ABOUT THE COURSE

The week of September 1, 2008 the Nahum Goldmann Alumni Online Magazine will conduct its sixth online course.

In Christian folklore, the Wandering Jew is a character doomed to live until the end of the world because he taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion. The story spread in medieval Europe in the thirteenth century and underwent many transformations over the centuries and across the various countries where the story was told. Even in modern times, the story resonates and has appeared in various films, not just in Nazi propaganda. The story reflects a fascinaton with the idea of a doomed sinner but also with the seeming immortality of the Jewish people despite the dominance of Christianity. The standard scholarly perspective is to view the story as a projection of Christian society's fears and anxieties about instability, where they could feel good about themselves by viewing instability as a characacteristic of the Jews. In recent years, Professor Hasan-Rokem has taken an interest in the topic from a Jewish perspective, and has researched the Jewish self-image as a wanderer, which goes back to the tales of Abraham in the Hebrew Bible. In this course the Professor will share her research and ideas with us.

The 4-lesson course is a guided reading of various articles on the topic, led by Professor Hasan-Rokem. The course is free, and is conducted via email listserve over a period of four weeks. The discussion "thread" will also be viewable online by date, author, and topic at this url: http://lists.ngfp.org/pipermail/ngfp-bookclub/.

READING MATERIAL

The Professor has provided us with various articles she has written on this topic. Before each weekly lesson, please read the text and think about the questions Professor Hasan-Rokem has provided. You may submit reactions and further questions via the email list and Professor Hasan-Rokem will respond.

* Articles along with guided reading questions

* Email options and email etiquette