An introductory course in Modern Hebrew is designed for students with no prior experience in the language. It provides a comprehensive foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, gradually building proficiency through practical applications and real-world contexts. The course begins with the Hebrew alphabet and number system, progressing to essential vocabulary, sentence structures, and conversational skills. By the end of the semester, students will be able to: Engage in basic conversations on everyday topics, read and comprehend short Hebrew texts with minimal assistance, write structured paragraphs in Hebrew with growing confidence. Why Study Hebrew? Hebrew is a language of both ancient heritage and modern relevance. Its three-letter root system makes it structured yet intuitive, offering an engaging and rewarding learning experience. As the language of the Bible, Hebrew holds profound historical significance while thriving as a spoken language in Israel today, learning Hebrew grants direct access to Jewish texts, traditions, and contemporary Israeli society. Hebrew has global and professional relevance as an essential language for those pursuing Middle Eastern studies, technology, diplomacy, and international relations. For scheduling conflicts, please contact the instructor.

Full details for JWST 1101 - Elementary Modern Hebrew I

Intermediate Modern Hebrew is designed to strengthen students' proficiency in Modern Hebrew by advancing their reading, writing, listening, and conversation skills. The curriculum incorporates Hebrew literature, news articles, Israeli TV series, and cinema, offering a deeper understanding of language, society, and culture. Students will engage with Hebrew literary works, poetry, and media, developing an appreciation for Israeli and Jewish cultural expression. The course also explores the role of language in shaping cultural identity, focusing on historical and social influences. By the end of the course, students will be able to engage in extended conversations in Hebrew, improve reading comprehension and textual analysis, enhance listening skills through authentic Hebrew media, read and understand 500-word passages with minimal assistance, and discuss topics in class while writing a 200-word paragraph with improved grammar. Emphasizing fluency and confidence in communication over rigid grammatical accuracy, the course develops all four language skills while reinforcing grammar and pronunciation through structured materials on diverse topics. The course is designed for students who have completed Hebrew 1102 or have received instructor approval.

Full details for JWST 1103 - Elementary Modern Hebrew III

Elementary Yiddish I is the first in a three-class sequence that will enable students to meet their Arts & Sciences language requirement in Yiddish. It provides an introduction to reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Yiddish contains a wealth of embedded knowledge about Ahkenazi Jewish life, both historical and contemporary. In addition to language competence the course will build understanding of this legacy through songs, humor, holiday traditions, literature, and other cultural products.

Full details for JWST 1776 - Elementary Yiddish I

Why were Jews virtually invisible in films produced during the Hollywood's golden age? Is this a surprise, given the leading role played by American Jews in founding the studio system? Writing about the films studied in this course will help students situate and interpret the presence (and absence) of characters identifiable as Jews in Hollywood films released from the silent era through the present. We will view approximately six films in their entirety and study excerpts from others. Films to be studied in whole or part may include: The Immigrant, The Jazz Singer, The Great Dictator, Casablanca, The Apartment, Funny Girl, Annie Hall, Barton Fink, and A Serious Man. Students will write film analyses, review essays, reflective responses, and explorations of contextual material. Readings from film studies and popular journalism will situate these films within the historical, cultural, and industrial contexts in which they were produced.

Full details for JWST 1987 - FWS: Jews on Film: Visible and Invisible

Intended for intermediate students, this is the third in a three-course sequence, designed to enable students to meet the College of Arts & Sciences language requirement. Students will increase their understanding of the language in cultural context and will further develop their capacity to produce both spoken and written Yiddish.

Full details for JWST 2276 - Intermediate Yiddish

This course is an introductory survey to various aspects of Israeli culture, society, and history. Through a close examination of various media (film, music, literature) as well as key events and social and political facts, students explore a range of phenomena related to Israeli social practices and its political system, alongside a chronological overview of changes in Israeli culture and society over time. Topics covered may include geography, immigration, demographics, inequality, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Hebrew language, gender, literature, film, among others.

Full details for JWST 2488 - Modern Israel: History, Culture, Society

This course examines the production and exchange of wine, beer, coffee and tea, and the social and ideological dynamics involved in their consumption. We start in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and end with tea and coffee in the Arab and Ottoman worlds. Archaeological and textual evidence will be used throughout to show the centrality of drinking in daily, ritual and political life. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for JWST 2522 - Drinking through the Ages: Intoxicating Beverages in Near Eastern and World History

This course explores the history of medicine and other sciences in the ancient Near East, broadly defined. In addition to medicine, the other scientific disciplines covered in this course include mathematics, astrology, astronomy, alchemy, zoology, among others. Geographically, the course traces the transmission of scientific knowledge in ancient Babylonia, Iran, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, and beyond. As such, the course offers students a tour of different ancient civilizations and corpora. Students read selections from cuneiform Akkadian tablets, Egyptian Christian Coptic spellbooks, rabbinic sources such as the Talmud, among many other works. At the same time, students will be required to critically engage recent scholarship in the history of science and medicine as a way to help frame their analyses of the ancient materials. The course interrogates how ancient civilizations transmitted and received scientific knowledge, as well as the relationship between what we today tend to call science, medicine, magic, and religion. This course is intended not only for students in the Humanities and Social Sciences, but also for those majoring in science or medicine.

Full details for JWST 2599 - Medicine, Magic and Science in the Ancient Near East

This course examines the history of the conflict between two peoples with claims to the same land (Palestine/Israel), from the rise of their national movements at the turn of the 20th century and their eventual clash down to the present crisis. We will investigate the various stable and shifting elements in the evolution of the conflict including conflicting Israeli and Palestinian narratives and mythologies about the nature of the conflict. Among many issues to be addressed are: the relationship of this conflict to the history of European colonialism in the Middle East, the emergence of Pan-Arabism and Islamism, the various currents in Zionism and its relationship to Judaism, the implication of great power rivalry in the Middle East, the different causes and political repercussions of the four Arab-Israeli wars, efforts at peacemaking including Oslo and Camp David, and the significance of the two Palestinian uprisings.

Full details for JWST 2697 - History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This course offers a new way of understanding both the Holocaust and the broader history of modern Europe—from the ground up. Moving from Greece to France, and from Amsterdam to Moscow, we explore how Jewish communities experienced dictatorship, occupation, and genocide between 1918 and 1948. Students gain a full introduction to World War II and the Holocaust while working directly with diaries, letters, and survivor testimonies to see history through the eyes of its victims. Bridging the disciplines that meet in Jewish Studies, the course examines how violence, belonging, and moral choice shaped everyday life in one of the most turbulent eras of Jewish and European history. Along the way, students build critical interpretive skills, deepen their historical literacy, and learn how historians analyze personal narratives to understand large-scale events.

Full details for JWST 2721 - The Holocaust in Europe:A Victim-Centered History

Jewish men and women in early modern Europe lived their lives within a gendered social order inherited from the Talmudic period. The relationship between sex and power remained fundamental to Jewish communal discipline until the eighteenth century. The explosion of vernacular publishing, increasing economic and geographic mobility and the coming of emancipation challenged existing gender norms and liberated Jewish desire - well, almost. As we will see, modernity has an ambiguous effect on Jewish sexual expression and Jewish sexual politics. It is not clear that the emancipation of Jewish men had the same emancipatory effect on Jewish women. Jewish patriarchy proved unexpectedly resilient. In this course, we will explore why - despite Judaism's reputation for liberal attitudes to sex - neither most Jewish men nor many Jewish women embraced the possibilities of personal liberation from a reproductive regime of rigid self-control and near compulsory heterosexual monogamy. (HIST-HEU)

Full details for JWST 2851 - Sex and Power in Jewish History

Most people think of Christianity as the daughter religion of Judaism. In this course, we will see that what we now know as Judaism and Christianity both claimed ownership of the same textual tradition and emerged together from the same set of historical circumstances, shaped by political crisis, a radical transformation of the social order and the challenge of Graeco-Roman culture. Through close reading of the principal sources of Christian literature, such as Paul's letters to the first communities of gentile believers and the accounts of the life and death of the messiah, known collectively as the gospels, we will explore how and why the followers of Jesus first came to think of themselves as the New Israel and how a polemical engagement with their controversial interpretation of Hebrew prophecy shaped the development of the rabbinic movement in Roman Palestine. (HIST-HEU, HIST-HPE)

Full details for JWST 2852 - Judaism and the Origins of Christianity

This constitutes the first course in our third year of the Modern Hebrew language sequence. Development of speech proficiency will be emphasized. Over the course of the semester, students will develop reading comprehension through reading a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, listening comprehension through screening of filmic works and episodes drawn from popular television series, writing through communication about what is read and screened, as well as more personal topics, and speech through in class discussion and oral presentations. Readings will include authentic and partially adapted contemporary short stories, poems and newspaper articles.

Full details for JWST 3101 - Advanced Modern Hebrew I

This course is intended to continue the development of all aspects of Hebrew language skills. Emphasis, however, will be placed on speaking skills and understanding through the use of various outlets in Israeli media: television, film, online sources, newspapers, songs and literature. The use of text and media material relevant to Israeli contemporary society and culture will help the students to gain better understanding of Israeli society and culture.

Full details for JWST 3103 - Advanced Hebrew Through Media

Who determines who can marry whom, where, and when? This is a classic problem in social anthropology. The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud were also concerned with such questions. Their proposed answers and dilemmas reveal tensions between the communities living in the Land of Israel and those in Babylonian diaspora. We will consider broadly the relation between space and kinship, and will focus our time on Chapter 4 of the tractate Kiddushin. Some reading knowledge of Rabbinic Hebrew-Aramaic required.

Full details for JWST 3416 - Geography and Genealogy in the Talmud

This course examines the historic diversity of the modern Middle East, exploring histories of inter-communal contact and conflict. We begin by investigating the legacy of the Ottoman Empire and the impact of its dissolution. We will focus our attention on commercial centers that fostered inter-communal relations, as well as investigating sites of strife and cases of minority repression. We will read histories, memoirs, and fiction, and view films that help us better understand inter-communal relations, tensions, and conflict. We will also interrogate the terms for exploring a range distinctions among majority and minority populations including: religious difference (Muslims, Christians, and Jews); divisions of religious rite (Sunni and Shi'a); entho-linguistic minorities (Armenians and Kurds); national identities (Israelis and Palestinians); cultures of origin (Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi Jews). We will explore how these divisions inform urgent current conflicts: the civil war in Syria and the refugee crisis; the civil war in Iraq and the campaign by ISIS against minorities; as well as tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Full details for JWST 3655 - Minorities of the Middle East

What explains authoritarian resilience in the Middle East? What are the causes and consequences of Islamist political attitudes and behavior? What is the historical legacy of colonialism and empire in the Middle East? This course will offer students the opportunity to discuss these and other questions related to the political, social, and economic development of the Middle East and North Africa. (GOVT-CP)

Full details for JWST 3850 - Comparative Politics of the Middle East

One hundred and fifty years ago, most of the world’s Jews lived in Europe or the Ottoman Empire. Yet by the middle of the twentieth century the United States was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. Using the tools of social, cultural, and intellectual history, this course examines the lives of Jews in America from 1654 through the present, exploring how they adapted to life in the United States and how the United States adapted itself to the presence of Jews.

Full details for JWST 3860 - American Jewish History, 1654-Present

This course explores the interactions between Jews, Christians, and other religious groups in late antiquity, especially in Sasanian Persia circa the first through seventh century C.E. Students pay particular attention to the portrayals of Christians in Jewish rabbinic literature, including Midrash and Talmud, but also draw from early Christian, Zoroastrian, Manichaean, and other sources. There will be an emphasis on the reading of primary texts in translation in their appropriate historical contexts, and in comparison with one another. Students engage such questions as: How did Jews define themselves in relation to Christians, and vice versa? In what ways did Jews and Christians part ways with one another, as scholars often maintain, and what were the factors at play in their separation? And, lastly, what role did other religious and political groups, such as Gnostics, Zoroastrians, Romans, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, and early Muslims play in these developments?

Full details for JWST 3888 - Jews, Christians, and Others in Late Antiquity

Topic: Writing Through the Forest in Search of Trees. Hello, Humanities Student! Are you a plotter or a pantser? Not sure? Come and join us to find out, and to gain valuable insight into what kind of a writer you are, and how to manage that writer most effectively and productively. This theme-centered methods seminar, through a communal focus on trees, woods, glens, and copses in the pre-modern world, will hone in on the most indispensable tool in the humanist's belt: writing. From the generation of ideas, to their organization into an outline (or a blueprint, or whatever euphemism we, as a group or as individuals, decide to apply to the initial, tangled pile of yarn) to the first draft. Followed by frank and constructive criticism of the initial draft as a group and in pairs, and then on to the part that all students-really, all humanists?okay, all writers-find to be the greatest struggle: Your paper has some good ideas, but it really needs a rewrite. Now what do you do? As we write, and rewrite, we will also read widely. In addition to primary sources, scholarly articles and essays, we will include criticism, personal essay, theory, excerpts from fiction, and more, in an effort to open students' writing up to a myriad of possibilities for persuasive and compelling written communication.

Full details for JWST 4310 - Methods in Medieval

Moses Maimonides who was born in Cordoba (1138), moved to Fez as a youth and died in Cairo (1204) is regarded by Jewish, Islamic, and Christian tradition alike as the most important Jewish religious intellectual of the classical age of Islam/the High Middle Ages. This seminar will examine Maimonides as the product of his time and place including his complex relationship with Arabo-Islamic culture and, because of his stature as a communal figure, rabbinic scholar, court physician and philosopher, his role as a catalyst for cultural developments. For comparative purposes we also consider Maimonides' Andalusi contemporary, Ibn Rushd, the philosopher, Muslim jurist, physician and scholar of Islamic law.

Full details for JWST 4540 - Moses Maimonides

The Phoenicians have long been an enigma, a people defined by distant voices. Originating from present-day Lebanon, they were Semitic speakers, renowned seafarers and transmitters of an innovative alphabet that transformed how Mediterranean and Near Eastern folk wrote their languages. Having left us virtually no texts of their own, their history has resembled a patchwork of recollections from Old Testament and Hellenistic times. Recent archaeological discoveries, however, reveal patterns of trade, colonization and socioeconomic transformations that make the Phoenicians less enigmatic while raising new questions. Our class explores the third and second millennium Canaanite roots of the Phoenicians, as well as the Biblical and Greco-Roman perceptions of their early first millennium heyday. We will explore the Phoenician homeland and its colonies, and investigate their maritime economy, language, and religion through both archaeological and textual sources. Temporally the focus is on Phoenician rather than Carthaginian or Punic history, thus up to about 550 BCE. The class has a seminar format involving critical discussions and presentations of scholarly readings, and requires a research paper. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for JWST 4550 - Archaeology of the Phoenicians

Full details for JWST 4721 - Peace Building in Conflict Regions: Case Studies Sub-Saharan Africa Israel Palestinian Territories

This course offers Jewish Studies majors a chance to write a significant research essay that allows for depth of study of a topic of interest to each individual student. Because it is a required course for the major, it is also intended to create a sense of community among majors and provide collective support for the students' research and writing. In this course, student research will be guided through individual meetings with the instructor as well as in-class writing exercises and peer review. Students will develop research and writing skills, including library research, bibliographies, drafts, art of argument, and rewriting. The course will be designed in a way that allows students to conduct research that is of interest to them, regardless of what that field of interest is.

Full details for JWST 4769 - Research in Jewish Studies

The first half of a two-semester sequence for Jewish Studies majors who wish to conduct research for an honors thesis. In this class, student research will be guided through individual meetings with the instructor as well as in-class writing exercises and peer review, and students will develop research and writing skills, including library research, bibliographies, drafts, art of argument, and rewriting. The course will be designed in a way that allows students to conduct research that is of interest to them, regardless of what that field of interest is. In the first semester of this sequence, weekly readings of the course are designed to expose students to a variety of scholarly approaches in the field of Jewish Studies. In the second semester, students will create a detailed bibliography that is aimed at more specific expertise in the subject matter at hand. The second semester will conclude with a lengthier research paper.

Full details for JWST 4998 - Honors Research I

Topic: Writing Through the Forest in Search of Trees. Hello, Humanities Student! Are you a plotter or a pantser? Not sure? Come and join us to find out, and to gain valuable insight into what kind of a writer you are, and how to manage that writer most effectively and productively. This theme-centered methods seminar, through a communal focus on trees, woods, glens, and copses in the pre-modern world, will hone in on the most indispensable tool in the humanist's belt: writing. From the generation of ideas, to their organization into an outline (or a blueprint, or whatever euphemism we, as a group or as individuals, decide to apply to the initial, tangled pile of yarn) to the first draft. Followed by frank and constructive criticism of the initial draft as a group and in pairs, and then on to the part that all students-really, all humanists?okay, all writers-find to be the greatest struggle: Your paper has some good ideas, but it really needs a rewrite. Now what do you do? As we write, and rewrite, we will also read widely. In addition to primary sources, scholarly articles and essays, we will include criticism, personal essay, theory, excerpts from fiction, and more, in an effort to open students' writing up to a myriad of possibilities for persuasive and compelling written communication.

Full details for JWST 6310 - Methods in Medieval

This course explores the interactions between Jews, Christians, and other religious groups in late antiquity, especially in Sasanian Persia circa the first through seventh century C.E. Students pay particular attention to the portrayals of Christians in Jewish rabbinic literature, including Midrash and Talmud, but also draw from early Christian, Zoroastrian, Manichaean, and other sources. There will be an emphasis on the reading of primary texts in translation in their appropriate historical contexts, and in comparison with one another. Students engage such questions as: How did Jews define themselves in relation to Christians, and vice versa? In what ways did Jews and Christians part ways with one another, as scholars often maintain, and what were the factors at play in their separation? And, lastly, what role did other religious and political groups, such as Gnostics, Zoroastrians, Romans, Mandaeans, Manichaeans, and early Muslims play in these developments?

Full details for JWST 6888 - Jews, Christians, and Others in Late Antiquity