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

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, 2^nd 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