Music, Sound, and Antisemitism
From the Middle Ages to the present, individuals involved in making and writing about music, have engaged in behaviors, creations, and discourses steeped in hatred of Jews. This course examines the various ways in which these individuals have used music to perform and inscribe, symbolize, describe, and editorialize antisemitism. In so doing, it focuses on musicking—a term that encompasses all musical activity from composing to performing to listening—in the realms of art music, popular music, and non-Western traditions, as well as of genres that synthesize different styles. It also draws on sound, including language and speech as well as writings such as Wagner’s Judenthum in der Musik (1848−50/69) and Carl Engel’s The Music of the Most Ancient Nations (1864). All of these will serve as a window through which to address the types of Jew-hatred that have become known since the mid-nineteenth century as antisemitism—religious, national and ethnic, political, populist, economic, and institutional—as well as hate speech or “hate talk” and the Jewish responses to it. A basic familiarity with music is helpful for this course, but it is not required as long as there is an openness to listening to music and a commitment to basic aural analysis. You do not need to know Jewish history to take this class, nor do you need to be able to read music. Translations will be provided, and musical analysis will be well explained.
Suggested prerequisites: Music Humanities (Columbia University) or An Introduction to Music (Barnard)
- MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Tina Fruehauf
CULPA: 7
Info
- 3 points
Topics in Israeli Cinema
Israel has a unique and constantly-evolving national cinema, the product of its diverse immigrant population, influences from neighboring nations, and dramatic national history. Beginning with artistic influences from abroad and culminating with native self-examinations, this course will provide a survey of Israeli film history, recurring foci of Israeli cinema, and introductions to influential filmmakers from early director and impresario Menahem Golan to Orthodox writer/director Rama Burshtein.
Each class meeting will include a complete screening of an Israeli feature film, as well as clips of related works. Readings will include critical essays and histories which elaborate on in-class screenings and cover additional topics and films. Written assignments will be three analytical essays which will encourage critical thinking, close analysis of films, and independent research beyond the materials presented in class.
All readings are in English. All feature films and film clips are in Hebrew (some include Arabic), and will be presented with English subtitles. Students fluent in Hebrew and Arabic are encouraged to interpret the dialogue for additional meaning that may not be translated in the subtitles.
- T 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Stuart Weinstock
Info - 3 points
Between Tradition & Innovation: Readings
The popular eighteenth-century mystical revivalist movement known as Hasidism transformed the religious and cultural life of Eastern European Jewry and remains a vibrant form of Judaism to this day. This seminar will introduce students to the history, ideology and major personalities of the Hasidic movement through a close reading of a broad selection of primary texts, including mystical tracts, collections of sermons, spiritual directives, hagiographical tales and polemical writings. We will explore the mystical ideas and practices taught by the founders of the movement, the new forms of leadership they developed and the fierce controversies they aroused. We will also consider the role played by Hasidic literature in the formation and spread of the movement and the tensions it embodied between tradition and innovation, elitism and populism, and oral and written modes of communication.
This course is open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates may register with permission from the instructor.
- M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Elly Moseson
Info - 3 points
An Introduction to World Zionist Thought
Intro to World Zionist Th
In this course, students will be exposed to a range of different ideas and movements that, together, constitute(d) “Zionism.” Although Israel is frequently in the news, the ideology that lies, in many ways, at the heart of Israeli politics and society is often represented in simplistic – even superficial or inaccurate – terms. Far more than a mere example of “nationalism,” Zionism has variously been interwoven with struggles over land, labor, gender, religion, and identity in not only Palestine/Israel, but also North Africa, East Africa, Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Europe, the Americas, and beyond.
Throughout the semester, students will read both primary and secondary sources in order to understand Zionism in its myriad meanings. Part I of the course will explore some of the basic tenets and debates of Zionism, with a focus on ideas prominent in the early twentieth century, such as socialism and Hebraism. Part II of the course will examine the ways in which Zionist ideas conceived in the Ottoman Empire and Europe diverged and took on new and renewed meaning as the Zionist movement reached global dimensions.
- W 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Benjamin Berman-Gladstone
Info - 4 points
Topics in Jewish Studies
This course approaches Jewish Studies from theoretical and pedagogical standpoints. In addition to looking back at ancient, medieval and Early Modern approaches to the study of Jewish topics and examining the theoretical, historical and religious underpinnings of Jewish Studies as a modern discipline, we will also read theoretical writings from related disciplines. The course will balance these materials with pedagogical materials and exercises. Faculty from disciplines related to Jewish Studies will visit the seminar to offer perspectives on current approaches to the field, and the class will visit the Rare Book and Manuscript Library with Jewish Studies Librarian Michelle Chesner. This course is required for students in the Jewish Studies MA program. It is open to graduate students, and advanced undergraduates may register with permission from the instructor. Please note that faculty visits will be added to the syllabus as they are scheduled.
- M 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Isabelle C Levy
CULPA: 5
Info
- 4 points