Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Reuven Kimelman; T,Th 2:20 PM–3:40 PM

An introduction to Treatise Bava Metzia, on the subject of labor law. Topics include: payment for commuting time, eating on the job, benefits a worker can expect from their employer. The course introduces the Babylonian Talmud. Attention is paid to modes of argument, literary form, and development of the Talmudic text. No previous study of Talmud is presupposed. Usually offered every second year. Prerequisite: A 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent is recommended. [HUM / OC]

Mariam Sheibani; T,Th 2:20 PM–3:40 PM

Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the modern period. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, and women in Islam. Usually offered every year. [HUM / NW]

Mariam Sheibani; T,Th 3:55 PM–5:15 PM

Tracks the evolving histories of women, gender, and sexuality in diverse Muslim societies. Examines how gendered norms and sexual mores were negotiated through law, ethics, and custom. We will compare and contrast these themes in diverse societies, from the Prophet Muhammad’s community in 7th century Arabia to North American Muslim communities in the 21st century. Usually offered every third year. [HUM / WI]

Jonathan Decter; T,F 9:35 AM–10:55 AM

A history of interreligious polemic, disputation, and dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims from antiquity to modernity. The course highlights points of difference and contention among the traditions as well as the ways in which the practice of disputation played a formative role in the coevolution of those traditions. Usually offered every second year.  [HUM]

Alex Kaye; M,W 2:30 PM–3:50 PM

Examines the development of the State of Israel from its foundation to the present time. Israel's politics, society, and culture will be thematically analyzed. Usually offered every year.  [HUM]

Edith Pick; Th 2:20 PM-5:10 PM

Eugene Sheppard; T,F 9:35 AM–10:55 AM

This seminar has a double aim. First, students will be introduced to Spinoza’s Ethics and the philosophical method he employed in facing fundamental challenges of religion, science, and politics. Second, students will be following Spinoza’s work alongside a set of 20th-21st century re-interpretations and responses that emerged first in France by Marxists and constituting the “New Spinoza,” one which prompted a re-evaluation of the fundamental problems raised when seeing aspirations for liberation and more adequate knowledge of God or nature have morphed into the emergence of deeper forms of human subjugation and the pernicious rule of will of the few in the name of the multitude. Usually offered every second year. [HUM] 

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe; T,F 11:10 AM–12:30 PM

Examines the role of Jewish women in the broader feminist movement and the impact of feminist theory and activism on Jewish thought, law, ritual practice and communal norms in the 20th and 21st century. We will explore classic feminist critiques and transformations of traditional Judaism and examine contemporary controversies involving issues such as equality under Jewish ritual and family law, sex segregation in public life, inclusion of Jewish People of Color and of LGBTQ Jews and antisemitism in the women's movement. Usually offered every year. [DEIS-US / HUM]

Jonathan Sarna; M,W 2:30 PM–3:50 PM

American Judaism from the earliest settlement to the present, with particular emphasis on the various streams of American Judaism. Judaism's place in American religion and comparisons to Judaism in other countries. Usually offered every year. [SS / WI / HUM]

Jonathan Krasner; M,W 4:05 PM–5:25 PM

Empowers students to articulate a reality-based, transformative vision of Jewish education that is grounded in an appreciation for the history and sociology of American Jewish education. It will familiarize students with and contextualize the present Jewish educational landscape, through the use of historical case studies and current research, encouraging students to view the field from an evolutionary perspective. The seminar will address Jewish education in all its forms, including formal and informal settings (e.g., schools, camps, youth groups, educational tourism). Usually offered every third year. [HUM]

Ilana Szobel; T,Th 3:55 PM–5:15 PM

Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on man-made disasters, war and terrorism, sexual and family violence, and murder and suicide, and examines their relation to nationalism, Zionism, gender, and sexual identity. Usually offered every second year. [DEIS-US / DJW / FL / OC / HUM]

Ilana Szobel; T,Th 2:20 PM–3:40 PM

Explores cultural representations of disability in Israel, Europe, and the US. By focusing on literature, film, dance, and visual art, it explores physical, mental, and emotional disability experiences, and their relations to gender, sexuality, nationalism, and identity politics. Usually offered every second year. [DEIS-US / DJW / OC / HUM]

Jonathan Decter; Th 2:20 PM–5:10 PM

The Qur'an tells versions of stories known from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and post-biblical Jewish and Christian literature. Compares the Qur'anic renditions with those circulating in the Near East with a focus on major characters (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mary, etc.). Usually offered every third year. [HUM]

Ellen Kellman; TBD

Examines modern Yiddish literary and historical texts. Introduces genres and texts of Yiddish literature and scholarship in modern Jewish history. Journalistic texts are studied to prepare students to conduct research using the Yiddish press. Grammatical concepts are reviewed as needed. Usually offered every year.

Dar Brooks Hedstrom; M,W,Th 10:10 AM–11:00 AM

Ziva Hassenfeld; T,F 9:35 AM–10:55 AM

In this required capstone course for education studies majors, students will review quantitative and qualitative research through disciplinary lenses. Students pursue some topic of inquiry by either reviewing and synthesizing educational research, or conducting some empirical research. Usually offered every year. Open to education studies majors only. [DL / OC / SS]

Jonathan Sarna; M,W 5:40 PM–7:00 PM

Uses history to shed light on the issues and challenges facing the contemporary American Jewish community. This course asks how the community assumed its current shape, and uses a series of historical case studies to examine past crises and the lessons that might be learned from them. The goal of this course is to help students craft a "usable past" - one that employs the hindsight of history to understand the present and plan ahead for the future. Usually offered every year. Half-semester course. Yields half-course credit.

Reuven Kimelman and William Flesch; T,Th 3:55 PM–5:15 PM

Introduces the student to the Western classics from Antiquity to the Renaissance and how they explore the perennially urgent issues of evil and human destiny. The relationships among the divine, the world, and history will be explored through the prisms of justice, suffering, and death. The focus is on how the formative cultures of our civilization – the Hebrew and the Greek – which merged in the Renaissance, wrestled with these problems and how their various resolutions endeavored to endow human life with meaning. Usually offered every year. Enrollment limited to Humanities Fellows. [HUM]

ChaeRan Freeze; T,Th 3:55 PM–5:15 PM

This interdisciplinary course introduces central concepts and topics in the field of women's, gender, and sexuality studies. Explores the position of women and other genders in diverse settings and the impact of gender as a social, cultural, and intellectual category in the United States and around the globe. Asks how gendered institutions, behaviors, and representations have been configured in the past and function in the present, and also examines the ways in which gender and sexuality intersect with many other vectors of identity and circumstance in forming human affairs. Usually offered every fall.  [ DEIS-US / DL / OC / SS ]