As part of its Study Abroad programs, the College offers a spring-quarter Jerusalem program that provides students with an opportunity to study Middle Eastern Civilizations in one of the world’s most fascinating cities. Jerusalem brings alive the ancient and modern expressions of the three major Western religious traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam— whose adherents have long struggled to coexist within the city’s rugged limestone walls. The three-course Civilizations sequence presents a historical survey of the sacred city and its topographies of monotheism. Classroom work is supplemented by weekly excursions to sites of historical interest both within Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel. Participants also take a fourth course in “practical” Modern Hebrew or Arabic language at the appropriate level. Although the Jerusalem program is not directed by the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies, students can receive credit toward the major and the minor in Jewish Studies for the courses offered in Jerusalem.
For more information, see http://study-abroad.uchicago.edu/programs/jerusalem-middle-eastern-civilizations.
The College also offers a Study Abroad program devoted to the various histories of the Jewish communities of Central Europe, with an emphasis on Vienna. This English-language, three-course sequence introduces students to the social, political, intellectual, and cultural history of the Jews of Central Europe, with a focus on the upheavals and transformations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students can use the sequence to fulfill the College’s Civilization requirement, or towards the major/minor requirements in Jewish Studies. In addition to the Jewish Civilization Core courses, students will take a German language course, which is offered at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Complementing the classroom work, students will visit historical sites, memorials, museums, libraries, and archives that illuminate Jewish history in Vienna, in Central Europe, and beyond. In addition to these shorter visits, the program will include a longer excursion to another Central European capital. Vienna and Central Europe offer a fascinating, complex vantage point through which to approach modern Jewish history, enabling us to think about the imbrication of Jewish history and the political transformations of modern Europe, about empires and nationalism, about war and persecution, and about literary and artistic modernism, among other topics.
For more information, see https://study-abroad.uchicago.edu/vienna-jewish-civilization.
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