JUDAIC STUDIES COURSE OFFERINGS
The following list includes courses offered by faculty associated with the Center for Judaic Studies, as well as other courses of interest to Judaic Studies students.� We try to make this list as accurate and comprehensive as possible.� If you have questions about offerings or times, check with the department in which the course is listed for the latest information.
English (Division 361)
English 317 (section 001)
Modern Jewish Literature.
Julian Levinson ([email protected])
TTH 10-11:30am
Credits 3
Class number:� 12501
How do modern Jewish writers engage with the religious traditions and texts of Judaism? What elements of the tradition do they draw upon? How are these elements transformed or reshaped to meet the concerns of modern writers? How do Jewish writers straddle the divide between the modern world and the religious tradition? How have these writers made use of religious vocabularies in order to respond to the Holocaust? Using a broad definition of "religious" and focusing on an eclectic group of writers, this class provides a context for addressing these and other questions.� In order to explore the multiple voices that have shaped modern Jewish culture, we will consider texts written in Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and French, as well as English. The writers we will read include I.L.
Peretz, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Else Lasker Schueler, Isaac Bashevis Singer,
Alfred Kazin, Allen Ginsberg, and Marge Piercy. All of the readings will be in
English.
English 383
Yiddish Classics.
Anita Norich ([email protected])
TTH 10-11:30am
Credits 3
Class Number:� 29521
What do we know about modern Yiddish culture? What are its origins and how did it develop? Who were its major writers and what were the themes, social structures, literary forms of primary concern to them? In this course we will answer these and other questions by reading the fiction of three writers: Sh.Y. Abramovitch (also known as Mendele Moykher Sforim), Sholem Aleichem, and Y.L. Peretz. Their short stories and novels are considered the classics of modern Yiddish literature and offer a provocative introduction into the Eastern European Jewish milieu in which they wrote. We will also consider some of the adaptations made of their work in Yiddish and English drama and film, and some of the changes made when their stories and novels were brought to an American audience. All works will be read in English translation; no knowledge of Yiddish is required.� Requirements for the course include weekly reading and writing assignments, active classroom participation, two essays and a final.
German (Division 379)
German 322/History 322
Origins of Nazism.
Scott Spector ([email protected])
TTh 11:30-1pm
Credits 4
Class Number:� 18653
This course explores the origins and the outcomes of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in 1933. Because no single factor can explain why Germans consented to Nazi rule or why so few resisted Nazi persecution and genocide, we will take a multi- layered approach to this question, examining the relationships among and between political, cultural, social, and economic change. The first half of this course explores the vibrant culture and fractured politics of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), which was deeply marked by the first World War. Our study of Weimar captures the hope and optimism that underpinned its culture and politics, but also explores how and why the Nazis emerged from this very culture to assault and dismantle it. In the second half of the course we examine the ideologies and practices of the Nazi "racial state" and the forces that drove it into war and genocide. Students will examine the blurry lines between consent and dissent, complicity and resistance in the everyday lives of both perpetrators and victims of the regime. Finally, we will investigate the connections between racial persecution and the war of conquest launched by the Nazis in 1939.� Team-taught by two professors from History and German, course materials will include not only texts, but also film, art, literature, and personal memoirs from the Weimar and Nazi periods.� Format: two lectures, one discussion per week. Requirements include midterm, final, and occasional short response papers.
History (Division 390)
History 322/German 322
Origins of Nazism.
Scott Spector ([email protected])
TTh 11:30-1pm
Credits 4
Class Number:� 18522
See German 322 for course description.
History 382
History of the Jews from the Spanish Expulsion to the Eve of Enlightenment.
Stefanie Siegmund
([email protected])
TTh 11:30-1pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 26856
This course will survey major trends in Jewish history in European and Mediterranean lands from c. 1450 to c. 1700. The themes of this course include: developments in Jewish communal and familial structure; the question of "marrano" or converso identity; the relationship of Jews and Judaism to the Catholic Church and to the events and ideas of the Reformation; the economic, political, and theoretical relationship between the Jews and developing European states and the Ottoman empire. Specific topics to be addressed include: the impact of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal; the emergence and spread of Lurianic Kabbalah; the development of the ghetto in the Italian states; the emergence of Jewish mercantile communities in Northern Europe and in the "New World"; the "court Jews"; male and female expressions of Jewish piety and folk-religion; the Sabbatian movement; and rabbinic authority.� The course will be taught by lecture and discussion.� Prerequisites:� This is an upper-level history course.� Judaic Studies 205 and History 381 are useful preparation, as are other courses in European history and religious studies.
History 449
Meets with ACABS 491.001/ Judaic Studies 591.002
Advanced Readings: �Ancient Sites, Scripts, and Archives as Backgrounds to the Bible.�
Robert Hawley ([email protected])
MW 11-12:30
Credits 3
Class Number:� 31712
See ACABS 491.001 for course description.
History 628 (section 001)
Studies in Jewish History
Antisemitism and the Holocaust: Interpretations and Representations.
Todd Endelman ([email protected])
T 5-7pm
Credits 3
Class Number :� 28874
In the sixty years since the end of World War II, historians and social scientists have produced an impressive body of scholarly literature on the place of antisemitism in modern European society and on the character and causes of the Nazi destruction of the Jews.� This colloquium aims to introduce graduate students in various disciplines to problems in the interpretation of modern European antisemitism and the Holocaust.� The first third of the semester will focus on the following issues:� the relationship between pre-modern theologically rooted anti-Judaism and modern racial antisemitism, the alleged uniqueness of antisemitism in Imperial and Weimar Germany, and the place of antisemitism in modern European politics in general and German politics in particular.� The second third will be devoted to the historiography of the Holocaust, including debates about the origins of the Final Solution, the participation of various groups within German society in the process of mass murder, Jewish responses to persecution, survival in the camps, and the behavior of the Allied governments and other so-called third parties.� In the last third of the semester, the focus of the class will shift to discussions � among historians, cultural critics, and social scientists � about the representation and memorialization of the Holocaust in the media, high and low literature, the arts, and other forums.� One theme that will emerge repeatedly throughout the semester is the question of what values and interests are at stake in a particular interpretation or representation.
History 628 (Section 002)
Meets with Judaic Studies 591 (Section 001)
Studies in Jewish History:� The Conversion of the Jews in Medieval and Early Modern European History
Stefanie Siegmund
([email protected])
T 3-6pm
Credits 3
Class Number :� 28875
This advanced readings course focuses on the efforts of the Church to convert Jews at key moments in history from late antiquity to the nineteenth century and on the responses of Jews to those efforts.� We will approach the question of conversion from a variety of perspectives: theology, rabbinic law, church history, and social history.� The study of the
Church's interest in converting Jews will be compared to the efforts of the Catholic Church to convert other groups in Europe and of Europeans to convert non-Europeans to
Christianity. Our meetings will be structured around discussion of commonly assigned core texts and presentations by students of additional readings and research.
Judaic Studies (Division 407)
Judaic Studies 102
Elementary Yiddish II.
Vera Szabo ([email protected])
MWF 1-2pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 13004
This is the second of a six-term language sequence designed to develop basic skills in speaking, understanding, reading, and writing Yiddish.� Active class participation is required as are periodic quizzes, exams, a midterm, and a final.� Prerequisites:� Yiddish 101.
Judaic Studies 202
Intermediate
Yiddish II.
Vera Szabo ([email protected])
MW 2:30-4:00pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 13005
This is the fourth of a six-term language sequence in Yiddish.� Special emphasis will be devoted to reading and discussing original texts, which will enhance the understanding of the culture within which Yiddish has developed.� Course grade will be based on exams, quizzes, written work, and oral class participation.� Prerequisites:� Yiddish 201.
Judaic Studies 270/HJCS 270
Meets with Judaic Studies 570/ACABS 570/HJCS 570
Introduction to Rabbinic Literature.
Yaron
Eliav ([email protected])
MWF 11-12pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28379
In this course, we will explore the history and substance of rabbinic writing on three levels. First, we will talk about the rabbinic literary enterprise within the broad cultural, historical and religious context of the Roman and Byzantine eras. Second, we will examine the many genres of rabbinic literature and consider the sages, the elite group of Jewish intellectuals who created this corpus. Finally, we will trace the way in which subsequent generations have gradually shaped these texts to their current format and endowed them with their exalted status.� No previous knowledge is necessary.
Judaic Studies 296/HJCS 296/Religion 296
Perspectives on the Holocaust.
Elliot Ginsburg ([email protected])
TTh 2:30-4pm
Credits 4
Class Number:� 28359
This course is a study of the Holocaust as a historical event and its impact on Jewish thought and culture. We first survey the historical context: the European Jewish community on the eve of the destruction, and the events leading up to and culminating in that destruction. We then will focus on inner Jewish (and gentile) reactions to the Holocaust, and broader philosophical and ethical implications. We ask: What are the problems (moral, emotional, conceptual) in reading and writing about the Holocaust? What are its implications for those of us who come "after"? The course is also a meditation on visions of the Other, on ethnic-religious hatred, tolerance, and healing. Course materials include memoirs, poetry, fiction, psychological literature, as well as conversations with survivors. Take-home midterm; final exam; 5-8 page paper; journal.
Judaic Studies 302
Advanced Yiddish I.
Vera Szabo ([email protected])
TTH 10:00-11:30am
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28757
This is the last term of a six-term language sequence, focusing primarily on reading and speaking Yiddish.� Literary, historical and other texts will be considered, along with film, folklore, and music.� Students will also learn how to approach handwritten documents.� Prerequisites:� Yiddish 301.
Judaic Studies 317 (Section 001)
Meets with HJCS 491 (Section 002)
From Bible and Midrash to Modern Hebrew Literature.
Shachar Pinsker ([email protected])
W 1-4pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 18855
This course explores the multifaceted relations between Biblical and Rabbinic literature (Talmud and Midrash) and modern Hebrew literature created in the late 19th and 20th centuries.� We will examine questions such as, what is the nature of Midrash? What is modern Midrash? How do modern Hebrew writers employ Biblical and Rabbinic languages in forging modern subjectivity? In what ways are traditional Jewish figures, motifs, and narrative structures being reread and rewritten?� What is the role of gender in the process of retelling? The readings include Biblical and Midrashic texts and a variety of modern Hebrew narratives and poems by writers such as Ch. N. Bialik, S.Y. Agnon, Dvora Baron, Bat-Miriam, Yehuda Amichai, Nathan Zach, and others. (This course is taught in English. Students with knowledge of Hebrew will read the literary works in the original).
Judaic Studies 317 (Section 002)
Meets with Slavic 270 (Section 001)
Contact and Conflict: Jewish Experience in Eastern Europe.
Mikhail Krutikov
([email protected])
TTH 10-11:30am
Credits 3
Class Number:� 26475
From the middle ages to present, Jews and non-Jews in Eastern and Central Europe have been connected and divided by a highly complex system of relationships.� The earliest contacts took place predominantly in the sphere of commerce, but also in culture and religion; the recurrent conflicts took the form of pogroms, organized or spontaneous mob violence.� Until the 20th century, the majority of world Jewry lived in Eastern Europe, maintaining a distinct dual, religious/ethnic identity, which set them apart from the rest of the population.� Yet from the 18th century onwards East European Jews became increasingly engaged in the life of the society at large, sometimes leaving a strong impact on its culture, politics, and economy.� We will examine the forms and ways of interaction between Jews and non-Jews in various parts of Eastern and Central Europe: �Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary, Rumania, the Baltics, as well as its historical dynamics.� Special attention will be given to culture and language, particularly to Jewish creativity in arts and literature in major urban centers during the modern period.
Judaic Studies 317 (Section 003)
Meets with HJCS 491 (Section 001)
Topics in HJCS: Politics and Culture in Hebrew Literature: Ethnicity and Gender.
Ruth Tsoffar ([email protected])
W 6-9pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 27339
This upper level/graduate seminar approaches gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and class as categories of difference that participate in the wider production of Israeli culture.� We will look at fictional works and films, conceptualizing ways in which gender and ethnicity compete, conflict, and negotiate with the historical and modern Israeli national narrative and the way these recent works shift historical Zionism to a post-national, global discussion.� We will closely look at the ways Israeli writers and film-makers address general questions about hegemonic language, discursive space, author legitimacy, ethnic mapping, and self-representation, as they challenge and approximate the canon and the general Sabra notion of the homeland.� The reading, in translation, includes works by writers such as Ronit Matalon and Shimon Ballas; the poetry of Miri Ben Simhon, Yona Wallch and Sami Schetrit; music by Zehava Ben, and films by David Ofek and Buzaglo.� As an interdisciplinary course on culture, this course�s research, methods, and debates draw on economic, historical, and socio-political context of Israeli culture.
Judaic Studies 373/HJCS 373
Israeli Culture and Society.
Ruth Tsoffar ([email protected])
TTH 2:30-4pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 26123
The objective of this course is to introduce students to both Israeli culture and the complexity of studying it.� It explores the formation of modern Israeli culture since the beginning of Zionist immigration to Palestine, although its emphasis is the contemporary Israeli situation by examining historical, literary, folkloric, and other artistic expressions.� Modern Israeli culture was created through the revival of Hebrew as a national language, the reinterpretation of traditional Jewish symbols and rituals, the development of a strong collectivist ethos, and the creation of a national heroic lore.� Subsequently, we will focus on the invention of youth culture and its importance to the creation of collective ideology, the role of archeology and pilgrimages in biblical geography, the creation of an Israeli national Jewish calendar, and the invention of Israeli folk dance, singing, and food cultures.� The material selected for this course includes a wide range of works reflective of different directions in the history of Israeli culture.� Such works include those by and about the Zionist pioneers, the second generation of immigrants to Israel, Holocaust survivors, women, Sephardic/Mizrahi Jews, and Palestinians.� Films, music, and slides as well as guest lectures will supplement the readings for the course.
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Judaic Studies 467/ HJCS577/ Religion 471
Seminar:� Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment.
Elliot Ginsburg ([email protected])
T 7:30-10pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28919
The focus of this course will be the Zohar (the so-called Book of Enlightenment or Splendor) surely the central (and most richly evocative) work of Spanish Kabbalah. This voluminous work, written in sonorous neo-Aramaic, betrays an artist�s sense of language. Avoiding rigid categorization, the Zohar likes to speak of divinity and other �secrets� in fluid terms of light and water: flashing sparks, deep wells, springs, and flowing rivers.� At once a �narrative�� recounting the spiritual adventures of wandering heroes and a mystical �midrash� on Torah, the Zohar attained a sort of canonical status from the 15th century onward.�� Our study of the Zohar will focus on its historical placement, including its relation to currents in Christian and Islamic mysticism, and in philosophy; and with regard to social concerns of the day. We will also explore the riddle of its authorship (not only who composed it, but how was it �written�: amid the so-called �circle of the Zohar�). The core of the seminar will focus on ways of reading/decoding the Zohar. Themes to explore include kabbalistic images of the divine and of the natural world; the recasting of devotional practices and ritual innovation (including Shabbat practices; sacred eating; and Zohar�s impact on popular piety); its critique of certain regnant Jewish practices; its view of language and Torah; the rich (and sometimes bizarre) symbolization of masculine and feminine; the struggle with Evil and the Other; and its relationship to Messianism. Our textual study will be informed by contemporary scholarship, including three works on the Zohar (by Daniel Matt and Arthur Green).� While students may rely on English translation, I will make ongoing references to the neo-Aramaic/Hebrew original, as well.� Pre-requisites: it is strongly recommended that students either have prior background/coursework in Jewish Mysticism or other Jewish textual traditions, or have undertaken significant (university) study in other religious, contemplative, or philosophical traditions.
Judaic Studies 480/Political Science 451
Jewish Identities, Politics and Culture in an Age of Secularism.
Zvi Gitelman ([email protected])
TTH 4-5:30 pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28759
One of the oldest, most intriguing cases of ethnicity and nationhood, complicated by a strong link to religion, is that of the Jews.� As religion and ethnicity began to be differentiated in modern times, Jews faced the challenge of redefining themselves from a religious to an ethnic group.� Some rejected this, others seized upon secular forms of Jewishness, and still others insisted on maintaining the ethno-religious fusion.� The aim of the course is to illuminate issues of ethnicity and religion by exploring ways in which Jews have defined themselves and, consequently, their relations to other groups, and to see how Jews have combined flexible self-definitions with the maintenance of characteristics which came to be regarded as defining.� Jews have been engaged in �constant reconstitution� longer than almost any other group, and in a wider variety of settings.� Therefore, the Jewish experience should enable us to understand better broader issues of ethnic identity, national formation, the relationship between religion and ethnicity, and the transformation of cultures and identities.� It is also highly instructive on whether and how a group whose nexus was historically religious can shift the ties that bind to secular culture and ethnicity in modern societies. Course requirements include a midterm exam, either 2 short (10 pp.) papers or one longer (20 pp.) paper, and a final exam.
Judaic Studies 481/Slavic 481
Central and Eastern Europe in 20th Century Jewish Writing.
Mikhail Krutikov ([email protected])
TTH 1-2:30pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 30096
This course will focus on the literary representations of Jewish identity in the multilingual and multicultural contexts of Eastern and Central Europe in the 20th century.� More specifically, the course will address the challenges that the choice of a language and cultural orientation posed for a European writer of Jewish origin.� Readings will include novels, short stories and memoirs, writings in German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Yiddish (all texts are available in English translation).� Every text on the reading list occupies a prominent place in the respective national literary canon; taken together, they represent a complex and diverse picture of the vibrant European Jewish civilization in the most critical moment of its history.� Readings will be complemented by a selection of films.
Judaic Studies 570/ACABS570/HJCS 570
Meets with Judaic Studies 270/HJCS 270
Reading the Rabbis.
Yaron Eliav ([email protected])
MWF 11-12pm
Students at the 500 levels meet bi-monthly W 4-6pm in addition to MWF meetings
Credits 4
Class Number:� 30643
This
course is designed as a graduate level introduction to rabbinic literature,
a
multifaceted corpus produced by Jewish scholars (known in English as
Rabbis)
from 1st to the 7th century CE. It provides the necessary
information
for contextualizing the rabbinic project historical, social, cultural,
and
religious backgrounds as well as mapping of the various genres
represented
in this literature. In addition, it offers a first hand encounter
with
the texts in their original language as well as introduction to the most
important
scholarly trends in the field. As such, the course is geared toward
advanced
students of Judaism who wish to gain basic knowledge of the
rabbis
and their literary endeavor as well as those interested in any aspect of
Graeco-Roman
or Byzantine civilization and wish to work with rabbinic
material.
Students will attend all meetings of �Introduction to Rabbinic
Literature� (HJCS 270; JUDAIC 270). In
addition, the seminar will meet
every
two weeks, during which we will engage in an in-depth study of
rabbinic
sugyot in the original language and discuss modern scholarship and
theory
on rabbinic literature.
Judaic Studies 591 (001)
Meets with History 628 (Section 002)
Advanced Readings in Judaic Studies:� The Conversion of the Jews in Medieval and Early Modern European History
Stefanie Siegmund
([email protected])
T 3-6pm
Credits 3
Class Number :� 27708
See History 628.002 for class description.
Judaic Studies 591 (002)
Meets with ACABS 491 (001)/History 449
Advanced Readings: �Ancient Sites, Scripts, and Archives as Backgrounds to the Bible.�
Robert Hawley
MW 11-12:30
Credits 3
Class Number:� 31181
See ACABS 491.001 for class description.
Arabic, Armenian, Persian, Turkish & Islamic Studies (AAPTIS) (Division 325)
AAPTIS 592
Constructions of Collective Memory and Identity: Readings in Theory and Practice
Carol Bardenstein
([email protected])
Thursday 1:30-4:30pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28821�
In this course, we examine a selection of theoretical works on the construction of collective memory, cultural memory, and collective identification and affiliation.� While some of our focus will be on the collective configurations associated with the �nation� and nationalism, with accompanying constructions, interrogations, and subversions of national myths, the collective formation of the nation will not be privileged in our inquiry to the exclusion of other collective formations.� Considerable emphasis will be placed on modes of collective memory and identity formation other than the national, including but not limited to those emerging in contexts of collective displacement, dispersion/diaspora, exile, trauma, as well as hybridization, minority configurations, second generation and �post-memory� formation, food and memory, music and memory, landscape and memory etc. (Halbwachs, Nora, Connerton, Kirmayer, Hirsch, Bender, Schama, etc).� Against the backdrop of the body of theoretical literature on this topic, we will read a selection of primary works (literary, filmic, popular cultural) and secondary works that articulate and analyze collective memory and identity in very specific historical and cultural contexts.� Approximately half of the particular contexts or �examples� analyzed will be drawn from the specific research interests of the students in the seminar (based on texts selected from their area of research in consultation with the instructor to be read and discussed by all seminar participants), and the other half will focus on discourses of collective memory and identity from the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict (Palestinian and Israeli/Zionist/Jewish), as well as a selection of other Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Jewish collective contexts.� Permission of instructor is required for participation in this seminar (Contact instructor via e-mail).� The seminar meets once a week for three hours in seminar/discussion format.� Students will be required to write one in-depth research paper for this course, and to give one to two in-class seminar presentations.
AAPTIS 653/ Political Science 653
Proseminar in Middle East Politics
Mark Tessler ([email protected])
TH 10am-12pm
Credits 3
Class Number: 30106
This course combines an
introduction to the logic of comparative political analysis with a concern for
the interaction between systematic social science and area studies as scholarly
paradigms.� Attention also will be given
to the individual as a unit of analysis in comparative social research.� These themes will be addressed with
reference to developing countries in general and the Arab Middle East in
particular.� Specific topics to be
examined include political development, governance and democratization, and
politically-salient considerations pertaining to culture, gender, and
religion.� The first three-quarters of
the seminar will be devoted to reading and discussion, followed by an
examination.� The remaining weeks will
be devoted to the design by each student of an original research project that
is theoretical, data-based, and comparative.�
These projects, which students will design by not be required to carry
out, should focus on one or more of the topics covered in class.
Ancient Civilizations and Biblical Studies (ACABS) (Division 314)
ACABS 102
Elementary Classical Hebrew II.
Jason Tatlock ([email protected])
TTH 9-10:30am
Credits 3
Class Number:TBA
A continuation of ACABS 101 with increased emphasis on the Biblical Hebrew verbal system and syntax as presented in Seow's A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew (revised). Additionally, students will be introduced to select readings from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Final grades will be based upon daily class performance and homework assignments, quizzes, and two exams.
ACABS 202
Intermediate Biblical Hebrew II.
Brian Schmidt ([email protected])
TTh 11:30-1pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 11530
As a continuation of ACABS 201, the students will be introduced to additional elements of Biblical Hebrew syntax and other aspects of advanced grammar. Further selected Biblical texts will be read, and their historical and literary backgrounds analyzed and discussed.
ACABS
491 (Section 001)
Meets with JS 591.002/History
449
Ancient Sites, Scripts, and
Archives as Backgrounds to the Bible.
Robert Christopher Hawley
([email protected])
Credits
3
MW
11-12:30pm
Class
Number:� 28815
This is a general survey course intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in gaining a fuller appreciation of the ancient societies of the Levant, the world of the Bible, not only by placing these cultures within their wider geographical, chronological, and historical contexts, but also�and especially�by viewing them through the lens of contemporary epigraphic sources.� By "Levant" is meant the region that corresponds to the modern states of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan, an area that has had a disproportionate impact on subsequent cultural histories within the Near East and beyond. Attention will also be paid to those surrounding regions which shaped, often in a heavy-handed way, native Levantine cultural history: Anatolia to the north, Mesopotamia to the east, Egypt to the south, and the Aegean world to the west. Chronologically, our scope is the whole of antiquity, from the first appearance of written sources in the Early Bronze Age; through the Iron Age with the invention and diffusion of the alphabet; through the periods of foreign imperial domination and the concomitant shaping of local textual traditions that would become ancient Israel's sacred scriptures; and eventually culminating in the turbulent but profoundly influential Roman period, the era that witnessed the local development of Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. Against this broad chronological backdrop, our particular focus will be on the actual contemporary documents available to modern historians of Levantine cultures; in other words, the nature and amount of the available epigraphic evidence, the archeological sites from which these archives and isolated inscriptions come, and the scripts and languages in which they were written. Texts are favored here, not because they are somehow "truer" than material evidence, but rather because they convey unique ancient perceptions of reality and society, expressed in native, culturally meaningful linguistic terms.� Students are expected to finish the course with a sound grasp of the written sources for the ancient Levant, and a knowledge not only of how these sources fit within a broader chronological and geographical framework, but also of how epigraphic evidence informs and tempers historical reconstructions. Classes include lectures and discussion. Students will sit mid-term and final examinations, and will submit a 10 page synthesis on a specialized topic of their choice.
ACABS 543/ HJCS 543
The Bible in Jewish Tradition: Philo of Alexandria.
Gabrielle Boccaccini ([email protected])
W 6-9pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28238
Philo of Alexandria is the greatest Jewish interpreter of the Bible in the Roman-Hellenistic period. His commentary of the Torah stands as one of the major accomplishments of Jewish culture. Nonetheless Philo has been long neglected. The two major interests of his work (the philosophical and the religious) have been often artificially separated and opposed: Philo would be too "Jewish" to be a Greek philosopher and too "Greek" to be a Jewish theologian. His "Mosaic philosophy" is instead at the same time one of the most important voices of Hellenistic philosophical thought and a unique witness of Jewish religious diversity in the Second Temple period. The aim of the seminar is to restore the unity of synthesis of Philo's work--an aim that can be achieved only through an interdisciplinary reading of his treatises by both students of Hellenistic philosophy and Jewish religions. An advanced knowledge of Greek is required.
ACABS 570/Judaic Studies 570/HJCS 570
Meets with Judaic Studies 270/HJCS 270
Readings the Rabbis.
Yaron Eliav
([email protected])
MWF 11-12pm
Students at the 500 level meet bi-weekly W 4-6pm in addition to MWF meetings
Credits 4
Class Number:� 30644
See Judaic Studies 570 for a course description
ACABS 602
Advanced Readings in Classical Hebrew.
Meets with ACABS 202
Brian Schmidt ([email protected])
TTh 11:30-1pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 11533
As a continuation of ACABS 601, the students will be introduced to additional elements of Biblical Hebrew syntax and other aspects of advanced grammar.� Biblical texts will be read from both poetic and narrative sections, and their historical and literary backgrounds analyzed and discussed.
ACABS 722
Ancient Levantine Ritual Traditions.
Brian Schmidt ([email protected])
T 2-5pm
Credits 3
Class Number :� 28240
The course is an advanced seminar that has as its prerequisites an advanced working knowledge of biblical Hebrew (completion of ACABS 601 or its equivalent) and the Northwest Semitic languages including Ugaritic (Akkadian is also helpful but not required).� We will complete close readings of texts in Ugaritic, Old Aramaic, and Iron age Hebrew that are representative of the ritual traditions of early Canaanite and Israelite populations and we will read in the areas of ritual theory and the history of interpretation as regards ANE rituals.
Hebrew and Jewish
Cultural Studies (HJCS) (Division 389)
HJCS 102
Elementary Modern Hebrew II.
Credits 5
MWF
Continuation of the development of basic communication skills of reading, writing, and speaking modern standard Hebrew. Class drills, class discussions in Hebrew, language laboratory drills.
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Pauli Weizman (pauliw@umich.edu)
Class Number:� 12766
����������� 11-1pm
Pauli Weizman (pauliw@umich.edu)
Class Number:� 12767
11-1pm
Milka Eliav (milka@umich.edu)
Class Number:� 12768
1-3pm
Milka Eliav (milka@umich.edu)
Class Number:� 12769
HJCS202
Intermediate Modern Hebrew II.
MWF
Credits 5
The focus of instruction will be on the four language skills with a continued emphasis on oral work and writing. In addition to continued study of morphology and syntax, some readings selections in fiction and non-fiction prose will be introduced.
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Doron Lamm (dlamm@umich.edu)
Class Number:� 12770�
11-1pm
Doron
Lamm (dlamm@umich.edu)
Class Number:� 12771
11-1pm
Rosenberg,
Ilan (ilanr@umich.edu)
Class Number:� 12772
1-3pm
Rosenberg,
Ilan (ilanr@umich.edu)
����������� Class Number:� 12773
HJCS 270/Judaic Studies 270
Meets with Judaic Studies 570/ACABS 570/HJCS 570
Introduction to Rabbinic Literature.
Yaron Eliav ([email protected])
MWF 11-12pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28273
See Judaic Studies 270 for class description.
HJCS 296/Judaic Studies 296/Religion 296
Perspectives on the Holocaust.
Elliot Ginsburg ([email protected])
TTH 2:30-4pm
Credits 4
Class Number:� 28263
See Judaic Studies 296 for a course description.
HJCS 302
Advanced Hebrew II.
Shachar Pinsker ([email protected])
TTH 11:30-1 pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 24094
This course is a continuation of the Hebrew sequence comprising the second term of the third-year Hebrew class.� (Participation in Hebrew 301 offered in the previous term is not required if the student is at the advanced level.)� The focus will be on developing proficiency in all five languages skills, as well as a deeper and more intimate knowledge of Hebrew and Israeli culture and literature.� Student participation is an essential part of the course. Readings will include poems and short works of fiction, as well as journalistic and academic texts.� This will be supplemented by other media including music, video, recordings, readings, etc.� Students� grades will be determined on the basis of assignments, participation, and a final project.
HJCS 373/Judaic Studies 373
Israeli Culture and Society.
Ruth Tsoffar ([email protected])
TTH 2:30-4pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 26110
See Judaic Studies 373 for a course description.
HJCS 491 (Section 001)
Meets with Judaic Studies 317 (Section 003)
Topics in HJCS: Politics and Culture in Hebrew Literature: Ethnicity and Gender.
Ruth Tsoffar ([email protected])
W 6-9pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 24093
See Judaic Studies 317 for a course description.
HJCS 491 (Section 002)
Meets with JS 317 (Section 001)
Seminar:� Topics in HJCS: From Bible and Midrash to Modern Hebrew Literature.
Shachar Pinsker ([email protected])
W 1-4pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 29017
See Judaic Studies 317.001 for a course description.
HJCS 543/ ACABS 543
The Bible in Jewish Tradition: Philo of Alexandria.
Gabrielle Boccaccini ([email protected])
W 6-9pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28260
See ACABS 543 for course description.
HJCS 570/ACABS 570/Judaic Studies 570
Meets with Judaic Studies 270/HJCS 270
Readings the Rabbis.
Yaron
Eliav ([email protected])
MWF 11-12pm
Students at the 500 level meet bi-weekly W 4-6pm in addition to MWF meetings
Credits 4
Class Number:� 30632
See Judaic Studies 570 for a course description.
HJCS 577/ Judaic Studies 467/ Religion 471
Seminar: Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment.
Elliot Ginsburg ([email protected])
T 7:30-10pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28986
See Judaic Studies 467 for class description.
Political Science (Division 450)
Political Science 451/Judaic Studies 480
Jewish Identities, Politics and Culture in an Age of Secularism.
Zvi Gitelman ([email protected])
TTH 4-5:30 pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28771
See Judaic Studies 480 for class description.
Political Science 653/AAPTIS 653
Proseminar in Middle East Politics
Mark Tessler ([email protected])
TH 10am-12pm
Credits 3
Class Number: 30100
See AAPTIS 653 for class description.
Religion (Division 457)
Religion 296/Judaic Studies 296/HJCS 296
Perspectives on the Holocaust.
Elliot Ginsburg ([email protected])
TTH 2:30-4pm
Credits 4
Class Number:� 28360
See Judaic Studies 296 for class description.
Religion 471/HJCS 577/ Judaic Studies 467
Seminar:� Zohar: The Book of Enlightenment.
Elliot Ginsburg ([email protected])
T 7:30-10pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 28987
Seee Judaic Studies 467 for course description
Slavic Languages and Literatures (Division 466)
.Slavic 481/ Judaic Studies 481
Central and Eastern Europe in 20th Century Jewish Writing.
Mikhail Krutikov ([email protected])
TTH 1-2:30pm
Credits 3
Class Number:� 30109
See Judaic Studies 481 for course description.