This course will be taught by Professor Natan Meir and open to the community, in Portland and across the world, at no cost. Remote "real time" classes will be held via Zoom on Tuesdays, 5:00 pm - 6:15 pm Pacific Time, starting April 28 and continuing through June 2 (six sessions).
- The course is offered for free; however pre-registration is required.
- After you've registered, instructions on connection to the Zoom classroom will be sent by email.
- We intend to record the lectures and will communicate with registrants regarding how to access recordings.
- If you have not used Zoom before, may want to visit zoom.us to download the free application and familiarize yourself. Watch a one minute video on how to join a Zoom meeting here: https://youtu.be/hIkCmbvAHQQ
Course description:
For many centuries, Eastern Europe was one of the great centers of Jewish civilization. This course explores the society that Jews created in the east European borderlands, a world unto itself but also closely interlinked with the surrounding Slavic and Christian milieu. This six-part course will introduce you to some central aspects of the world of Polish and Russian Jewry over five centuries, including communal structures, religious culture, socioeconomic patterns, the changing dynamics of Jewish identity, and the rise of modern Jewish culture and politics. Some key questions that we will attempt to answer:
- How did Jews get to Eastern Europe? Why did they settle there?
- Were Eastern European Jews Polish or Russian? or Ukrainian? or Lithuanian? or…?
- What are the origins of the shtetl? Did all East European Jews live in a shtetl?
- What is Hasidism and how did it emerge?
- How did Yiddish and Hebrew function in East European Jewish society?
- What are the origins of Zionism and the Bund?
- Why did Sholem Aleichem speak Russian at home? (Yes, Russian!)
- Why did East European Jews make up the majority of Holocaust victims?
Please join us on this fascinating journey through history. The course is open to all, regardless of educational, religious, or ethnic background; no prior knowledge of Jewish history or Judaism is required.
