History and Religion of Second Temple Judaism -- The Jewish Child, from the Bible to the Holocaust (2020 Boccaccini), course

History and Religion of Second Temple Judaism: The Jewish Child, from the Bible to the Holocaust (MIDEAST 335) is a course offered by Gabriele Boccaccini in the Winter 2020.

Description

What is the role of children, boys and girls, in Judaism? Although the religious education of children in the family has always been a major concern in Judaism, children are rarely presented as role models in the Hebrew Bible. Since Hellenistic-Roman times (in Second Temple Judaism and the New Testament) we can see more attention being paid to children, which led Jews (and Christians) to stress the importance of schooling and formal education even outside the family. Children however were not recognized as autonomous until the nineteenth century, when Jews and Christians in Europe and the United States got involved in the general cultural debate on children's rights, which also led to the establishment of the first youth organizations. The course will focus in particular on the "ideal" role that Jews attributed to children based on their reading and rereading of ancient scriptures, and on the Holocaust as a very special chapter in the experience of the Jewish child, when thousands of children in total abandonment found themselves forced to take their destiny in their own hands, in the struggle to survive, in hiding, in ghettoes or concentration camps.

Syllabus

(A) The Bible

General information

• The Binding of Isaac (Child sacrifice)

(-) Children in the Hebrew Bible (I and II) The Obedient child

• Young Ishmael
• Young Joseph
• Young David
• Young Samuel (1:23-2:11) The Call of Samuel - Moody Bible Story (6m)

(B) The Diaspora

<-> Living in an Hostile World (The Pious Child)

• From Daniel to the present
• Saints of the Church
• S. Dominic Savio, 14 years (1857

Fiery Furnace of Babylon

A dangerous world for children (

<-> The Child martyr

• From the maccabees to the present (Kiddush Ha-Shem)
• Woman with seven sons (Maccabean Persecution)
• Martyrdom in Jewish Traditions
• Judaism and Martyrdom

• Saints of the Church
• St. Tarcisius (3rd cent.)
• St. Vitus (4th cent.)
• St. Agnes of Rome], Age 13 (4th cent.)
• St. Pancras of Rome (Sanctus Pancratius) (304)

=

<-> Children in the New Testament Christian Origins

• Child Mary
• Child John the Baptist
• Child Jesus
• Suffer Little Children (Jesus and the Children)

(C) The Jewish Family

(D) The contested child

• The Blood Libel
  • William of Norich (England, 1144)
  • Harold of Gloucester (England, 1168)
  • Robert of Bury (England, 1181)
  • Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (England, 1255)
  • Werner of Oberwesel (Germany, 1287)
  • Andreas Oxner (Austria, 1462) -- cult suppressed in 1994
  • Simon of Trent (Italy, 1475)
  • Gabriel of Białystok (Belarus, 1690) -- canonized in 1820; cult suppressed during the Soviet period; revived in 1992

• The convert.
• Forced Baptism
• The kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (1858)

(E) After the Emancipation

Jewish Orphanages (late 19th-cent - early 20th cent. until WW2)

• Orphanages in the United States
• Orphanages by Janusz Korczak and Stefania Wilczyńska

Jewish Schools Children' literature

(F) Children of the Holocaust

<Overview>

==Kindertrasport== (2 meetings

• Kindertrasport <Documentary>

== Children in the Ghettoes == (2 meetings)

Jews in the Ghettoes

• Varsaw film

== (Children in Hiding). == (2 meetings)

Europa Europa

Jewish Orphanages and Boarding School during the Holocaust

17-18 : March 16 & 18, 2020

Children in Hiding

• [ Villa Nonantola]]
• [ Jewish Children's Home in Oslo]
• Christian Orphanages and Schools

Film: Un sac de billes / A Bag of Marbles (France, 2017) [110m]

19-20 : March 23 & 25, 2020

Children in concentration Camps

(a) Auschwitz, Belsen-Belsen

Film: Look at the Sky (1993)

21-22 : March 30 & April 1, 2020

(b) the Buchenwald Children

Film: Fateless

23 : April 6, 2020

• One Child's Story at Auschwitz: Luigi Ferri (lecture)

24-25 : April 13 & 15, 2020

• After the Holocaust

Film: The Search (USA 1948) [105m]

==== 26 :

Students' Presentations:

Final Exam: Students' Presentations

Come and Live

The Terrorist Child

(Children's rights