Winter 2010

AAL – AFRICAN AND ASIAN LANGUAGES

Hebrew Language

AAL 101-2-20 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 102-2-20 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)

278 Modern Hebrew Literature in Translation: Dilemmas of Israeli Identity

Marcus Mosely, TTh 2:00 – 3:20

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.

GERMAN (Back to Top)

111-2-20 First Year Yiddish ***

Khane-Faygl Turtletaub, TTh 3:30-5:00

This is the second 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.

112-2 Second Year Yiddish ***
Khane-Faygl Turtletaub, MW 3:30 – 5:00

This is the second quarter of the Intermediate Yiddish sequence: an introduction to Yiddish literature. All four language skills—speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing—are used to interpret Yiddish short stories, newspaper articles, poems, songs, films and proverbs. We will continue to explore topics in Yiddish grammar to facilitate the comprehension of literature. The class is taught completely in Yiddish except when explanations of grammar require the use of English.

234-2 Jews and Germans: An Intercultural History
Peter Fenves, TTh 11:00-12:20

The early years of the twentieth century were a particularly powerful and creative epoch in the long history of German Jewry. It was also, as a very few recognized at the time, the end of this history. This course examines a series of German-Jewish writers and thinkers of the early twentieth century, each of whom, in his or her own way, created new projects, programs, and perspectives from which to view the modern world. We will consider at various turns in the class the extent to which the specific experience of German Jewry, with its extraordinary cultural advancement and its abysmal political impotence, played an important part in the artistic, scholarly, and scientific endeavors under discussion. Beginning with an examination of three new forms of Jewish theology—those of Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber, and Franz Rosenzweig—the class will turn toward two revolutionary scientists: Sigmund Freud, who changed the way we think about the mind, and Albert Einstein, who changed the way we think about matter. The rest of the class will be devoted to three modernist writers: Else Lasker-Schüler, Franz Kafka, and Walter Benjamin. Readings include: Hermann Cohen, Germanness and Jewishness; Martin Buber, On Judaism; Franz Rosenzweig, On Jewish Learning; Else Lasker-Schüler, Hebrew Melodies; Franz Kafka, “Report to an Academy” and “Cares of a Family Man”; Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents; Einstein, selected writings on science and society; Walter Benjamin, “Politico-Theological Fragment” and “Franz Kafka.”

HISTORY (Back to Top)

300 Jews and Muslims in the Islamic Middle Ages
Jacob Lassner, W 4:00 – 6:50

Jewish civilization has been significantly shaped by a fruitful intellectual engagement with Muslims in medieval times. Jews of Western Europe seeking a point of entry into the modern world looked to Jewish life in medieval Islamic lands as an idealized model of how to remain distinctively Jewish and still be in harmony with their highly sophisticated gentile surroundings. In similar fashion, the early development of Islam was great influenced by exposure to Jewish concepts, practices, and a commonly shared monotheist history that drew heavily on tales from the Hebrew Bible and their post-biblical permutations. Early on, Muslims recognized that Islamic tradition is literally sprinkled with references to Jewish cultural memorabilia. One modern scholar of Jewish-Muslim relations astutely characterized these two great civilizations as having lived together in a state of intellectual symbiosis, that is to say two separate and distinct organisms attached to one another for mutual advantage. This class will discuss the cultural connections between Jews and Muslims pointing out the rules by which cultural artifacts were shared and showing how a shared culture served as a point of friction between learned men of both faiths as well as one of mutual admiration.

348 Jews in Eastern Europe, 1250 – 1917
Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, TTh 11:00 - 12:20

Who are Ashkenazic Jews? How did they arrive to East Europe? Why are they considered too traditional by their American brethren and too revolutionary-minded by Poles and Russians? Using the tension between history and memory as an intellectual tool, this course explores how East European Jews perceived historical upheavals such as the 1648 Cossack revolution and the 1881 pogroms, how they built a robust communal autonomy active over 500 years, and how Polish and Russian social and cultural developments shaped Jewish identities that guide Jewish mentality to date. This course traces the itinerary of East European Jews from the times of the Kievan Rus to the early twentieth century, taking a close look at Jews in Poland and the Russian Empire. It challenges cultural myths such as Tevye the Milkman and integrates Jewish history within a framework of histories of Russia, Lithuania, Belorussia, Austria, Ukraine, and Poland.

392-23 Zionism, From Its Origins to 1917
Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, TTh 2:00 - 3:20

What does the “national home” for the Jewish people, mentioned in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, imply? Why Jewish nationalists decided to choose Palestine for their state? Why did they prefer the elitist Hebrew to their contemporary spoken German, Russian, or Yiddish? How did they plan to deal with the Arab population in the contemporary Palestine? Focusing on Europe between the 1850s and the 1910s, this course traces the rise of the Jewish movement of national revivalism, contextualizes it against the backdrop of the rising European nationalisms, and analyzes the causes of modern Middle Eastern conflicts. The course delves into new trends in Judaism such as Conservative and Reform, turn-of-the-century cultural myths, late 19th-century anti-semitism, and the demise of the multi-ethnic empires. Students will consider the contribution to Zionist movement of such figures as Moses Hess, Heinrich Graetz, Theodor Herzl, Ahad ha-Am, Avraam Kook, and Zeev Jabotinsky. The diversity of Jewish nationalisms—ranging from spiritual and diplomatic to territorial, diasporial, and revisionist—will be in the focus of the class discussion.

392/395 -32 Israeli Military History, 1948-present
Guy Laron, TTh 9:30 – 10:50

The Israeli army is officially named ‘the Israeli Defense Forces. And yet, its whole ethos and, in fact, the very way in which it fights is oriented towards the offensive. Why is that so? Why has this orientation remained constant throughout the years? Can we compare that phenomenon with the way other armies fight? How did the IDF’s offensive doctrine influence the way that Israel responded to national security crises? We will look at these questions through two theories: defensive realism and offensive realism. They will help us analyze several of Israel’s wars and military operations.

392/395-33 The Arab-Jewish Conflict in Palestine, 1881-1948
Guy Laron, TTh 4:00 – 5:20

Usually, the Arab-Jewish conflict is taught from its beginnings at the end of the 19th century to the present thus creating the impression that we are dealing with an endless intractable process. Focusing on the 1881-1948 period will enable us to review the formative period of the conflict when it was still an inter-communal rather than an international conflict. We will also be able to understand how the conflict started, why it persisted despite several attempts to settle it, how various forms of cooperation between Jews and Arabs persisted despite growing tensions, how the Arab-Palestinians responded to the Jewish challenge and why the Palestinians, ultimately, lost the 1948 war. We will also discuss in depth the role that the British Empire played in all of these events: How it was that the British (initially) supported the Zionist movement, why they wanted to rule Palestine and how Palestine fit in their overall Middle East strategy. Relevant developments in the Zionist movement, the Arab world and the international arena will be reviewed as well.

JEWISH STUDIES (Back to Top)

350 Representing the Holocaust in Literature and Film
Phyllis Lassner, MWF 10:00-10:50, T 6:30 -9:00 p.m.

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.

RELIGIOUS STUDIES (Back to Top)

329-30 Topics in Hebrew Bible :"God, Justice, Happiness, Sagacity: The Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible”
Beverly Mortensen, TTh 3:30-4:50

This course addresses the existence of God, the Problem of Evil and the Search for Happiness, as conducted in the Wisdom Books of the Hebrew Bible. We will read later writers and modern writers on these matters, as well. Amazing for the forward-looking content of their works, the biblical writers foresaw the topics we still ponder today. This class will ground the student in the western origins of uncertainty, reflection, and the courage to question.

SPANISH (Back to Top)

105-6 Freshman Seminar “Exploring Jewish Argentina”
Lucille Kerr, MWF 10:00 -10:50

This seminar will explore the Jewish presence in Argentina, which has the largest Jewish population in Latin America and the third largest in the Western hemisphere. Our exploration will focus on both verbal and visual materials, and will encompass works produced throughout the twentieth century. We will begin with Alberto Gerchunoff’s foundational text The Jewish Gauchos (1910), which is set in the Argentine agricultural colonies established for Eastern European Jews from the end of the nineteenth through the beginning of the twentieth century. The journey through Jewish Argentina will then take us to some of Jorge Luis Borges’s “Jewish writing” (1940s-1950s); then to Jacobo Timerman’s personal account of imprisonment and torture during Argentina’s Dirty War (1980); then to a novel by Ana María Shua that focuses on three generations of a Jewish family living in Buenos Aires (1994); and, finally, to a quasi- autobiographical film by Daniel Burman, set in the Jewish neighborhood of Once in Buenos Aires (2004). Readings, discussion, and written papers will engage topics such as identity and difference, memory and history, testimony and survival, immigration and integration.