HERITAGE: Civilization and the jews - PBS

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HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: The First Woman Rabbi (American Jewry, At Home in America); Who Is a Jew? A Critique of “Jewish Unity”; Who Is an Israeli? A Call for Spirituality; Who Is an American Jew? A Rabbi’s Opinion (1990s, Jewish Identity) Pathway 6: THE ROLE OF COMMUNAL INSTITUTIONS IN DIASPORA JEWISH LIFE A highly developed network of communal institutions greatly contributed to the survival and continuity of Jewish life in the Diaspora. Every Jewish community had a synagogue, mikveh (ritual bath), talmud torah (community-run school), bikkur holim (“visiting the sick” association), hevra kaddisha (burial society), and shohet (ritual slaughterer). These, in fact, are only a few of the institutions that provided a limited framework for Jewish communal autonomy and dispensed social services not provided by civil authorities. These institutions involved the participation of almost every member of the community—men, women, and children— and made it feasible for ordinary people to observe Jewish laws such as those pertaining to food preparation, ritual purity, and burial. From the 19th century on, as Jews gained emancipation in country after country, they gave up communal autonomy for the individual legal rights of citizenship. Jews now participated in the community through voluntary affiliation with religious institutions, cultural organizations, charitable endeavors, and, in some lands, even Jewish political parties. Today, such communal structures continue to shape Diaspora Jewish life. THE SHAPING OF TRADITIONS (30-732) VIDEO SUBCHAPTERS: Jewish Sects (Reshaping Judaism) • Judea Lost (Mishnah) • Words of the Rabbis (Babylonian Community, Talmud) MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS: Early Synagogues (Jewish Sects, Reshaping Judaism); Jewish Leaders in Babylon (The Rise of Islam, Jews in Muslim Lands) HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: Tombstone of a Roman Jew (Roman Empire, Roman Tolerance); Functions of the Synagogue (Jewish Sects, Reshaping Judaism); Prayer for Scholars (Talmud, Babylonian Community); Visit to a Babylonian Academy (The Rise of Islam, Jews in Muslim Lands) THE CRUCIBLE OF EUROPE (732-1492) VIDEO SUBCHAPTERS: Northern Europe (Jewish Life) MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS: Overview on early Ashkenazic culture (Northern Europe, Jewish Life) SEARCH FOR DELIVERANCE (1492-1789) VIDEO SUBCHAPTERS: New Worlds (Jewish Amsterdam) • Ashkenazim (Prague, Polish Jewry) MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS: Jewish Publishing in Italy (The Renaissance, Scholarship); Overview presentation on the Venice Ghetto (The Renaissance, The Venice Ghetto); Images of the Sephardic Community/ Images of the Ashkenazic Community (New Worlds, Jewish Amsterdam); Overview presentation on Jewish life in Prague (Ashkenazim, Prague); Jewish Life in the 16th & 17th Centuries (Ashkenazim, Polish Jewry) HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: Charter for a Charitable Society (New Worlds, Jewish Amsterdam); Memoir of Jewish Life in Poland (Ashkenazim, Polish Jewry); Prospectus for a Modern Jewish Journal (Enlightenment, Early Haskalah) ROADS FROM THE GHETTO (1789-1925) VIDEO SUBCHAPTERS: Religious Reform (Innovation in Judaism) • Eastern Europe (Shtetl Life & Culture, Education) • Shaping a Future (Zionism, The Jewish Labor Bund, Literary Renaissance) MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS: Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue (Religious Reforms, Innovation in Judaism); Overview presenta tion on Eastern European Jewish folk culture (Eastern Europe, Shtetl Life & Culture); Overview presentation on Jewish Labor Bund/ Audio Presentation: The Bund and Yiddish Culture (Shaping a Future, Jewish Labor Bund); Salonika: A Jewish Community Enters the 20th Century (A New Century, End of the Old Order) HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: Education of Girls in Polotzk (Eastern Europe, Education) THE GOLDEN LAND (AMERICA 1654-1930s) VIDEO SUBCHAPTERS: Colonial America (Communal Life) • Building America (Reshaping Judaism) • Mass Immigration (Building Community, Yiddish Culture,Who Is an American?, Trade Unions) • A New Generation (Communal Activism) MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS: Newport, Rhode Island/ New York, New York (Colonial America, Communal Life); Overview presentation on new institutions established by immigrants (Building America, New Community); Overview presentation on institutions established by immigrants (Mass Immigration, Building Communities); Overview presentation on development of Yiddish theater and literature in America (Mass Immigration, Yiddish Culture); Overview presentation on Jewish trade unions (Mass Immigration, Trade Unions); Overview presentation on Hadassah, American Jewish Congress, and the Joint Distribution Committee (Mass Immigration, Communal Activism); Overview presentation on American Jewish life in the 1930s (Mass Immigration, Into the Mainstream) HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: A Jewish Fraternal Order Is Founded (Building America, New Communities); Jewish Cultural Life in Chicago (Building America, Industrial America); Jewish Women’s Organization Founded (Building America, Industrial America); The Yiddish Press (Mass Immigration, Building Community); Do You Want to Meet a Fellow Lemberger? (Mass Immigration, Building Community); Hillel Founded to Serve Jewish Students (Mass Immigration, Communal Activism); An Appeal for Donations (Mass Immigration, Communal Activism) OUT OF THE ASHES (1919-1947) VIDEO SUBCHAPTERS: Eastern Europe (Poland) HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: Tradition & Change (Eastern Europe, Poland); A Woman Defends Traditional Judaism (Eastern Europe, Poland) INTO THE FUTURE (1880-1990s) VIDEO SUBCHAPTERS: American Jewry (At Home in America) HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS: He Will Heat up the Synagogue (American Jewry, At Home in America) 12
PROGRAM ONE: A PEOPLE IS BORN (3800 - 586 B.C.E.) The Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation....” [Genesis 12:1-2] HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Where and how are we to discover the origins of the Jewish people? Until the 20th century, most people would have replied that one need only open the Bible and read. The modern inquirer, however, has new information available drawn from archaeology and recently discovered ancient Near Eastern literature. These new sources help deepen our understanding of Israelite history as told in the Bible. They help us understand to what extent the early Israelites were a typical Near Eastern people and to what extent they were unique. The Book of Genesis is set in the Fertile Crescent between 2000 and 1000 B.C.E. It places Israelite origins in Mesopotamia, the “land between” the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. By the 3rd millennium B.C.E., people speaking Semitic languages had settled in this “cradle of civilization,” founding city-states such as Abraham’s birthplace Ur, from whence he set out for Canaan. We know from recently uncovered sources that Canaanites occasionally fled from famine in their own land and took refuge in Egypt. According to the first chapter of the Book of Exodus, it was during one of these sojourns that the ancestors of the Israelites were enslaved. Later chapters of Exodus show that they regarded their escape from slavery and their subsequent desert wandering as the decisive moments in their collective existence. They bound themselves in a covenant with the invisible God to whom they attributed their deliverance. After their settlement in Canaan in the 13th century B.C.E., the Israelite tribes went through a period of political and religious disarray until a monarchy was finally established. Under David and Solomon in the 10th century B.C.E., the kingdom became an empire.At its height, it was said to have extended from Sinai to the Euphrates River. Upon Solomon’s death, however, the kingdom split apart. The ten northern tribes formed the kingdom of Israel, while the Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem, supported by the tribe of Judah, continued to rule in the south. In 722 B.C.E., Assyria, the rising power in Mesopotamia, conquered the northern kingdom and exiled its people. The captives, the so-called “Ten Lost Tribes,” were probably absorbed into the general population.The kingdom of Judah survived until 586 B.C.E., when it fell victim to Nebuchadnezzar, king of the new Mesopotamian empire of Babylonia. Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple (also known as the First Temple) were destroyed and many Judeans were exiled to Babylonia. The religion of the Israelites during this period was characterized by prophets and by a Temple cult administered by a hereditary priestly caste. The revolutionary aspects of the religion, however, were also much in evidence: the worship of one God, the rejection of idols, the link between God and ethics, and the certainty that God’s will was evident in the course of history. These beliefs found their fullest expression in the words of the classical prophets. ACTIVITIES MAP THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST T E A C H E R ’ S HERITAGE: CIVILIZATION AND THE JEWS Use the map atlases on the DVD-ROM to help prepare a discussion on the differences between ancient maps, where boundaries tend to mark the borders of empires, and modern maps, which delineate the borders of modern states. Discuss with the class the principal geographical features of the Near East, especially its role as a land bridge between Europe, Asia, and Africa.Then have students draw and label the following on their maps: 1. The Fertile Crescent 2. Abraham’s possible route from Mesopotamia to Canaan (use Bible as a source). PEOPLE AND PLACES This activity appears on the Student Worksheet. The answers are, in order of appearance: Eden, Tigris, Abraham, Canaan, Hyksos, Egypt, Judah, and Sumer. The famous river is the Euphrates. The word “Hebrew” means “one who crossed over.”Abraham’s crossing of the Euphrates on his journey to Canaan is analogous to his crossing over from idolatry to monotheism. He was the first “crosser-over”—the first Hebrew. Discuss common causes of mass migration, using examples from recent history (e.g., Vietnamese “boat people,” Puerto Rican and Dominican immigration to the U.S.). R E S O U R C E 13
Page 1 and 2: DVD-ROM Resource Guide www.thirteen
Page 3 and 4: INTRODUCTION In 1984, PBS broadcast
Page 5 and 6: Exploring Heritage via the historic
Page 7 and 8: Conservative, and Reconstructionist
Page 9 and 10: (Settlement in Canaan) • Babyloni
Page 11 and 12: Indeed, Jewish history is a repeati
Page 13: of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E.,
Page 17 and 18: PREVIEW QUESTIONS PROGRAM ONE: A PE
Page 19 and 20: PROGRAM TWO: THE POWER OF THE WORD
Page 21 and 22: T E A C H E R ’ S PROGRAM THREE:
Page 23 and 24: S T U D E N T PREVIEW QUESTIONS PRO
Page 25 and 26: PROGRAM FOUR: THE CRUCIBLE OF EUROP
Page 27 and 28: PROGRAM FIVE: SEARCH FOR DELIVERANC
Page 29 and 30: S T U D E N T PREVIEW QUESTIONS PRO
Page 31 and 32: PROGRAM SIX: ROADS FROM THE GHETTO
Page 33 and 34: PROGRAM SEVEN: THE GOLDEN LAND (AME
Page 35 and 36: PREVIEW QUESTIONS PROGRAM SEVEN: TH
Page 37 and 38: PROGRAM EIGHT: OUT OF THE ASHES (19
Page 39 and 40: PROGRAM NINE: INTO THE FUTURE (1880
Page 41 and 42: PREVIEW QUESTIONS Answer these ques
Page 43 and 44: SELECTED JEWISH HISTORY RESOURCES S
Page 45 and 46: The Israel Museum www.imj.org.il/ A
Page 47 and 48: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This guide was pro

HERITAGE: Civilization and the jews - PBS

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