Seminar on the Modern History of Jews in Europe - AHB500027

• Title: Seminar on the Modern History of Jews in Europe
• Guaranteed by: Department of Middle Eastern Studies (21-KBV)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2019
• Semester: winter
• Points: 0
• E-Credits: 5
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:0/2, --- [HT]; summer s.:0/2, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: winter:unknown / unknown (unknown); summer:unknown / unknown (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: Mgr. Kateřina Čapková, Ph.D.
• Class: Exchange - 08.3 History

Annotation

Last update: Mgr. Kateřina Čapková, Ph.D. (29.09.2018)

The seminar is intended to provide a platform for academic discussion about the latest research on Jewish history especially of the last three centuries. Though primarily focused on the Jews of central and east central Europe, the seminar also includes topics related to the Jews of other regions. The seminar is composed as a combination of guest lectures of leading European scholars and sessions focused on interpretations of suggested reading.

Aim of the course

Last update: Mgr. Kateřina Čapková, Ph.D. (14.02.2019)

Disscussions over the newest approaches in the research of modern Jewish history.

Requirements to the exam

Last update: Mgr. Kateřina Čapková, Ph.D. (14.02.2019)

Assessment components:

·       participation

Participation is a vital component in determining your final grade. We will meet once in two weeks and each session will have 95 minutes. The seminar has sessions with guest speakers and sessions lead by Kateřina Čapková. In case of sessions without a guest speakers students are obliged to complete reading assignment and to come to class with ideas, insights, and/or questions. The success of the class depends upon everyone arriving prepared, remaining open to other’s ideas, and offering arguments based upon on a thorough understanding of the assignments and lectures.

·       seminar paper on a topic from the field of modern Jewish history of student’s choice

In case of a “zkouška” corresponding with 5 points the seminar paper should have about 3 000 words including footnotes. In case of a “zápočet” corresponding with 3 points the seminar paper can have only about 2 000 words. The seminar paper can be written in English or in Czech. More details will be discussed during the course.

Syllabus

Last update: Mgr. Kateřina Čapková, Ph.D. (25.02.2019)

All the sessions take place in the library of CEFRES – Na Florenci 3

Program of the course in the summer semester 2019:

In contrast to the winter semester there will be a change in the structure of the course!

All students are obliged to visit guest lectures and next to this the course will be taught as a bloc seminar (in two days, in two Fridays in May). All the details will be discussed at the first session of the course which will take place at the library of CEFRES, Na Florenci 3 on 19 February at 5:30 pm. Please do not miss this session.

Guest lectures in spring 2019:

5 March

Laura Hobson Faure (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3)
Becoming Refugees, Becoming Survivors? Reframing Jewish Children’s Experiences in Transnational, longue durée Perspective

2 April

Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Who Will Edit Our History, or Challenges of Editing Holocaust Sources. The Case of Emanuel Ringelblum’s Ghetto Notes

30 April

Macos Silber (Haifa University)
Subversive Conformism? Youth Culture, Jews and Rock'n'roll in 1960s' Poland

14 May

Carmen Reichert (Augsburg University)
How Yiddish Writers Became Yiddish Writers

For more details about those lectures, please see http://www.jewishhistory.usd.cas.cz/

 

Bloc seminars will take place on 17 May and on 24 May

from 9am to 12:30, we will meet at the library of CEFRES

Topics of the bloc seminars:

17 May: Jewish nationalisms

24 May: Jews under Communism

Students will have to read several primary sources and secondary literature in advance. Texts will be sent to students by the end of April.

 

 

 

 

Program of the course in the winter semester 2018/2019:

• 9 October 2018

guest lecture:

Karolina Szymaniak (University of Wroclaw and Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw) Minority Perspective and the Trouble with Liberal Discourses.
Thinking History of Jewish/Yiddish Culture in Polish Context

For an abstract see:

http://www.jewishhistory.usd.cas.cz/colloquia/clusters-and-cuts-conceptual-frameworks-for-the-study-of-yiddish-polish-cultural-contact-in-the-20th-century/

• 16 October 2018

Required reading:

Jonathan Webber: Representing Jewish Culture: The Problem of Boundaries, in: Simon J. Bronner (ed.), Framing Jewish Culture: Boundaries and Representations, Jewish Cultural Studies, vol. 4, 2014, 33-76.

6 November 2018

guest lecture

Marcin Wodzinski (University of Wroclaw)

What is Hasidism?

 For an abstract see: http://www.jewishhistory.usd.cas.cz/colloquia/what-is-hasidism/

• 20 November 2018

Required reading:

Moshe Rosman, Founder of Hasidism. A Quest for the Historical Ba’al Shem Tov. Oxford: Littmann 2013 (Introduction to the Paperback Edition – XIII – LVII  - you can skip the subchapter on Sources reconsidered which is rather for specialists; and Chapter 11 – A Person of His Time 173- 186).

Please come to the sessions with your notes from this reading.

The topic of the sessions on 6 and 20 November is both related to Hasidism. Please consider reading the parts of Moshe Rosman’s book before going to the lecture of Marcin Wodzinski. It would help you to raise relevant questions.

We will also discuss what are the specifics of academic research in the field of Jewish history.

• 4 December 2018

guest lecture

Agnieszka Wierzcholska (Osteuropainstitut, Freie Universität, Berlin)
Microhistories from a Polish–Jewish town: 1918 – 1956

For an abstract see: http://www.jewishhistory.usd.cas.cz/colloquia/microhistories-from-a-polish-jewish-town-1918-1956/

• 18 December 2018

Required reading:

Doris L. Bergen, I Am (Not) to Blame: Intent and Agency in Personal Accounts of the Holocaust. Lessons and Legacies XII, ed. by Lower, Wendy, Rossi, Lauren Faulkner, Northwestern University Press, 2017, 87-107.