What makes a story Jewish? The Jewish short stories studied in this course are steeped in the Jewish experience of their authors, yet many of these authors reject the “Jewish author” label. Their voices give us insight into the world in which they live and the ideas that live in their imagination. The themes in these stories are universal in our experience as Jews. Their word choice, their characters and the words they speak, and the persona who tells the story all paint a picture of a theme, an idea, the thoughts they have.
In this course, after careful reading of the stories, students will dialogue with each other and delve deeper into the stories as they share ideas with classmates. Students will adopt the persona of the characters and "speak" as the characters and to them, learn about the setting and the environment where the characters live, and analyze the language the characters use and the narrator uses to establish the theme of the story. In this way, students will assess how an author can use this genre as a way to reflect on what makes up Jewish Identity. Then, using the literary techniques studied in this course, students will use their own voice as they design and develop their own original short story, to explore their personal Jewish experience.