Teaching the Course
The Heritage course may be offered by departments of history and religion, as part of Jewish studies curricula and in nearly all disciplines within the humanities. Teachers will find it a simple matter to stress the elements relevant to their courses. For example, a philosophy instructor would read each chapter and note the treatments of Jewish thought. By combining them with relevant Source Reader materials, he or she would have the makings of a wonderful lesson.
All teachers should freely use the suggested questions and other educational aids found in the Study Guide chapters. These questions can generate many an intriguing discussion. We have therefore reproduced these student aids within this manual.
Naturally, it is up to the instructor and his or her department to set the requirements of the course. We suggest a midterm, a final exam and, depending on the course's level, a short or extended term paper or essay. The midterm would best be administered after the first four shows, and composed of selected questions from the beginning and end of each unit of the Study Guide. You can also add identifications and map fill-ins or reword the questions as you see fit. Because of the nature of the course, we suggest that the final exam not be cumulative. Instead it should simply cover chapters 5 through 9. The answers for the questions can be found in the relevant subsections.
The essay or term paper can be an in-depth analysis of some of the Source Reader selections, many of which are rich and thought-provoking. For a more traditional exercise, students can choose a subsection and follow up on the suggested readings for additional information and references to other secondary works. Each of the readings is extensively footnoted and includes a bibliography to lead the student further. I suggest the use of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, a sixteen-volume work that your library may own. It contains excellent articles, each of which is followed by a fine bibliography.
Depending on your school's regulations, you may be able to teach this nine-unit course over nine sessions and devote the rest of the semester to the completion of the students' writing requirements. If you are teaching distant learners (see the separate unit written by WNET's Cathy Cevoli at the end of this faculty manual), you may ask students either to send you nine short essays or to answer the questions at the end of each unit. If you are teaching a formal fifteen-week course, you may divide the reading materials into fifteen sessions as follows:
I. Introduction to the history of the Jews from protohistory to the rise of the United Monarchy
- Study Guide pp. 1-22
- Source Reader Chapter 1, Selections 1-13
II. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their eventual destruction
- Study Guide pp. 22-33
- Source Reader Chapter 1, Selections 14-25
III. Exile and return: Babylonian and Persian overlordship
- Study Guide pp. 35-43
- Source Reader Chapter 2, Selections 1-11
IV. The triumph of the Hasmoneans, Roman intervention and the decline of the Second Commonwealth
- Study Guide pp. 43-56
- Source Reader Chapter 2, Selections 12-19
V. The rise of rabbinic Judaism and the growth of Christianity
- Study Guide pp. 57-81
- Source Reader Chapter 3, Selections 1-8
VI. Jews under Islam; the return of Jews to Western Europe
- Study Guide pp. 81-103
- Source Reader Chapter 3, Selections 9-16
- Source Reader Chapter 4, Selections 1-9
VII. Jewish life in Christian Europe; expulsions from the West
- Study Guide pp. 103-123
- Source Reader Chapter 4, Selections 10-21
VIII. Reactions to the Iberian catastrophe; incipient modernity
- Study Guide pp. 125-160
- Source Reader Chapter 5, Selections 1-23
IX. Emancipation in the West and Jewish responses
- Study Guide pp. 161-178
- Source Reader Chapter 6, Selections 1-14
X. Jews in Eastern Europe; the rise of anti-Semitism across the continent
- Study Guide pp. 179-191
- Source Reader Chapter 6, Selections 15-24
XI. American Jewish history from its early beginnings to the Eastern European migration
- Study Guide pp. 193-200
- Source Reader Chapter 7, Selections 1-9
XII. Jews in North America and Western Europe, 1875-1933
- Study Guide pp. 200-224
- Source Reader Chapter 7, Selections 10-14
- Source Reader Chapter 8, Selections 1-5
XIII. Holocaust: 1933-1945
- Study Guide pp. 224-238
- Source Reader Chapter 8, Selections 6-15
XIV. Jews in America, Israel and the Soviet Union, 1945-1967
- Study Guide pp. 239-256
- Source Reader Chapter 9, Selections 1-13
XV. The future of Jews and Judaism: today's challenges
For this faculty manual, I have prepared nine lectures entitled "Teaching This Unit," which tie together the TV programs, the Study Guide and the Source Reader. In a small number of pages, the important points are summarized and correlated with the relevant readings. Use it as you wish.
Good luck! We hope you will enjoy teaching this class as much as we enjoyed preparing it for you and your students.
Benjamin R. Gampel
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