Kesher Talk

The rise and rise of "Jewish Studies" higher education courses: From the most recent National Jewish Population Survey, Bethamie Horowitz finds that, among students enrolled in college and or graduate school in 2000-2001, 41% have taken such a course, representing a "sharp and steady increase" relative to their older counterparts.

What does this mean? It means that there are more courses being offered. It means there are tons of Jews going to university. More importantly, it means that young Jews are interested in their own religion and their own heritage -- a heart-warming sign amidst rising assimilation:

While living on campus may offer young people a haven away from their parents, going to college no longer functions as a ticket out of a lower middle-class, parochial Jewish life into the mainstream of America — Jews in America are already there. Today the college experience for young American Jews is more about personal adult development than about the sociological transformation of a whole aspiring minority.

California State University (Los Angeles), however, presents a case study in why this proliferation in Jewish Studies courses could be a negative, not a positive. CSU-LA recently became

the latest college campus without a large Jewish presence on campus to offer classes in Jewish studies. Cal State-Los Angeles has some 21,000 students, of whom more than half are Latino, almost a quarter Asian-American, and 8.4 percent African-American. Among the 15.7 percent that are non-Hispanic whites, Jews make up such an insignificant portion that no statistics, or even good guesstimates, are available. The campus site is near Boyle Heights, home to a vibrant Jewish community before and during World War II. But by the time the campus was opened in 1956, almost all Jews had left the area. That means that few students have had any regular contact with Jews, leaving only a residue of anti-Semitic stereotypes and myths.

The Jewish studies program will start out fairly modestly in 2004 by expanding existing courses to reflect Jewish contributions in a given field. Selkin expects that the first such courses will be those covering the history of the film industry and American literature. As the program’s financial resources grow, he hopes to add Jewish-oriented lectures by visiting experts, research projects, scholarships and special events.

Jewish "culture", as in Jewish influence on American culture, may be interesting. But it is not particularly Jewish.

posted by William @ 1/06/2004 08:23:00 AM