Together and Apart- The Future of Jewish Peoplehood

Join Suzanne Fournier via Zoom on select Sundays from 1-2:30 pm

October 23; November 6, 20; December 4, 18; January 8, 22; February 5, 19; March 5, 19; April 2, 16, 30

About Our Jewish Peoplehood Instructor, Suzanne Fournier

Suzanne has been a member of Har Zion for over 20 ears, and is dedicated to life-long Jewish learning. She is an alumna of the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, and has studied at the Wagner Institute of Jewish Learning at the Jewish Theological Seminary and at the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago. Suzanne has served as Co-chair of the Adult Education Committee, taught Prayerbook Hebrew, and facilitated multiple sessions of the Introduction to Judaism course. She was instrumental in arranging the excellent Chicago Scholars series for Har Zion last year.

Explore the complex features of your Jewish identity, Jewish peoplehood, and the contemporary challenges to the Jewish people in an era in which we have moved from having no home to having two different, vibrant, homes in Israel and in North America.

The 14-week curriculum from the Shalom Hartman Institute's iEngage Project includes video lectures and interviews and textual sources, examining the forces dividing the Jewish people today, including nationalism, antisemitism, dual-loyalty, and identity politics. We'll consider what it means to be a member of the Jewish people and the core values that animate Jewish peoplehood and imagine new conceptual frameworks that can help sustain and grow the story of our people for a new millennium.

The Together and Apart course is organized around three parts: 1) classical categories and complexities of Jewish peoplehood; 2) contemporary sources of tension that are challenging Jewish peoplehood, including nationalism, antisemitism, dual loyalties, and identity politics; 3) new conceptual categories and metaphors for understanding Jewish peoplehood in an era of multiple homes. Throughout the course, we will encounter new ideas and ways of thinking and talking about the relationship between Israel and world Jewry which may allow the Jewish people to better engage with the realities and sensibilities of twenty-first-century Jewish life.

​Curriculum:

Unit 1: From No Home to Two Homes

Unit 2: The Judaism of Being

Unit 3: The Judaism of Becoming

Unit 4: On Universalism and Particularism

Unit 5: Between Nationalism, Ultra-Nationalism, and Fascism

Unit 6: The Moral Implications of Jewish Nationalism

Unit 7: The Israeli Nation-State Law

Unit 8: Antisemitism as a Divisive Force

Unit 9: Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism

Unit 10: The Accusation and Dilemma of Dual Loyalties

Unit 11: “What’s Good for the Jews?” Identity Politics in North America

Unit 12: From Family to Consumer

Unit 13: Shared Believers, Partners and Investors

Unit 14: At-Homeness

The registration deadline is Sunday, October 2.

The course builds from one session to another, it is designed for participants is to commit to the full course and prepare for class discussion.  The expectation is that you view the hour-long video and read resources connected to the video. Class time will be used for discussing the key points of the videos, text, study, and further discussion. Participants will need access to a computer with internet access.

If you have questions about the class please write the facilitator, Suzanne Fournier (s-fournier@uchicago.edu) or call the office and we will connect you with answers.

Note: After you register, you will receive an email message with instructions on how to access the course materials, which you should use to prepare for each session.