Jews and American Radicalism in the 20th Century
Tuition: $360 | YIVO members: $270**
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This is a live, online course held on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, recordings of class sessions, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English, and any readings will be in English.
Instructor: Tony Michels
This course explores the long history of Jews and the American left. Why have many Jews embraced socialism and other leftist ideologies? What role have they played in Jewish life? How have they served to divide or unite Jews in different time periods and circumstances? How have leftists dealt with issues such as Jewish nationalism, antisemitism, and racism? We will discuss these and other questions as they played out among Yiddish-speaking immigrants and American-born Jews, from the late 19th century through the era of the New Left and beyond.
Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.
Tony Michels teaches American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. He is author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Jewish Socialists in New York, editor of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History, and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism. Volume Eight: The Modern World, 1815-2000.
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