JSIS C 377 /SOC 377
Professor: Kathie Friedman
MW 11:30-1:20pm
Credits: 5 I&S / DIV

This course will examine how American Jews and American Jewish communities adapt to a changing world. Using a sociological perspective, we consider the extent to which a distinctive Jewish culture persists in the face of successive waves of diverse Jewish immigration, acculturation, upward social mobility, geographic dispersion, and lowered social boundaries between Jews and non-Jews. We will explore the impact of the Civil Rights, feminist, and LGBT rights movements, as well as current social justice movements, on freedom and opportunity for American Jews. The issues we will be discussing extend beyond the case of American Jews to encompass concerns that all individuals and communities have in adapting to a changing world, and one in which they are also the agents of change.