INTRODUCTORY COURSES
4. Religion of Israel: The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) (Identical to, and described under, Religion 4)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Ackerman.
6. Introduction to Judaism (Identical to, and described under, Religion 6)
11F: 12 12F: 11
Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Benor.
7. First-Year Seminars in Jewish Studies
Consult special listings
10. History and Culture of the Jews I: The Classical Period
12S: 10A
A survey of the history and culture of the Jews from the post-Biblical period to the Middle Ages. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Lanfer
11. History and Culture of the Jews II: The Modern Period (Identical to History 94.9)
13W: 2A
A continuation of Jewish Studies 10, but may be taken independently. This course provides a survey of Jewish history and culture from the European enlightenment to the establishment of the State of Israel. Dist: SOC; WCult: CI. Heschel.
16. Introduction to Hebraic and Israeli Culture (Identical to Hebrew 10 and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 17; described under Hebrew 10)
12S, 12S: 10A
Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Glinert.
LITERATURE, LANGUAGE, AND CULTURE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
21. Jewish American Literature (Identical to English 67)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Milich.
21.2 Modern Jewish American Women Writers (Identical to English 67 and Women’s and Gender Studies 51)
13S: 11
This course will explore the literature of Jewish American women from the late nineteenth century to the present; topics for discussion will include feminism, sexuality, identity politics, activism, and literary transmission. Among the readings will be poetry, fiction, memoir, and essays by such writers as Lazarus, Antin, Yezierska, Stock, Stein, Olsen, Rukeyser, Paley, Ozick, Rich, Piercy, Levertov, Gluck, Goldstein, Wasserstein, Goodman, Klepfisz, Feinberg, Chernin.
Dist: LIT, WCult: CI. Zeiger.
22. Jews and Hollywood (Identical to Film and Media Studies 47)
11F: 2A
This course will look at the complex, rich tradition of Jewish artists as well as the history of representations of Jews in film. We will focus on American films and examine how Jews became American and how American culture became Jewish. Topics will include: the role of Jews in the creation of the product and myth of Hollywood, how anti-Semitism shaped images of Jews in film, and how mainstream film has shaped contemporary Jewish identity. Dist: ART; WCult: W. Bronski.
22.2 Jews in American Culture: The New York Intellectuals (Identical to English 72.1)
12W: 2A
No other group of Jewish critics has been so influential in American literary and cultural politics as the New York Intellectuals, who came to prominence with the foundation of the Partisan Review (1937-2003). Starting from the assumption of what Russel Jacoby has identified as a Jewish-gentile split among the NYI, this course shall focus on how the political and cultural debates informed their notions of Jewish-American identity, particularly with respect to other minorities. Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Milich.
22.3 From Fanny to the Nanny: Jewish Women and Humor (Identical to Women’s and Gender Studies 56.7)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Bronski.
24.1 The Hebrew of the Bible (Identical to, and described under, Hebrew 51)
12W: Arrange
Ben-Yehuda.
24.2 Rabbis, Rogues, and Schlemiels: Jewish Humor and Its Roots (Identical to, and described under Hebrew 63)
12S, 13S: 2A
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Glinert.
24.3 Midrash: How the Rabbis Interpreted the Bible (Identical to, and described under, Hebrew 62)
12F: 2A
Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Glinert.
24.4 Struggle and Rebirth in Hebrew and Yiddish Literature (Identical to, and described under, Hebrew 61 )
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: LIT; WCult: NW. Glinert.
26. European Jewish Intellectuals (Identical to, and described under, Comparative Literature 70)
12W: 10A
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Kritzman.
27. The Jewish Family (Identical to, and described under, Comparative Literature 46)
13W: 2A
Dist: LIT. Kritzman.
27.3 Islam and Judaism: Europe’s Orientalist Visions (Identical to English 60)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Heschel, McKee.
TOPICS IN THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
33. American Jewish History (Identical to, and described under, History 6)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: SOC; WCult: CI. Orleck
37.1 History of the Holocaust (Identical to History 58)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S.
Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Heschel.
37.2 Burden of the Nazi Past: World War, Genocide, Population Transfer, and Firebombing (Identical to Comparative Literature 64 and German 45, and described under Comparative Literature 65)
13W: 2
Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Kacandes.
37.3 Representing the Holocaust: History, Memory, and Survival (Identical to Comparative Literature 64)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: INT; WCult: W.
TOPICS IN THE POLITICS AND CULTURE OF ISRAEL
41. Art and Archaeology of Israel: From Prehistory to the Roman period (Identical to Art History 17.2)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Kangas.
41.2 Synagogue and Church: Archaeology of Roman Palestine (Identical to Art History 16.2)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: ART; WCult: W. Kangas.
41.3 Cities of the Biblical World
12F: 10A
This course will study some of the cosmopolitan centers where Jews interacted with other peoples of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, where Jewish identity was first formulated, and where early Jewish history unfolded. It was in antiquity that the Jewish people’s special, complex, and often problematical relationship to place first took shape. We will explore this issue in light of archaeological materials distributed over a wide geographical and chronological range, from Jerusalem – the first capital of the Israelites – to Ninevah and Babylon, to powerful centers of the Roman world such as Sepphoris in the Galilee and the port at Caesarea. Dist: ART; WCult: NW. Kangas.
42. Film, Fiction and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Identical to, and described under, Hebrew 61)
12W, 12X: 2A
Dist: LIT; WCult: W. Glinert.
JUDAISM, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
51. Freud: Psychoanalysis, Jews, and Gender (Identical to Women’s and Gender Studies 67.1 and German 42)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: SOC; WCult: CI. Fuechtner.
52. Judaism, Sexuality, and Queerness (Identical to Women’s and Gender Studies 65.1)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: TMV; WCult: CI. Bronski.
53. Gender and Judaism (Identical to Women’s and Gender Studies 33.3)
12F: 2A
Examining the intersections between gender, religious practice, cultural identity, and personal belief, this class will draw upon contemporary gender theory, religious texts, and contemporary interpretations of Jewish thought and culture to examine the construction of Jewish identity through a feminist lens. Authors will include Adler, Boyarin, Heschel, Gilman, Peskowitz, Levitt, and Biale. The class will also investigate questions of race, ethnicity, assimilation, and Jewish gender issues in popular culture, including films and the work of performers Cantor, Benny, Berg, Midler, and Sandler.
Dist: TMV; WCult: CI. Bronski.
JEWS, ETHNICITY, AND RACE
55. Performing National Identities: Representations of Blacks and Jews in U.S. Culture (Identical to English 67 and African and African American Studies 84)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: LIT; WCult: CI. Schweitzer.
58. Jewish Views of Islam (Identical to Religion 74)
13W: 10A
This course will examine Jewish views of Islam by reviewing the history of medieval and modern Jewish experience under Muslim rule, Jewish theological understandings of Islam, and modern Jewish historiographical interpretations of Islamic origins within Judaism. We will study Jewish understandings of Islam: the articulated differences between Jewish and Muslim beliefs, particularly in relation to prophecy, revelation, scripture, and messianism; the ways that Islam served as a template for presenting Judaism to modern Christian Europe; the alliance forged between Jewish scholars and their imagined Islam as a polemical tool against Christianity; the rise of Oriental Studies and Religious Studies in Europe and the role played within that field by Jewish scholars; Jewish-authored travelogues to Muslim countries; and individual cases of conversions from Judaism to Islam. We will examine Arab-Jewish intellectual and literary creativity and how Orientalism has shaped other cultural phenomena, specifically early psychoanalytic writings. Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Heschel.
TOPICS IN JEWISH RELIGION
60. Judaism in Late Antiquity: The Rabbinic Revolution (Identical to, and described under, Religion 21)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Benor.
61. Modern Judaism (Identical to, and described under, Religion 22)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Heschel.
62. Jewish Mysticism (Identical to, and described under, Religion 23)
12F: 2
Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Benor.
63. Jewish Philosophers of Religion (Identical to, and described under, Religion 24)
12S: 10
Dist: TMV; WCult: W. Benor.
SPECIAL TOPICS COURSES IN JEWISH STUDIES
70. The Jew in the Protestant Imagination: The Merchant of Venice (Identical to English 65 and Religion 74)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: LIT, WCult: W. Heschel, McKee.
72. History of Heaven (Identical to, and described under, Religion 57)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: TMV. Wright.
76. Jerusalem: Sacred Geography (Identical to Religion 81, pending faculty approval)
12F: 2A
This course surveys the religious, political, and cultural history of Jerusalem over three millennia as a symbolic center of three faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The course content will focus on the transformation of sacred space as reflected by literary and archaeological evidence by examining the testimony of artifacts, architecture, and iconography in relation to the written word. We will study the creation of mythic Jerusalem through event and experience. Lanfer.
SEMINAR IN JEWISH STUDIES
80. History of Holocaust Historiography (Identical to History 95)
Not offered in the period from 11F through 13S
Dist: SOC; WCult: W. Heschel.
83. Orientalism and the Origins of Religion (Identical to Religion 81, pending faculty approval)
12F: 2A
Heschel, Frankenberry.
85. Independent Study and Research
All terms: Arrange
This course offers qualified students of Jewish Studies the opportunity to pursue work on a topic of special interest through an individually designed program. Requires permission of the instructor and the Chair.