Clothing, Crime and Class Conflict: Jews in the 'Shmate' Trade
Tuition: $325 | YIVO members: $250**
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This is a live, online course held on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, recordings of class sessions, 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, and any readings will be in English.
Instructor: Tony Michels
A century ago, Jews dominated the garment industry as manufacturers, contractors, workers, union leaders, hired thugs, and in most other capacities. What drew Jews to the clothing business? Why was it so volatile? How did it become a hotbed of social protest? And what did it have to do with the rise of Hollywood? This course will explore these and other questions through autobiography, poetry, and historical analysis.
Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.
Tony Michels teaches American Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also serves as director of the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies. He is author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Jewish Socialists in New York, editor of Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History, and co-editor of The Cambridge History of Judaism. Volume Eight: The Modern World, 1815-2000.
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