Applications for May 2013 Now Available!

GERMANY CLOSE UP: JEWS IN CONTEMPORARY GERMANY

Dates: May 7-14 (Stateside); May 21-June 2 (Germany).

This course explores the long, complex and often painful history shared by Germans, both Jews and non-Jews. By looking at diverse literary, philosophical, historical and religious sources, we will explore the changing terrain of identity politics in national, cultural and theological realms. Preliminary close and intensive study on all campuses through our cross campus e-Learning classrooms will be followed by an intense 12-day study tour of Germany. Sites there include museums, memorials, monuments and markers of the varied and joint culture of Jewish and non-Jewish Germans. Our discussions before departure will investigate the background and controversies of those places we will visit and will prepare students for conversations with the Germans of different backgrounds (rabbinical students, university personnel, tour guides, politicians, community leaders) who are in the process of determining their shared future. All of our preparation will create an awareness of contemporary German Jewish life. The class will visit Berlin, Worms and Speyer; institutional visits include the Centrum Judaicum and the Neue Synagogue, the Jewish Museum, walking tours of (former east and west) Berlin, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, primary locations for Liberal Judaism (the former Hochschule fuer Wissenschaft des Judentums/Leo Baeck Haus and the Abraham Geiger College) and a trip to a concentration camp.

Open to students in all programs. Prerequisites include completion of the modern Jewish history core course or approval from the instructor. Requirements include full participation in all course activities, preparatory reading, the writing of a directed journal during the trip, and several short papers meant to help prepare students for the trip. The class is being offered in cooperation with Germany Close Up: American Jews Meet Modern Germany. For further information and for an application, please contact Leah Hochman at hucgermanycloseup@gmail.com.