Derek Penslar (Department of History)
First-Year Seminar 73V 4 credits Enrollment: Limited to 12 CANVAS SITE
Why do people hate each other? Why are some groups of people more likely to be hated than others? This seminar seeks to answer these questions through the study of the hatred of Jews, commonly known as antisemitism. Jews have lived throughout the world over thousands of years, and they have been hated for diverse and at times contradictory reasons – they are said to be too different or trying too hard to fit it; religious extremists or extremist secularists; rich capitalists or revolutionary socialists; having no nation or roots, or fanatically attached to the state of Israel. Are there aspects of antisemitism, or other forms of group hatred, that transcend these differences and have common bonds? Is antisemitism an illness, or a symptom of a variety of maladies?
In this seminar, we will address these questions. We will do so by tracing Jew-hatred from antiquity to the present, in both Christian and Islamic lands. Our approach will be anchored in history, but we will draw upon insights from the humanities, such as theology and philosophy, and the social sciences, such as sociology and psychology. We will discuss religious and legal texts, political writings, polemics, and literature. We will also examine depictions of Jews in art and film. Through this course, we will learn how social pathologies like antisemitism grow out of basic human psychological needs, and how we can best address those needs without resorting to hatred of others.