Judaism Through Film

“Judaism Through Film”

Religious Studies/Jewish Studies 141

MW 10:05–11:20AM, Gray 220

Instructors: Laura Lieber, Ben Gordon

Course Description

In this course, students will acquire a familiarity with the contours of Jewish practice, belief, identity, and history as reflected through modern American, Israeli, and European film, both contemporary and classic. We will pay particular attention to how context shapes the various experiences and perspectives of Jews while not obscuring the commonalities that permit us to speak of “a Jewish tradition” as a coherent religious, ethical, and cultural whole. The course is organized topically and addresses issues such as the encounter with modernity, the status of women, tensions surrounding Zionism and Jewish identity, religious reform, responses to the Holocaust (artistic, cultural, and societal), and the American Jewish experience as a cultural and religious phenomenon that has shaped American society more generally. Select secondary readings will reinforce the content of films and sharpen our analysis of film as a medium for not only reflecting but also shaping contemporary Judaism. As a “Duke Reader” (DR) course, students will have the opportunity, if interested, to be matched with someone outside the class (usually a Duke alumnus/alumna) with relevant professional experience for informal feedback on their writing ( Areas of Knowledge: CZ and ALP. Modes of Inquiry: EI, CCI, and W.

Requirements

Individual participation and blogging30%

Team participation and blogging25%

Three short film reviews in two drafts 45%

(DR students write TWO, plus a memo and final reflection)

Primary Sources: Films

This course relies on films and other visual arts as the primary source of information. We have been selected to participate in the “streaming reserves” pilot program through the library, so all films to be screened outside of class will be available on the web. You will need to bring a laptop or tablet to class every day in order to access and share with your teammates scenes that you consider particularly important for your arguments. For a list of films, see the Course Schedule below.

Secondary Sources: Readings

Timothy Corrigan, A Short Guide to Writing About Film (purchase)

Michael Fishbane, Judaism: Revelation and Traditions (purchase)

Lawrence Baron (ed.), The Modern Jewish Experience in World Cinema (purchase; “MJE” below)

Stephen M. Wylen, Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism (optional)

Websites:

**Various additional readings on Sakai, referenced on the Course Schedule below.

Individual and Team Participation and Blogging

Students will screen the films in advance of each Monday meeting and respond on the course blog to questions by the instructors. These individual responses should be 400–500 words and must be posted before the start of class, beginning Sept. 1. Late blog entries will not be counted.

In-class procedure will employ a team-based learning technique (also known as the “flipped classroom”), which means you will be sorted into teams at the beginning of the semester. Your teams will work together in class during the semester to carry out various assignments, usually consisting of formulating responses to prompts and defending points-of-view. Most weeks the group will be responsible for composing a team blog post. Team members will take turns being the “secretary” of the group, which means taking notes on the team discussion and writing them up into the post. Since the assessment of these team points applies to the entire group, the secretaries will want to circulate a draft of the blog to members of the team previously for revision/approval before posting. These team posts should be 600–800 words (the equivalent of two double-spaced pages) and must be posted within 48 hours after the (usually Wednesday) class in which they were assigned. Late team blog entries will be penalized by 20 points per day. On a rotating schedule, your team posts will be cross-posted to the main Jewish Studies blog; your date will be assigned.

For both individual and team blogging, you will be graded on the quality, content, and thoughtfulness of your posts. While blogging is generally an informal mode of writing, in this class your posts should be organized and well-written. They should make reference to specific scenes in the films and connect them to our readings and to other films. While the prompts will be, of necessity, fairly general, they are intended to generate rich and substantive answers that will be persuasive not only to the instructors but to your teammates and classmates.

As for participation, all students are expected to be engaged members of their teams and to participate actively and thoughtfully in all assignments, activities, and discussions. Regular attendance is expected. Absences in cases such as serious illness or immediate family emergency can be excused but always with advance notice given to the instructors and your teammates.

Film Reviews

Students will choose three films to review individually. The films will usually consist of those on the syllabus and discussed in class prior to the due date of each paper, though students are given the option of reviewing films—and other visual media, including TV series—not on the syllabus; these must be selected with the approval of the instructors. The reviews are to be around 1500 words (the equivalent of five double-spaced pages) and written in a journalistic style akin to reviews in The Nation or The New Yorker. They should be composed after consulting Corrigan and the relevant course readings (particularly under “Additional Readings” below) and they must relate explicitly to topics explored in the course. No outside research is expected or required.

Students who elect to participate in the DR program will be exempt from the last of the three formal papers if, upon completion of their interaction with their reader regarding Review #2, they write a short essay of around 500 words detailing what they gained from the experience and how it affected the final draft of the assignment. Due dates for Review #2 also differ for DR participants, as outlined in the table below. For all assignments, late submissions will be penalized by 20 points per day.

Course Schedule, Films, and Readings

Week 1: Aug. 25, 27. Prologue: Orientation to Judaism and Jewish Film

No films screened outside of class this week

Primary Reading: Fishbane, Preface: “Chronology of Jewish Religious History” (3–9), Ch. I: “Introduction” (11–24), Ch. II: “Judaism as an Ideological System” (25–82)

Week 2: Sept. 1, 3. Dawning Modernity, East and West

Fiddler on the Roof (1971, USA), screen at home

A Cantor’s Tale (2005, USA), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Fishbane, Ch. III: “Judaism as a Ritual System” (83–113), Ch. IV: “Jews and Judaism in Modern Times” (114–140)

Additional Reading: Whitfeld, “Fiddling with Sholem Aleichem: A History of Fiddler on the Roof” (MJE, 59–65)

Week 3: Sept. 8, 10. New Models of Piety

A Serious Man (2009, USA), screen at home

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989, USA), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Wylen, Ch. 2: “Torah” (15–36), Ch. 3: “God” (37–52)

Additional Readings: Samuelson, “A Serious Film” (MJE, 294–303); Landy, “Faint Hope—A Theological Interpretation of Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors”

Week 4: Sept. 15, 17. Dreams of Zion

Exodus (1960, USA), screen at home

Land of Promise (1935, Palestine), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Wylen, Ch. 22: “Zionism and the State of Israel” (380–406)

Additional Readings: Loshitzky, “Screening the Birth of a Nation: Exodus Revisited” (MJE, 237–244)

Week 5: Sept. 22, 24. The Status of Women

Kadosh (1999, Israel), screen at home

Fill the Void (2012, Israel), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Baskin, “Jewish Private Life: Gender, Marriage, and the Lives of Women” (357–380)

Additional Readings: Herzog, “Women in Israeli Society” (195–220); Battaglio, “When the Jewish Mother Was an Icon” (48–54)”

** First draft of Review #1 due on Sept. 24.

Week 6: Sept. 29, Oct. 1. Assimilation and Its Discontents, Part I

The Jazz Singer (1927, USA), screen at home

Sallah Shabati (1964, Israel), excerpts in class

Primary Readings: Wylen, Ch. 23: “The Jews of America” (407–427); Smooha, “Jewish Ethnicity in Israel: Symbolic or Real?” (47–80)

Additional Readings: Rosenberg, “Cultural Erosion and the (Br)other at the Gateway of Sound Cinema (MJE, 105–113); Peleg, “From Black to White: Changing Images of Mizrahim in Israeli Cinema” (MJE, 252–258).

** Final version of Review #1 due on Oct. 1.

Week 7: Oct. 6, 8. Assimilation and Its Discontents, Part II

The Chosen (1981, USA), screen at home

Zelig (1983, USA), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Biale, “The Melting Pot and Beyond: Jews and the Politics of American Identity” (17–33)

Additional Readings: Rubinoff, “The Chosen: The Jew as Both American and Alien” (MJE, 259–266); Whitfield, “The Distinctiveness of American Jewish Humor” (245–260)

** DR participants make reader matches by Oct. 8 and contact readers for your initial meet-up and brainstorm on Review #2 by Oct. 10.

Week 8: Oct. 15. Intermarriage

Keeping the Faith (2000, USA), screen at home

Primary Reading: Sasson, “New Analysis of Pew Data: Children of Intermarriage Increasingly Identify as Jews”

Additional Readings: Baron, “Keeping the Faith: A Multicultural Jazz Singer” (MJE, 412–419); Rebhun, “Jewish Identification in Intermarriage: Does a Spouse’s Religion (Catholic vs. Protestant) Matter?” (71–88)

** DR participants should begin writing Review #2 and set up a conference with reader.

Week 9: Oct. 20, 22. Holocaust and Identity

The Quarrel (1991, Canada), screen at home

Europa, Europa (1990, France/Poland) and Schindler’s List (1993, USA), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Wylen, Ch. 21: “Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust” (358–379)

Additional Readings: Manchel, “A Reel Witness: Steven Spielberg’s Representation of the Holocaust in Schindler’s List” (MJE, 168–177)

** First draft of Review #2 due by Oct. 22 (for non-DR). DR participants must submit a brief (100–200 word) memo about what was discussed during meeting with reader. (DR readers provide written feedback by Oct. 27, followed by oral feedback by Oct. 28.)

Week 10: Oct. 27, 29. Post-Holocaust Imaginations

The Producers (1968, USA), screen at home

Defiance (2008, USA), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Soloveitchik, “Kol Dodi Dofek: The Voice of My Beloved Knocks” (381–393)

Additional Readings: Abrams, The New Jew in Film, 109–134; Gilman, “Is Life Beautiful? Can the Shoah Be Funny?” (279–308); Fermaglich, “Mel Brooks’ The Producers: Tracing American Jewish Culture through Comedy, 1967–2007” (59–87)

** Final version of Review #2 due on Oct. 29 (for non-DR).

Week 11: Nov. 3, 5. Postwar Germany

The Flat (2011, Israel/Germany), screen at home

Alles auf Zucker! (Go for Zucker) (2004, Germany), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Galinski, “The Driving Force of the Postwar Jewish Community in Germany” (599–616)

Additional Readings: Uecker, “Belief, Ritual and Identity: Performances of Jewishness in Contemporary German Cinema” (25–46, esp. 35–42)

** For DR participants, first draft of Review #2 due on Nov. 8. The draft should also be sent on Nov. 8 to their reader, who will do “Think-Aloud” feedback (recorded feedback during an oral read-through); student records on Nov. 14.

Week 12: Nov. 10, 12. Contemporary Israel—A World of Tensions

Ushpizin (2004, Israel), screen at home

Time of Favor (Ha-Hesder) (2000, Israel), excerpts in class

Primary Reading: Levy, Levinsohn, and Katz, “The Many Faces of Jewishness in Israel” (265–284)

Additional Readings: Golan, “The Arrangement: Time of Favor” (MJE, 377–383); Ginsburg, “Love in Search of Belief, Belief in Search of Love” (MJE, 371–376)

Week 13: Nov. 17, 19. The American Experience, Part I

Gentleman’s Agreement (1947, USA), screen at home

Avalon (1990, USA), excerpts in class

Primary Readings: Sarna, “Antisemitism and American History”; Sarna, “The ‘Mythical Jew’ and the ‘Jew Next Door’”

Additional Reading: Carr, “Jew and Not-Jew: Antisemitism and the Postwar Hollywood Social Problem Film” (MJE, 266–273)

** First draft of Review #3 due on Nov. 19 (for non-DR).

** Final version of Review #2 due Nov. 19 (for DR participants).

Week 14: Nov. 24. The American Experience, Part II

The Frisco Kid (1979, USA), screen at home

Primary Readings: Halkin, “Why Jews Laugh at Themselves”; Ben-Amos, “The ‘Myth’ of Jewish Humor” (112–131)

Additional Reading: Whitfield, “Declarations of Independence: American Jewish Culture in the Twentieth Century” (1099–1146)

** Reflection Essay due on Nov. 24 (for DR participants).

Week 15: Dec. 1, 3. Student Symposium (panels)

** Final version of Review #3 due on Dec. 3 (for non-DR).

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