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Congregation Beth El
375 Stony Hill Road
Yardley, PA 19067

PROPOSED SYLLABUS

EXILE AND THE JEWS
 Professor Harriet Freidenreich & Rabbi David Cantor
Wednesdays, November 6, 2024-January 29, 2025

This 10-week discussion course, facilitated by Rabbi Cantor and Harriet Freidenreich, is based on a new book, Exile and the Jews: Literature, History, and Identity, edited by Nancy Berg and Marc Saperstein (JPS, 2024), that is described as follows:

“This first comprehensive anthology examining Jewish responses to exile from the biblical period to our modern day gathers texts from all genres of Jewish creativity to explore how the realities and interpretations of exile have shaped Judaism, Jewish politics, and individual Jewish identity for millennia.”

Participants are encouraged to read one chapter per week (or at least the brief introductions) in order to fully engage in class.

1. Introduction: Exile as Human Condition (pp. xv-11)
2. Exile in Ancient History (pp.12-44)
3. Exile and Holidays (pp.45-67)
4. Divine Presence in Exile (pp.68-85)
5. Exile as Penance and Atonement (pp.86-108)
6. Life in Exile (pp.109-130)
7. Internalized Exile (pp.131-160)
8. Exile in Medieval and Modern History (pp.161-187)
9. Language as the Locus of Exile (pp.189-202)
10.  Negation, Ambivalence, and Affirmation of Exile (pp.203-230)