JNE 3415 - Jewish-Gentile Relations in the United States, 1830-1970

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

Throughout their history Jews faced non-Jewish majorities, and America was no different. Yet unlike Europe, the United States has been, overall, a very hospitable place for Jews, and many of them came to see their new country as "the Promised Land." The course focuses on the relations between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors from the beginning of a significant Jewish immigration to the United States in the 1830s. The course ends in the 1970s in order to analyze what most historians interpret as a rightward and inward turn of American Jewry (especially after 1967) and link it to the larger wave of ethnic revival in America. As a whole, the course looks at the interethnic and interreligious dimensions of American Jewish life and relates them to the larger American context. How did American Jews view their fellow countrymen and how did these opinions, in turn, affect Jewish integration into the larger society? How did the gamut of relations with other groups, which ran from animosity to coalition building and amity, change the country's political and cultural landscape? How did political and class differences within Jewish communities influence the character of interaction with other communities? Can we learn from the Jewish case about more general patterns of majority-minority relations in America?

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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