The Jewish Soldier, 1788-1948

Tuition: $400 | YIVO members: $325**
Students: $215 (Must register with valid university email address)

This is a live, online seminar held weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English.

Instructor: Orel Beilinson

Course Description:
Jewish soldiers have fought in many of Europe’s major wars, both domestic and colonial. They served as militiamen for the Dutch army in seventeenth-century Brazil, partook in the defense of Prague from the Swedes in the Thirty Years War, debated conscription in late eighteenth-century Austria, volunteered for the civic and national guards of the French Revolution, founded soldier-based Jewish communities in Tsarist Finland and so on and so on.

Using these soldiers as our guide to modern history, this seminar discusses some major topics in modern European and world history: What was it like to be a Jew in an army that does not follow Jewish law? How does leaving one's home community and into the big world at an impressionable age shape your life? How were Jews perceived in discussions about citizenship, loyalty, and even physical capability? How could armed Jews defend their communities against pogroms? How high can a Jewish soldier aspire to get within the ranks of a national army? How did the eruption of national tensions in peace and war impact the famous camaraderie of a platoon? What does it mean to fight Hitler as a Jew? And to fight for Hitler as a Jew? How did people from multiple armies set up an army of their own with the proclamation of Israel in 1948?

Seminars will include a combination of mini-lectures and discussions, drawing on multiple case studies from the European empires and, when appropriate, North America or the Middle East. The readings mostly include primary sources, such as memoirs and diaries, all available digitally and in English translation. Additional brief sources, including songs and poetry, will be incorporated in the sessions.

Who should take this course?
This class is open to anyone interested in the topic as outlined in the course description. The class discussion will be conducted in English, and all course materials will be read in English or in English translation. No previous background knowledge or specific education level is required.

Course Materials:
Students are strongly advised to buy Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik edited by David Assaf (Purchase). The instructor will provide all other course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.

Orel Beilinson is a historian of modern Eurasia and Eastern Europe. He is working on his doctoral dissertation, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me: Coming-of-Age in the Other Europe, 1890-1968," at Yale University (from which he has also received his masters' degrees). His research is supported by wide-ranging linguistic abilities, covering the Slavic and Turkic languages as well as other regional languages from across Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Using these languages, Orel writes macro- and comparative social and cultural histories that focus on the everyday life of ordinary people.

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