HIST 267: Jews in Europe

This course offers a view of Jewish history in Eastern Europe that takes us beyond the (legendary) shtetl and into a complex, more textured world of Jews living among Christians from the beginnings of Jewish settlement in the thirteenth century to the contemporary period and Poland’s small Jewish community, trying to reinvent Jewish life in Poland in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the 1968 forced migrations.

Descendants of East European Jews are now the largest demographic group among Jews in the United States. Until the Second World War, Jews in Eastern Europe were the largest Jewish community in the world. From the 16th century, their impact on Jewish culture and society has been tremendous, from shaping one of the most important codes of Jewish law, the Shulhan Arukh, in the 16th/17th centuries, to shaping the ideology of the Zionist movement at the turn of the 20th century. Yet, the history of this important Jewish community has been vastly misunderstood, largely due to the devastating legacy of the Holocaust and the persistence of imagery of “the shtetl” created by 19th-century writers of Yiddish fiction, later popularized through Broadway plays and films such as “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Films and additional lectures will be part of the class.

This is a “service-learning” course. One of the assignments will be related to the collection of Judaica from eastern Europe at the Adath Israel Congregation in Middletown. Students will be part of a workshop on Jewish art and material culture and will investigate the material aspects of Jewish culture.

Past Projects

  • 2011: Final Project

    In Spring 2011, Wesleyan University and the Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown began to discuss possible collaborative work around the Judaica collection housed at the Congregation Adath Israel. The museum was created out of a passion for Judaica by Nathan and Shirley Shapiro, and has been cared for by their son, Stephen Shapiro. Located within steps of each other, Adath Israel and Wesleyan University rarely  ollaborated on projects. Wesleyan University “Service Learning Center” has opened up a new venue for such collaboration. 

    More about 2011:Final Project

    After a few months of preparation, my class HIST 267: “Out of the Ghetto: Jews of Eastern Europe” became the first to work with Adath Israel’s collection. Students in this course, alongside regular assignments for a history course, worked on select objects from the AI’s collection. They attended workshops and lectures focused on “reading” artifacts with Professor Shalom Sabar, an art historian from Hebrew University; they visited the Jewish Museum and the Tenement Museum in New York to get a sense of possibilities objects offer for studying history. Finally, students embarked on the project of crafting a catalogue description of objects said to originate from eastern Europe, and of writing papers, in which they investigated of the history behind the objects. They elaborated on, and sometimes corrected, the existing record.

    This is the fruit of their work. Sometimes, objects considered were typical of east European Jewish cultural production – such as the fish spice box or the large Hanukkah lamp, typical of Hasidic east European Hanukkah menorahs. Sometimes, they discovered an unknown use of objects, as for example, the wooden noisemaker, that had been thought to be a Purim grogger, but had in fact a very different use! We photographed the objects, renumbered them, since some of the existing numbers were inconsistent, or even erroneous. The new numbering system consists of the year (2011). Semester (S, for Spring), class number (267), and the object number, as well as in parenthesis the original number in the AI Inventory—if such in fact existed. This new system will not only give each item a unique number, but it will also become a permanent historical record of the students’ work. This is but the first step of what we hope will be years of fruitful collaboration.

    We want to express our thanks to the Service Learning Center and the Jewish and Israel Studies Program at Wesleyan University for support, and of course, to the Congregation Adath Israel for their permission to let us work on their wonderful collection.

    - Magda Teter
    The Jeremy Zwelling Chair in Jewish and Israel Studies
    Director of the Jewish and Israel Studies Program

    Read the full report for the 2011 final project.

  • 2011: Judaica Exhibition

    Students in Professor Magda Teter’s class on east European Jewish history have been exploring studying history through objects. This was possible thanks to a new partnership developed between Wesleyan and the local congregation Adath Israel. The congregation houses a small, but impressive, collection of Judaica. Students in this class examined, researched, and curated an exhibition using objects related to east European Jewish history.

    More about 2011: Judaica Exhibition

    A WesSeminar during Reunion/Commencement weekend 2011 showcased the students’ work by taking participants on the tour of the exhibition at Adath Israel and highlighted the exciting experience such collaboration with a local community can bring.

    Click here to view thumbnails of various artifacts featured in the museum at Adath Israel

  • 2014: Final Project

    In Spring 2014, students in my History class “Out of the Shtetl: Jews in Eastern Europe” learned not only about Jewish history in eastern Europe but continued to explore the Judaica collection housed at the Congregation Adath Israel in Middletown. This was the third course that used the collection since a collaborative relationship between Wesleyan University and the Congregation Adath Israel began in 2011. This course was taught as a service-learning course, and objects will be displayed with new labels at the CAI Museum.

    More about 2014: Final Project

    Students in this class researched the history of seventeen objects from the CAI Museum. In preparation for this project they participated in two workshops with Gabriel Goldstein, the former Associate Director for Exhibitions and Programs at the Yeshiva University Museum—one at Adath Israel and one at the Center for Jewish History in New York.

    This is the fruit of their work. In seventeen essays about seventeen objects, with some 100 images, they explore the objects’ rich histories and contexts, and sometimes reveal that some of them were not exactly what they were thought to be. The objects here are renumbered, or in one case numbered for the first time. It follows a convention established in 2011, consists of the year (2014). Semester (S, for Spring), class number (267), and the object number, as well as in parenthesis the original number in the AI Inventory—if such in fact existed. This new system gives each item a unique number, and becomes a permanent historical record of the
    students’ work.

    -Magda Teter
    Professor of History and The Jeremy Zwelling Chair
    in Jewish and Israel Studies
    Director of the Jewish and Isael Studies Program

    Read the full report for the 2014 final project.

  • Archive

    Visit WesScholar for some of the work accomplished by students in past years.