Syllabus
Session 1
Introduction to the political and culture contexts of Central European countries in the Middle Ages. The Holy Roman Empire. The leadership of the German language and culture until the first half of the 20th century. The beginnings of Ashkenazi settlement in Rhineland and other parts of the Empire through the 9th -11th centuries.The identity and religious values of the Ashkenazi Jews in comparison to the social and spiritual world of the Jewish settlement in Muslim Spain of this period.
Session 2
The history of Prague Jewish community from the beginnings till 1782. Rabbinical and other Jewish personalities of the medieval period, synagogues and other buildings, institutions, relations with non-Jewish neighbours. Film: The House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague.
Session 3
Basics of the Jewish religion. Judaism as the religion of the Halakha. The Talmud and other religious writings. Jewish religious philosophy and mysticism. Film: The Jews - A People`s history, Part I and II
Session 4
Seesight tour to the Jewish Museum and places in the Old Town related to Franz Kafka. Meeting "under the Horse" at the Wenceslaw Square at 8.50
Session 5
Judaism and Christianity. The difference between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism. Christian medieval anti-Judaism - its historical and theological basis. The blood libel and other defamations - origin and history. The attitude of Judaism to Christianity. Film: The Jews - A People`s history, Part III
Monday 15 March: SMALL EXAM 1
Session 6
Jews of Poland and Eastern Europe in the 17-18 centuries. The messianic ferment of Shabetai Zvi. The birth of the Hassidism and its spirituality.
Film: The Jews: A People History, Part IV
Session 7
The Haskalah: Jewish Enlightment - between the general Enlightment philosophy and Jewish accents. Moses Mendelssohn - his life and philosophy. The beginnigs of the emancipation of Jews in the Austrian Empire and Prussia. The French revolution and Jews.
Film: The Jews: A People History part V
Session 8
Jewish emancipation in the 19th century. Orthodox and Reform Judaism. Assimilation. Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and their attitude to Judaism. The turn from liberalism to nationalism: J. G. Herder as the trendsetter of the idea of nationalism in Germany and Central Europe. The rise of the anti-Semitism in Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the second part of the 19th century. Leopold Hilsner`s affair.
Session 9 THE INDEPENDENCE DAY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
The Zionism: from Theodor Herzl to the raise of the State of Israel.
Central Europe after the IWW. Jews in Czechoslovakia. Thomas Garique Masaryk and his attitude to Jews and Judaism. The rise of Nazism and its ideology. Hitler`s ascention to power in 1933 and his anti-Semitic policy in pre-war Germany.
Film: Auschwitz, part I-III
SMALL EXAM 2
Session 10
Visit to the Museum of Franz Kafka, his grave and other sites.
Session 11
IIWW. The Nazi anti-Jewish policy and extermination of Jews in the occupied territories in Central and Eastern Europe. The conference in Wannsee 1942 and "the final solution of the Jewish question".
Film: Auschwitz, part IV-VI
Session 12
The tragic legacy of the Holocaust and its reflexion in the thought of the post-war Jewish and non-Jewish intellectuals. The Antisemitism and Antizionism in the Communist Block.
SMALL EXAM 3
Annotation
The course will provide the participants with information on the Jewish presence in the history of Central European countries: Bohemia and Moravia, Austria, Germany and Poland. Students will learn to know the ambigious character of the Jewish experience in these countries throughout the centuries, fated not only by prejudice, contempt, and suffering, which culminated in the worst tragedy of Jewish people in history - the Holocaust, but also rich in the undeniable contribution of Jews to the life and culture of these countries.
The course will focuse too on the Jewish experience in Prague, once the most flourishing centre of Jewish life. Students will profit from trip to Prague's Jewish city, its synagogues, the famous Jewish cemetery in the Jewish Town, the new Jewish cemetery (where Franz Kafka is buried) and the Museum of Franz Kafka.
This course will only partly deal with history of Jews in Eastern Europe, as some parts of this region, Ukraina ect. shared the same history with Poland in particular periods. The course will deal also with some Jewish ideas and traditions.
It may be of interest for US students, as the United States now harbour the largest Jewish community worldwide, with most being of Central or Eastern European descent.