- I found this to be a formidable site on An Introduction to Buddhism.
- To Watch a lecture on Eastern vs. Western mythology.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
More on India
Here are some more articles and interesting things to catch up and read all about India:
Friday, April 30, 2010
India Syllabus
Kivunim: Civilization 5770/2009-2010 Academic Write-up
UNIT V – India
Lecturers – Prof. Shalva Weil, Dr. Boaz Amichai
T.A. – Josh Weinberg
Session #1: Thurs. May 6th - Introduction & The Jews of India -Prof. Shalva Weil
(15:00 – 16:30) The Benei Yisrael
(16:45 - 18:45) The Jews of Cochin
Shalva Weil is Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for Innovation in Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is editor of India’s Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art, and Life-Cycle (Marg 2002: 2nd edition 2004) co-editor (with Prof. D. Shulman) of Karmic Passages: Israeli Scholarship on India (Oxford University Press, New Delhi), and co-editor (with Profs. N. Katz, Chakravati and Sinha) of Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: A Perspective from the Margin. She is a foremost international scholar on India’s Jews and Indo-Judaic studies and has published over 80 articles in scientific journals and major encyclopaedias. She is founding Chairperson of the Israel-India Cultural Association and President of SOSTEJE (Society for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry). In 2005, she was elected Coordinator of the European Sociological Association’s Qualitative Methods Research Network, and in 2007 was elected to the ESA’s Executive Committee.
• What does it mean to be a Jew in India?
• When did the Jews arrive in India?
• Are there different groups?
• The Bnei Israel community in Mumbai, Maharastra, "the people from Bagdad" in Kolkata, West Bengal, the history of the community in Kochin, Kerela and the "Bney Menash"e issue.
Reading:
• The Place of Alwaye in Modern Cochin Jewish History – by Shalva Weil
• Indian Judaic Tradtion (Ch. 6) by Shalva Weil
Session #2 & #3: Mon. May 10th (14:30-16:00) (16:15-18:00)
Ancient Historical Background: The Vedic period & "The Purusa Sukta" –
Dr. Boaz Amichai
Boaz Amichay - has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for the past 20 years. Founder of 'Dharma Friends of Israel', a Dharma group that invites regularly Tibetan teachers, and western teachers in the Tibetan tradition to teach and lead retreats in Israel. Currently Boaz teaches in Tel Aviv University at the East Asia studies department. However, he concentrates on awareness to death, guides workshops on this topic, and his best pastime is sharing the journey of people facing death, whenever he finds people kind enough to share their journey with him.
Session #4 & #5: Wed. May 12th (14:30-16:00) (16:15-18:00)-
Intro to Buddhism I & II - Dr. Boaz Amichai
Session #6: Mon. May 17th Preparing for India of Today: Poverty and Castes – Roly Horowitz
Wed May 19 – שבועות
May 23rd - Leave for India!!!
Additional Reading:
Indian Religions:
http://adaniel.tripod.com/religions.htm
http://religions.iloveindia.com/
The movies: “Kundun” and “Little Buddha”
Jews in India:
http://books.google.com/books?id=qhKGPprbQaYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=jews+of+india&ei=MsTTS5axM5vqzATMisGpCQ&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://adaniel.tripod.com/jews.htm
India's Jewish Community:
http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/india.htm
http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/Jewish_History/Jewish_India.html
Interesting and from a different perspective (my opinion):http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/hindu_history/judaism.html
UNIT V – India
Lecturers – Prof. Shalva Weil, Dr. Boaz Amichai
T.A. – Josh Weinberg
Session #1: Thurs. May 6th - Introduction & The Jews of India -Prof. Shalva Weil
(15:00 – 16:30) The Benei Yisrael
(16:45 - 18:45) The Jews of Cochin
Shalva Weil is Senior Researcher at the Research Institute for Innovation in Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is editor of India’s Jewish Heritage: Ritual, Art, and Life-Cycle (Marg 2002: 2nd edition 2004) co-editor (with Prof. D. Shulman) of Karmic Passages: Israeli Scholarship on India (Oxford University Press, New Delhi), and co-editor (with Profs. N. Katz, Chakravati and Sinha) of Indo-Judaic Studies in the Twenty-First Century: A Perspective from the Margin. She is a foremost international scholar on India’s Jews and Indo-Judaic studies and has published over 80 articles in scientific journals and major encyclopaedias. She is founding Chairperson of the Israel-India Cultural Association and President of SOSTEJE (Society for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry). In 2005, she was elected Coordinator of the European Sociological Association’s Qualitative Methods Research Network, and in 2007 was elected to the ESA’s Executive Committee.
• What does it mean to be a Jew in India?
• When did the Jews arrive in India?
• Are there different groups?
• The Bnei Israel community in Mumbai, Maharastra, "the people from Bagdad" in Kolkata, West Bengal, the history of the community in Kochin, Kerela and the "Bney Menash"e issue.
Reading:
• The Place of Alwaye in Modern Cochin Jewish History – by Shalva Weil
• Indian Judaic Tradtion (Ch. 6) by Shalva Weil
Session #2 & #3: Mon. May 10th (14:30-16:00) (16:15-18:00)
Ancient Historical Background: The Vedic period & "The Purusa Sukta" –
Dr. Boaz Amichai
Boaz Amichay - has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for the past 20 years. Founder of 'Dharma Friends of Israel', a Dharma group that invites regularly Tibetan teachers, and western teachers in the Tibetan tradition to teach and lead retreats in Israel. Currently Boaz teaches in Tel Aviv University at the East Asia studies department. However, he concentrates on awareness to death, guides workshops on this topic, and his best pastime is sharing the journey of people facing death, whenever he finds people kind enough to share their journey with him.
Session #4 & #5: Wed. May 12th (14:30-16:00) (16:15-18:00)-
Intro to Buddhism I & II - Dr. Boaz Amichai
Session #6: Mon. May 17th Preparing for India of Today: Poverty and Castes – Roly Horowitz
Wed May 19 – שבועות
May 23rd - Leave for India!!!
Additional Reading:
Indian Religions:
http://adaniel.tripod.com/religions.htm
http://religions.iloveindia.com/
The movies: “Kundun” and “Little Buddha”
Jews in India:
http://books.google.com/books?id=qhKGPprbQaYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=jews+of+india&ei=MsTTS5axM5vqzATMisGpCQ&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://adaniel.tripod.com/jews.htm
India's Jewish Community:
http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/india.htm
http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/Jewish_History/Jewish_India.html
Interesting and from a different perspective (my opinion):http://www.hindubooks.org/sudheer_birodkar/hindu_history/judaism.html
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Central Europe Syllabus and Readings
Kivunim: Civilization 5770/2009-2010 Academic Write-up
UNIT IV – Central Europe
Lecturer – Shalmi Barmore
T.A. – Josh Weinberg
Session 1: Mon. March 15, 2010
3:30pm – 4:30pm
General Introduction to Central Europe from Romanesque to Baroque
• The Formation of Christian Europe around the Millennium
• Feudalism and Christian Society
• The Holy Roman Empire
• The Rise of Towns, Trade and Monetary Economy
• Culture - Architecture, Art, Philosophy, Science
• Religious Reform, Religious Wars, Counter Reform.
Reading: Norman Davies, Europe - A History
• ChV Medium- The Middle Ages c. 750 – 1270
• ChVI Pestis:Christendom in Crisis, c.1250 – 1493
• Ch VII Renatio: Renaissances and Reformations, c. 1450 - 1670
Session #2 4:45pm –6pm: The Czech Lands till Maria Theresa:
Consolidation of Czech State 9th – 114th Centuries
• Charles IV – Holy Roman Emperor. Prague's Gothic Golden Age.
• Jan Huss and Hussite Revolution
• Rudolph II( Habsburg) – Holy Roman Emperor. Prague's Renaissance
• Golden Age Thirty Year's War – Baroque Counter Reform
• Maria Theresa
Reading: Mary R. Anderson, The Stones of Prague- History, Pattern and Memory
Wed March 17th Session #3: 14:30-16:00 - The Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages
• The Jew in Christian Society
• Ashkenazi Scholarship – Rashi and the Tosafists
• Synagogues, Cemeteries and Social Institutions
• The Golden Age of Jewish Prague – Meisel, Maharal but not the Golem
• Modernity Blood Libels, Expulsions and other forms of persecutions
Reading: Haim Hillel Ben Sassoon ed, A History of the Jewish People - Part V: The Middle Ages
Hillel Kieval, Languages of Community, The Jewish Experience in the Czech Lands
Ch 1. Czech Landscape, Hapsburg Crown: The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia to 1918
Optional:
Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis- Jewish society at the End of the Middle Ages;
Part I The basis of Existence
Part II: Communal Institutions and Structure, Ch 9, The Form and structure of the Kehila. Ch 17, Religious Institutions
Session 4: 16:30-17:30 - Reform of Joseph II
• Movement of National Revival
• Tomasz Masaryk and Czechoslovakia
• Twofold Process of Jewish Emancipation: Germanization and Modernization
• Kafka and the Golem
Reading:
The Edict of Tolerance - Jospeh II
Hillel Kieval ibid: The rest of Ch 1.
Ch 4: Pursuing the Golem of Prague; Jewish Culture and the Invention of Tradition,
Ch 5: On Myth, History and National Belonging in the 19th Century
Session 5: Thurs. March 18th (15:00-16:30) -The Course of Modern German History: Was Nazism its logical out come or an aberration?
• Romanticism, Liberalism and Nationalism. The identity of Culture
• Industrial Revolution and the rise of Metropolis
• The Crisis of Modernity and Anti Semitism
• Racism and Nazi Ideology
Reading:
Amos Elon, The Pity of it All, A History of Jews in Germany 1743 – 1933 Introduction
Optional: George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology
Ch 1, From Romanticism to Volk
Ch16, A German Revolution
Ch 17, The Anti Jewish Revoluttion
Sun March 21st – Tour of Yad Vashem (With Shalmi Barmore)
Session #6 9:30-11:00 - The Holocaust: The Twisted Road to Auschwitz
• Nazi Germany and the Jews
• Thereisenstadt
• The Precious Legacy
Reading:
Karl Schleunes, Retracing the Twisted Road: Nazi policies towards the German Jews 1933 - 1939
Mon. March 22th Session #7: 13:30-14:45 The Jews of Germany – Was their Love Blind?
• Enlightenment and Bildung
• Acculturation and Assimilation
• Reform of Judaism
• The Golden age of Weimar
Reading:
Amos Elon, ibid, Ch8 “Assimilation and its Pains,”
Ch 10, “The End”
Session #8: 15:00 – 16:15 - Summary of Jewish Germany
Session #9: 9:00-10:30 Wed. March 24th - A brief outline of Hungarian history: Who are the Magyars?
• Creation and consolidation of Hungarian Kingdom.
• Under the Ottomans – 1526- 1696.
• Hungary part of the Habsburg Empire then the Austro-Hungarian Empire since 1867.
• Turn of the 20th century - financial and industrial boom
• Trianon Hungary – national humiliation; radical revolution and obsession with revisionism that link fate with Hitler's Germany
• The unique path of Hungarian Jews: Germanisation leading to emancipation leading middle class leading to cultural Magyarizers and economic modernizers
• Budapest Fin de Siecle – Judapest
• Collapse of Habsburg regime – collapse of Jewish/gentry alliance.
• Bela Kun- "The Jewish Revolution", The Red Terror, The White Terror
• Jewish responses to Interwar Hungarian Fascism.
• Jews in Communist Hungary
History of the Jews in Hungary
JudaPest - Cool articles on Jewish Budapest
Pesah Vacation – חופשת פסח
Session #10: Thurs. April 8th (16:15-17:15) – T.A. Session - The Golem of Prague
Session #11: Mon. April 12th (יום השואה)
"The Life and Times of Franz Kafka"
Reading: Intro to Kafka
Session #12: Wed. April 14th (14:30-15:30) (15:45-16:45) - Presentations and final projects
Session #13: Thurs. April 15th (15:00-16:00)
Session #14: Mon. April 19th (13:00-14:30) (יום הזיכרון) -Life after Death – Communism and the Jews
• Jews in the Communist Regime, The Communist Regime and the Jews
• The Changing Attitude and Policy towards Israel
• Prague Spring 1968
• The velvet Revolution
• Is there Life after Death? The Rebirth of Jewish Life.
Reading:
Jonathan Kaufman, A Hole in the Heart of the World - Being Jewish in Eastern Europe
Leave for Europe!!!: April 20th 2010
UNIT IV – Central Europe
Lecturer – Shalmi Barmore
T.A. – Josh Weinberg
Session 1: Mon. March 15, 2010
3:30pm – 4:30pm
General Introduction to Central Europe from Romanesque to Baroque
• The Formation of Christian Europe around the Millennium
• Feudalism and Christian Society
• The Holy Roman Empire
• The Rise of Towns, Trade and Monetary Economy
• Culture - Architecture, Art, Philosophy, Science
• Religious Reform, Religious Wars, Counter Reform.
Reading: Norman Davies, Europe - A History
• ChV Medium- The Middle Ages c. 750 – 1270
• ChVI Pestis:Christendom in Crisis, c.1250 – 1493
• Ch VII Renatio: Renaissances and Reformations, c. 1450 - 1670
Session #2 4:45pm –6pm: The Czech Lands till Maria Theresa:
Consolidation of Czech State 9th – 114th Centuries
• Charles IV – Holy Roman Emperor. Prague's Gothic Golden Age.
• Jan Huss and Hussite Revolution
• Rudolph II( Habsburg) – Holy Roman Emperor. Prague's Renaissance
• Golden Age Thirty Year's War – Baroque Counter Reform
• Maria Theresa
Reading: Mary R. Anderson, The Stones of Prague- History, Pattern and Memory
Wed March 17th Session #3: 14:30-16:00 - The Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages
• The Jew in Christian Society
• Ashkenazi Scholarship – Rashi and the Tosafists
• Synagogues, Cemeteries and Social Institutions
• The Golden Age of Jewish Prague – Meisel, Maharal but not the Golem
• Modernity Blood Libels, Expulsions and other forms of persecutions
Reading: Haim Hillel Ben Sassoon ed, A History of the Jewish People - Part V: The Middle Ages
Hillel Kieval, Languages of Community, The Jewish Experience in the Czech Lands
Ch 1. Czech Landscape, Hapsburg Crown: The Jews of Bohemia and Moravia to 1918
Optional:
Jacob Katz, Tradition and Crisis- Jewish society at the End of the Middle Ages;
Part I The basis of Existence
Part II: Communal Institutions and Structure, Ch 9, The Form and structure of the Kehila. Ch 17, Religious Institutions
Session 4: 16:30-17:30 - Reform of Joseph II
• Movement of National Revival
• Tomasz Masaryk and Czechoslovakia
• Twofold Process of Jewish Emancipation: Germanization and Modernization
• Kafka and the Golem
Reading:
The Edict of Tolerance - Jospeh II
Hillel Kieval ibid: The rest of Ch 1.
Ch 4: Pursuing the Golem of Prague; Jewish Culture and the Invention of Tradition,
Ch 5: On Myth, History and National Belonging in the 19th Century
Session 5: Thurs. March 18th (15:00-16:30) -The Course of Modern German History: Was Nazism its logical out come or an aberration?
• Romanticism, Liberalism and Nationalism. The identity of Culture
• Industrial Revolution and the rise of Metropolis
• The Crisis of Modernity and Anti Semitism
• Racism and Nazi Ideology
Reading:
Amos Elon, The Pity of it All, A History of Jews in Germany 1743 – 1933 Introduction
Optional: George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology
Ch 1, From Romanticism to Volk
Ch16, A German Revolution
Ch 17, The Anti Jewish Revoluttion
Sun March 21st – Tour of Yad Vashem (With Shalmi Barmore)
Session #6 9:30-11:00 - The Holocaust: The Twisted Road to Auschwitz
• Nazi Germany and the Jews
• Thereisenstadt
• The Precious Legacy
Reading:
Karl Schleunes, Retracing the Twisted Road: Nazi policies towards the German Jews 1933 - 1939
Mon. March 22th Session #7: 13:30-14:45 The Jews of Germany – Was their Love Blind?
• Enlightenment and Bildung
• Acculturation and Assimilation
• Reform of Judaism
• The Golden age of Weimar
Reading:
Amos Elon, ibid, Ch8 “Assimilation and its Pains,”
Ch 10, “The End”
Session #8: 15:00 – 16:15 - Summary of Jewish Germany
Session #9: 9:00-10:30 Wed. March 24th - A brief outline of Hungarian history: Who are the Magyars?
• Creation and consolidation of Hungarian Kingdom.
• Under the Ottomans – 1526- 1696.
• Hungary part of the Habsburg Empire then the Austro-Hungarian Empire since 1867.
• Turn of the 20th century - financial and industrial boom
• Trianon Hungary – national humiliation; radical revolution and obsession with revisionism that link fate with Hitler's Germany
• The unique path of Hungarian Jews: Germanisation leading to emancipation leading middle class leading to cultural Magyarizers and economic modernizers
• Budapest Fin de Siecle – Judapest
• Collapse of Habsburg regime – collapse of Jewish/gentry alliance.
• Bela Kun- "The Jewish Revolution", The Red Terror, The White Terror
• Jewish responses to Interwar Hungarian Fascism.
• Jews in Communist Hungary
History of the Jews in Hungary
JudaPest - Cool articles on Jewish Budapest
Pesah Vacation – חופשת פסח
Session #10: Thurs. April 8th (16:15-17:15) – T.A. Session - The Golem of Prague
Session #11: Mon. April 12th (יום השואה)
"The Life and Times of Franz Kafka"
Reading: Intro to Kafka
Session #12: Wed. April 14th (14:30-15:30) (15:45-16:45) - Presentations and final projects
Session #13: Thurs. April 15th (15:00-16:00)
Session #14: Mon. April 19th (13:00-14:30) (יום הזיכרון) -Life after Death – Communism and the Jews
• Jews in the Communist Regime, The Communist Regime and the Jews
• The Changing Attitude and Policy towards Israel
• Prague Spring 1968
• The velvet Revolution
• Is there Life after Death? The Rebirth of Jewish Life.
Reading:
Jonathan Kaufman, A Hole in the Heart of the World - Being Jewish in Eastern Europe
Leave for Europe!!!: April 20th 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Crescent & Star
Stephen Kinzer, a world reknown journalist, wrote an excellent book entitled Crescent & Star Turkey: Between Two Worlds. As hte Burea Chief of the New York Times in Istanbul from 1996-2000, Kinzer captures some of the most poignant issues pertaining to modern Turkey. We have scanned and uploaded the first few chapters of this book for you to read. I highly recommend checking out this book as it is superbly written and comfortable to read.
Modern Turkish Historical Timeline
Seeing as the previous timeline below leaves us at 1924, here is a link to another timeline that deals with the modern period.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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