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JEWISH STUDIES - SPRING QUARTER COURSES 2021

From Genesis to Maimonides to modern Israeli and American Jewish religion, from Aramaic to modern Hebrew to Yiddish, see the line-up of courses for Spring Quarter.

JWSC 12003 (= CMLT 12003; NEHC 12003; RLST 22012) Jewish Civilization III – Language, Creation, and Translation in Jewish Thought and Literature 
Spring T/Th 1:00 – 2:20 pm (remote)
Na’ama Rokem

As the third quarter of Jewish Civilization (but which can also be taken as a stand-alone elective), this course will start with two stories from Genesis—the creation story and the story of the Tower of Babel in chapter 11—and consider the intertwined dynamics of language, creation, and translation in Jewish thought and literature. In addition to commentaries on both of these key texts, we will read philosophical and literary texts that illuminate the workings of language as a creative force and the dynamics of multilingualism and translation in the creation of Jewish culture. Through this lens, we will consider topics such as gender and sexuality, Jewish national identity, Zionism, the revival of the Hebrew language, Jewish responses to the Holocaust, and contemporary American Jewish culture.
Note: In order for the Spring course to qualify as a civilization course for the general education requirement, the student must also take Jewish Civilization I and II.

JWSC 20540 (= NEHC 20240/30240; GNSE 22240; HIST 25712; RLST 20240) – Women’s Movements in the Modern Middle East 
Spring T/Th 11:20 am –12:40 pm (remote)
Kara Peruccio
If asked about women’s movements in the United States, one could expect responses of “Susan B. Anthony,” “first wave versus second wave,” “pussy hats,” and so-on. But what about women’s movements in the Middle East? Can you name a famous Middle Eastern feminist? This course will expose you to the rich and diverse history of women’s movements in the Modern Middle East. Beginning in the late nineteenth century when concepts of love and marriage changed popularly and legally, we will move into the twentieth century exploring Middle Eastern women’s involvement at major international women’s congresses, the assimilation of feminism groups by the state in numerous nations, and into the twenty-first century looking at LGBTQ activism. In this course, we will assess the different varieties of feminism and women’s movements, as these concepts are intersectional and not monolithic. You will interrogate the role of the press, education, colonialism/anticolonialism, religion, and popular culture. Alongside secondary sources, you will examine primary sources produced by these movements – pamphlets, posters, memoirs, and even YouTube videos. We will develop close reading skills and you will have the quarter-long project of researching, writing, and producing a podcast episode for a class series. Some prior knowledge of Middle Eastern history is helpful, but certainly not required. If you have reading skills in Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew, Persian, or French, terrific! If not, have no fear, all materials will be available in translation. All are welcome.

JWSC 20907 (= RLST 27712) - Contemporary Religion in Israel 
Spring T/Th 1:00 – 2:20 pm (in person)
David Barak-Gorodetsky
The complex relationship between religion and state is at the core of current social, cultural and political tensions in Israel. In this course we will explore the manifestation of these relations by focusing on selected ethnographies of religious performance and phenomena in modern Israel, including amongst others a "Women of the Wall" first day of the month prayer, a LGBTQ community's reading of the book of Esther in Tel-Aviv, and a messianic group's attempt to reestablish the Passover sacrifice at the Temple Mount. By exploring these detailed ethnographies against the backdrop of contemporary theory, including secularization and post-secularization, lived religion, fundamentalism and social orthodoxy, this course aims to portray the variety and complexity of religious experience in Israel today.   

JWSC 21215 (= NEHC 21215/31215; RLST 21215; BIBL 31215; HIJD 31215; ISLM 31215)  Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac in Multiple Perspectives
Spring M/W 1:50 – 3:10 pm (remote)
Stuart Creason
The story of Abraham's (near) sacrifice of his son, Isaac, found in Genesis 22:1-19, is one of the most influential and enduring stories in Western literature and art. It is part of the living tradition of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and its meaning and implications have been repeatedly explored in the communities defined by these religions, and has, in turn, helped to shape the self-perception of those communities. This course will consider the multiple perspectives from which this story has been viewed and the multiple interpretations which this story has generated, starting with its earliest incorporation into the Hebrew Bible, moving to its role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and concluding with its influence on modern works. No knowledge of Hebrew is required. 

JWSC 26100 (= PHIL 25110/35110; RLST 25110; HIJD 35200; FNDL 25110; MDVL 25110) Maimonides and Hume on Religion
Spring T/Th 1:00 – 2:20 pm (remote); F 9:10 – 10:00 am  OR 10:20 – 11:10 a.m.
Josef Stern
This course will study in alternation chapters from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed and David Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, two major philosophical works whose literary forms are at least as important as their contents. Topics will include human knowledge of the existence and nature of God, anthropomorphism and idolatry, religious language, and the problem of evil. Time permitting, we shall also read other short works by these two authors on related themes.

JWSC 27651 (= YDDH 21721/31721; GNSE 21721/31721, ) Women Who Wrote in Yiddish
Spring T/Th 9:40 – 11:00 am
Jessica Kirzane
This course explores memoirs, plays, essays, poetry, novels, and journalistic writing of women who wrote in Yiddish, as well as a discussion of the context in which they wrote and their reception and self-perception as "women writers." Among the writers whose work may be represented in this course are Glikl, Yente Mash, Kadya Molodwsky, Chava Rosenfarb, Yente Serdatsky, Rosa Palatnik, Anna Margolin, Celia Dropkin, Rokhl Korn, Beyle Shaechter-Gottesman, Gitl Shaechter-Viswanath, Bella Chagall, Blume Lempel, Esther Kreitman, Debora Vogel, Rokhl Brokhes, Sarah Hamer-Jacklyn, Malka Lee, Ida Maze, Roshelle Weprinski, Miriam Karpilove, Zina Rabinovitz, Rokhl Szabad, Rokhl Faygnberg, Paula Prilutsky, Shira Gorshman, Esther Shumiatsher-Hirshbein and Freydl Shtok. Many of these writers have been underexamined in the history of Yiddish literary studies and this course will bring renewed attention to their work. This course will be taught in English with readings translated from Yiddish. 

JWSC 28105 (= RLST 28105; HIJD 30405) H. N. Bialik: Poetics of Light and Lament
Spring M 9:10 am – 12:10 pm (remote)
Michael Fishbane
This course will comprise a close reading of lyrics of light and lament in the poetry of H. N. Bialik. Attention will be given to the content and interplay, through the prism of both the nostalgia for childhood illumination and the poet’s progressive sense of despair and fragmentation. The poet’s use of images drawn from Jewish mysticism and his links to Western romanticism will be considered. In addition, Bialik’s writing on language will be studied, both in its own right and in relation to his poetry. Comparisons will be drawn to Rilke’s lyric poetry and to Herder’s treatise on the origins of language. Students will be expected to prepare primary and secondary readings, and produce several short prompt papers during the quarter. 
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Hebrew preferred but English translation will be supplied.

JWSC 29104 (= RLST 29104 ) Antisemitism and Islamophobia, Historically and Today
Spring T/Th 11:20 am–12:40 pm
Mendel Kranz
How are antisemitism and Islamophobia linked together? Are they two different modes of oppression and discrimination or are they part of a similar phenomenon? Moreover, are they religious, racial, or ethnic forms of discrimination? Throughout this course, we will complicate the media narrative that sees Jews and Arabs as perpetual enemies through a historical and philosophical exploration into the origins and development of Orientalism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism. Students will think historically about the construction of race, ethnicity, and religion, and the discriminatory modes by which these are employed; and they will use that knowledge to think critically about current depictions of anti-Jewish and anti-Islamic violence. In the first part of the course, we will consider the historical and conceptual underpinnings of antisemitism and Islamophobia. We will look to 14th and 15th century Spain in order to better understand how and where they originated; we will then track their development through modernity, paying close attention to how these discourses changed and evolved over time; finally, we will look at the impact of the Holocaust and the rise of the State of Israel and consider current iterations of Islamophobia and antisemitism in Europe and America today.

Graduate Courses

BIBL 44602 (= NEHC 44602; GNSE 24603/44603; RLST 24602; HIJD 446702) Song of Songs
Spring T/Th 9:40 – 11:00 am (remote)
Simeon Chavel
In this text-course we will read the entire poetic composition, drawing on theory of literature in general and poetry in particular, tracing its unique forms of continuity, and analyzing its biblically distinctive forms of gender characterization. 
Prerequisite(s): 1 year Biblical Hebrew/ BIBL 33900 and BIBL 34000; This is the Introductory Biblical Hebrew exegesis course. 

BIBL 46000 Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Spring M 10:20 am – 1:20 pm (remote)
Sarah Yardney
In this course, students will learn the basic concepts, methods, theories, resources, and scholarly history of the textual criticism of the books making up the Hebrew Bible. They will practice comparing the Massoretic Text with relevant other manuscripts and text-traditions in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic; evaluating variants; and considering unattested emendations. Students will explore the overlap between composition-history and manuscript-history. At the conclusion of this course, students will have the knowledge and tools to embark on their own text-critical examination of passages in the Hebrew Bible. 
Prerequisite(s): Students need to have a working knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, especially Hebrew and Greek. 

HIJD 38880 Modern Jewish Religious Thought: An Introductory Survey
Spring F 9:10 am–12:20 pm (remote)
Paul Mendes-Flohr
In broad strokes we will trace the trajectory of modern Jewish religious thought from an apologetic accommodation to the regnant European philosophical and secular, that is, anthropocentric sensibilities – a tendency that characterized eighteenth and nineteenth century Jewish philosophy – to an affirmation of Jewish theological discourse as a mode of theocentric reflection that increasingly marks Jewish thought since the early twentieth century. In our deliberations we will pursue a systematic historical review of the writings of the major figures of modern Jewish thought, from Barukh (Bendictus) Spinoza and Moses Mendelssohn to Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, and later twentieth century thinkers, such as Arthur A. Cohen, Yeshajahu Leibowitz, Emil Fackenheim, Joseph Dov Soloveitchik and Emmanuel Levinas. As ambitious as this introductory survey is, we are cognizant of its many lacunae; to name but three topics: Reconstructionism, Religious Zionism, and Jewish Feminism are glaringly and shamefully omitted. Needless to say, thinkers and topics that are not covered in the lectures and assigned readings may be chosen as a theme of a seminar paper. 
Note(s): This course is open to undergraduates by petition.

HIJD 40204 A Proto-History of Race? Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Spain and North Africa (1200-1600) (= CRES 40204; HCHR 40204; ISLM 40204; SCTH 40204; SPAN 40204; HIST 60904)
Spring Th 2:40–5:40 pm (remote)
David Nirenberg
This course focuses on phenomena of mass conversion and the emergence of ideologies of lineage and purity of blood in the western Mediterranean, more specifically, the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb. The rivalry between Islam and Christianity (with Judaism a frequent go-between) in this region produced many distinctive cultural formations. Among those formations were ideas about the limits of conversion that may be compared to modern concepts of race. The word “race” was itself first applied to humans in Iberia during this period, to designate Christians descended from Muslims or Jews, and similar concepts emerged in Islamic North Africa. We will explore these ideas in the Christian Iberian kingdoms, with frequent excursions into Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid and Nasrid Islamic polities. Our goal will be to produce a Mediterranean archaeology of some of the concepts with which Christian and Muslim colonizers encountered the New World and sub-Saharan Africa in the sixteenth century. Course Note(s): This course is open to undergraduates by petition.

HIJD 47012 (= BIBL 47012, THEO 47012) Readings in Rabbinic Midrash: Theology and Homily in Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana
Spring T 1:00–4:00 pm (remote)
Michael Fishbane
The Midrash Pesiqta de-Rav Kahana (4-5th cent. CE) is a classic collection of homilies on the Jewish holiday cycle, integrating earlier exegesis and sources. The course will examine several major homiletic units to understand the interplay of theology, homily, and hermeneutics. Opening classes will provide and introduction to Midrash; subsequent sessions will focus on learning how to read and interpret a classic rabbinic homiletical work.
Prerequisite(s): Basic proficiency in rabbinic Hebrew (translation will be supplemented).
Note(s): This course is open to undergrads by petition.


Language Courses

ARAM 10103 (= JWSC 11200) Imperial Aramaic
1:00 – 2:20 pm T/Th
Stuart Creason 
Selected letters and contracts from the Imperial Aramaic period (c. 600-200 BCE) are read with special attention to the historical development of the grammar of Aramaic during this time period.

HEBR 10101-10102-10103 (= JWSC 22000-22100-22200) Elementary Classical Hebrew I-II-III.
9:10 – 10:00 am M-F (Remote)
Stuart Creason
The purpose of this three-quarter sequence is to enable the student to read biblical Hebrew prose with a high degree of comprehension. The course is divided into two segments: (1) the first two quarters are devoted to acquiring the essentials of descriptive and historical grammar (including translation to and from Hebrew, oral exercises, and grammatical analysis); and (2) the third quarter is spent examining prose passages from the Hebrew Bible and includes a review of grammar.

HEBR 20104-20105-20106 (= JWSC 22300-22400-22500) Intermediate Classical Hebrew I-II-III. 
8:00 – 8:50 am M-F (Remote)
Dennis Pardee
A continuation of Elementary Classical Hebrew. The first quarter consists of reviewing grammar, and of reading and analyzing further prose texts. The last two quarters are devoted to an introduction to Hebrew poetry with readings from Psalms, Proverbs, and the prophets.

HEBR 10501-10502-10503 (= JWSC 25000-25100-25200) Introductory Modern Hebrew I-II-III. 
T/Th 1:00 – 2:20 pm T/Th; 11:30 am – 12:20 pm F (Remote)
Ari Almog
This three-quarter course introduces students to reading, writing, and speaking modern Hebrew. All four language skills are emphasized: comprehension of written and oral materials; reading of non-diacritical text; writing of directed sentences, paragraphs, and compositions; and speaking. Students learn the Hebrew root pattern system and the seven basic verb conjugations in both the past and present tenses, as well as simple future. At the end of the year, students can conduct short conversations in Hebrew, read materials designed to their level, and write short essay.
Note(s): This is a three-quarter course designed primarily for college students. It meets three times a week: two 1:20hr sessions with the instructor and one 50-minute tutorial with a TA. 
It will focus on gaining basic command in the four language skills: speaking, reading, listening, and writing, in that order.

HEBR 20521 (= JWSC 20521) Lower Intermediate Hebrew through Israeli Media
Time TBA
Ari Almog
This course aims, primarily but not only, to meet the need of heritage students who must take one quarter of Hebrew beyond the first year to meet the college foreign language requirement. The course will introduce more advanced verb and syntax structures, using both a textbook and newspaper and video clips reflective of current Israeli culture. Students would work on enhancing all skills: speaking, reading, comprehension and writing skills. 

HEBR 30501-30502-30503 (= JWSC 25600-25700-25800) Advanced Modern Hebrew 
T/Th 4:20 – 5:40 pm (Remote)
Ari Almog
This course assumes that students have full mastery of the grammatical and lexical content of the intermediate level (). The main objective is literary fluency. The texts used in this course include both academic prose, as well as literature. Students are exposed to semantics and morphology in addition to advanced grammar.  Requirements include a weekly class presentation, regular essay writing, two take-home exams, and several quizzes per quarter.
Prerequisite(s): Students should have at least two years of Modern Hebrew or are placed here following the result of the College Placement Exam.

YDDH 21002 (= JWSC 27611) Advanced Yiddish II: Women Writing Yiddish
Spring T/Th 8:00 – 9:20 am
Jessica Kirzane
In this course, we will read from a variety of writing by women - memoirs, prose fiction, and poetry. We will discuss how their gender (and the way they were received as women within the literary marketplace) may have influenced their writing, and will talk about contemporary acts of literary recovery and reinterpretation of their work. Authors in this syllabus include: Kadya Molodovsky, Salomea Perl, Esther Kreitman, Shira Gorshman, and Miriam Karpilove, among others. This class is conducted in Yiddish, and all readings will be distributed in Yiddish. Prerequisite(s): Students must have completed two quarters of Intermediate Yiddish or seek permission from the instructor to enroll.