Intended for beginners. Provides a thorough grounding in reading, writing, grammar, oral comprehension, and speaking. Students who complete the course are able to function in basic situations in a Hebrew-speaking environment.

Full details for JWST 1102 - Elementary Modern Hebrew II

Elementary Yiddish II is the second in a three-class sequence that will enable students to meet their Arts & Sciences language requirement in Yiddish. It provides a further introduction to, and deepening of, reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. In addition to language competence the course will build understanding of Ashkenazi Jewish culture through songs, humor, holiday traditions, literature, and other cultural products.

Full details for JWST 1777 - Elementary Yiddish II

The course is aimed at training students in exact and idiomatic Hebrew, expanding vocabulary and usage of grammatical knowledge, and acquiring facility of expression in both conversation and writing. Uses written and oral exercises built around the texts. Reading and discussion of selections from Hebrew literature and Israeli culture through the use of texts and audiovisual materials.

Full details for JWST 2100 - Intermediate Modern Hebrew

Religion is a term with a rich history but without a precise definition. Everyone can describe a religious idea or a religious experience even though there is no agreement about what it is that makes an idea or an experience religious. How did this state of things come about? What is it that makes religion both one thing and many things? Why do we apply this concept to Christianity, Islam and Judaism and to the deep feelings we associate with secular forms of devotion and enthusiasm - for food, for love, for family, for art, for sport? In this seminar, we will discover that religion is a distinctly modern concept, developed to address the psychological and social needs of Europeans increasingly adrift from the traditional communal practices and moral commitments of their parents and grandparents. Tracing the history of religion - rather than the history of religions - from the age of Immanuel Kant to the age of Emmanuel Levinas, we will examine paradoxical connection between the rise of religion and the decline of faith.

Full details for JWST 2155 - The Invention of Religion

This course provides a literary and historical introduction to the earliest Christian writings, especially those that eventually came to be included in the New Testament. Through the lens of the Gospel narratives and earliest Christian letters, especially those of Paul, we will explore the rich diversity of the early Christian movement from its Jewish roots in first-century Palestine through its development and spread to Asia Minor and beyond. We will give careful consideration to the political, economic, social, cultural, and religious circumstances that gave rise to the Jesus movement, as well as those that facilitated the emergence of various manifestations of Christian belief and practice. The course will address themes like identity and ethnicity, conversion and debate, race and slavery, gender and sexuality, and the connections between politics and religion.

Full details for JWST 2629 - New Testament-Early Christian Literatures

This course is an introduction to Jewish identities, values, and practices from the ancient to modern era. Organized thematically, it examines Judaism as a religious phenomenon, with a particular emphasis on its cultural and textual diversity across three millennia. Themes covered include creation, Sabbath, prayer, Jerusalem, pious customs, magic, reincarnation, revelation, among others. Throughout the semester students perform close readings of a wide selection of Jewish texts from the Bible, Talmud, kabbalah (mysticism), philosophy, liturgy, and modern Jewish thought. In what ways are these various traditions of Judaism interrelated and/or in tension with one another? In the face of the Jewish history's tremendous diversity, what is it that has unified Judaism and the Jewish people over the centuries? By exploring these types of questions, this course examines the appropriateness of defining Judaism as a religion, an ethnicity, a civilization, and/or a culture. Readings include introductory-level textbooks and essays, as well as a range of primary source materials in translation.

Full details for JWST 2644 - Introduction to Judaism

What does it mean to call a film is Jewish? Does it have to represent Jewish life? Does it have to feature characters identifiable as Jews? If artists who identify as Jews-actors, directors, screenwriters, composers-play significant roles in a film's production does that make it Jewish? Our primary point of entry into these questions will be Hollywood, from the industry's early silent films, through the period generally considered classical, down to the present day. We will also study films produced overseas, in countries that may include Israel, Egypt, France, Italy, and Germany. Our discussions will be enriched by contextual material drawn from film studies, cultural studies, Jewish studies, American studies, and other related fields. Students will be expected to view a significant number of films outside of class-an average of one per week-and engage with them through writing and in-class discussion. The directors, screenwriters, composers, and actors whose work we will study may include: Charlie Chaplin, Irving Berlin, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Billy Wilder, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Aviva Kempner, Joan Micklin Silver, the Marx Brothers, and the Coen Brothers.

Full details for JWST 2790 - Jewish Films and Filmmakers: Hollywood and Beyond

Before Jewish politics, Jewish identity and Jewish philosophy, there was Jewish law. No other institution is more important to the history of Judaism and to the Jewish way of life. In this lecture course, we will explore the ways in which legal thought and legal discourse shaped Jewish experience and expression between the biblical age and the computer age. We will discover how the cultural meaning of law changed over time, how legal concepts shaped Jewish belief and Jewish behavior, and how the study of Jewish legal sources contributed to the emergence of modern constitutional thought in the Atlantic world.

Full details for JWST 2853 - The Law in Jewish History

This is the second course in our third-year Modern Hebrew language sequence. Like its predecessor, it focuses on developing speech proficiency, reading and listening comprehension, and writing. It does this through reading of a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts; viewing of filmic works and television series selected for their social, political, and cultural relevance; class discussions; presentations and writing about everyday issues in Israel and abroad.

Full details for JWST 3102 - Advanced Modern Hebrew II

This course develops oral and written communication, as well as reading and listening comprehension, through engagement with Israeli media (newspapers, radio reports, and television and internet news) and literature. Through study of course materials, students will also gain a broader understanding of the State of Israel necessary for advanced Hebrew proficiency.

Full details for JWST 3104 - Advanced Hebrew Through Language, Media and Literature

This course aims to familiarize students with the history of Scandinavia, ca. 800-1100 ad. Although well known as a dramatic chapter in medieval history, this period remains enigmatic and often misunderstood. Our goal will be to set Norse history within its European context, observing similarities with processes elsewhere in the medieval world, the better to perceive what makes the Norse unique. We will examine the social, economic and political activities of the Norsemen in continental Scandinavia, in Western and Eastern Europe, and in the North Atlantic.

Full details for JWST 3200 - The Viking Age

Islamophobia and Judeophobia are ideas and like all ideas they have a history of their own. Although today many might think of Islamophobia or Judeophobia as unchangeable---fear of and hatred for Islam and Muslims or Judaism and Jews---these ideas and the social and political practices informed by them have varied greatly over time and place. They even intersected during the Middle Age and in Ottoman times when "the Jew" was frequently represented as allied with "The Muslim". The first part of this course traces the history, trajectory, and political agency of Judeophobia and Islamophobia in texts and other forms of culture from late antiquity through the present. The second part of the course is devoted to modernity and the present especially in Europe and the United States focusing on representational practices---how Muslims/Islam and Jews/Judaism are portrayed in various discourses including the media, film and on the internet. We will investigate how these figures (the Muslim, the Jew) serve as a prism through which we can understand various social, political and cultural processes and the interests of those who produce and consume them.

Full details for JWST 3523 - Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Racism

Students will practice critical, close reading and examination of historical primary sources that are essential for the study of modern Jewish nationalism and statehood. In our discussions, we will identify influential historical ideas within different genres of texts (personal, journalistic, commercials, political, literary, etc.) and critically combine social history and theory, literary understanding and theory, and intellectual history. Throughout the course, special attention will be given to ideas of class and status and their implications on the formation and change of Jewish and Israeli nationalism over the years. Students will consider key concepts of class theory and engage in comparatively examining their usefulness as tools for their historical understanding of the texts analyzed.

Full details for JWST 3722 - Zionism and other Jewish nationalisms

This course will explore Holocaust survivor testimonies, from the multilayered history of their recording across the globe and their increasing institutionalization after the 1980s to their current uses and future promises, including digital methods. How can we approach, use, and make sense of what amounts to 20 years of uninterrupted listening? This seminar will offer a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach to these largely untapped archives around the world, probing them through the lens of history, film and media studies, trauma studies, cultural studies, and memory studies. Throughout the semester, students will each pick one video testimony to work on individually. Collectively, the course will develop tools to make these video testimonies not only a lasting memorial, but a proper object of study at the global level. Taken together, we will offer a tentative answer to an urgent question: what is the future of Holocaust and atrocity testimony, now that the last generation of survivors is passing away?

Full details for JWST 3825 - The Past and Future of Holocaust Survivor Testimonies

Antisemitism, a deep-seated prejudice against Jews, is seeing a global revival. The most brutal U.S. instance was the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue massacre, where Robert G. Bowers, an active anti-Semitic online poster, took 11 lives. Tried in 2023, he was condemned to death for his crimes. As emphasized by Assistant U.S. Attorney Soo C. Song, Bowers was driven by his belief that Jews are a cancer upon the planet. Bowers' trial was only the most recent in a series of trials and judicial proceedings, both in the U.S. and internationally, that had antisemitism at their core in a myriad of ways. This course examines various manifestations of antisemitism in law and jurisprudence, from 19th century Europe to early 20th century America to Nazi Germany and the Stalinist U.S.S.R. to the present. Among the topics covered are blood libel trials, the Dreyfus affair in France, the Leo Frank trial in Georgia, the defamation case against Henry Ford, the Nazi Nuremberg laws, the annihilation of European Jews as the core of the crimes against humanity charge at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, and contemporary proceedings charging a hostile anti-Semitic environment at certain U.S. colleges and universities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Full details for JWST 4013 - Antisemitism in the Courts and in Jurisprudence

Several Bronze Age kingdoms situated around the Eastern Mediterranean underwent a violent collapse around 1175 BCE. Archaeological and textual evidence suggest that two major socioeconomic processes played a part: the creation of the first known international system, and climate change. In our class we explore how ancient leaders reacted (or not) to these processes and what their reactions teach us about more current events. Charismatic leaders, fascism, colonialism, sexism, racism, capitalism, globalism, climate change, famine, migration, militarism, and collapse—all have correlates or origins in the Bronze Age that we study through a variety of textual sources, including the Amarna Letters, Ramesside papyri and cuneiform documents from Syria and Turkey. We also become familiar with several archaeological sites, including the Uluburun shipwreck and Ugarit, offering unique windows onto the transformative times at the end of the Bronze Age.

Full details for JWST 4644 - Globalism and Collapse in the Late Bronze Age World

For undergraduates who wish to obtain research experience or do extensive reading on a special topic. Students select a topic in consultation with the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the course.

Full details for JWST 4992 - Independent Study - Undergraduate

Several Bronze Age kingdoms situated around the Eastern Mediterranean underwent a violent collapse around 1175 BCE. Archaeological and textual evidence suggest that two major socioeconomic processes played a part: the creation of the first known international system, and climate change. In our class we explore how ancient leaders reacted (or not) to these processes and what their reactions teach us about more current events. Charismatic leaders, fascism, colonialism, sexism, racism, capitalism, globalism, climate change, famine, migration, militarism, and collapse—all have correlates or origins in the Bronze Age that we study through a variety of textual sources, including the Amarna Letters, Ramesside papyri and cuneiform documents from Syria and Turkey. We also become familiar with several archaeological sites, including the Uluburun shipwreck and Ugarit, offering unique windows onto the transformative times at the end of the Bronze Age.

Full details for JWST 6644 - Globalism and Collapse in the Late Bronze Age World