First-Year Seminar: Jewcy: Jewish Culture in the 21st Century

3 units

This course will examine cultural expressions of American Jewish identity within an ethnographic context. We will analyze processes of assimilation, Americanization, and innovation, as well as Jewish contributions to popular American culture and entertainment, from Irving Berlin to Madonna, and the 'The Joys of Yiddish' to 'jewlicious.com.' Moving from tradition to modernity, pluralism and transdenominationalism and back to tradition (sometimes with a vengeance) we explore challenges to Jewish identity and creative responses through the cultural lens. Course is for first-year, non-transfer students only.