In this course, Peter Kenez and Murray Baumgarten, both emeritus professors at UC Santa Cruz, tell the story of the Jews of the Black Sea port of Odesa. Kenez and Baumgarten include music, literature, and history in their analysis of a city like no other. The course is for anyone with an interest in the history and culture of the Jewish people.
Odesa: Jews in the Modern World
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
4.7
(14 reviews)
Beginner level
No prior experience required
Flexible schedule
Approx. 13 hours
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What you'll learn
Describe the connection between Odesa as a place of opportunity and abundance, international trade, and modern capitalism.
Connect virtuosity with Jewish interculturality and the complications of multilingual cultural production .
Describe the ambiguous class and economic status of Jews in the Russian Empire and Pale of Settlement.
Skills you'll gain
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Assessments
8 assignments
Taught in English
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There are 8 modules in this course
In this first lecture, Professors Kenez & Baumgarten describe life in Odesa circa 1850-1930, a port city in Ukraine that was a dynamic opportunity zone for its Jewish population. They also introduce Jewish virtuosos Bialik, Babel, and other writers and artists of Odesa.
What's included
4 videos5 readings2 assignments1 discussion prompt
Professor Kenez discusses the lives of Jews in the Pale of the Settlement, demographic changes, and the impact of industrialization on Jews in late 19th-century Russia.
What's included
1 video1 reading1 assignment
Professor Baumgarten discusses Babel’s short story “Gedali,” the intercultural lives of Jewish virtuosos, and the impact of modernism and internationalism on their creative output.
What's included
1 video3 readings1 assignment
Professor Kenez discusses programs, varieties of antisemitism, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
What's included
1 video1 reading1 assignment
Professor Kenez discusses the culture, skills, and talents that Jews used to achieve something extraordinary in the modern world. He focuses on the development Jewish working and entrepreneurial classes, the advent of the Bund (the Jewish Labor Force), and the onset of the Revolution and Russian Civil War.
What's included
1 video1 reading1 assignment
Professor Baumgarten discusses Babel’s stories about growing up in Odesa where, for a brief window of time, Jews could have a better life than anywhere else in the Russian Empire. Simultaneously this was a dangerous and contested social space.
What's included
2 videos2 readings1 assignment
In this final letcure, Professors Kenez & Baumgarten discuss the role and fates of Jews during the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
What's included
1 video1 reading1 assignment
Learners will compete a peer reviewed final project: "A Postcard from Odesa"
What's included
1 peer review
Instructors
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4.7
14 reviews
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Showing 3 of 14
RY
5
Reviewed on Sep 21, 2022
Good informative course. Took me back to where my ancestors came from. Need more courses like it.
LH
5
Reviewed on Aug 26, 2023
A great and often moving tribute to a beautiful city that played a key role in Jewish history. Professors Kenex and Baumgartner complimented each other quite nicely.
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