This Scholars course provides students with the opportunity to consider the challenges of Jewish acculturation to American life, and the sacrifices as well as the contributions that have been made over the past 200 years. Lessons will explore such topics as the role of education, the Three Generation Hypothesis, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, the changing place of Zionism and the State of Israel, the Civil Rights Movement as a case study of distinctiveness and involvement, and other issues that address American and Jewish culture and identity. This 10-week course asks the question, "Is the cup half-empty or half full?" As optimists and pessimists debate the future of Jewish identity in America.

Taught by Rabbi Stampfer