JST 109, 111 - Jewish Experience in a Secular Age

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement HU and DE.
Meets requirement: W when offered as 111
This course will explore secular Jewish experiences in the modern west. We will examine how traditional Jewish society has been transformed by new ideas and new social realities by exploring the many and multifaceted ways that Jews have constructed modern, secular identities in the wake of those transformations. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, as well as film and literature, this course will consider the ways in which Jewish identity has been defined and redefined in the modern period across Europe and the United States. Particular attention will be paid to questions of gender and the ways that men and women each experienced processes of modernization and secularization.