PROPOSED SYLLABUS
Books available through the synagogue office.

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. Wednesday, November 6, 2024 • Introduction: Exile as Human Condition (pp. xv-11)

2. Wednesday, November 13, 2024 • Exile in Ancient History (pp.12-44)

3. Wednesday, November 20, 2024 • Exile and Holidays (pp.45-67)

4. Wednesday, December 4, 2024 • Divine Presence in Exile (pp.68-85)

5. Wednesday, December 11, 2024 • Exile as Penance and Atonement (pp.86-108)

6. Wednesday, December 18, 2024 • Life in Exile (pp.109-130)

7. Wednesday, January 8, 2025 • Internalized Exile (pp.131-160)

8. Wednesday, January 15, 2025 • Exile in Medieval and Modern History (pp.161-187)

9. Wednesday, January 22, 2025 • Language as the Locus of Exile (pp.189-202)

10. Wednesday, January 29, 2025 • Negation, Ambivalence, and Affirmation of Exile (pp.203-230)