REL 3407 - Jews, America and Sports

Institution:

Temple University

Subject:

Description:

While Jews are often seen as “the people of the book,” they are also a “people of the body.” This course will locate sports in the history and sociology of American Jewish life. The first section will look at the history of Jews in relationship to athletics and body image. The course will then focus on the American experience to understand sports in the American context, looking not only at the major sports that Jews have been involved with (baseball, boxing, basketball and track), but also how immigration, urbanization, gambling, assimilation, and anti-Semitism have played roles in how Jews have been involved in sports. We will examine questions about ethnicity and race, gender (both masculinity and women’s participation) and class, and the business of sport. A third section will examine the arena of international affairs, especially the 1936 Olympics, and the role of sports in Israel, and the Israel-America relations as experienced through U.S. participation in the Maccabiah games. We will end by looking at sports in the Jewish imagination and the life of contemporary Jews through a study of business, literature and life experience. The course will encourage students to think in new ways about the Jewish connection to sports. It will require weekly writing assignments and several projects in the Philadelphia Jewish community.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

WWW.TEMPLE.EDU

Phone Number:

(215) 204-7000

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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