All Courses

AAL - AFRICAN AND ASIAN LANGUAGES

Hebrew Language

AAL 101 Hebrew 1 **
This is a course in elementary modern Hebrew. The course is designed to develop all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and an explicit knowledge of Hebrew grammar. Class work centers on learning new vocabulary and grammatical structures. These are introduced and exercised orally in anticipation of dealing with written dialogues and essays. Drills in the texts and on audio files expand and reinforce the new material. Independent lab work is part of the coursework.

AAL 102 Hebrew 2 **
This is an intermediate level course in Hebrew. The purpose of the course is to enlarge the student's vocabulary and to reinforce and expand his/her knowledge of Hebrew grammar in order to improve conversational and writing skills as well as the ability to handle literary texts (from Biblical to modern). Northwestern students should have completed and received credit for 101-1,2,3; with a C+ minimum grade. New students must have permission of the instructor.

AAL 203 Hebrew 3
This is an advanced level course in Hebrew. Literary works from Old Testament to contemporary Hebrew prose and poetry will be read, discussed and analyzed orally and in writing. Northwestern students should have completed and received credit for Hebrew 102-3. New students must have permission of the instructor. **Language courses (Yiddish and Hebrew) do not count directly for the minor. However, students who complete two years of Hebrew need to take only five courses for the minor rather than the normal seven courses: see the "Requirements for the Minor" section of the web page.

AAL 355-1-20 Hebrew Literature
This is a course in modern Hebrew Literature. 20th century original texts are read and discussed in Hebrew. Papers will be presented in Hebrew.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE (back to top)

Comp Lit 210 The Bible as Literature
This course is intended to familiarize literary students with the most influential text in Western culture. No previous acquaintance with the Bible is presupposed. We will consider such questions as the variety of literary genres and strategies in the Bible; the historical situation of its writers; the representation of God as a literary character; recurrent images and themes; the Bible as a national epic; the New Testament as a radical reinterpretation of the "Old Testament" (otherwise known as the Hebrew Bible); and the overall narrative as a plot with beginning, middle, and end. Since time will not permit a complete reading of the Bible, we will concentrate on those books that display the greatest literary interest and/or influence, including Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Ruth, selected Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Job, the Song of Solomon, and Isaiah; the Gospels according to Matthew and John, and the Book of Revelation. We will look more briefly at issues of translation; at traditional strategies of interpretation (such as midrash, typology, and harmonization); and at the historical processes involved in constructing the Biblical canon.

Comp Lit 278: Modern Hebrew Literature in Translation: Pre-1939
This course traces the emergence of a Modern Hebrew literature in Europe. Tracing this literature to its origins, we consider the writings of the Hasidic leader, Nahman of Bratslav, and the writings of Hebrew Enlightenment figures in late 18th Century Berlin . We then trace the flowering of this literature in 19th and early 20th century Eastern Europe . The course includes analyses of various genres: the essay, poetry, short story, novel and autobiography. No prior knowledge of Jewish history or literature is required. All texts are in English translation.

Comp Lit 278 Hebrew Literature in Translation 2: The Israeli Period
This course provides an overview of Hebrew literature written in Palestine/after 1948 the State of Israel from the period of the Second Aliyah (the second wave of immigration to Israel between 1904 and 1913) to the present day. Issues to be focused upon include: the transition of a literature written by immigrants to one by native-born Israelis; the impact of the Holocaust on Israeli literature; generational tensions and the emergence of modernist and postmodernist trends in Israeli literature; Jewish versus Israeli identity. Authors to be studied include Yosef Hayim Brenner, Shmuel Yosef Agnon, S. Yizhar, Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, Aharon Appelfeld, David Grossman, Shulamith Hareven, Ya'aqov Shabtai and Yoel Hoffman.

Comp Lit 279 Modern Jewish Literature
The purpose of this course is to study selected works of modern Jewish literature in the context of their historical background. We will focus on certain themes and stories in the Bible and in Jewish folklore as well as on particular events and movements in European, American, and Israeli history as a way of better understanding this literature. Though most of this literature dates from the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a study of eighteenth and nineteenth century intellectual and religious currents such as the Enlightenment, Jewish Mysticism, Zionism, and Socialism will help us to understand the literature in its changing historical and social context. Thus while some writers saw modern Jewish literature as a means of educating the masses to modern secular needs, others saw it as a means of reshaping older forms and religious values, while still others saw it as a means of reflecting timeless humanistic concerns. Among the writers we will read are Sholom Aleichem, I.B. Singer, Henry Roth, B. Malamud, Lore Segal, Cynthia Ozick, A.B. Yehoshua, and Amos Oz.

Comp Lit 310 Studies in Literary Genres: Storytelling in Modern Jewish Literature
The achievement of a select group of modern Jewish writers is dependent, in large measure, on the way in which their writing reveals a Jewish past. Their treatment of Jewish tradition and Jewish history are the particulars which, paradoxically, often give their best work its most distinctive claim to universality. This course will focus on modern European and American Jewish writers such as Martin Buber, I. B. Singer, Bernard Malamud, Ida Fink, Cynthia Ozick, and Francine Prose, who have reshaped the oral and Hasidic tradition of storytelling in Judaism to their own individual talents.

Comp Lit 390 Messianism, Mysticism and Magic in Modern Jewish Literature
The aim of the present course is to trace the transmigrations of Jewish mystical and messianic motifs within the modern literary context. Literature by Jews in non-Jewish languages and in Hebrew and Yiddish will be considered. Authors to be studied include Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Sh. Ansky, Jacob Wasserman, Walter Benjamin. All texts will be in English translation.

ENGLISH (back to top)

English 205 Writing About Children and the Holocaust
This Intermediate Composition course, "Writing About Children and the Holocaust," focuses on students' responses to three types of children's Holocaust representation: the writing and drawings of children in the Holocaust; novels written for young readers about children and the Holocaust; and writing and drawings by survivors about their childhood experiences in the Holocaust. Students will choose their own paper topics based on the readings.

English 368 Studies in 20th Century Literature : Representing the Holocaust
The Holocaust--the systematic destruction of the Jews of Europe by the Nazi German state-is one of the defining historical events of the twentieth century, one whose consequences we are still absorbing. The Holocaust has also produced in its wake a rich and powerful body of literature, from the diaries and memoirs written by victims to the contemporary novels and films by artists of the second and third generations. In this class we will study a range of literary and cultural representations of the Holocaust, some familiar, such as Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank, and some whom you may be encountering for the first time, such as German-Jewish poet Paul Celan and the Israeli novelist David Grossman. Such works, aside from their inherent narrative and aesthetic interest, generate a host of challenging questions concerning art and ethics that we will attempt to address in this class, among them: What does it mean to depict an event so extreme as to be frequently labeled "unrepresentable"? What aesthetic options are available to a writer who ventures into this territory? Can art produce anything redeeming when the subject is the Holocaust? Is historical fact at risk when the Holocaust is fictionalized? Is it appropriate or legitimate for people other than actual survivors to write about the Holocaust? And what roles and responsibilities do readers and audiences take on when responding to literature of the Holocaust? The readings for this class will be demanding and at times emotionally difficult, but they will also push you to think and write at your highest caliber.

English 378-21 Studies in American Literature: Jewish American Literature
At the heart of this course is the ambiguity implicit in that hyphenated term, "Jewish-American." What does it mean to be Jewish and American? What conflicts arise in the clash of these two identities and cultures? Through the work of various twentieth-century authors, we'll explore the contours and complexities of this ambiguity. Among the questions we'll be addressing are the following: How have Jewish-American writers reflected and responded to the shifting values and landscapes of modern and postmodern America? Are the identifiable styles or thematics characteristic of Jewish-American literature? What historical and social events have shaped the course of this literature? How have contemporary debates about gender, sexuality, psychoanalysis, Zionism, and ethnicity influenced Jewish-American authors? Our class sessions will focus predominantly on close readings or our texts, with active discussions propelled by instructor-and student-generated questions. But we'll also have occasion to discuss broader social and historical contexts as well as, at the margins, the place of Jewish-American literature and identity in light of the current debates over multiculturalism and identity politics. The course will be grouped along certain vital thematic categories, including: the immigrant experience; suburbia, ethnicity, and assimilation; religious practice and belief; the Holocaust; problematics of post-Zionist, post-Holocaust Jewish identity. In the widest sense, we'll be examining how writers have imagined and understood Jewishness in a variety of American contexts.

GENDER STUDIES (back to top)

390 Gender, Race and the Holocaust
This course will introduce literature and film that represent responses to the experiences of men and women who were victims, survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders of the Holocaust. Readings, films, and discussion will be historically contextualized to chart the Holocaust as it originated in racial and gender theories that underwrote the mythic construction of a master race, prescriptions for realizing its ideals of womanhood and manhood, and the destruction of those deemed subhuman. Discussion and written responses will explore the complications of Nazi scientific racism, its cult and crisis of masculinity, and paradoxical idealization of women and misogyny. We will also study how literature and films depict these complications in the policies and practices of Nazi Germanys Third Reich and in the suffering and mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and others. Finally, we will examine the policies and practices of Nazism as challenges to all other categories and theories of race and gender even today.

GERMAN (back to top)

German 113 Intensive Elementary Yiddish**
The objective of Yiddish 113-1 is to develop basic comprehension and reading skills as well as to introduce the essentials of Yiddish grammar. The course introduces the cultural and historical context for the Yiddish language through the presentation of Yiddish film, music (Klezmer), folk songs and proverbs. Yiddish conversation skills will be developed through role plays and work in language lab.

German 234 Jews & Germans: An Intercultural History
Jews have been in German-speaking lands for millenia: not only have they -- always a small minority -- exercised a profound influence on cultural and intellectual development in these lands but, in reverse, the world of non-Jewish Germans has had a strong and lasting effect on Jewish culture and thought. Thus, to cite only three examples, Moses Mendelssohn decisively altered the wide-spread debate about the nature of Aufklärung (Enlightenment); intensely argued controversies among 19th-century German philosophers and theologians concerning the proper practice of religion helped spawn the movement for Reform Jewry; and the concurrent rise of German nationalism and racial anti-Semitism set the stage for the development of modern Zionism. This class brings together three closely related topics: the history of Jews in German-speaking lands from the early modern period until the beginning of the twentieth century, with a particular concentration on the 19th century; the idea of "emancipation" as it developed during the debate concerning the restricted status of the Jews; and the idea of culture as the realm of "humanity" divested of particular ethnic, national, racial, and religious traits. The class seeks to answer the questions: What is culture (as opposed to cult, religion, or ethnic community)? And under what conditions does the demand to transcend one's own particularities by engaging in a potentially universal culture ultimately arise?

German 335 An Introduction to Yiddish Literature in English Translation
This is an extensive survey course tracing the history of Yiddish Literature from the seventeenth to the late twentieth century. Special attention will be paid to the three Yiddish "classic" writers: Sh.Y. Abramovish (Mendele the Bookseller), Y.L. Peretz, and Sholem Aleichem. Through the prism of this literature, this course provides an insight into Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

HISTORY (back to top)

History 101 Freshman Seminar : The Rise Of The Nazis, 1928-34
This course allows students to explore, compare, and weigh the competing explanations historians have developed for the rise of Hitler's movement to dictatorial power in Germany.

History 101 Freshman Seminar : Origins Of Zionism
Why the Land of Israel and not Uganda? Why Hebrew and not German? And what does the "national home" for the Jewish people imply? Focusing on Europe between the 1880s and the 1910s, this course traces the rise of the Jewish national movement, discusses the forging of new Jewish identities, and analyzes the causes of modern Middle East conflicts. The course contextualizes Zionism against the backdrop of rising European nationalisms, the modernization of the European Jewish communities, new trends in Judaism, Nietzsche-esque turn-of-the-century cultural myths, late 19th century French, German and Russian anti-Semitism, and the demise of the multi-ethnic empires. Students will consider the contribution to Zionist movement of such figures as Herzl, Ahad ha-Am, Kook, and Jabotinsky. The diversity of trends within Zionism will be in the focus of the class discussion. Explore how diversified groups of national-minded individuals morphed into an ambitious and contradictory modern political movement.

History 101 Freshman Seminar: The Images of the Jew in Modern Literature
Modernity has radically changed the way the Jew is portrayed in western literature. A peripheral and satirical image in 18th and 19th century literatures representing a despised and alienated minority, the Jew has become a quintessential human being in modern literature. Jewish images and metaphors became indispensable in the discussion of the Irish independence, the Russian revolution, the French resistance movement, and the American experience. This course will explore how non-Jewish as well as Jewish writers contributed to the reevaluation of the role of a Jew and Jewish civilization in modern society incorporating them into western literary canon. The students will discuss chapters from the novels and short stories that will open up issues related to the history of Jewish people and religion, Judeo-Christian dialog, and tradition vis-à-vis modernity. The course will contribute to the understanding of modern literary response to the 20th century historical upheavals.

History 203 Pre-Modern and Early Modern Jewish History (1492-1789)
In 1492, the Spanish Catholic Kings issued a decree that banished Jews from the Iberian Peninsula allowing to stay those who convert. In 1789-1791, the French Revolutionary Parliament accepted Jews as legal citizens ushering in the era of Jewish emancipation. This course explores three centuries of radical changes that triggered the rise of more tolerant political and religious treatment of and attitude toward Jews. We will concentrate on the following major issues: early modern era of mercantilism that reshaped the Jewish community economically and culturally; the legalization of the process of readmission of Jews to urban centers from which they were expelled in medieval times; the spread of Jewish mysticism and the rise of Jewish religious revivalist movements; the impact of French Enlightenment on the rise of modern Jewish thought; the formation of Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish identity; and the revolutionary upheavals in Netherlands, Britain, and France that triggered the process of emancipation that bolstered Jewish integration into the fabric of European society.

History 203 Modern Jewish History 1748-1948
Modernity has dramatically changed the profile of western civilization and had a major impact on European Jewry. The course will take students from French Revolution that started integrating the Jews into the fabric of European society through the establishment of the State of Israel. It will highlight the plurality of models of Jewish integration and acculturation, the formation of new Jewish identities, the split of the traditional community under the impact of Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), the rise of Liberal and Orthodox trends within Judaism, and the spread of Jewish political movements such as socialism and nationalism. Based on a plethora of English-language documents, the course will introduce students to those problems of interaction between the general society and the Jewish minority that pointed toward the twentieth century transformation of modernity. In sum, the course will explore the fascinating response of Jews to modernity on political, societal, theological, and cultural levels.

History 349 History of the Holocaust
This course is an intensive examination of the origins, course, and aftermath of the Nazi onslaught against the Jews of Europe from 1933 to 1945. Following a survey of the history of anti-Semitism in its various forms, the course focuses on German decisions and policies, but also considers the roles of other European nationalities and of American policy-makers in shaping events.

History 374 Historical Background of Jewish-Muslim Relations
This course deals with the "deep structures" that affect the current course of Jewish-Muslim/Arab relations. Themes discussed include: the formation of nation-hood and national identities in the Islamic Near East; Jewish self-identity in ancient, medieval and modern times; Muslim attitudes toward the Jews and Judaism; Palestine and the land of Israel contesting sacred space; linkage of the above to the contemporary situation. The course pack provides a broad background to deal with thematic presentation of the lectures.

History 391 Eastern European Jewish Experience from the 10-19th Centuries
The myth of the Polish-Russian Jewish shtetl is perhaps among the most influential myths central to the sensibilities of modern American Jews. This myth brings to mind Fiddler on the Roof and Sholem Aleichem, Yiddish Language and Hasidism, Russian tsars, pogroms, early Zionism, and emigration. Yet East European experience, put in a historical context challenges both our modern sensibility and the myths embedded in it. The tension between the memories of our past and its history is the focus of this course. Using this tension as an intellectual tool, we will explore how East European Jews perceived historical upheavals and how they shaped modern Jewish identities that guide Jewish mentality to date. We will discuss what helped Russian Jews create masterpieces of folklore, an inexhaustible source of modern Jewish literature, cinema, and theater. We will trace the itinerary of East European Jews from the legendary times of the Khazarian Kingdom to the early twentieth century. This course has a lecture format and will be of great benefit for those interested in intellectual challenges.

History 391 The Nascent State of Israel: Identity, Nation-Building, and Ethnicity
The first part of the course discusses the question of National Identity. It is being explored through an analysis of the proclamation of Independence, a discussion of the debate between different schools of the historians regarding narratives pertaining to the establishment of the State of Israel ("Post Zionists"; "New Historians"); and an overview of the inherent tension between the Jewish-religious outlook and the democratic liberal values, as it emerged in the nascent State of Israel. The course then proceeds to examine in its second part the Nation-building Process: the transformation from "Yishuv" to sovereignty, the formation of state institutions (executive, judiciary, legislative - Knesset), the Electoral system (parties, ideologies, voting, elections). The third part of the course explores Israel's Multi-Cleavage Society. It deals with the ingathering of the Exiles (The Law of Return, the waves of "Aliya", and the complexity of absorption), and the three major ethno-cultural cleavages: Mizrahim-Ashkenazim (dominance of Ashkenazi Jews, Impact of Israel's absorption policy; the resurgence of Sepharadi heritage), Religious-Secular (the role of religion, the religious sects; the religious-secular struggle; religious coercion) and Arab-Jewish (divided loyalties between Israel and the Arab world; Israel's policy toward the Arab minority; Israelization vs. Arab nationalism).

History 391 Modern Jewish History
Modernity has dramatically changed the profile of western civilization and had a major impact on European Jewry. The course will take students from French Revolution that started integrating the Jews into the fabric of European society through the establishment of the State of Israel. It will highlight the plurality of models of Jewish integration and acculturation, the formation of new Jewish identities, the split of the traditional community under the impact of Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), the rise of Liberal and Orthodox trends within Judaism, and the spread of Jewish political movements such as socialism and nationalism. Based on a plethora of English-language documents, the course will introduce students to those problems of interaction between the general society and the Jewish minority that pointed toward the twentieth century crisis of modernity. In sum, the course will explore the fascinating response of Jews to modernity on political, societal, theological, and cultural levels.

History 391 Muslims, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire
This course examines the history of inter-confessional relations in the Ottoman Empire, from the 14th century until the emergence of modern Turkey in the 1920s. It critically considers the relevance of the terms such as 'tolerance' and 'intolerance,' 'co-existence,' 'communal autonomy' etc. in the context of Muslim and non-Muslim relations in the Ottoman Empire. The course offers a historical overview of the changes in dynamics of power between the Christian West and Muslim East and examines how these changes affected the relations within the Empire, both in the Balkans and in the Middle East. It also explores the differences in the legal traditions of the three monotheistic religions vis-à-vis the religious "other" and examines how these intersected in the Ottoman context. Special attention will be devoted to the issues of religious conversion, intermarriage and slavery.

History 391 Jews in the USSR, 1917-1991
The 1917 February revolution emancipated Jews of the Russian Empire; in 1991, the collapse of communism triggered mass emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union. This course is based on power-point presentations illuminating the encounter of Jews as a national minority with the communist state. It helps the participants analyze Jewish responses to communism using archival photos and Soviet propaganda posters, Jewish film, music and art, Yiddish literature and folklore, secret KGB and the USSR communist party documents. The course seeks to answer: Who were Jews living in the USSR between 1917 and 1991? Why were they so remarkably visible among the ruling and elite under Stalin and why did Stalin make them targets of his xenophobic campaign? Why did the communist regime suppress the memorization of the Holocaust in the USSR? Why teaching Hebrew was legally persecuted in the USSR while speaking Yiddish was endorsed? Ultimately, what made Russians call the Soviet citizens of Jewish origin "Jews" and what makes Americans call former Soviet Jews "Russians"? The course integrates the Soviet Jews into the transformation of the Soviet empire and questions the role of Jews in this process. Explore the political, social, religious, cultural, literary, and artistic aspects of the interaction of the East European Jews with communism.

History 392-0-23 Arabs in a Jewish State: the Arab Minority in Israel- Between Integration and Alienation
The 1948 war created a unique situation: A Palestinian-Arab minority amidst the Jewish state of Israel. Thus, Israel was established as a Jewish state but not exclusively so. The Palestinian Arabs who became Israeli citizens remained nationally and religiously bound to the outside Arab world. This necessarily resulted in a sharp crisis of loyalties, the Arab community being torn between its Israeli citizenship and its Arab national identity. Today the Arab minority constitutes nearly 20 percent of Israelis population. It has undergone intensive processes of change, generally referred to as: Israelization, Palestinization and Islamization. The seminar will focus on minority-majority relations in Israel, with special emphasis on three areas: first, the effect of modernization on the more traditional Arab society (demographics, economy, law, education, status of women); second, the dilemma of national identity (the interrelation between the Israeli, Arab, Palestinian and Muslim/Christian components, the impact of the PLO and Hamas), political participation (Knesset) and the struggle of the Arab minority for equality, and third, the developments following the Oslo Accords, the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and the Intifada (the October 2000 Uprising; the discourse over the "Jewish and Democratic" nature of Israel; the search for alternative models "State of its Citizens", separatism, autonomy).

History 392 Religious Conversion in Early Modern Mediterranean World
This course will set up a comparative framework for the study of religious conversion in three major monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism), in the context of the early modern Mediterranean world. It will explore specific historical processes and contexts (Spain, Italy, France, North Africa and the Ottoman Empire, etc.) where different religious traditions came into contact, as well as the ways they informed each others conceptualization of religious conversion. The course will also consider different disciplinary approaches to the concept of conversion (psychology, sociology, anthropology, religious studies, etc.) and examine related phenomena such as religious syncretism, eschatological trends, apostasy, crypto-conversion, neo-martyrdom, etc.

History 392/395 The Six-Day War (1967): Its Influence On Arab-Israel Relations
The Six-Day War, or June War as it is known among the Arabs, might be regarded as a major watershed in Arab-Israel relations. The decisive Israeli military victory caused major changes in Arab society: The growth of the PLO; the strengthening of Muslim revivalism, and relative to that, a deep self questioning of traditional values. In Israel, it created an end to feelings of total isolation; a relaxed sense of the future owing to newly acquired strategic depth; the opportunity to settle the traditional heartland of biblical Israel; and a troublesome and tragic occupation of Arab territory. These developments gave rise eventually to the Yom Kippur War (1973), or Operation Badr, which, in turn, set loose forces leading to the peace process currently under way. This seminar will trace the options available to the principal players and how and why they chose as they did. No pre-requisites for the 392 level. For the 395 level: Previous course in Middle East History, Jewish Studies major, or permission of instructor.

History 392/395 The Making of the Shetl: Cultural History of the Jewish Town in Poland
A traditional 17 the early 20th century East European Jewish habitat, the shtetl transformed from a flourishing private Polish town into a moribund Jewish townlet. In early modern and modern time most East European Jews lived in a shtetl, changed a shtetl and changed with it. The shtetl underwent a cultural transformation through the spread of popular Kabbalah, the schism between the pious Hasidim and their opponents Mitnagdim, the rise of the Maskilimthe enlightened Jews, the collapse of Polish ownership and the emerging Russian administration, the modernization of East Europe and the late 19th Century crisis of the shtetl economy. While this senior seminar touches upon most important episodes of modern Jewish grand historical narrative, it considerably expands and deepens the survey course in East European Jewish Experience, 10th century-1914. This seminar seeks to reconstruct economic, social, religious, cultural, and grassroots realities of the shtetl on the basis of the translated Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, and Russian sources, which the participants will use to hone their analytical skills and improve their ability to contextualize.

History 392/395 Imagining the Jew: Western Literary Encounters with Jewish History
Modernity has radically changed the way Judaism and the Jew are portrayed in western literature. A peripheral and satirical image in 18th and 19th century literatures representing a despised and alienated minority, the Jew has become a quintessential human being in modern literature. Images and metaphors stemming from Judaic liturgy, philosophy, and religion became indispensable in the discussion of the Irish independence, the Russian revolution, the French resistance movement, and the American experience. This course will explore how non-Jewish as well as Jewish writers contributed to the reevaluation of the role of a Jew and Jewish civilization in modern society incorporating them into western literary canon. The students will discuss chapters from the novels and short stories that will open up issues related to the history of Jewish people and religion, Judeo-Christian dialog, and tradition vis-à-vis modernity. The course will contribute to the understanding of modern literary response to the 20th century historical upheavals.

History 392/395 African Americans and Jews in the 20th Century
Students will examine the literature on Black and Jewish relations within U.S. twentieth century history. General readings will serve as a background on the separate historical experiences of Blacks and Jews. Other assigned materials will compare the relations between the two groups. Participants in the course will be encouraged to identify some of the myths perpetuated in these readings, specifically the dominant narrative of a "Golden Age" period of interaction that disintegrated into a mutual animus. Students will separate particular groups of Blacks and Jews within American society rather than considering them as monoliths. This task will involve focusing on Jewish and Black relations in different historical, regional, cultural, and political contexts. These contexts will include: elite interaction in northern urban centers from the 1910s to the 1930s; working-class exchanges inside and outside of the labor movement of the 1930s; southern relations before and during the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s; and debates between Blacks and Jews in New York City in the late 1960s. The course will balance secondary source materials with primary source documents. By considering these specific events in American history that involved Blacks and Jews, an over-arching dialogue in the course will consider constructions of race, religion, and ethnicity. Students taking this course will gain a greater sense of the histories of each of these groups as well as possibilities and limitations of comparative history.

History 395 Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
This course offers students who have taken either History 344-2 or 349-0 the opportunity to do in-depth research on an aspect of Nazi or Holocaust history of special interest to them. The heart of the course is therefore the conception and execution of a 25-30-page paper on a significant specific or thematic issue. The class will spend the first few meetings together, reviewing the broad outlines of the relevant historiographies and discussing topics and research agendas, then break up with the professor into smaller clusters of interests during the following weeks, while students are actually conducting their research. During the final two weeks, students will present their findings to each other.

History 395 Between History and Memory: Jewish Autobiography as a Historical Source
Autobiography, and Jewish autobiography in particular, presents a fascinating, in most cases unparalleled opportunity to look at history and historical realities through the lens of a private individual. Yet the purpose of the autobiography is to tell the story, not history. The autobiography is a quintessential narrative that borders on the literary. If so, is it possible to use autobiography in historical research? This course opens up a variety of ways to neutralize the literary ingredient in autobiography to make it a usable historical source. This course takes the participants through five hundred years of Jewish personal narratives including the autobiographies of rabbis and mystics, schismatics and philosophers, merchants and writers, dissidents and historians, politicians, converts, and even early modern sportsmen.

History 395 Political Islam in the Contemporary Middle East
The first part of the seminar is an introductory section where the basic features of Classical Islam will be examined (tenets, the Prophet, Sunna/Shia). It then surveys the Political Contents of Islam (the Umma, religion and state, the Islamic state). The second part discusses the development of political Islam since the late 19th century through the 1970s. It reviews the Islamic Response to the West (in defense of Islam, apologetics, the Mahdia and Wahhabiyya, Pan-Islam); Reformism and Modernism in Islam in the 20th century (the reaction to Western ideologies, early reformists, the Muslim Brotherhood); and Islam and Nationalism in the Modern Arab Nation-state (Egypt's Nasir, Saudi Arabia). The third part of the seminar deals with Islamic revivalism since the 1970s and with Islamic radical movements. It explores the ideological and political contents of fundamentalist Islam (the desired form of Islamic government, Jihad in modern times, Islam and democracy, Israel and the West). This part focuses on the following case studies: Egypt (Sayyid Qutb, the rise of Islamic militancy), Iran (the Shia in Iran, the Iranian revolution, Khomeini's ideology); The Palestinians (Islam and Palestinian nationalism, Islamic in the Israeli-Arab conflict, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Islam in Israel); Contemporary movements (Hizballah, Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda).

JEWISH STUDIES (back to top)

JS 350 Representing the Holocaust in Literature and Film
This course explores the Holocaust as it is expressed in various genres: fiction, poetry, and testimony; fictional, autobiographical, and documentary film; and presentation by a Holocaust survivor. Working as a small group, we will examine artistic and ethical questions about representing the reality of the Holocaust and questions about how we make meaning from its horrific events and the roles of memory, language, and history. Because of the painful nature of the material, the course emphasizes small group work. Discussion and writing assignments will encourage students to share their responses so that we begin to understand different portrayals of victimization and survival as well as relationships between ourselves and our readings and films. Course readings and Professor Lassner supply the historical contexts necessary to approach our subject.

POLITICAL SCIENCE (back to top)

Political Science 390-20 Media & the Israeli Palestinian Conflict
The media is widely acknowledged to be an important actor influencing policymaking, yet the extent of its power and responsibility has been widely debated. Within a country the media may be a potential kingmaker, paving the way for leaders it favors and leading to the downfall of others. Internationally, media coverage affects a nation's image and thus strongly influences the nature of a country's relations with other countries. This course will examine the influence of the media in international affairs by focusing on coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Topics covered in this course will include media ethics, the role of journalists and the press and how they affect the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Political Science 395-21 Politics and Society in Israel
While the idea of a "Jewish State" gives the impression of a homogenous society with a unified character, Israel today is characterized by a number of socio-political rifts that have caused tensions between large segments of the population as tradition and history clash with modernity. These conflicts are ideological, historical, ethnic, gender-based and political. The topics we will cover in this class focus on challenges currently facing Israeli society, including Zionism & Post-Zionist, anti-Semitism, ethnic conflicts & the status of women.

RELIGION (back to top)

Religion 220 Introduction to Hebrew Bible
This course covers the writings found in the anthology of ancient Israelite literature known variously as the Hebrew Bible and as the Old Testament. The course introduces modern methods for studying these documents in their ancient contexts. By examining individual texts within the Hebrew Bible from a variety of points of view (e.g., historical, literary, and comparative), we will attempt to answer questions such as, what do these texts mean? How do they express their meanings? How can we, modern readers from a culture and time quite removed from ancient Israel, understand these writings? On a broader level, the course should help us understand why this collection has become part of the sacred scripture of two religions, Judaism and Christianity, and how it became one of the central texts in western culture.

Religion 230 Introduction to Judaism
This course attempts to answer the questions, "What is Judaism?" and "Who is a Jew?" by surveying the broad arc of Jewish history, reviewing the practices and beliefs that have defined and continue to define Judaism as a religion, sampling the vast treasure of Jewish literatures and analyzing the unique social conditions that have made the cultural experience of Jewishness so significant. The class will employ an historical structure to trace the evolutions of Jewish literature, religion and culture through the ages.

Religion 320 Art of Biblical Narrative
The goal of this course is to ask how are stories told in the Hebrew Bible? What are the elements of narrative art in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., characterization, dialogue, point of view), and how do they shape our interpretations? We will place particular emphasis on viewing biblical narratives from various perspectives including: historical, a historical, feminist, structuralist. Other issues covered will include: how should we approach texts that are from a time and place other than our own? To what extent do conventions of reading from our culture help us read these texts, and to what extent do those conventions impede our understanding? Is it correct or meaningful to call these texts "literature" at all? Should our interpretations be based solely on the narratives themselves, or is it legitimate to utilize other evidence as we construct readings of the stories? Further, our investigation of Biblical narratives will provide a window to the religion, spirituality, and world-view of ancient Israel and of the cultures that have claimed the Hebrew Bible as their own.

Religion 321 Prophecy in Ancient Israel
Prophecy in Ancient Israel. An examination of the writings of ancient Israelite prophets through which we will attempt to construct a history of the prophetic movement and to answer the question, "what is a prophet?" Topics may include: the messages of the prophetic books; the historical evolution of prophecy; parallels with ancient Near Eastern prophecy, the role of prophecy in early Judaism and Christianity, major themes of prophetic thought, different types of prophecy, prophecy in the larger context of biblical theology and Jewish and Christian thought.

Religion 329 Topics in Bible: Biblical Text in Hebrew: The Book of Psalms
A close reading of selected texts from the Book of Psalms in Hebrew. The course will focus on training students to read biblical Hebrew poetry with attention to style and linguistic nuance. Other issues addressed will include the use of psalms in ancient Israelite ritual, the cultural settings of the psalms, and their relation to other ancient Near Eastern liturgical traditions. Some attention will also be given to the Dead Sea Scrolls versions of Psalms and to medieval rabbinic commentaries. The biblical text will be read in Hebrew; class discussions will be in English. Prerequisite: at least five quarters of modern Hebrew or equivalent

Religion 329 Topics in Bible: The Book of Samuel
A close reading of selected texts from Samuel in Hebrew. The course will focus on training students to read biblical Hebrew prose narrative with attention to issues of style and linguistic nuance. Some attention will also be given to medieval rabbinic commentaries insofar and to the Dead Sea Scrolls version of Samuel. Other issues addressed will include questions of the historicity of the texts, compositional models, and textual criticism.

Religion 329 Topics in Bible: Modern Debates About the Hebrew Bible
This course addresses questions arising from historical and archaeological studies. It ponders the conclusions derived from the most recent finds in biblical areas, suggesting anachronisms and political motives. It looks at new questions raised by work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the biblical fragments found there. The course then considers the adventures of the Bible in translation. The best-selling book in the world still contains mysteries and wisdoms that people in every part of the globe eagerly pursue. The class will deal with questions of faith (in the story) and rightness (of one tradition over another): all matters suggested and never fully answered in the Bible.

Religion 329 Topics in Bible: History and History Writing in Ancient Israel
The aim of the course is to study history of Israel and Judah as reflected from biblical sources (early and late historical and prophetical writings, etc.), ancient Near Eastern texts and archaeological excavations. We will analysis various biblical texts, Hebrew inscriptions, neo-Assyrian documents, Babylonian Chronicles, and relevant Egyptian materials concerning the history of the Kingdoms. The results of some archeological excavations from different biblical sites, which shed light on the history of the divided Kingdoms, will be integrated

Religion 329 Topics in Bible: King Solomon The Man and Myth: Texts from Samuel, Kings and Chronicles
The goal is to scrutinize the biblical texts concerning King Solomon in the book of Samuel, and in 1 Kings 1-11 compared to those in 2 Chronicles 1-9. We will uncover the literary beauty of the biblical narratives as well as the ideological and theological trends behind of them. We will examine the historical credibility of all in all different images of Solomon that emerge from these books. We will apply variety of interpretive, textual and historical methods, while using a series of commentaries and secondary literature.

Religion 329 Topics in Bible: Jeremiah: Prophet and Revolutionary
Following a detailed introduction to the place of the book in the Hebrew Bible, its historical background, its version in Masoretic and Septuagint Texts, Jeremiah and the Deuteronomistic School, etc., we will study selected important issues/chapters of the book, such as: the Call Narrative, the prophet's attitude towards the Temple and sacrifice; Molech worship and human offerings; Symbolic Acts of the Prophet, True/False Prophets and how to identify them; some biographical stories of Jeremiah and Baruch the Scribe. We will use a variety of Jewish and Christian exegesis as well as a range of modern commentaries and studies, especially in English, but also in German and Modern Hebrew that I will bring to the class.

Religion 329 Topics in Bible: Moses and David
This course explores the Hebrew Bible's two most famous leaders. Students will study their scriptural biographies, while assessing their meanings in light of contemporary scholarship and archaeology. They will acquire the tools to address the origins of the Israelite cult in desert and in kingdom. These perspectives will contribute to an informed ability to appreciate the Bible with 21st century eyes.

Religion 329-0 Topics in the Bible: In the Persian Time
This course describes the historical background to, and re-establishment of the new Jewish life in Judah/Yehud under the Persian rule. The discussion will include: the historical background of the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah and the Babylonian Exile; Cyrus King of Persia and the establishment of the Persian Empire; Cyrus Decree (538 BCE); the exilic returnees and the leadership of Sheshbezzar, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah; the relationship between Yehud-Jerusalem and Samaria-Samaritans ¬ on the one hand, and the Jewish communities in Egypt (Elephantine, etc.), and the flourishing Jewish communities in Babylonia, on the other; Jews in the Persian court and the rise of anti-Jewish feelings. Emphasis will be given also to the spiritual and literary activities in the main Jewish centers in the Land of Israel as well as in the Diaspora.

Religion 330 Varieties of Ancient Judaism
The course will introduce diversity of beliefs and opinions on several key issues in ancient Judaism (e.g., disputes about intermarriages, the location of the Temple; its value and holiness), and variety of Jewish sects (Samaritans, Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, the Qumran community, Jewish-Christians and Rabbinic Jews), as reflected from range of ancient written sources (Hebrew Bible, Pseudepigrapha, Josephus, Dead Sea Scrolls, Samaritan and Rabbinic literature, and archaeological finds). All the sources will be examined in light of their socio-historical contexts, ideological and theological principles, as well as their controversies with each other.

339-0 Topics in Judaism: Good and Evil: Readings in the Ethics of Levinas and Arendt
This interdisciplinary course takes as its subject the problem of how we reflect on the nature of the good and evil. We will discuss two texts from two central moral philosophers in the Jewish post-modern tradition, Emmanuel Levinas and Hannah Arendt. These thinkers are shaped by similar forces: German Philosophy as taught by Martin Heidegger, a narrow rescue from the Holocaust, and participation in the Jewish community. The complexities and puzzles of the question will be explored, along with reflections and considerations of the implications of these works

Religion 351 Muhammad, the Jews, and the Origins of Islam
This course traces the origins of the Islamic community (Ummah) in its Arabian environment; i.e., the tension between a religious community that theoretically transcends the limits of geography, ethnicity, and tribalism and the realities of identity politics. It focuses in detail on the ideological and political conflict between the prophet Muhammad and the Jewish tribes of the region, and also raises questions about the relationship between Jewish and Christian) tradition and the development of Islam in Arabia.

Religion 352 Biblical Themes in Muslim Tradition
The focus of this course is the use of biblical history and personae in post-biblical tradition. Various themes will be traced from their biblical origins through their reshaping in post-biblical times. The purpose of this enterprise is to illustrate how historical consciousness changed in accordance with new realities among Jews seeking to give explanation to the events that make up their past, present and anticipated future. Particular emphasis will be placed on the history of King Solomon's reign, especially the visit of the Queen of Sheba. The discussion will focus on changing political realities in relation to the issues of gender, attitudes towards family, procreation and the defense of Judaism against assimilation to foreign influence.