HIST 24000 - History of the Jews

Course Credit: 1
This course spans three millennia, from antiquity to 1948. It breaks the broad outline of Jewish civilization into these areas: the origins and early history of the nation and religion of Israel; the transformation of the Jews into a diaspora people and the emergence of classical/rabbinic Judaism; Jewish existence as a tolerated minority under Christian and Muslim rule and the salient cultural characteristics of Jewish life in each domain; the redefinition of the geographical, communal, and religious parameters of Jewish life as the result of expulsions and persecutions in the early modern period; the fragmentation of Jewish identity in the modern period; and the enormous upheavals in Jewish life of the twentieth century: mass migrations, the Holocaust, and the establishment of the State of Israel. Two themes provide the threads of continuity throughout this chronological narrative: Jewish culture and forms of group life, and political, social, and cultural interaction with others. [Pre-1800, Global] [C, HSS]