Syllabus
Zionism and Jews in the Communist Imagination, 1945-1989
Institut politologických studií
Fakulta sociálních věd
Univerzita Karlova v Praze 16. - 20. March 2015
Jacob Ari Labendz, Ph.D.
(labendz@wustl.edu)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Volkswagen Foundation Exchange
The Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University in Berlin
Department of History, Washington University in St. Louis
COURSE DESCRIPTION
One of the greatest challenges faced by state administrators and Jewish communities after the Holocaust was the civic and ethno-national re-integration of Jewish citizens into the re-established nation states of Central Europe. Soon, debates about Zionism, the State of Israel, and the place of Jews in society assumed disproportional magnitude in the contests of the Cold War, particularly in comparison to the relatively small size of the remaining Jewish communities in Central Europe and their lack of political power. In this course, we trace the emergence and evolution of communist anti-Zionism, its manifestations in antisemitism, and its broader political uses. We will also learn that strong counter-trends existed as well, which offered avenues of influence to Jewish leaders and unique opportunities for Jewish cultural development and expression. This course will not strive to cover the entire history of Jews in communist Central Europe, but will seek instead to provide a conceptual and temporal framework for thinking creatively about the recent history of Jews in the region. Of particular interest will be the story of how non-Jewish administrators imagined and thought about their Jewish neighbors.
COURSE OUTLINE
Monday: This history of Jews and socialism and the immediate postwar order 11:00 - 12:20, room 3093
Tuesday: The Anti-Zionist Turn, State Antisemitism, and Ecclesiastical Politics 12:30 - 13:50, room 3014
Wednesday: De-Stalinization, Anti-Antisemitism, and New Possibilities 11:00 - 12:20, room 3093
Thursday: The "Crisis Years:" Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism Restored? 11:00 - 12:20, room 3093
Friday: Global Politics: Performing Philosemitism and the Post-1989 Zionist Turn 09:39 - 10:50, room 3093
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Attendance and active participation are required for receiving a passing grade. You may make up for one missed class by writing a two-page reaction paper on one or more of the day’s readings. Your papers should not summarize the contents of the reading(s). Instead, please analyze and evaluate one aspect of or one argument from the reading(s). Reaction papers are to be handed in within forty-eight hours of the missed class.
You will write a paper of six to eight pages on a topic of your choosing. You will have one week (until April 20) to submit a short paper proposal to me by email. It should include the question you seek to answer, the major sources that you will use to do so, and a tentative thesis, if possible. Please put your name and a paper title on the proposal.
I will be available to meet with you during the course week to discuss paper topics if you like. You may email me questions throughout the following week. Communicating with me is not mandatory and it will not affect your grade.
Pending my approval of your proposal, you will have three weeks to submit the paper (May 20).
Paper guidelines
Choose a manageable topic. It’s better to say something interesting about a minor phenomenon, then it is to say something overly simplistic about a large one.
I encourage you to meet with me or email with me to come up with an interesting topic and find appropriate sources.
Papers should not include a title page.
Papers should include a bibliography of the secondary sources that you used. This includes books, academic articles, and media sources. You do not have to include archival documents, but you should list the archives that you used.
You are not required to do archival research, but you must reference at least three sources that we did not read together as a class.
You must use footnotes to cite your sources. This applies to quotes, numerical data, original arguments, and obscure facts. Please use a standard citation system. I tend to like Chicago, but you may use MLA. (You can find guides online.)
Papers may be submitted in English, Czech, German, or Slovak.
Plagiarism, or passing off someone else’s work as your own, will not be tolerated and will result in automatic failure.
Late proposals and papers will be penalized by one grade for each day that they are late. This means A à A-, B+ à B.
Paper proposals and final papers should be sent electronically as Microsoft Word (or compatible, non-PDF) attachments to labendz@wustl.edu.
GRADING 40% Attendance and participation 10% Paper proposal 50% Final Paper
CLASSROOM POLICIES
Please arrive on time.
Do not eat during class. Drinking is fine.
The use of electronic devices is prohibited in class.
Please turn off your phones during class.
Please be respectful of others. We are going to talk about topics that can be upsetting an in which some may take a personal stake. I encourage you to challenge and to disagree with one another and with me. The point of such a conversation is to improve our understanding of history and to gain more nuanced perspectives on the past. Our success will depend upon our ability to engage in respectful and civil discussion.
READING LIST (Subject to Change)
Monday
Marci Shore, "Children of the Revolution: Communism, Zionism, and the Berman Brothers, Jewish Social Studies, 10/3 (2004): 23-86.
Documents from Paul R. Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in The Modern World, 2nd edition (NY: Oxford, 1995):
- Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Problem" (1844)
- V. I. Lenin, "Critical Remarks on the National Question" (1913), 428-429.
- Joseph Stalin, "The Jews are not a Nation" (1913), 430-432.
- The Bund, "Decisions on the Nationality Question (1899, 1901, 1905, and 1910), 419-23.
Tuesday
Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin (NY: Basic Books, 2010), 339-378.
Council of Jewish Religious Communities in the Czech Lands, "Congress of the Jewish Religious Communities" (November 1953). NAČR, SÚC box 210, folder RŽNO 1949-55. (Czech version available.)
Wednesday
Martin Šmok, "‘Every Jew is a Zionist, and Every Zionist is a Spy!’ The Story of Jewish Social Assistance Networks in Communist Czechoslovakia," East European Jewish Affairs, 44:1 (2014): 70-83.
(Optional/Additional:) Jacob Ari Labendz, "Lectures, Murder, and a Phony Terrorist: Managing ‘Jewish Power and Danger’ in 1960s Communist Czechoslovakia," East European Jewish Affair, 44:1 (2014): 84-108.
Thursday
Dariusz Stoła, "The Anti-Zionist Campaign in Poland, 1967-1968," Jewish Studies at the CEU, II (1999-2001), 1-8. http://web.ceu.hu/jewishstudies/pdf/02_stola.pdf.
András Kovács, "Hungarian Communist Policy and the Six-Day-War in 1967," Jewish Social Studies at the CEU, III (2002-2003).
Marie Crhová, "Jews under the Communist Regime in Czechoslovakia," Jewish Studies at the CEU, III (2002-2003).
Friday
Peter Brod, ed., "Documents. Czechoslovakia: Jewish Legacy and Jewish Present," Soviet Jewish Affairs, 20/1 (1990): 58-68.
Mark E. Ta