SYLLABUS

Fall 2003

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Florida International University

SYG 3990 WORLD JEWISH COMMUNITIES

(permanent number in the future will be SYD 4606)

and crosslisted as

SYG 5990 ADVANCED WORLD JEWISH COMMUNITIES

(permanent number in the future will be SYD 5607)

Wednesdays, 5-7:45 PM, Biscayne Bay Campus

Building AC1, Room 327

Dr. Abraham D. Lavender, Professor

ACI-315, Biscayne Bay Campus, 30-919-5923

DM 322B, University Park Campus, 305-348-2247

Website: www.fiu.edu/~lavender

E-mail address: abelavender@aol.com

Although modeled on a course previously taught by this professor at the University of Maryland and the University of Miami, this is a new course at Florida International University. It can be taken for either undergraduate or graduate credit. Graduate students are required to do a research paper and make a presentation to the class. Undergraduate students can do so for extra credit. 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.

On October 15, Janet Liebman Jacobs, author of Hidden Heritage, one of the required books, will talk to the class in a presentation made available to the public. Depending on availability, there might be one or two other guest speakers. A few short movies will be shown, including “Quest for the Lost Tribes: An Epic Search for the Truth Behind One of the Bible’s Greatest Prophesies.”

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 “Lost 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 “Cohen gene,” the Sephardic Diaspora, and genetic comparisons of Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Kurdish Jews, Palestinians, and other Middle East 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) Hidden Heritage: The Legacy of the Crypto-Jews, by Janet Liebman Jacobs, University of California Press, 2002. This book will be tested on the first test.

(2) Fragile Branches: Travels Through the Jewish Diaspora, by James R. Ross. Riverhead Books, 2000. This book will be tested on the first test.

(3) Home Lands: Portraits of the New Jewish Diaspora, by Larry Tye. Henry Holt and Company, 2001. This book will be tested on the second test.

(4) Judaism in a Nutshell: Israel, by Shimon Apisdort. Jewish Literacy Foundation, 2002. This book will be tested on the second test.

(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; Jews in Places You Never Thought Of, edited by Karen Primack, 1998; The Jewish Traveler: Hadassah Magazine’s Guide to the World’s Jewish Communities and Sights, edited by Alan M. Tigay, latest (recent) edition.

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).