Summer Session 2013 - Adult Ed

"Who Will Be For Me?"

Jewishness and Otherness in Selected Contemporary Jewish Short Stories

with Rabbi David Segal

Wednesdays 2:00-4:00 pm

July 3-August 14, 2013

Aspen Chapel Gallery

Course Summary

Over seven weeks this summer, we will read ~15 Jewish short stories by contemporary authors. Nathan Englander's recent collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank and Jonathan Papernick's The Ascent of Eli Israel will be our primary reading, coupled with additional selections by Lara Vapnyar, Shalom Auslander, Joan Leegant, Etgar Keret, Savyon Liebrecht, and Scott Nadelson -- and three classics by Kafka, Ozick, and Roth. These stories will lead us to thought-provoking discussions about the following themes, among others: Jews relating to non-Jews; Jews relating to different Jews; search for authenticity and identity; exile and homecoming; sexuality; Holocaust and memory; Diaspora & Israel; the fractured Jewish experience in the modern world.

Registration Info

Suggested donation of $60/person includes all reading materials.
An additional $25 sponsors refreshments for a week.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE

Or contact Faith at the AJC office, 970-925-8245 or office@aspenjewish.org. 

If you are interested in enrolling long-distance via web-conferencing, the option is available; please contact Rabbi David at rabbi@aspenjewish.org or 970-925-8245 x.1.

Materials
Course packets are available from Rabbi David with registration. The other books are sold out locally but you can order them yourself online, either paperback or digital versions. They are:
• Nathan Englander, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
• Jonathan Papernick, The Ascent of Eli Israel and Other Stories
• Joan Leegant, An Hour in Paradise

Syllabus

1. July 3: To Hide or Not to Hide?
1. Nathan Englander, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank"
2. Lara Vapnyar, "There Are Jews in My House"
3. Emmanuel Litvinoff, "Introduction" from the Penguin Book of Jewish Short Stories (1979)
4. optional - "General Introduction" from the Norton Anthology of Jewish American Literature
2. July 10: A Room of One's Own?
1. Jonathan Papernick, "An Unwelcome Guest"
2. Etgar Keret, "Plague of the Firstborn"from The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories
3. Dara Horn, Introduction to Papernick's Ascent of Eli Israel
3. July 17: A History of Violence...
1. Nathan Englander, "Free Fruit for Young Widows"
2. Etgar Keret, "Siren"from The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God and Other Stories
3. optional - Nathan Englander, "Camp Sundown"
4. July 24: Otherness Embodied
1. Shalom Auslander, "Metamorphosis" from Beware of God
2. Jonathan Papernick, "The Art of Correcting"
3. optional classic - Franz Kafka, "A Report to an Academy"
4. optional - John Updike, Foreword to The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka
5. July 31: Motherhood and Memory
1. Savyon Liebrecht, "Morning in the Park Among the Nannies" from Apples in the Desert
2. Jonathan Papernick, "For as Long as the Lamp is Burning"
3. Grace Paley, Foreword to Savyon Liebrecht's Apples from the Desert
4. optional classic - Cynthia Ozick, "The Shawl"
5. optional - Lily Rattok, Introduction to Savyon Liebrecht's Apples from the Desert
6. August 7: (Jewish) American Daughters
1. Scott Nadelson, "The Cantor's Daughter"
2. Joan Leegant, "The Lament of the Rabbi's Daughters" from An Hour in Paradise
7. August 14: What Goes Up...
1. Joan Leegant, "Seekers in the Holy Land" from An Hour in Paradise
2. Jonathan Papernick, "The Ascent of Eli Israel"
3. optional classic - Philip Roth, "Eli the Fanatic" from Goodbye, Columbus

Helpful links:

• AJC Calendar
• Summer Session online registration form