Attacking the Talmud: From Antiquity to the Alt-Right

Catalog description

Attacking the Talmud: From Antiquity to the Alt-Right examines the long and evolving history of polemics, censorship, and hostility directed at the Talmud and rabbinic Judaism, from late antiquity through the medieval and early modern periods to contemporary extremist movements. Treating attacks on the Talmud as a window into broader dynamics of religious conflict, political power, and antisemitism, the course analyzes how Jewish texts have been read, misread, weaponized, banned, burned, and repurposed across cultures and centuries. Students will study ancient pagan and Christian critiques of rabbinic authority, medieval disputations and trials of the Talmud, early modern censorship and print culture, and modern racial, conspiratorial, and ideological appropriations of anti-Talmud discourse. Special attention is given to how the Talmud has been represented by its opponents versus how it functions within Jewish intellectual, legal, and religious life. The course also explores contemporary digital and alt-right rhetoric, tracing continuities and ruptures with earlier traditions of anti-Jewish thought. Through close readings of primary sources, engagement with scholarly analysis, and focused case studies, students will develop the tools to critically evaluate polemical texts and to understand how attacks on Jews and Jewish texts have been shaped by the specific historical, social, and political conditions of each era. Emphasis is placed on historical context, methodological rigor, and ethical responsibility in the study of contested religious traditions.