Courses

This course is designed to enable students to read the Hebrew Bible in the original language. The focus will be the ability to read the various genres of the text, utilizing both the tools of modern language acquisition and the study of classical grammar methods. Same as HEBR 1030.

Building on HEBR/JWST 1030, this course continues to build expertise in reading the Hebrew Bible. Modern language acquisition and classical grammar study methods equip students with the tools to translate and read the various genres of the Biblical material. Prereq., HEBR/JWST 1030 or instructor consent. HEBR 1040 and JWST 1040 are the same course.

Study the origins of a group of people who call themselves, and whom others call, Jews. Focus on place, movement, power/powerlessness, gender, and the question of how to define Jews over time and place. Introduces Jews as a group of people bound together by a particular set of laws; looks at their dispersion and diversity; explores Jews' interactions with surrounding cultures and societies; introduces the basic library of Jews; sees how Jews relate to political power. Same as HIST 1818.

Surveys the major historical developments encountered by Jewish communities beginning with the Spanish Expulsion in 1492 up until the present day. We will study the various ways in which Jews across the modern world engaged with the emerging notions of nationality, equality, and citizenship, as well as with new ideologies such as liberalism, socialism, nationalism, imperialism and antisemitism. Same as HIST 1828. Formerly JWST 1108. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: historical context.

Explores the development and expressions of Jewish culture as it moves across the chronological and geographical map of the historic Jewish people, with an emphasis on the variety of Jewish ethnicities and their cultural productions, cultural syncretism, and changes. Sets the discussion in a historical context, and looks at cultural representations that include literary, religious, and visual texts. Taught in English. Same as HEBR 2350. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

Examines how the memory of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany is increasingly determined by the means of its representation, e.g., film, autobiography, poetry, architecture. Same as GRMN 2502. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values.

Study the work of Jewish writers in English and English translation. Looks at a broad spectrum of texts which show the various ways Jewish authors and poets across time and space have understood the world. Themes will include questions of secularity and tradition, diaspora, exile and citizenship, and the changes of modernity (social and political emancipation, world-wide wars, cultural transformation, new homelands). HEBR 2551 and JWST 2551 are identical courses. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts.

Introduces literature, beliefs, practices, and institutions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in historical perspective. Same as RLST 2600. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values.

Explores Jewish religious experience and its expression in thought, ritual, ethics, and social institutions. Same as RLST 3100. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: historical context.

Examines the origin of patriarchal culture in the theology and practices of Judaism and Christianity. Explores attitudes and beliefs concerning women as Judeo-Christian culture impacts gender roles and gender stratification through reading and discussion. Women's religious experience is studied from the perspective of feminist interpretations of religiosity. Prereq., WMST 2000 or WMST/RLST 2800. WMST 3200 and JWST 3200 are the same course.

Reads some of the ways Jewish texts and traditions look at women, gender and sexuality from biblical times to the present. Starts with an analysis of the positioning of the body, matter and gender in creation stories, moves on to the gendered aspects of tales of rescue and sacrifice, biblical tales of sexual subversion and power, taboo-breaking and ethnos building, to rabbinic attitudes towards women, sexuality and gender and contemporary renderings and rereadings of the earlier texts and traditions. Same as HEBR 3202. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: Human Diversity.

Surveys literary achievements of the Judeo-Christian tradition as represented by the Bible. Same as ENGL 3312. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: ideals and values. Prerequisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomore, Junior or Senior) only.

Surveys the major works of 20th century central and central eastern European film and literature. Examines cultural production in the non-imperial countries and non-national languages of the region including Yiddish, Belarusian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Romanian, among others. Traces the rise of nationalism over the course of the century from the age of empires through the "Cold War." Same as GSLL 3401.

Provides insight into the German-Jewish identity through essays, autobiographies, fiction, and journalism from the Enlightenment to the post-Holocaust period. Examines the religious and social conflicts that typify the history of Jewish existence in German-speaking lands during the modern epoch. Same as GRMN 3501. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity.

This course uses a transnational lens to explore contemporary debates about Jewish people, places, and practices of identity and community. Drawing on history, sociology, international studies, and anthropology, we'll think about the places that Jewish people have called 'home,' and what has made, or continues to make those places 'Jewish.' We'll also explore diverse practices that express the extraordinary varieties of Jewishness (such as building synagogues, food markets, and coffeehouses, creating film festivals, going on heritage travel, Israeli-Jewish backpacking, the creation of online websites and blogs, and creating new urban kibbutzim). Restricted to students with minimum 57 units completed. JWST 3600 and IAFS 3600 are the same course. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity. Prerequisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).

Explores topics in international affairs as it relates to Jewish culture and society. Subjects addressed under this heading vary according to student interest and faculty availability. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. IAFS 3610 and JWST 3610 are the same course. Prerequisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).

Explores the origins and development of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Traces Arab-Jewish/Israeli relations from the nineteenth century through the Palestine Mandate, the evolution of Arab and Jewish nationalism, and the creation of Israel to the present day. Recommended prereqs., HIST 1308; HIST/JWST 1828. Same as IAFS 3650. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: historical context. Prerequisites: Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Juniors or Seniors).

Explores the Jewish-American experience from the 19th century to the present through writers such as Sholom Aleichem, Peretz, babel, Singer, Malamud, Miller, Ginsberg, and Ozick. The Jewish experience ranges from the travails of immigration to the loss of identity through assimilation. Same as ENGL 3677. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: human diversity. Prerequisites: Restricted to students with 27-180 credits (Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors).

Learn beyond the classroom by interning in a local non-profit organization that connects with the Program in Jewish Studies through its mission and/or program. Interns will be supervised by the faculty member of record as well as the employer housing the intern. Prereqs., HIST/JWST 1108 or HEBR/JWST 2350. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours.

Serves as the final product for students completing the major in Jewish Studies. The capstone asks students to design a project under the supervision of a mentor that serves as the summation of their past work in Jewish Studies. Capstone projects can take the form of a thesis, film, or other medium and must engage the student's second language. Restricted to senior Jewish Studies (JWST) majors only. Prerequisites: Restricted to senior Jewish Studies (JWST) majors only.

Explores topics in Jewish anthropology. Course will use the lens of anthropological inquiry to explore, discover and analyze different concepts within Jewish culture. Topics explored will include customs, religious practices, languages, ethnic and regional subdivisions, occupations, social composition, and folklore. Courses will explore fundamental questions about the definition of Jewish identity, practices and communities. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Restricted to students with 57-180 credits (Junior or Senior). ANTH 4050 and JWST 4050 are the same course.

Explores topics in Hebrew and Jewish literature and cultures. These may include topics such as diasporic literatures, Jewish artists and thinkers, courses on specific authors, figures or communities. Topics change each semester. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Taught in English. HEBR 4101 and JWST 4101 are the same course.

Examines the creation and development of Israeli literature from its pre-State beginnings to the present day, from the writings of immigrants for whom Hebrew was not their mother tongue to a literature written by native Hebrew speakers. Considers texts written by Israeli Jewish and Arab writers and explores how ideas of exile, nation, and home play into the Israeli experience. Recommended prereqs., ENGL/JWST 3677, GRMN/JWST 2502; GRMN/JWST 3503; HEBR/JWST 2551; WRTG/JWST 3020. Same as HEBR 4203. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts.

Examines in depth central themes, schools of thought, and movements in Judaism across a range of historical periods. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours as topics change. Recommended prereqs., 6 hours of RLST courses at any level including RLST/JWST 3100, RLST/JWST 2600, HIST/JWST 1108 or HEBR/JWST 2350 or instructor consent. RLST 4260, JWST 4260, and 5260 are the same course.

Explores the development of European Jewish culture from the late Middle Ages to the present by focusing on Jewish life in the city of Venice, Italy. Emphasis is on the development of Venetian print culture and emergence of Italy as a center of Jewish publishing in both the religious and secular world. The course examines a variety of cultural and historical material including early printings of the Talmud, the creation of Yiddish popular literature, Hebrew rabbinic literature, responses to political turmoil, and the aftermath of the Nazi genocide. Taught in English. Prereq., HEBR/JWST 2350. HEBR 4301 and JWST 4301 are the same course. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: literature and the arts.