Current Courses Fall 2009

AAL – AFRICAN AND ASIAN LANGUAGES

Hebrew Language

AAL 101-3-20 Hebrew 1 **

Edna Grad, sec. 20 MWF 9:00-9:50 and TTH 10:10:50 sec. 21 MTWTHF 10:00-10:50

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 102-3-20 Hebrew 2 **

Edna Grad, MTWF 11:00-11:50

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 203-1 20 Hebrew 3

Edna Grad, TTh 12:30 - 1:50

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.

**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.

COMPARATIVE LITERARY STUDIES (Back to Top)

279 Modern Jewish Literature, an Introduction

Marcia Gealy, MWF 10:00 -10:50 a.m.

This course studies 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.

GENDER STUDIES

382: Gender, Race, and the Holocaust

Phyllis Lassner, MWF 11:00 -11:50 AM

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 Germany's 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)

111-1-20 First Year Yiddish

Anita Turtletaub, TTh 3:30 – 5:00

This is the first quarter of the three-quarter Elementary Yiddish sequence: an introduction to Yiddish language and culture. Comprehension, speaking, reading and writing will be stressed to insure that students acquire a basic command of Yiddish. The course will be introduced by placing the Yiddish language in its cultural and historical context. Learning will be facilitated by the addition of songs and proverbs to the curriculum.

246 The Shtetl in Fiction and Folklore

Marcus Moseley, TTH 11:00 – 12:20

In collective memory the shtetl (small Jewish town) has become enshrined as the symbolic space par excellence of close-knit, Jewish community in Eastern Europe; it is against the backdrop of this idealized shtetl that the international blockbuster Fiddler on the Roof is enacted. The shtetl is the central locus and focus of Modern Yiddish Literature; Fiddler on the Roof itself was based on a Sholem Aleichem story. In this seminar we shall explore the spectrum of representations of the shtetl in Yiddish literature from the nineteenth century to the post-Holocaust period. We shall also focus on artistic and photographic depictions of the shtetl. The seminar will include a screening of Fiddler on the Roof followed by a discussion of this film based upon a comparison with the text upon which it is based, Tevye the Milkman.

HISTORY (Back to Top)

203-2 European Jewish History, 1789-1948

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, TTh 9:30-10:50

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.

300-33 Historical Background to the Establishment of Israel, 1920s to 1940s

Elie Rekhess, TTh 9:30-10:50

The course examines the historical background to the birth of the State of Israel. The first part of the course traces the events which led to the rise of Zionism, the Jewish national movement. It discusses the main tenets of Zionist thought and its practical manifestations: immigration to Palestine and development of a Jewish settlement (Yishuv) there.

The second part examines Palestine under British Mandate and the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine. It surveys the Jewish-Arab military confrontation in the 1920’s and 1940’s as well as the question of to what extent did the armed conflict contribute to the evolution of Palestinian and Jewish national movements. Special emphasis is placed on the impact of the Holocaust and the rapidly evolving events of 1947-1948.

392-20 Arab Minority in a Jewish State

Elie Rekhess, Th 1:00-3:50

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 Israel’s population. It has undergone intensive processes of change, generally referred to as Israelization, Palestinization and Islamization.
This 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).

392-0-34: Topics in History : Kabbalah & Jewish Mysticism
Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, TTh 2:00 - 3:20

Late Medieval and Early Modern Jews sought new ways to explain specific historical circumstances shaping their millennium-long existence in the galut, the exile from the Holy Land. Their intellectual quest produced a wide array of texts and practices that came to be known as Kabbalah. Kabbalah emerged as a complex phenomenon encompassing theology, philosophy, cosmogony, insights into the secret meanings of the classical Jewish texts, explanation of the esoteric meaning of Jewish rites and liturgy, and even medical and psychological advice. Unlike representatives of other mystical traditions, Jewish kabbalists placed Hebrew letters—as symbols and signs—into the center of their doctrine. Yet like any other mystical system, Kabbalah focused on practices derived from the texts. This advanced historical seminar focuses on a tension between Kabbalistic texts and Jewish mystical practices. It illuminates various historical contexts from which various forms of Kabbalah emerged, underscores the historicity of its texts and practices, and introduces students to such groups of Kabbalists as the circles of Moshe de Leon in Castile, of Yohanan Allemano in Italy, of Isaac Luria in Safed, and of Maggid of Mezerich in Eastern Poland. Explore how mystical endeavors helped Late Medieval and Early Modern Jews revisit their traditional texts and redefine their practices.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

21 Freshman Seminar The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Wendy Pearlman, MW 4:00 – 5:20

This course explores the history and politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through novels, memoirs, oral histories, and other accounts of the human dimensions of the conflict. Through personal stories and other materials to establish historical context, we will study competing views of the major issues that have defined the conflict’s development over time, namely its social, ideological, and diplomatic origins; the war that followed the end of the British Mandate in Palestine; the evolution of the Israeli and Palestinian national projects; the Oslo peace process; and the first and second Palestinian Intifadas.

RELIGION (Back to Top)

220 Hebrew Bible

Barry Wimpfheimer, MW 9:30-10:50

There is no understating the significance of the Hebrew Bible in Western Culture. The Bible is a text that has been repeatedly turned to for spiritual guidance, for explanations of mankind's origins and as the basis of both classical art and contemporary cinema. English idiom is peppered with phrases that originate in the Hebrew Bible and many a modern political clash can be understood as a conflict over what the Bible's messages and their implications. This course introduces students to the Hebrew Bible by reading sections of most of the Bible's books. But reading is itself a complicated enterprise.

The Bible has been put to many different uses; even within the world of academic scholarship, the Bible is sometimes a source of history, sometimes a religious manual, sometimes a primitive legal code and sometimes a work of classical literature. This course will introduce students to the various challenges that present themselves within the study of the Hebrew Bible and the varied approaches scholars take when reading the Hebrew Bible. This course is a critical introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Because the Hebrew Bible is a text important to various religious practices, it is important to emphasize that the course does not expect students to have a particular religious perspective on the Hebrew Bible. Students who have such a perspective are encouraged to bring their own experiences into the classroom while respecting the opinions (and individuals) that may challenge those views.

SPANISH

232 Discovering Jewish Latin America
Lucille Kerr, TTH 12:30 – 1:50

Discovering Jewish Latin America is an introduction to the study of Latin American Jewish literature and culture. Focusing primarily on literary materials, we will study representative works from the Jewish tradition in Latin America and consider topics such as identity and difference, memory and history, immigration and assimilation, nationality and ethnicity. Our principal readings will focus on three periods and regions, as we take up works by Alberto Gerchunoff (Argentina), Moacyr Scliar (Brazil), and Ruth Behar (Cuba/U.S.). Gerchunoff's foundational work The Jewish Gauchos (1910) is a collection of stories about life in Argentina's Jewish agricultural colonies at the beginning of
the 20th century. Scliar's novel The Centaur in the Garden (1980) narrates the life of Guedali Tartakovsky, a Jewish Brazilian centaur and son of Russian immigrants, spanning the1930s to the 1970s. Behar's documentary narrative titled An Island Called Home (2007) presents a verbal and visual itinerary of the author’s search--as both
a Jewish Cuban and a cultural anthropologist--for Jews now living in Cuba. We will also read selected stories and excerpts from novels by Latin American Jewish women writers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. [NOTE: Tentative plan for visit to NU by Ruth Behar--author of An Island Called Home and director of the
documentary Adio Kerida--to participate in our class in late November