Jewish Studies
Committee Chairman: Michael Fishbane, S 205, 702-8234
Program of Study
The Bachelor of Arts concentration in Jewish Studies provides a context in which College students may examine the texts, cultures, languages, and histories of Jews and Judaism over three millennia. The perspective is contextual, comparative, and interdisciplinary. The long and diverse history of Jews and Judaism affords unique opportunities to study modes of continuity and change, interpretation and innovation, and isolation and integration of a world historical civilization. Students are encouraged to develop appropriate skills (in texts, languages, history, and culture) for independent work.
Program Requirements
The concentration requires twelve courses distributed according to the following guidelines:
Language. Normally a student is expected to take three courses of Hebrew beyond the Common Core language requirement. If the student's research project requires knowledge of a language other than Hebrew, the student may petition the committee to substitute that language for Hebrew, but not for the Common Core language requirement.
Judaic Civilization. The concentration requires three courses in the Judaic Civilization sequence. This program includes ancient, medieval, and modern components. The temporal limits of these "periods" are determined by the faculty assuming responsibility for the sequence. The first step of the sequence, covering the history of ancient Israel to the destruction of the Second Jewish Commonwealth, could be replaced by a one-quarter introduction to the Hebrew Bible. Students who meet the Common Core civilizational studies requirement with another civilization sequence must also complete the Judaic Civilization sequence as part of their concentration requirements. Students who fulfill the Common Core civilization requirement with Judaic Civilization are required to take one quarter of another civilization sequence pertinent to the area and period of their major interest in Jewish Studies. This is done in consultation with their adviser.
Other Requirements. Students who take Judaic Civilization as a concentration requirement separate from the Common Core requirement take six elective courses in Jewish Studies; students who fulfill the Common Core requirement with Judaic Civilization take eight electives. These courses would, in part, constitute the specific area of concentration for each student. The specific nature of these courses is decided upon by the student in consultation with the concentration adviser. A balance between content and method is the goal. Students are encouraged to take at least one method or theory course in the College in the area pertaining to their area of special interest.
It is expected that the Common Core requirements in the humanities or social sciences are completed before a student enters the program, normally at the end of the second year. A student who has not completed Common Core requirements prior to admission to the program should do so during the first year of the program.
Each student in the program has an adviser who is a member of the program faculty, which is listed in the section that follows. A concentration worksheet is distributed to guide students in organizing their programs.
Optional B.A. Paper. Students who choose this option are to meet with their advisers by May 15 of their third year to determine the focus of the research project, and are expected to begin reading and research for the B.A. paper during the summer before their senior year. After further consultation, students are to do guided readings and participate in a (formal or informal) tutorial during the autumn quarter of the senior year. Concentration credit is received only for the winter quarter tutorial during which the B.A. paper is finally written and revised. The B.A. paper must be received by the primary reader by the end of the fifth week of the spring quarter. A B.A. paper is a requirement for consideration for honors.
Honors. Honors are awarded to students who show excellence in their course work as well as on the B.A. paper. To receive general honors in Jewish Studies the student must have a grade point average of at least 3.25 in the concentration. High honors are be awarded to students who earn a grade point average of 3.5 or better in the concentration. An oral defense of the B.A. paper must also be given to three members of the Jewish Studies faculty.
Summary of Requirements
General Program
General 3 JewStd 220-221-222
Education or 250-251-252
Concentration 3 courses in intermediate Hebrew (or other
approved language)
3 JewStd 200-201-202 if not used to
fulfill Common Core requirement.
One related civilization course
plus two additional courses in
Jewish Studies if Judaic civilization
sequence is used to fullfill
Common Core requirement
6 courses in Judaic Studies
12
Summary of Requirements
Honors Program
General 3 JewStd 220-221-222
Education or 250-251-252
Concentration 3 courses in intermediate Hebrew (or other
approved language)
3 JewStd 200-201-202 if not used to
fulfill Common Core requirement.
One related civilization course
plus two additional courses in
Jewish Studies if Judaic civilization
sequence is used to fullfill
Common Core requirement
6 courses in Judaic Studies;
1 JewStd 299 (B.A. paper)
13
Faculty
HOWARD I. ARONSON, Professor, Departments of Slavic Languages & Literatures and Linguistics
RALPH A. AUSTEN, Professor, Department of History and the College
PHILIP V. BOHLMAN, Associate Professor, Department of Music and the College
MENACHEM BRINKER, Henry Crown Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
JOHN COLLINS, Professor, the Divinity School
ARIELA FINKELSTEIN, Lecturer, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
MICHAEL FISHBANE, Nathan Cummings Professor, the Divinity School and the College; Chairman, Committee on Jewish Studies
TIKVA FRYMER-KENSKY, Professor, the Divinity School
SANDER L. GILMAN, Henry R. Luce Professor of the Liberal Arts in Human Biology; Professor, Departments of Germanic Studies and Psychiatry and the College
SAMUEL P. JAFFE, Professor, Department of Germanic Studies and the College
LEON KASS, Addie Clark Harding Professor in the College and the Committee on Social Thought
JOEL KRAEMER, Professor, the Divinity School and the Committee on Social Thought
MARK KRUPNICK, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature and the Divinity School
RALPH LERNER, Professor, Committee on Social Thought and the College; Cochairman, Committee on Social Thought
HOWARD MOLTZ, Professor, Department of Psychology and the College
PETER NOVICK, Professor, Department of History and the College
DENNIS G. PARDEE, Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Oriental Institute, and the College
MOISHE POSTONE, Professor, Department of History and the College
SHULAMIT RAN, William H. Colvin Professor, Department of Music and the College
MARTHA T. ROTH, Associate Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, Oriental Institute, and Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World
ERIC SANTNER, Harriet and Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Modern European Jewish History, Department of Germanic Studies
JOSEF STERN, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Committee on General Studies in the Humanities, and the College
RICHARD A. STRIER, Professor, Department of English Language & Literature, Committees on General Studies in the Humanities and the Visual Arts, and the College
Courses
200-201-202. Judaic Civilization I, II, III. This course sequence fulfills the Common Core requirement in civilization studies. This is a sequential study of periods and communities selected from the history of Judaic civilization, viewed from multiple perspectives (historical, literary, philosophical, religious, and social) and examined in light of the varied ways that civilization is and is not the product of interactions between the Jewish people and surrounding civilizations, nations, and religions. The primary focus is on a close reading of original sources in translation. Specific periods and communities studied may vary from year to year.
200. Judaic Civilization I: The Bible and Its Early Interpreters (=Hum 200, JewStd 200). This course provides an overall introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), with specific attention to its literary, religious, and ideological contents. The diversity of thought and theology in ancient Israel is explored, along with its notions of text, teaching, and tradition. Revision and reinterpretation is found within the Bible itself. Portions of the earliest postbiblical interpretation (in Philo, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and selected Pseudepigrapha) are also considered. M. Fishbane. Autumn.
201. Judaic Civilization II: Rabbinic Judaism from the Mishnah to Maimonides (=Hum 201, JewStd 201). Study of the primary texts in the development of classical and medieval rabbinic Judaism from roughly 70 C.E. to the twelfth century. The course centers on selections (in translation) from the Mishnah and tannaitic Midrash, the Babylonian Talmud, Geonic and Karaite writing, the Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew literature of Andalusia, and Maimonides' legal and philosophical compositions. Topics include different conceptions of the Hebrew Bible and its interpretation; the origins and development of the Oral Law; relations between Judaism and both Christianity and Islam; sectarianism; rationalist and antirationalist trends in rabbinic thought; and the emergence of secular pursuits in the rabbinic tradition. J. Stern. Winter.
202. Judaic Civilization III: Varieties of Modern Jewish Experience (=Hum 202, JewStd 202). This course offers a view of some paradigmatic Jewish life experiences since Emancipation and the troubled entrance of Jews into mainstream Western society. Possible discussions focus on the papers of Rahel Varnhagen with commentary by Hannah Arendt on assimilation; Franz Kafka on assimilation or alienation; Freud and some interpreters on psychoanalysis; (3) Theodor Herzl and others on Zionism as the repudiation of Jewish life in the diaspora; (4) and being Jewish in America, as portrayed by Henry Roth on the trauma of immigration and Saul Bellow on the price of success; and (5) Holocaust testimonies. M. Krupnick. Spring.
217. East European Yiddish Language and Culture (=JewStd 217, LngLin 217). PQ: Knowledge of languages such as Yiddish, German, or Hebrew not required. An introduction to Yiddish language and to the culture of East European Jews through the reading of a collection of short literary texts in the original Yiddish: the Khumesh lider (Bible poems) of Itsik Manger. Students should be able to read Yiddish texts with the aid of a dictionary after completing the course. H. Aronson. Winter.
220-221-222. Elementary Classical Hebrew I, II, III (=Hebrew 250-251-252, JewStd 220-221-222). This course sequence fulfills the Common Core foreign language requirement. D. Pardee. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
223-224-225. Intermediate Classical Hebrew I, II, III (=Hebrew 253-254-255, JewStd 223-224-225). D. Pardee. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
227. Jewish-American Self-Reflection (=DivRL 201, Eng 227, GS Hum 217, JewStd 227). This course studies works that illuminate the question of Jewish identity in America in the twentieth century. Some texts take up this issue as their explicit subject, and others may be revelatory without intending to or even despite their manifest intention. Most of the texts are literary (authors may include Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Mike Gold, Henry Roth, Nathanael West, Saul Bellow, Grace Paley, and Philip Roth), but selections from the works of historians, social observers and reformers, and religious thinkers are also included. M. Krupnick. Autumn.
228. Book of Daniel. PQ: Reading knowledge of Aramaic and Hebrew. Exegesis of the Hebrew and Aramaic text. J. Collins. Winter.
232. Introduction to Jewish Mystical Literature: The Book of Zohar. PQ: Knowledge of languages such as Aramaic or Hebrew not required. Readings in the book of Zohar with close attention to the types of mystical language and mystical experience in the readings. The course considers this classical work within the context of Jewish and general mysticism. M. Fishbane. Winter.
233. Apocalyptism and Christian Origins. This course offers discussion of the development of apocalyptism in Hellenistic Judaism and the impact of apocalyptism on early Christianity. J. Collins. Autumn.
234. The World of the Biblical Prophets (=Hum 234, JewStd 234). This course offers an in-depth analysis of the biblical prophets. Each prophet is set in historical time and within a particular societal context, and against this background a profile of the man is drawn. What was he like as a social reformer and religious thinker? What did he say no to in society and organized worship? And to what did he say yes? How was his message received, and what influence did it have in its day? Finally, are the prophets merely historical figures, curiosities of antiquity, or do they speak to us in our own age? H. Moltz. Autumn.
235. The Radicalism of Job and Ecclesiastes (=Fndmtl 246, Hum 235, JewStd 235). Both Job and Ecclesiastes dispute a central doctrine of the Hebrew Bible, namely, the doctrine of retributive justice. Each book argues that a person's fate is not a consequence of his or her religio-moral acts and thus the piety, whatever else it is, must be disinterested. In brief, the authors of Job and Ecclesiates, each in his own way, not only "de-mythologizes," but "de-moralizes" the world. The students read the books in translation and discuss their theological and philosophical implications. H. Moltz. Spring.
240. Mythological Traditions and the Bible. Participants study the mythic tradition of the ancient world and how the Bible adopted, adapted, and ultimately transformed this. The course concentrates on the first eleven chapters in the book of Genesis and on poetry sections of the Bible. T. Frymer-Kensky. Spring.
243. Historical Introduction to Modern Hebrew Literature. This course covers Hebrew literature from the Biblical, Midrashic, medieval, and modern periods. Intertextual relationships between the different epochs are examined as layers of a continuous literature, focusing on themes and forms that are present in ancient Hebrew literature through modern Hebrew literature. Geographical and demographical backgrounds to Hebrew literature are discussed. M. Brinker. Winter.
244. Sociology of Second Temple Judaism. J. Collins, M. Riesebrodt. Winter.
250-251-252. Introductory Modern Hebrew I, II, III (=Hebrew 201-202-203, JewStd 250-251-252, LngLin 201-202-203). This course sequence fulfills the Common Core foreign language requirement. This course introduces students to reading, writing, and speaking modern Hebrew. All four language skills are emphasized: comprehension of written and oral materials; reading of nondiacritical 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 essays. A. Finkelstein. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
253-254-255. Intermediate Modern Hebrew (=Hebrew 204-205-206, JewStd 253-254-255, LngLin 204-205-206). This course is devised for students who had previously taken either modern or biblical Hebrew courses. The main objective is to provide students with the skills necessary to approach modern Hebrew prose, both fiction and nonfiction. In order to achieve this formidable task, students are provided with a systematic examination of the complete verb structure. Many syntactic structures are introduced, including simple clauses, and coordinate and compound sentences. At this level students not only write and speak extensively, but are also required to analyze grammatically and contextually all of the materials assigned. A. Finkelstein. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
256-257-258. Advanced Modern Hebrew I, II, III (=Hebrew 230-231-232, JewStd 256-257-258). This course assumes that students have full mastery of the grammatical and lexical content at the intermediate level. However, there is a shift from a reliance on the cognitive approach to an emphasis on the expansion of various grammatical and vocabulary-related subjects. Students are introduced to sophisticated and more complex syntactic constructions, and instructed how to transform simple sentences into more complicated ones. The exercises address the creative effort on the part of the student, and the reading segments are longer and more challenging in both style and content. The language of the texts reflects the literary written medium rather than the more informal spoken style, which often dominates the introductory and intermediate texts. A. Finkelstein. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
262. Maimonides' Code (=JewStd 262, SocTh 346). PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew helpful but not required. A study of the first and last books of the Mishneh Torah, the book of Knowledge and the book of Judges. R. Lerner. Spring.
270. Freud, Herzl, and Turn-of-the-Century Culture (=HiPSS 298, JewStd 270). PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing and knowledge of German. A reading of a series of major texts from the turn of the century in the light of the question of racial anti-Semitism, gender, and their relationship to fin de siècle culture. Among the texts read are Freud and Schnitzler on hysteria, Herzl on the new Zion, Strauss's reading of Oscar Wilde's Salome, and Lou Andreas-Salome on Nietzsche. Texts in English and the original. S. Gilman. Not offered 1997-98; will be offered 1998-99.
275. Poetry of the Jews, Germans, and Other "Others". PQ: Reading knowledge of German helpful but not required. The course consists of a series of close readings in several subgenres of verse, mostly (but not exclusively) from the modern period. Its aim is to explore how problematic identities such as those of Germans, of Jews, and of other "Others" creatively reinvent and reinscribe themselves within that most personal and intimate of canonical genres, lyric poetry. Poets read include Heine, Lazarus, Bialik, Lasker-Schüler, Celan, Reznikoff, Shapiro, McElroy, Amichai, Pagis, and Percy. Suggestions for poems are welcome. Texts in English and the original. S. Jaffe. Winter.
282. The Psalms. PQ: Knowledge of biblical Hebrew. In this course we study the book of Psalms as a whole and also read representative Psalms. T. Frymer-Kensky. Autumn.
286. Song of Songs I. PQ: Knowledge of biblical Hebrew. This course offers a close reading of Song of Songs, with special attention paid to poetics and structure. The text is examined in light of ancient Near Eastern love poetry and medieval and modern readings concerned with the primary contextual senses of the work. M. Fishbane. Autumn.
287. Song of Songs II: Midrash. PQ: Knowledge of Hebrew. This course studies selected passages from ancient and medieval Midrashic commentaries to the Song of Songs. Theological transformation and hermeneutical techniques are examined. Method in the study of Midrash is considered. M. Fishbane. Autumn.
298. General Reading/Research Course. PQ: Consent of instructor and committee chairman. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
299. B.A. Paper Preparation Course. PQ: Consent of instructor and committee chairman. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Required for honors candidates. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
316. Biblical Religion: The Hebrew Bible. This is the first course in a new sequence sponsored by the Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World. T. Frymer-Kensky. Autumn.
341. Leviticus. PQ: Knowledge of biblical Hebrew. This course is a study of the book of Leviticus, its composition, its theology, and its version of Israel's history and mission. T. Frymer-Kensky. Spring.
364. Anti-Semitism in Germany, 1095 to 1933 (=German 364, JewStd 364). PQ: Consent of instructor. Reading knowledge of German helpful. This course explores the history of anti-Semitism in Germany through a close reading of selected anti-Semitic tracts and an analysis of anti-Semitic imagery from the First Crusade to Mein Kampf. Anti-anti-Semitic trends are also considered. S. Jaffe. Spring.
384. Freud, Women, and Jews (=German 382, GS Hum 369, JewStd 384). This course examines the writings of Sigmund Freud on women and Jews. S. Jaffe. Winter.
Consult the quarterly Time Schedules for additional course listings in Hebrew Bible, Hebrew literature, history, and Jewish thought.