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
(1) Jan 8, 2020
Children in the Ancient Near East: General Introduction
(2-3) Jan 13 & 15, 2020
Children in Second Temple Judaism
Children in the Hebrew Bible
- Young Ishmael
- Young Joseph
- Young David
- Young Samuel (1:23-2:11) The Call of Samuel - Moody Bible Story (6m)
Children in the Early Jesus Movement
- Child Mary
- Child John the Baptist
- Child Jesus
- Suffer Little Children (Jesus and the Children)
Children in the Diaspora (the Book of Daniel)
Living in an Hostile World (The Pious Child)
- From Daniel to the present
- Saints of the Church
- S. Dominic Savio, 14 years (1857)
A dangerous world for children
The Child martyr (the Books of the Maccabees)
- 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)
(4) Jan 22, 2020 (no class on Jan 20)
The Jewish Child in the Middle Ages
- Rituals of Initiation
- Education
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 (Abduction of Children)
(5-6) Jan 27-29, 2020
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
Children of the Holocaust: General Introduction
(7-8) Feb 3 & 5, 2020
Kindertransport
- Film: All My Loved Ones (Vsichni moji blízcí), directed by Matej Minac (Rep. ceca 1997)
(9-10) Feb 10 & 12, 2020
Jews in the Ghettoes
- Film: Border Street (Ulica Graniczna), directed by Aleksander Ford (Poland 1948) <Polish>
(11-12) Feb 17 & 19, 2020
The Literature of the Holocaust
(13-14) Feb 24 & 26, 2020
FebMid-Term Exam
< Spring Break >
(15-16) March 9 & 11, 2020
Children in Hiding
- [ Villa Nonantola]]
- [ Jewish Children's Home in Oslo]
- Christian Orphanages and Schools
Film: A Bag of Marbles (Un sac de billes), directed by Christian Duguay (France 2017) [110m]
(17-18) March 16 & 18, 2020
Children in concentration Camps
(a) Auschwitz, Belsen-Belsen
Film: Jonah Who Lived in the Whale / Look to the Sky / (Jona che visse nella balena, directed by Roberto Faenza (Italy 1993)
(19-20) March 23 & 25, 2020
(b) The Buchenwald Children
Film: Fateless (Sorstalanság), directed by Lajos Koltai (Hungary 2005)
(21-22) : March 30 & April 1, 2020
- After the Holocaust (the Displaced Children)
Film: The Search, directed by Fred Zinnemann (USA 1948) [105m]
(23) April 6, 2020
The first witnesses:
- One Child's Story at Chelmno: Szymon Srebrnik
- One Child's Story at Auschwitz: Luigi Ferri (lecture)
24-25 : April 13 & 15, 2020
Students' Presentations
26 : April 20, 2020 & Final Exam
Students' Presentations:
Final Exam: Students' Presentations
Exams
There will be a mid term exam and a final exam.
The mid term exam will be based on the reading of a Holocaust diary and the watching of a Holocaust movie. The result will be discussed in class and in a short written paper.
The final term will be based on the reading of two memoirs by Holocaust survivors (one boy and one girl). The result will be presented orally in class and in a written short paper.