Seminar: [BA-VV/MA-IntPol-GPO] Jewish Agency in Early Modern Eastern Europe - Details

Seminar: [BA-VV/MA-IntPol-GPO] Jewish Agency in Early Modern Eastern Europe - Details

Allgemeine Informationen

Veranstaltungsname Seminar: [BA-VV/MA-IntPol-GPO] Jewish Agency in Early Modern Eastern Europe
Semester SoSe 2026
Aktuelle Anzahl der Teilnehmenden 9
erwartete Teilnehmendenzahl 17
Heimateinrichtung Leitung des Instituts für Geschichte
Veranstaltungstyp Seminar in der Kategorie Offizielle Lehrveranstaltungen
Erster Termin Donnerstag, 09.04.26, 10:00 - 12:00 Uhr Seminarraum 9 (R.2.36) [EA 26-27]
Lehrsprache(n) Englisch

Modulzuordnungen

Kommentar/Beschreibung

It is widespread to imagine Jews as a minority or as a discriminated group. One reason for this is the experience of Jewish diaspora, which stretches from the fall of the Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BC to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, and continues in part to this day. Equally important is the traumatic experience of the Holocaust (Hebr. Shoah), which meant deprivation of rights, persecution and murder for the Jewish population of Europe. Both are deeply engraved in the collective memory of Jews and non-Jews alike. As a result, discrimination against Jews continues to play a dominant role in historical narratives to this day.
And yet there are other, sometimes forgotten dimensions of Jewish history. Building on postcolonial theory, this seminar aims at an examination of Jewish agency, i. e. the capacity to resist dominant power structures. Using the examples of early modern Poland-Lithuania and the Russian Empire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, we will explore the opportunities Jews had to shape their own individual or collective ways of life. What religious, legal, political, and social institutions did they establish? How did they organize their economic life? And how did they interact with non-Jewish authorities, groups, and individuals?
Knowledge of Polish, Russian, Hebrew or Yiddish is most welcome, but no requirement for the participation in the seminar.

Recommended literature:
Bartal, Israel: The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881. Philadelphia 2005.
Bartal, Israel (Ed.): Jews and their Neighbours in Eastern Europe since 1750. Oxford 2013.
Freeze, ChaeRan Y., Jay M. Harris (Ed.): Everyday Jewish Life in Imperial Russia. Select Documents 1772-1914. Waltham, Mass. 2013.
Gershon D. Hundert: Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century. Berkeley, Los Angeles 2004.
Guesnet, François, Jerzy Tomaszewski (Ed.): Sources on Jewish Self-Government in the Polish Lands from Its Inception to the Present. Leiden, Boston 2022.
Polonsky, Antony: The Jews in Poland and Russia: A Short History. Oxford 2013.
Polonsky, Antony: The Jews in Poland and Russia. Vol. 1: 1350 to 1881. London 2019.
The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Ed. by Gershon D. Hundert. New Haven 2008. Online:
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org.

Modulleistung: Hausarbeit

Studienleistung: Regular participation in the seminar, short presentations and steady development of your individual project