The Jewish People: From Racial Other to White Americans

Catalog description

The experience of the Jewish people in Europe and America provides the best historical example for understanding the effect of racial frameworks on a single social group. The Jews were the first people in history to be treated by Europeans as a distinct, inferior group – as a race – and to suffer racial oppression. The keywords "ghetto" and "diaspora" both originate in the Jewish experience; in fact, Jews have often defined themselves as a race. The course begins with "the Jew" as Europe's racial Other in the early modern era then moves to a comparative analysis of Jewish experience in the nineteenth century during a period of white racial pride in Europe and America. This course will then interrogate the concepts of race, ethnicity, and nationality, as they continue to impact Jewish thought, contemporary society, and American culture.