What do Venice, New York, and Chicago have in common? All were described as possessing ghettos where Jews lived. And what do Berlin, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Miami have in common? All were considered new cities for Jews, places where Jews left the ghetto behind. This course looks at these European and American cities to examine how the ghetto got its name and its reputation as a quintessentially Jewish urban space and then how the ghetto lost its Jewish associations as Jews moved to new cities and new neighborhoods. Given these changes, how should we understand Nazi ghettos and African American ghettos? Some of these cities and neighborhoods possessed low-density suburban attributes; others retained high density but nonetheless seemed a different, distant world from the old, foreign, oppressive ghetto. This transregional excursion into Jewish urban experiences will illuminate how they shaped contemporary understandings of what makes a city.

Course Requirements:

A mix of varied writing and research assignments, culminating in a comparative research project.

Intended Audience:

Juniors and Seniors

Class Format:

Discussion focused on weekly reading assignments.