Abstract
The 15 session course will be linked to the Initiative for Jewish Identity we’ll be developing at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and will be exploring the analysis and many of the questions developed by the Initiative
Three of the Classes within “Jewish Identity and Jewish Leadership” will focus on the relationship between Jewish Identity, Jewish Peoplehood and Israel
I. Three stages of Jewish Identity in America
Assimilation, Sacred Survival and Israel, Israel and Renaissance
II. Assimilation, Intermarriage and the Deterioration of Ethnic Ties: Israel and the Rebuilding of A Dynamic Sense of Peoplehood
III. Political Polarization in the US and Israel: the Challenge of Overcoming Distancing in the next Generation
Class discussion will focus on examples of communal responses to the challenge of assimilation and distancing from Israel
Students will be asked to develop their own projects addressing these challenges