etc.), the Holocaust, and Israel independence

II. Comparisons and contrasts between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Overview of major languages spoken by Jewish communities throughout the world in the past and today. Comparisons and contrasts among Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Liberal Jews. Analysis of different aspects of Jewish identity: religious, cultural, ethnic, national, and genetic.

III. Analysis of the overall relationship between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora

IV. Demographic analysis of selected communities including a brief history, religious identity, social status, political status, gender issues, family structure and intermarriage, position on assimilation-pluralism continuum, and relations with the larger society. The time devoted to each community will vary depending on size, importance to world events, and a goal of including examples from all regions of the world. Special attention will be given to major communities such as Israel, the United States, Argentina, England, France, and the former Soviet Union. Other areas of interest will include the Caribbean, Cuba, Spain and Portugal, Germany and central Europe, Eastern Europe, Morocco and other North African areas, Turkey, Greece, and other Balkan countries, the Middle East, Iran and Iraq, Indian, China and Japan, and selected areas in Africa.

V. Special topics of current concern, for example:

A. Little-known Jewish communities throughout the world

B. Crypto-Jews, descendants of exiles from Spain and Portugal

C. Understanding various ALost Tribes@ of Jews, e.g., in India and Africa

D. Emerging findings and debates on genetic (DNA) approaches to Jewish research as related to social factors, including the ACohen gene,@ the Sephardic Diaspora, and genetic comparisons of Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Kurdish Jews, Palestinians, and a number of other Middle Eastern, European, and Far Eastern groups

VI. (For Graduate Students): Expertise in one community. Selection of one Jewish community in the world, with a class presentation covering that community=s background, development, and demographic characteristics, and explaining that community=s current status, minority-majority interaction, and prediction of future development of the community. It is possible that a special topic can be chosen instead of a specific country.

Books

Following are the four required books:

(1) Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of the Crypto-Jews, by David M. Gitlitz, 1996. This book discusses the Jews of Spain and Portugal who, before and after the Inquisition, were forced to convert to Catholicism or go into exile. There is some attention to their descendants today, with particular attention to the Americas.

(2) Fragile Branches: Travels Through the Jewish Diaspora, by James R. Ross, 2000. This book discusses Jews groups in Uganda, Peru, India, the Brazilian Amazon, Recife in Brazil, and Israel (the Karaites). It shows the great diversity of Jews throughout the world.

(3) Home Lands: Portraits of the New Jewish Diaspora, by Larry Tye, 2001. This book discusses seven Jewish communities throughout the world, showing Israel-Diaspora relations, generational changes, assimilation versus maintaining identity, and trends in Jewish life.

(4) The Jewish Traveler: Hadassah Magazine=s Guide to the World=s Jewish Communities and Sights, by Alan M. Tigay, 1994. This book devotes an average of five pages to about one hundred major Jewish communities (usually cities) throughout the world. This book is not used for the tourist information, but because of the large number of communities discussed (with a brief historical and contemporary status of each community). This book is out of print, but can be obtained (at an economic price) on a website, e.g., half.com.

(5) Special articles, etc., will be assigned during the semester.

Other books covering Jewish communities throughout the world and very relevant to this course are the classic Tents of Jacob: The Diaspora Yesterday and Today, by Raphael Patai, 1971; Diaspora: An Inquiry into the Contemporary Jewish World, by Howard M. Sachar, 1985; Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel, by Hillel Halkin, 2002; Jewish Communities in Exotic Places, by Ken Blady, 2000; and Jews in Places You Never Thought Of, edited by Karen Primack, 1998.

In addition, some very relevant books on specific countries, areas of the world, or concepts include The Jews of France, by Esther Benbassa, 1999; The Jews of Khazaria, by Kevin Alan Brook, 1999; The Balkan Jewish Communities: Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, by Daniel Elazar et al, 1984; The Jewish Communities of Scandinavia: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, by Daniel Elazar et al, 1984; The Jews of Latin America, by Judith Laikin Elkin, 1998; The Jews of China, edited by Jonathan Goldstein, 1999; The Book of Mordechai: A Study of the Jews of Libya, by Mordechai Hakohen, 1993; Dutch Jewry: Its History and Secular Culture (1500-2000), by Jonathan I. Isreal, 2002; Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation, by Miriam Bodian, 1997; The Last Crypto-Jews of Portugal, by David Augusto Canelo, 1990; The Portuguese Jews of Jamaica, by Mordechai Arbell, 2000; The Complete Jewish Guide to Britain and Ireland, by Toni L. Kamins, 2001; Guide to Jewish Italy, by Annie Sacerdoti, 1989; Who Are the Jews of India?, by Nathan Katz, 2000; The Jews of Islam, by Bernard Lewis, 1987; The Sephardi Story, by Raphael Chaim, 1991; The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times, by Norman A. Stillman, 1991; Mother of the Pound: Memoirs on the Life and History of the Iraqi Jews, by David Kazzaz, 1999; Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, by Xin Xu, 1995; From Falashas to Ethiopian Jews, by Daniel Summerfield, 2002; Farewell Espana, by Howard Sachar, 1994; The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust, by Tom Segev, 1991; Hitler=s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, 1997; Sticking Together: The Israeli Experiment in Pluralism, by Yaakov Kop and Robert E. Litan, 2002; Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry, by Samuel G. Freedman, 2000; What Shall I Do With This People?: Jews and the Fractious Politics of Judaism, by Milton Viorst, 2002; Converting to Judaism, by Bernice K. Weiss with Sheryl Silverman, 2000; The Half-Jewish Book, by Daniel Klein and Freke Vuijst, 2000; Suddenly Jewish: Jews Raised as Gentiles Discover Their Jewish Roots, by Barbara Kessel, 2000; and Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the Aftermath of the Great War, 2002 (World War I).