THE PROGRAM IN JEWISH STUDIES

Jewish Studies is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses the texts, history, languages, philosophy, and culture of Jews and Judaism as they have changed over three millennia and throughout the world. The program offers courses in multiple disciplines including but not limited to Religion, Classics, History, Philosophy, Anthropology, Sociology, and Comparative Literature. Across these disciplines, the program examines topics such as religious belief and practice, textual interpretation, the development of Zionism, life in the Diaspora, the historicization and memorialization of the Holocaust, and historical, political and philosophical questions surrounding Jewish identity. Investigating the foundations and development of these various Jewish topics, as well as their interaction with and influence on other traditions, provides an opportunity to explore the continuities and diversity of Jewish life and thought. Students will gain exposure to a common body of knowledge and scholarly approaches through which to engage in their own rich and varied intellectual explorations of Jewish and related topics.

CONCENTRATION IN JEWISH STUDIES

The concentration in Jewish Studies requires five courses with at least 2 different prefixes: 1 gateway course, 2 core courses, 1 elective, and 1 capstone course.

Gateway Courses

  • Jewish Studies 101/Religion 203 Judaism: Innovation and Tradition
  • Jewish Studies/Religion/Comparative Literature 201 The Hebrew Bible

Core Courses

  • Jewish Studies/Religion/Philosophy 204 Endtimes: Redemption in Modern Continental Philosophy (W)
  • Jewish Studies/Classics/Religion 205/Comparative Literature 217 Ancient Wisdom Literature
  • Jewish Studies/Religion/Comparative Literature 206 The Book of Job and Joban Literature
  • Jewish Studies/Religion 207/Comparative Literature 250 From Adam to Noah: Literary Imagination and the Primeval History in Genesis
  • Jewish Studies/Religion/Comparative Literature 209 The Legend of the Wandering Jew
  • Jewish Studies/History 230 Modern European Jewish History 1789-1948
  • Jewish Studies/History 232 Nostalgia in Jewish Thought, Literature, and Art
  • Jewish Studies/Religion 280/Philosophy 282 The Turn to Religion in Post-Modern Thought (W)
  • Jewish Studies/History 338 The History of the Holocaust
  • Jewish Studies/Comparative Literature 352 Writing after the Disaster: The Literature of Exile
  • Jewish Studies/History 482T Memory, History, and the Extermination of the Jews in Europe

Electives

Students may meet the elective requirement with a course partially related to Jewish Studies or another core course. In a core course partially related to Jewish Studies, a student will normally focus at least one of the major writing assignments on a topic relevant to Jewish Studies or approximately one-third of the course will be devoted to Jewish subjects. The list of relevant electives changes regularly, so the course catalog should be checked for details. Listed below are examples of courses partially related to Jewish Studies. Students may meet the elective requirement with a course not listed here, subject to the approval of the Chair of Jewish Studies.

  • Comparative Literature 232 European Modernism
  • German 301T German Studies, 1770-1830
  • German 202 German Politics
  • German 302 German Studies, 1830-1900
  • German 311 Freud and Kafka
  • History 111 Movers and Shakers in the Middle East
  • History 129 Blacks, Jews, and Women in the Age of the French Revolution
  • History 207 Modern Middle East
  • History 225 The Middle Ages
  • History 226 Europe from Reformation to Revolution
  • History 237 Modern France
  • History 239 Modern German History
  • History 311 The United States and the Middle East
  • Religion 270T Father Abraham; The First Patriarch
  • Religion 271 Religion and the Modern Literary Imagination
  • Spanish 271 The Interaction of Jewish, Islamicate, and Christian Cultures in Early Modern Spain

Capstone Course

  • JWST 491 Jewish Studies Seminar [Topic varies annually]