HIS 571 Jews, Judaism, and Race
An examination of how race (and racism) have shaped Jewish life, culture, and politics over a long historical trajectory and broad geographic expanse. This course does not focus on the history of antisemitism and oppression of Jews per se but rather on the manifold and diverse interactions between Jewish communities and cultures, on the one hand, and the concept of race and experiences of racialization, on the other. We consider, for example, questions of race, slavery, and conversion in rabbinic discourse; Jewish whiteness and intra-Jewish racial hierarchies; entanglements between Jews, Judaism, and colonialism; comparative Jewish racialization and solidarity; antisemitism and genocide; Zionist thought and politics, and more. Elective. Taught in LA, Fall 2023.