1Prof. Jessica Marglin [email protected] ACB 326 Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-4 pm Religion 116g: Jews in the Modern Middle East GE-B: Humanistic Inquiry Fall 2022: Tuesdays/Thursdays, 12:30-1:50 pm, SOS B44 Course Description: Not so long ago, nearly every corner of the Middle East was home to thriving Jewish communities who spoke Arabic, Persian, Berber, and Ladino; who cooked the food we call Levantine, Turkish, or North African; and who thought, dreamed, loved, and died according to the rhythms of a society inflected by Islam. But starting in the mid-twentieth century, Jews began leaving the Middle East in increasingly large numbers—heading to the new state of Israel, Europe, or the Americas; today, only a tiny fraction of the population remains. The departure of the vast majority of Middle Eastern Jews from the region tends to overshadow any attempt to understand their history. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict casts more shade than light, often making enmity among Jews and Muslims seem inevitable or eternal. This course encourages students to resist seeing the past through the lens of the present. Rather, it offers a nuanced, engaging account of how Jewish communities navigated the rapid pace of change in a region they had always considered home. Beginning with the early modern period, this course follows the trajectories of Jews across the Middle East, from Morocco in the west to Iran in the East, as they navigated the challenges of modernity. We look at how European imperialism impacted Jews; at how new ideas about equality and belonging changed the legal status of Jews living under Islamic rule; about the rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism, and the way Jewish aspirations in Palestine reverberated across the region; and finally, how and why Jews left their ancestral homes for new lives elsewhere. Through the experience of Jews in the modern Middle East, this course examines broader questions of changing notions of difference, shifting social hierarchies, language, ethnicity, belonging, and mobility. Learning Objectives: •Reflect on the experience of Jews in the Middle East, and more broadly on religious and ethnic diversity in the Middle East. •Improve critical reading skills and expose students to a wide range of primary and secondary sources (including memoir, fiction, legal documents, travel writing, and scholarly publications). •Gain a better understanding of how Jews negotiated difference and belonging in the Middle East: use the history of Jews in the Middle East to help gain a better understanding of broader ideas and values, including pluralism, tolerance, and difference. •Improve writing skills (both in a scholarly, academic style and in more creative projects): improve the ability to read and interpret analytically: improve the ability to speak persuasively through exercises in section and lecture.
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