If you have trouble accessing this page, contact: Chris Dargis (cadargis@wisc.edu)
Latest revision date: 12/18/2008 (cad)
Department of Hebrew and Semitic
Studies
Spring 2009
"Israeli History through Film”
Dr. Miri Talmon-Bohm
Hebrew Studies 371 Lecture 3/ Jewish
Studies 371 lecture 3
Class hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 4:00 – 5:15 PM
Class location: 379 Van Hise Hall
Office location: 1342 Van Hise Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2-3 PM
Please coordinate appointments in advance
E-Mail: talmonbohm@wisc.edu
Telephone: 608-262-2968
Course Description
This course studies Israeli History as narrated and reflected in films from the 1930s until the current decade. We shall examine different constitutive events and processes in Israeli history as captured on celluloid, in different decades: The 1930s and the Zionist enterprise; The 1940s- the constitution and the first decade of the Israeli state; the 1950s: immigration waves and the encounter with Holocaust survivors; the 1960s- the 1967 Six Day War the war of attrition; the 1970s: the socio-political turnover and changing ideological agendas; the 1980s: the war in Lebanon, the intifada, the withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula and the decline of militarism; the 1990s: The gulf war, immigration waves from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, the peace process, and Prime Minister Rabin’s assassination; The current decade: The disengagement and the settlers; the discovery and re-vision of history as a personal, lived experience.
Course Requirements
Attendance
Students are expected to attend all classes and screenings (which
are incorporated into classes). In addition, students are expected to
attend all screenings of Israeli films on the UW Madison Israeli Film
Festival, which are an integral part of the course.
Attendance comprises 10 % of the course grade. Students who miss over
two classes will lose this component of the grade.
Oral presentation in class
At the beginning of each class three students will be asked to present their summary of the discussion and viewing in the previous class. Presentations will be up to 5 minutes long each. The grade for this oral presentation in class comprises 20% of your final grade.
Written Analysis Assignment
This written assignment requires a comparative analysis of two
films, discussing representations of history in these texts. This
assignment should be typed, 5 pages long, about 2000 words.
You will be required to submit one such written analysis, 20 % for this
component of your final grade.
Critique of UW Madison Israeli Film Festival films
You are required to write one critical essay about TWO [2] UW
Madison Israeli Film Festival films of your choice. Your critical essay
for these films should be 2 pages long; in your essay you should give a
description of the films’ narrative and themes, and explain in what
ways they are relevant to our discussions in class.
This film review of 2 UW Madison Israeli Film Festival films comprises
10% of your final grade.
Final Papaer
The final paper is a comparative discussion of one topic (to be chosen from a list provided by me) which includes a textual analysis of at least three Israeli films discussed in class or screened in the UW Israeli Film Festival. The final paper should be submitted no later than May 7, 2009, 7 PM. This final paper should be 6-8 pages long. It comprises 30% of your final grade.
Spring 2009 Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
You are required to attend one lecture offered by the
Mosse-Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies as Jewish Heritage Lecture
Series, and it is highly recommended that you consider attending all of
them. The program is detailed as an appendix to this syllabus.
A typed summary of the lecture you attended, 1-2 pages long, should be
submitted to me no later than one week after the lecture event. This
summary comprises 10% of your final grade.
Course Grade:
1. Attendance: 10%
2. One Oral presentation in class: 20%.
3. One written analysis assignment: 20 %
4. One written Film Festival Review: 10%
5. One written final Paper: 30% (to be submitted by May 7 2009, 7 PM,
6-10 pages).
6. One Jewish Heritage Lecture Series lecture summary: 10%
Class Syllabus and Viewing Schedule
Unit 1: January 20-22 2009
1900-1930: The Pioneers; the Rise of a Hebrew Culture and the “New (masculine) Jew”; First chapter of the Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine-Eretz Israel; re-visions of the Zionist vision
Film excerpts: Land of Promise (Judah Lehman, 1934); They Were Ten ( Baruch Dienar, 1960); A Hole in the Moon (Uri Zohar, 1964); Unsettled Land ( Uri Barbash, 1987)
Unit 2. 1940s-1950s
January 27-29 2009
2.1 The British Mandate in Palestine and the Rise of Jewish Militant Activism; The Negotiation of the Arab-Jewish Conflict on the eve of the foundation of the state.
Film excerpts: Hill 24 Doesn’t answer (1955, Thorold
Dickinson); Exodus, (1960, Otto Preminger); Rage and Glory (1985, Avi
Nesher); Kedma (2002, Amos gitai);
Oh Jerusalem (2006, Elie Chouraqui).
2.1 The first decade- the encounter with the Holocaust survivors;
immigration waves and the regime of austerity
February 3-5 2009
Film excerpts:
My Father’s House (Herbert Kleine and Joseph Lejtes, 1947) The
Wooden Gun ( Ilan Moshenzon, 1979); The Summer of Aviya (Eli Cohen,
1988); Alex in Love (Boaz Dasvidzon, 1985)
Unit 3: The 1960s
3.1 Immigration booms after 1967 from the Middle East and Asia, and
emigration to the USA; the rise of Israeli bourgeoisie and the decline
of socialism
February 10-12 2009
Film excerpts: Lemon Popsicle ( Boaz Davidzon, 1978); Over the
Ocean, (Jacob Goldwasser, 1992); 1966 Was a Good Year for Tourism (Amit
Goren, 1992).
Turn Left at the End of the World (Avi Nesher, 2004);
3.2 The Six Day War
February 17-19 2009
Film excerpts: Operation Tiran (a.k.a Kommando Sinai) (1968,
Raphael Nusbaum); Every Bastard is a King (1968, Uri Zohar); Avanti
Popolo (1986, Rafi Bukai)
3.3 The War of Attrition, transformations in Israeli Culture: The
New Pacifism, “Non-Sucker” Ethos and Coming of Rock.
February 24-26 2009
Film excerpts: Siege (1969, Gilberto Toffano); The Troupe (1978, Avi Nesher); Late Summer Blues (1987, Renen Schorr).
Unit 4: The 1970s
4.1 The Yom Kippur War
March 3-5 2009
Documentary excerpts: Follow Me: The Yom Kippur War;
Tekumah; The Pillar of fire
Feature Film excerpts: Made in Israel (Ari Folman,
2001,) Volcano Junction (Eran
Riklis, 1999)
4.2 The rise of international anti-Israeli terror, the Munich Olympic Games, Entebee and the return of the Holocaust
March 10-12 2009
Film excerpts: Operation Thunderbolt
(Menachem Golan, 1976) Munich (Steven Spielberg,
2005) Walk on Water (Ethan Fox, 2004)
March 14-22 2009 Spring Break
Unit 5. The 1980s: The Lebanon war, the Intifada and
the Decline of Militarism
March 24-31 2008
Film excerpts:
One of Ours (1989, Uri Barbash); Cup Final (1991,
Eran Riklis); Yossi and Jagger (2002, Ethan Fox)
Beaufort (2007, Joseph Cedar).
Unit 6. The 1990s: The Gulf War, Immigration waves from Russia and
Ethiopia.
April 2-7 2009
Films:
The Siren’s Song (1994, Etan Fox); Yana’s
Friends (1998, Arik Kaplun)
April 9 2009: Passover
Unit 7. The current decade: the disengagement and the cinematic
discourse about the settlers
April 14-21 2009
Documentary excerpts: Storm of Emotions (Yael
Klopmann, 2006); Nadia’s Friends (Hanoch Zeevi,
2006); Feature Films: Time of Favor (Joseph
Cedar, 2000); Campfire (Joseph Cedar, 2003)
Unit 8: The second intifada, Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the impact of terror on everyday lives
April 23-30 2009
The Bubble (Ethan Fox, 2006)
Frosen Days (Danny Lerner, 2005)
Unit 9. The privatization and personalization of Israeli
history: personal documentary films
May 5-7, 2009
Films: Le Grand Akshan (Ron Goldman, 2003);
Another Land (Amit Goren, 1998).
Additional Resources of Information
1. The Internet Movie Data Base provides you with information about films, directors, producers, cast, production year, awards, synopsis and reviews. You can find the necessary information about the films we discuss, and others you are curious about, and add your own reviews.
2. The virtual Jewish library can be used as a resource for basic
information and definitions of concepts in Israeli history you are not
familiar with.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/
Appendix:
Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies Spring 2009 Jewish Heritage Lecture Series
For More information consult the Center's website: <jewishstudies.wisc.edu>
*“A Reading from H.G. Adler's ‘The Journey’ ”
Peter Filkins
Tuesday, February 10th - 4 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*“Art and Politics”
Professor Renata Stih and Doctor Frieder Schnock
Thursday, February 19th - 4 pm – Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*“The Palestinian Refugees as a Jewish Question: The Lost Voice of
Simon Rawidowicz”
Professor David Myers
Thursday, March 26th – 4 pm – Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*Stanford J. Ettinger Lecture
"Israel's First Sixty Years: Achievements and Challenges"
Dr. Robert O. Freedman
Wednesday, April 1ST–7 pm–Memorial Union (800 Langdon)
*Kutler Lectures
Professor David Hollinger
“Jews, Multiculturalism, and American Ethnoracial and Religious History”
Monday, April 13th - 4 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
“American Jewish History in a Post-Jewish Domain”
Tuesday, April 14th - 4 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
*Paul J. Schrag Lecture
"In Rivers North of the Future: Paul Celan's Poetry and Thought”.
Professor Amir Eshel
Thursday, April 23rd – 7 pm – Pyle Center
*KlezKamp Roadshow with Henry Sapoznik
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
April 18th, 19th, and 20th
More details soon on the Conney Project website
<conneyproject.wisc.edu/>
*2009 Conney Project on Jewish Arts Conference:
“Performing Histories, Inscribing Jewishness”
Wednesday - Friday, April 22nd-24th - Grainger Hall (975 University
Avenue)
More details soon on the Conney Project website
<conneyproject.wisc.edu/>
*“Ancient Synagogues in the Land of Israel”
Professor Jodi Magness
Tuesday, April 28th – 7:30 pm - Pyle Center (702 Langdon)
For more details, please contact the
Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies at (608) 262-3204