This course will explore Jewish politics- and political Jews- from the French Revolution to the present day. Beginning with the emergence of Enlightenment politics, we’ll examine how ideas from emancipation to nationalism, from antisemitism to Zionism have shaped the world in ways which reverberate today. We’ll consider how Jewish communities have organized themselves and how they’ve been influenced by the political structures of surrounding societies. Over the course of the semester, we’ll meet politicians, revolutionaries, activists, advocates and anarchists from 18th century Germany to 21st century Israel. The course will explore Jewish participation in political events from the Russian Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement. We’ll examine how, over the course of the last three hundred years, Jews have worked to obtain political power, to hold it, to shape it and to challenge it.
