070554 SE Early Modern History (approx. 1500 to approx. 1800) (2010W)

The course offers an introduction in modern european-jewish history. It covers the period from the expulsion of Spanish Jewry, which is generally regarded as the beginning of modern Jewish history, up to the foundation of the State of Israel. It explores Jewish history from a transnational and transcultural perspective. Focusing on the political and cultural interaction between Jewish and non-Jewish societies, areas of analysis include the impact of the Enlightenment, the legal and political processes of emancipation, inner-Jewish religious and cultural developments, the significance of World War I, the concept of Jewish cultural renewal, Zionist and other political movements, anti-Semitism and the destruction of European Jewry. It is the aim to introduce into recent trends of Jewish historiography and to contextualize this subdiscipline in the wider historiography of Europe.