[Jewish] Spring Courses in Jewish topics

[rrHACU at hampshire.edu]

Still looking for courses? Think about registering for the following spring
courses at Hampshire!

Yiddish Literature and Culture
HACU-0191-1
TTH 10:30AM 11:50AM
Yiddish Literature and Culture: Yiddish was the language of European Jewry for
nearly 1,000 years, which produced a rich legacy of folklore, legend, music,
drama, poetry, fiction, and film. Recently in the United States and elsewhere
we have seen an effort to recuperate, recover, and even re-define this "lost
world:" in the resurgence of Eastern European "klezmer" music, in the creation
of the National Yiddish Book Center, in Yiddish courses on college campuses,
and in "Queer Yiddish." This interdisciplinary course will introduce students
to the broad and rich range of Yiddish cultural production, concentrating on
literature, drama, and film. We will dip into Yiddish folklore and popular
culture, performance and theatre, modernism and radicalism, kitsch and high
art, and reflect upon the complicated emotions of mourning, memory,
sentimentality, nostalgia, political resistance, fantasy, and desire that fuel
today?s Yiddish revival. No knowledge of Yiddish language is required.
MCP,PRJ,PRS,REA,WRI


New Jewish Identities in Post-World War II American Culture
HACU-0268-1
TTH 02:00PM 03:20PM
New Jewish Identities in Post-World War II American Culture: Jewish experience,
identities, and culture changed dramatically in the U.S. after the Second World
War. Today?s "new Jews" can be secular or spiritual, radical or
neo-conservative, Zionist or anti-Zionist, fans of Woody Allen, klezmer,
Seinfeld, Tony Kushner, or Heeb Magazine. Jews moved into the middle class,
into the Ivy League, and into the center of American public life. At the same
time, they shed Yiddish, much ritual observance, and began experimenting with
new ways to define Jewishness. For some, it became a matter of political or
intellectual commitment; for others, a matter of taste in comedy, food, and
music; and for others, a "sensibility," or way of looking at the world. This
course draws upon popular culture, film, television, literature, history, and
sociology in exploring the new secular Jewish identities that emerge in the
post-war era. We will explore such topics as: Jewishness and popular
entertainment, Jewishness and political radicalism, Jewishness as rebellious
non-conformism, Jewish ethnic and cultural revivals, Israel and American-Jewish
identity, reformist spiritual movements, and a host of other surprising,
"new-ish" Jewish phenomena. This course is ideal for those students interested
in contemporary American culture as well as Jewish Studies and Religious
Studies.

Rachel Rubinstein
Jeremiah Kaplan Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish American Literature and
Culture
School of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies
Hampshire College
(413) 559-5518