The United States of today is home to more than seven million Jewish citizens (compared to 0.2 million in Germany). The communities‘ history date back to the mid-seventeenth century, constituting their members as some the earliest non-Christian minorities. Based on the constitution’s freedom of religion, Jews in the United States mirror the development of the country at large. Whereas Jewish communities are predominantly associated with New York City (today’s largest community), the American experience is more facetted than that. Charleston, South Carolina, and the overall American South and the American West were crucial in the nation’s development. In this course we will look at the formation of the Jewish history in America and its communities, the aspects of regional identity, rejection and embrace, the multi-facetted stances on and participation in the, for instance, Civil War (and others) as well as the Civil Rights movement, crime and culture, etc.
As most of our sources will be in (American) English, we will consider conversing in the original language. Falls sich bei unserer konstitutierenden Sitzung keine Mehrheit für einen englischsprachigen Kurs findet, können wir ihn gern auch auf Deutsch durchführen.
Wo?: Jüdische Studien, Großer Berlin 14, Großer Seminarraum
Please note/ Hinweis: I will literally will be on the road for our first meeting on October 12. I will provide you as participants with relevant basic material for that session. Am Tag unseres ersten Treffens, dem 12.10., werde ich wortwörtlich auf Sachsen-Anhalts Straßen unterwegs sein. Die Teilnehmenden erhalten grundlegende Materialien zum ersten EInblick in die US-amerikanische jüdische Geschichte.
