Cultural Migrations of a Hanukkah Pilgrimage (original) (raw)
2020
The history of Jewish peoplehood is one of constant migration, of moving from place to place by choice or force, and building a home on new grounds. This class will chart the trajectories of Jews throughout history, from biblical times to modernity. We will trace this movement around the globe by sampling the fiction, poetry, and essays left in its wake. Through surveying cultural expressions across time and geographies, the class presents Jewish identity and its many iterations, exploring lineages such as Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi heritage and intersections of gender and sexuality. The class syllabus contains three sections. The first introduces canonical sacred texts of Judaism, covering relevant narratives from the Tanakh, the Talmud, Midrash, and the Passover Haggadah. The second section explores the cosmopolitan transformation of Jewish culture through poetry, travelogues, and philosophy from medieval Iraq, Iran, and Andalusia (Southern Spain). The third section jumps forward to the 20th century, presenting the literature of Jewish immigrants before and after WWII, as they travel back and forth among Europe, North-Africa, Mandatory Palestine, Israel, and the US.