James Joyce's Ulysses, published in 1922 and still considered one of the most important works of modernist literature, transposed Homer's Odyssey to early-20th century Ireland, but featured a Jewish character, Leopold Bloom, as its hero. Why? Though Joyce was almost certainly not making any direct statement on the contemporary Jewish experience, he identified, to some extent, with Jewishness as a marker of wandering and otherness. We will examine, in particular, chapter twelve of the book, "The Cyclops", an extended barroom meditation on nationalism and the outsider, love, "force, hatred, history, and all that", and explore how Joyce deploys his imaginary Jew in the midst of this fray. Along the way, you will also get a gentle introduction to this intimidating but delightful masterwork!

This class is being offered to mark the third yortseit of Sidney Feshbach, grandfather of Mimi Farb, and a noted Joyce scholar.

Note: No prior experience required. Participants are not expected to have read Ulysses.

Rabbi Benjamin Weiner is the spiritual leader of the Jewish Community of Amherst, in Western Massachusetts, where he lives with his family on their homestead farm. He holds a Masters of Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin, where he wrote his thesis on the prose of Samuel Beckett and its debt to Joyce's Ulysses.