Jewish StudiesProgram

Who, what, and where were the ancient peoples, cultures and places that played key roles in the shaping of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), New Testament and Quran? When do they appear in history and how do we reconstruct their past and legacy? Why do these ancient cultures and writings continue to influence our contemporary world? Utilizing methodologies and approaches from historical geography, archaeology, contemporary historical documents, epigraphy and anthropology, we will investigate the civilizations and peoples of the lands associated with the biblical texts. This course examines the cultural traditions that developed in these regions and contextualize the world out of which the Bible emerged. Thousands of years later, their beliefs, customs and practices continue to resonate in our lives today.

This course introduces the texts that make up the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Old Testament), along with the main literary and historical approaches that form the basis of modern biblical study. It is not assumed that you have any familiarity with the text of the Bible. Prior familiarity is certainly an asset, but as you will have ample opportunity to read the texts throughout the semester, it is not a necessity.

Although Jesus of Nazareth is the object of Christian devotion, he was not a Christian himself, but a pious Jew. What can be known about the historical figure of Jesus the Palestinian Jew? Because almost all of our source material espouses Jesus as the Christ of Christian faith, the first step is to understand the aims and perspectives of these Christian sources, including the canonical Gospels as well as non-canonical Gospels. A careful examination of these sources will be made in light of critical scholarship and the social and historical context of Judaism in the Greco-Roman world. We will then consider and evaluate a few of the different scholarly reconstructions of the historical Jesus. Major emphases will include the historical, social, religious, political, and cultural contexts for situating the life and teachings of Jesus.

This course will explore the boundaries between Scripture and tradition by means of a close examination of the myths and stories in the Hebrew Bible and their subsequent interpretation and re-tellings in Jewish and Christian traditions. We will compare these traditions with the biblical text, along with other interpretive traditions.

Whether you are already familiar with the New Testament or simply curious about it, this course will provide you a thorough introduction to the books of the New Testament, central figures like Jesus and Paul, and the historical contexts that shed light on the early Christian movement.

The course offers a historical examination of the Holocaust, the persecution, humiliation, expulsion, incarceration, and murder of European Jews. We will try to encompass as many perspectives and aspects of this event as possible and view it in relation to broad contexts and particular experiences and situations. We will start by reflecting on the possible causes of the Holocaust and explore the rise of Nazism. The course will then follow the pre-war antisemitic measures of the Nazi regime in Germany itself and the persecution of various social, political, and ethnic groups and then trace the wartime development of mass killing. We will also look at a variety of Jewish responses, as well as responses of local and distant bystanders and other victims.

This course surveys apocalyptic literature and apocalyptic imagination about the end of the world, from its beginnings in the ancient Near East and the Bible to some examples from the modern world. The course will cover three areas: 1) the ancient literary genre of apocalypse in the Near East; 2) apocalyptic writings in the Jewish and Christian traditions (especially the books of Daniel and Revelation in the Bible, and the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls), which generated Western apocalyptic thinking throughout the ages; and 3) some historical examples and discussion of the sociological underpinnings of apocalyptic groups in the medieval to modern periods.  Additional attention will be paid to the impact that apocalyptic worldviews have had on the secular world, especially in the fine arts and cinema.

This course provides an introduction to the early history of Christianity. It traces, specifically, the development of the Christian movement from its beginnings as a small Jewish sect in Jerusalem to its unlikely emergence as the religion of the Roman Empire and, finally, its subsequent spread and development in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In form and structure, the course is historical, following figures and events in a more or less chronological sequence and taking up questions of causality, influence, and social identity. Yet the course is also concerned with the ideas, concepts, and philosophical viewpoints that have shaped Christianity and given it a certain intellectual coherence over time.

The course discusses the Israeli-Palestinian encounter focusing on the way collective identities are shaped by the conflict. It combines historical outlining of the conflict’s development from the beginning of Zionist immigration to Palestine until the current day, with thematic analysis of its dynamics. The course juxtaposes different subjective points of view and motivations of the various actors involved and analyzes the socio-political process as products of these interrelated positions. Special emphasis is given to the inter-dependency of culture and politics; national symbolism as both product of the conflict and an element that maintains it; and the significance of heroism, victimhood and martyrdom in shaping the conflict and the identities of the parties involved. Class meetings include lectures, movies, and discussions.

The history and memory of the Holocaust, the Armenian, Cambodian and other forms of genocide are often taught separately in different disciplines. This course will examine them together through the various ways different societies dealt with, experienced and understood these. Using the extensive literature on the history of genocide this course suggests reflections on how these tragic events emerged and how they affected and were entangled by each other. What constitutes a genocide and what distinguishes it from other cases of mass killing of civilians? What was and is their impact on memories and global politics? What can be done to prevent genocides from happening?

This course examines Job and Jonah, two biblical books that explore profound questions about fate, God, free will, and the Leviathans that haunt the human condition. The book of Job concerns the undeserved misery of a pious man, whose suffering is, unbeknownst to him, the result of a wager between God and Satan. By contrast, Jonah is a prophet, who is nonetheless swallowed up by anguish, just as much as by the big fish of his tale. We will explore the literary and cultural aspects of both books within their historical context, as well as their reception and interpretation in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

This seminar will explore how the Holocaust has been studied and remembered. During the first half of the semester, we will focus on historical debates related to the Holocaust. The second half of the course will be devoted to issues of memory and memorialization. This is an upper level discussion course with rigorous reading and writing requirements. JST/HIST121 is highly recommended as a prerequisite.

Students registered for JST/HIST426 are also eligible to participate in JST197, an embedded travel course to Poland and Lithuania over spring break.

Jews have been part of Middle Eastern societies for thousands of years. They flourished at times and endured hardships at others, but they have been part of every significant social and cultural transformation of the Middle East.  In this class, students will discuss the significant contribution of the Jewish community to the development of various Middle Eastern societies throughout the centuries.  Students will critically read and analyze primary sources and secondary literature. We will delve into national historiographies of places such as Morocco, Egypt, and Iran—to name a few—and seek to discover a nuanced narrative of Jewish histories of the region. We will also analyze popular culture products, such as documentaries, television, and literature. The course will follow a chronological and thematic order, and will examine Jewish history in conjunction with global and interregional processes in the Middle East and beyond, such as colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, relations with the West, the formation of the modern nation states of the Middle East, and the Israeli-Arab conflict.

This course explores the concept of genocide from political, historical, and philosophical perspectives, focusing on the Holocaust as a critical case study. Explanations for the Holocaust are examined through an emphasis on epistemological issues — with discussions of specific topics such as the history of antisemitism, the typologies of genocide, and the uniqueness of the Holocaust.

Jews have existed as a unique religious/ ethnic/ national community for at least 3,000 years. They have lived in practically every corner of the globe. Rarely have they had what we would consider ‘political power’. They were almost always a minority (and often a tiny one) surrounded by more powerful civilizations and communities. Yet, they survived and flourished in many different ways in many different times and places. This course explores some of those discrete times and places. It focuses on how have Jewish leaders, communities, and individuals reconciled their interests/agendas both as Jews and as members of a larger society with changing circumstances within and without their communities.

The aim of this course is to explore various ways in which philosophers have responded to Auschwitz (a signifier, or name, which is in turn not without controversy and complexity). Course readings address the relation between testimony and trauma, rethinking evil and gratuitous suffering in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the reaffirmation of Judaism as a living philosophical and religious worldview, narrativity and historical forgetting, aesthetic representation and the unspeakable, and the question of God. Readings include Primo Levi, Giorgi Agamben, George Didi-Huberman, TW Adorno, Hans Jonas, Emmanuel Levinas, and Hannah Arendt. The course will also include viewing films (Shoah, Come and See, Night and Fog).

This Advance level of Hebrew provides students whom have already acquired fundamental Hebrew language skills an opportunity to strengthen and exercise the language through a variety of activities. In order to strengthen the students Hebrew language skills, emphasis is giving to speaking, reading comprehension and writing. The materials include cultural aspects of the Israeli life, poems, Israeli songs, and current events are discuss ones a week.