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Jewish Studies (JWST) Courses

Academic Unit: Class & Near Eastern Studies

JWST 1034 - Introduction to Jewish History and Cultures [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-04, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-99, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-99, RELS 1034 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was RELA 1034 until 02-SEP-08), RELS 3034 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was RELA 3034 until 02-SEP-08), HIST 1534, JWST 3034, HIST 3534
This course traces the development of Judaism and Jewish civilizations from their beginnings to the present. With over three millennia as its subject, the course must of necessity be a general survey. Together we will explore the mythic structures, significant documents, historical experiences, narratives, practices, beliefs, and worldviews of the Jewish people. The course begins by examining the roots of Judaism in the Hebrew Bible and the history of ancient Israel but quickly focuses on the creative forces that developed within Judaism as a national narrative confronted the forces of history, especially in the forms of the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. Rabbinic Judaism becomes the most dominant creative force and will receive our greatest attention, both in its formative years and as it encounters the rise of Christianity and Islam. After studying the Jewish experience in the medieval world, we will turn to Judaism?s encounter with the enlightenment and modernity. The historical survey concludes by attending to the transformations within Judaism and Jewish life of the last 150 years, including a confrontation with the experience of the Holocaust. Woven throughout this historical survey will be repeated engagements with core questions: ?Who is a Jew?? ?What do Jews believe?? ?What do Jews do?? ?What do we mean by `religion??? ?How do Jews read texts within their tradition?? And perhaps most importantly, ?How many answers are there to a Jewish question?? Students in this course can expect to come away with some knowledge of the Bible in Judaism, rabbinic literature and law, Jewish mysticism and philosophy, Jewish nationalism and Zionism, Jewish culture, ritual, and worship in the synagogue, the home, and the community, and Jewish celebrations of life cycle events and the festivals.
JWST 1201 - The Bible: Context and Interpretation, World of the Hebrew Bible [LITR]
(3 cr; Prereq-Knowledge of Hebrew not required; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 3201 until 18-JAN-22), RELS 3201 (starting 04-SEP-18, was RELA 3201 until 02-SEP-08, was CNES 1201 until 06-SEP-05, was CNES 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 1001 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 3001 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-99), JWST 3201 (starting 04-SEP-18), CNRC 1201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 1201 until 18-JAN-22), RELS 1201 (starting 04-SEP-18)
The Hebrew Bible and Old Testament are literary collections that modern Jewish and Christian traditions maintain as important, but these collections were initially produced by ancient Israelite scribes who composed and/or compiled the biblical texts at particular time periods in the ancient Near East. This course will introduce the academic study of biblical texts, which demands critical analysis of the literature and an openness to reading the literature from the perspective of ancient Israelite writers (who lived in a world far different from today). The course will spend considerable time on the literary (and scribal) composition of biblical prose texts; time will also be spent on the historical circumstances of biblical prophets and other writers of the biblical texts. This course will only address the ancient setting of the biblical texts and not re-interpretations in Jewish or Christian traditions. Given the scope of the course, modern interpretations of the biblical literature will not be discussed; we will only focus on this literature in its ancient setting.
JWST 1205 - The Bible and Film: The Holy Book Meets the Silver Screen [AH]
(3 cr; A-F or Audit; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 1205, CNRC 1205
The Bible has been a star of Hollywood and the silver screen since the birth of cinema. This course tells that story. The Bible has deep roots in American society, in communities of faith, in politics, in art and literature, and in popular culture. It is no surprise, then, that filmmakers have frequently drawn on the Bible as source text and as inspiration. This course explores the ways in which the Bible has been interpreted and reimagined in film over the past century. We will examine the relationships between the biblical texts and the films they inspired, considering questions such as: How do the filmmakers rework their sources to make them relevant to contemporary audiences? How beholden are the filmmakers to the interpretations of communities that view biblical texts as authoritative, and where are they free to depart from their sources? Is it possible to "translate" biblical narratives into film without losing something in the translation?
JWST 3011 - Jewish American Literature: Religion, Culture, and the Immigrant Experience [HIS DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3628, ENGL 3011 (starting 22-MAY-17)
Immigrant? Jewish? American? What do these labels mean, why are they applied, and do they ever cease to be applicable? Can we distinguish religion from culture, and what are the implications when we try? Why is it frequently asked whether Saul Bellow was ?really? a Jewish writer, but it is impossible to read Philip Roth as anything other than that? How does Grace Paley?s ?Jewishness? come through even when she is writing about non-Jewish characters? We will address these issues and others as we explore the literature growing out of the Jewish immigrant experience in America, as well as the literature by Jewish writers more firmly, though still sometimes anxiously, rooted in American soil. In this course we will engage in a highly contextualized and historicized study of Jewish American literature from the 19th century to today. We will discover in these texts how inherited Jewish culture and literary imaginings, developed over centuries of interaction between Jewish communities and the ?outside world,? get reexamined, questioned, rejected, reimagined, reintegrated, and transformed within the crucible of American experience. The discussions that ensue will also provide a framework for engaging with the creative energies and cultural productivity of more recent immigrant communities in the United States and beyond. Immigration and the experience of immigrant communities continues to be at the forefront of American consciousness, as immigrants work to create new meanings and new narratives for their lives, and as those who immigrated before them provide contested meanings for the impact of immigration on their own narratives. This course, though grounded in Jewish narratives, will therefore provide students with an expanded vocabulary and perspective for engaging in this central and very current debate within the American experience.
JWST 3013W - Biblical Law and Jewish Ethics [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was JWST 3013 until 05-SEP-00, RELS 3013W (starting 04-SEP-12, ending 17-JAN-06, starting 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3013W until 02-SEP-08, was RELA 3013 until 05-SEP-00), RELS 5013W (starting 06-SEP-16, ending 17-JAN-06, was RELS 5013 until 05-SEP-17, was RELA 5013 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 5016W, JWST 5013W, CNRC 3016W, LAW 6916 (starting 03-SEP-19)
This course introduces students to the original meaning and significance of religious law and ethics within Judaism. Law is the single most important part of Jewish history and identity. At the same time, law is also the least understood part of Judaism and has often been the source of criticism and hatred. We shall therefore confront one of the most important parts of Jewish civilization and seek to understand it on its own terms. In demonstrating how law becomes a fundamental religious and ethical ideal, the course will focus on the biblical and Rabbinic periods but spans the entire history of Judaism. Consistent with the First Amendment, the approach taken is secular. There are no prerequisites: the course is open to all qualified students. The course begins with ideas of law in ancient Babylon and then studies the ongoing history of those ideas. The biblical idea that a covenant binds Israel to God, along with its implications for human worth - including the view of woman as person - will be examined. Comparative cultural issues include the reinterpretations of covenant within Christianity and Islam. The course investigates the rabbinic concept of oral law, the use of law to maintain the civil and religious stability of the Jewish people, and the kabbalistic transformation of law. The course concludes with contemporary Jewish thinkers who return to the Bible while seeking to establish a modern system of universal ethics. The premise of the course is the discipline of academic religious studies. The assumptions of the course are therefore academic and secular, as required by the First Amendment. All texts and all religious traditions will be examined analytically and critically. Students are expected to understand and master this approach, which includes questioning conventional cultural assumptions about the composition and authorship of the Bible. Willingness to ask such questions and openness to new ways of thinking are essential to success in the course.
JWST 3034 - Introduction to Jewish History and Cultures [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: RELS 1034 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was RELA 1034 until 02-SEP-08), JWST 1034 (starting 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-04, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1034 until 07-SEP-99, was JWST 3034 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3034 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 3034 (starting 02-SEP-08, ending 06-SEP-05, was RELA 3034 until 02-SEP-08), HIST 1534, HIST 3534
This course traces the development of Judaism and Jewish civilizations from their beginnings to the present. With over three millennia as its subject, the course must of necessity be a general survey. Together we will explore the mythic structures, significant documents, historical experiences, narratives, practices, beliefs, and worldviews of the Jewish people. The course begins by examining the roots of Judaism in the Hebrew Bible and the history of ancient Israel but quickly focuses on the creative forces that developed within Judaism as a national narrative confronted the forces of history, especially in the forms of the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. Rabbinic Judaism becomes the most dominant creative force and will receive our greatest attention, both in its formative years and as it encounters the rise of Christianity and Islam. After studying the Jewish experience in the medieval world, we will turn to Judaism?s encounter with the enlightenment and modernity. The historical survey concludes by attending to the transformations within Judaism and Jewish life of the last 150 years, including a confrontation with the experience of the Holocaust. Woven throughout this historical survey will be repeated engagements with core questions: ?Who is a Jew?? ?What do Jews believe?? ?What do Jews do?? ?What do we mean by `religion??? ?How do Jews read texts within their tradition?? And perhaps most importantly, ?How many answers are there to a Jewish question?? Students in this course can expect to come away with some knowledge of the Bible in Judaism, rabbinic literature and law, Jewish mysticism and philosophy, Jewish nationalism and Zionism, Jewish culture, ritual, and worship in the synagogue, the home, and the community, and Jewish celebrations of life cycle events and the festivals.
JWST 3115 - Midrash: Reading and Retelling the Hebrew Bible
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELA 3115 until 07-SEP-99, CNRC 5115, CNRC 3115, JWST 5115, RELS 5115 (starting 26-MAY-15, ending 17-JAN-12, starting 02-SEP-08, ending 18-JAN-05, was RELA 5115 until 02-SEP-08), RELS 3115 (starting 23-MAY-16, ending 17-JAN-12, starting 02-SEP-08, ending 02-SEP-03, was RELA 3115 until 02-SEP-08)
How did the Jews of the first seven centuries of the common era read and understand the Hebrew Bible? What were the problems they faced -- interpretive, historical, theological -- in trying to apply their holy scriptures? This course explores key issues that led to the development of a new form of Judaism in late antiquity, rabbinic Judaism, and its methods of scriptural interpretation. The course's study will focus on the forms and practices of rabbinic scriptural interpretation (midrash) as it developed in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia, focusing on key narrative and legal passages in the Five Books of Moses (Torah). A main focus of the course will be on the ways the rabbis adapted the Hebrew Bible to express their own core concerns.
JWST 3126 - Judaism in the Modern World
(3 cr; Student Option)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3126 until 26-MAY-15, was RELA 3126 until 02-SEP-08, was RELA 3126 until 07-SEP-99
Jewish theology, religion, and ideology in the 19th and 20th centuries. American Judaism: orthodox, conservative, reform, reconstructionist; religious and communal organizational structures. Zionism in Europe, Israel, and America. Hasidism. Jewish responses to feminism and the democratic ideal.
JWST 3201 - The Bible: Context and Interpretation, World of the Hebrew Bible [LITR]
(3 cr; Prereq-Knowledge of Hebrew not required; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 3201 until 18-JAN-22), RELS 3201 (starting 04-SEP-18, was RELA 3201 until 02-SEP-08, was CNES 1201 until 06-SEP-05, was CNES 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 1001 until 07-SEP-04, was ANE 3001 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3201 until 07-SEP-99), JWST 1201 (starting 04-SEP-18), CNRC 1201 (starting 18-JAN-22, was CNES 1201 until 18-JAN-22), RELS 1201 (starting 04-SEP-18)
The Hebrew Bible and Old Testament are literary collections that modern Jewish and Christian traditions maintain as important, but these collections were initially produced by ancient Israelite scribes who composed and/or compiled the biblical texts at particular time periods in the ancient Near East. This course will introduce the academic study of biblical texts, which demands critical analysis of the literature and an openness to reading the literature from the perspective of ancient Israelite writers (who lived in a world far different from today). The course will spend considerable time on the literary (and scribal) composition of biblical prose texts; time will also be spent on the historical circumstances of biblical prophets and other writers of the biblical texts. This course will only address the ancient setting of the biblical texts and not re-interpretations in Jewish or Christian traditions. Given the scope of the course, modern interpretations of the biblical literature will not be discussed; we will only focus on this literature in its ancient setting.
JWST 3205 - Women, Gender, and the Hebrew Bible [AH]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3205, RELS 3205
How men, women, gender, sexuality is portrayed in Hebrew Bible. Social/religious roles/status of women in ancient Israel. Read biblical texts from academic point of view.
JWST 3206 - Sex, Murder, and Bodily Discharges: Purity and Pollution in the Ancient World [HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: ANTH 3206 (starting 03-SEP-19), RELS 3206 (starting 03-SEP-19), MEST 3206, CNRC 3206 (starting 03-SEP-19, was CNES 3206 until 18-JAN-22)
"Dirt is dangerous," Mary Douglas declared more than 50 years ago in her groundbreaking study, "Purity and Danger." Douglas's ideas have been influential in ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern studies and provide a framework for us to analyze how people in antiquity conceptualized ideas of purity, pollution, ritual sacrifice, sacred spaces, bodily leakages, and the liminal stages of life and death. We'll delve into Douglas's theory in light of ancient examples with a special focus on ancient Israelite texts (the Tanakh or Old Testament) as well as ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern building inscriptions, specialist manuals, and rituals. Through this evidence, we'll gain profound insight into the ancient notions of "sacred/clean" (purity) and the "unclean/profane" (pollution).
JWST 3502W - Ancient Israel: From Conquest to Exile [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was JWST 3502 until 19-JAN-21, CNRC 5502W, HIST 3502W, CNRC 3502W (starting 07-SEP-99, was CNES 3502W until 18-JAN-22, was CNES 3502 until 19-JAN-21, was ANE 3502 until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 3502 until 12-JUN-00, was ANE 3502 until 12-JUN-00, was RELA 3502 until 07-SEP-99, was ANE 5502 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 3502W (starting 07-SEP-10, ending 04-SEP-01, was RELS 3502 until 19-JAN-21, was RELA 3502 until 02-SEP-08)
Israel and Judah were not states of great importance in the ancient Near East. Their population and territory were small, and they could not resist conquest by larger, more powerful states like Assyria and Rome. Yet their ancient history matters greatly today, out of proportion to its insignificance during the periods in which it transpired. The historical experiences of the people of Israel and Judah were accorded religious meaning and literary articulation in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), which became a foundational text for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Essential features of Western as well as Islamic civilization are predicated on some element of Israel?s ancient past, as mediated through the Bible; therefore it behooves us to understand that past. But the Bible is a religious work, not a transcript of events, and the history of ancient Israel is not derived merely from reading the biblical accounts of it. Archaeological excavations have revealed the physical remains of the cultures of Israel and neighboring lands, as well as bringing to light inscriptions, documents, and literary works produced by those cultures. These sources, which complement and sometimes contradict the accounts conveyed in the Bible, provide the basis for reconstructing a comprehensive history of ancient Israel. This course covers the history of Israel and Judah from the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550-1200 BCE), by the end of which Israel had emerged as a distinct ethnic entity, to the period of Roman rule (63 BCE-330 CE), which saw the final extinction of ancient Israel, represented by the kingdom of Judea, as a political entity. Knowledge of this history is based on archaeological, epigraphic, and literary sources, including the Hebrew Bible. N.B.: Students should be aware that the study of history, like all the human and natural sciences, is predicated on inquiry, not a priori judgments. Accordingly, the Bible is not privileged as an intrinsically true or authoritative
JWST 3504 - Apocalypticism, Cosmic Warfare, and the Maccabees: Jewish Strategies of Resistance in Antiquity
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3504 (starting 02-SEP-08, was RELA 3504 until 02-SEP-08, was ANE 3504 until 06-SEP-05, was RELA 3504 until 07-SEP-99, was ANE 5504 until 07-SEP-99, was RELA 5504 until 07-SEP-99), CNRC 3504
The rise of Hellenistic kingdoms in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East created a variety of responses from local, subjugated peoples, and some of the most documented cases are those of Jewish populations in Koele-Syria/Palestine. The main objective of this course is to analyze Jewish responses to imperial rule and military conflict during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods (c. 300 B.C.E. - 150 C.E.), but we will also spend time examining the broader picture of how local, ancestral groups fared under foreign rule. Along with discussing pertinent archaeological evidence, we will discuss Jewish literature and documentary material from this period, including, the sectarian documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Judith (a Jewish "novel"), the Books of Daniel and the Maccabees (all of which provide historical information about the Maccabean revolt and rise of the Hasmoneans), and the writings of Josephus (a Jewish writer who witnessed the Roman takeover of Palestine in the first century C.E.). This course will stay within the confines of the ancient evidence and not examine later interpretations when analyzing each historical period; it will begin with Ptolemaic control of the region and conclude with the Bar Kokhba revolt, its aftermath, and the resilience of Jewish populations in northern Palestine. Topics that will be examined in depth are messianism and apocalypticism, the Jerusalem Temple, Jewish ancestral traditions (which include biblical literature), and theoretical models used by scholars to analyze power relationships in antiquity.
JWST 3506 - The Israeli Mossad in Film and Literature: History, Narrative, and Ethics
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3506, HEBR 5506
This course will look at Mossad's activities and their perceptions in Israeli culture through lenses of collective memory and national identity. Students will examine primary and secondary sources to understand the historic background and the various narratives, shaping the Israeli culture. Students will conduct discussions pertaining to the place of Mossad in Israeli culture expressing opinions about the ethical component of Mossad's activities.
JWST 3511 - Muslims and Jews: Conflict and Co-existence in the Middle East and North Africa since 1700 [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: RELS 3079, HIST 3511 (starting 06-SEP-11)
Diversity of social/cultural interactions between Muslims and Jews and between Islam and Judaism since 1700. What enabled the two religious communities to peacefully coexist? What were causes of conflict? Why is history of Muslim-Jewish relations such a contested issue?
JWST 3512 - History of Modern Israel/Palestine: Society, Culture, and Politics [GP]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3512 (starting 06-SEP-11), GLOS 3942 (inactive), RELS 3113
History of Zionism/Israel. Arab-Jewish conflict, tensions between religious/Jews. Relationships between Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, Russian, Ethiopian, Arab citizens. Israeli cultural imagery. Newsreels, political posters, television shows, films, popular music.
JWST 3515 - Multiculturalism in Modern Israel: how communities, ideologies, and identities intersect
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 3515, HEBR 5515
This course focuses on the way various cultural groups in Israel attempt to achieve cultural recognition. Students will learn how various ethnic and religious groups shape their identities through process of acculturation and struggle. Students will learn about several Israeli cultures by reading literature, book chapters and case-studies, and watching movies, all of which center on these debates. Students will examine various case studies centered on these multicultural issues in Israel and will discuss and reflect on the implications of the issues raised by the course material for the international community, the United States, and for their own lives.
JWST 3518 - Jewish Humor: Seriously Funny from Text to Stage to Screen [DSJ]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: HSEM 2042H (inactive, starting 18-JAN-22), HIST 3518, CNRC 3518
In the U.S. the comic world has been so dominated by Jewish writers and performers that the "People of the Book" have come to be known as the "People of the Joke." A 2013 Pew Research poll showed that for American Jews, a sense of humor is essential to their Jewish identity, more important than ritual or the observance of traditional religious commandments. While surveying a broad range of humor in print, on stage, and in films along with classical Jewish texts including the Torah and Talmud, students will learn about the historical and cultural contexts that make such humor not only possible, but existentially necessary, a serious business indeed. And we'll accomplish all this while laughing hysterically. No prior knowledge of Jewish history and culture is required or assumed.
JWST 3520 - History of the Holocaust
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3727, RELS 3520, HIST 3727W (inactive), JWST 3521W (inactive), RELS 3521W (inactive, starting 16-JAN-01, was JWST 3521W until 06-SEP-05, was JWST 3521W until 07-SEP-04, was JWST 3521W until 03-SEP-02, was JWST 3521 until 16-JAN-01, was RELS 3521 until 07-SEP-99)
Study of 1933-1945 extermination of six million Jews and others by Nazi Germany on basis of race. European anti-Semitism. Implications of social Darwinism and race theory. Perpetrators, victims, onlookers, resistance. Theological responses of Jews and Christians.
JWST 3521W - History of the Holocaust [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 3521W until 05-SEP-17, was RELS 3521W until 07-SEP-04, was RELS 3521W until 03-SEP-02, was RELS 3521W until 16-JAN-01, was JWST 3521 until 16-JAN-01, was RELS 3521 until 07-SEP-99, HIST 3727, RELS 3520, HIST 3727W (inactive), RELS 3521W (inactive, starting 16-JAN-01, was JWST 3521W until 06-SEP-05, was JWST 3521W until 07-SEP-04, was JWST 3521W until 03-SEP-02, was JWST 3521 until 16-JAN-01, was RELS 3521 until 07-SEP-99), JWST 3520
Study of the 1933-1945 extermination of six million Jews and others by Nazi Germany on the basis of race. European anti-Semitism, implications of social Darwinism and race theory, perpetrators, victims, onlookers, resistance, and theological responses of Jews and Christians.
JWST 3606 - Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Middle Ages [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Fall Even, Spring Odd Year)
Equivalent courses: MEST 3606, RELS 3717, HIST 3606 (starting 07-SEP-10)
A Pew Research survey of the global religious landscape in 2010 found 2.2 billion Christians (31.5% of the world's population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23.2%), and 14 million Jews (.2%). In this class, we explore how the histories of these religious communities became deeply entangled in an age of diplomacy, trade, jihad, and crusade.
JWST 3631 - Jewish and German Writing at the Margins: Multilingualism, Race, Memory
(3 cr; Prereq-No knowledge of German required; some work in German must be done in order to count this course toward a German minor or a German, Scandinavian, Dutch major.; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: CSCL 3123, GER 3631 (starting 07-SEP-99, was CSCL 3631 until 06-SEP-05, was JWST 3631 until 07-SEP-99)
How are minority stories, novels, and poems constructed at the margins of a majority culture's language? This course addresses this question by exploring the complexity of Jewish culture in modernity, with a focus on 20th and 21st century German and American literature. We will first tackle the open-ended and endlessly productive question of what is meant by Jewish culture. What is a Jewish writer and is there such a thing as Jewish writing? What makes a text "Jewish"? How do Jewish authors challenge the assumptions of majority culture in their work? What role do multilingualism and translation play in the formation of Jewish cultures at the margins? We will trace the lines of affinity between the U.S. and Europe to explore the entangled histories of Germans and Jews, and between German Jews and Turkish Germans, as we look at works that challenge and expand the definition of Jewishness in the 20th century. Additional topics to be considered include how the legacies of American slavery and European colonialism shape our understandings of the Nazi genocide of the Jews, and whether Jewish writing should be understood under the rubric of "whiteness." Moving beyond the approach to German Jewish literary studies anchored in Weimar Germany, we will explore the circulation of Jewish memory between Europe and the U.S. in the aftermath of the Holocaust. We will read works by, among others, Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, Gershon Scholem, Hannah Arendt, Benjamin Stein, Walter Benjamin, Barbara Honigmann, Helene Cixous, Raymond Federman, W.G. Sebald, Allen Ginsberg, Adeena Karasick, Alfred Kazin, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud, Avram Sutzkever, Zafer Senocak.
JWST 3633 - The Holocaust: Memory, Narrative, History [GP HIS]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: GER 3633
Decades after the end of the second world war, the Holocaust continues to play a formative role in public discourse about the past in Germany and Austria. As the event itself recedes into the past, our knowledge about the Holocaust has become increasingly shaped by literary and filmic representations of it. This course has several objectives: first, to deepen students' historical knowledge of the events and experiences of the Holocaust, and at the same time to introduce critical models for examining the relationship between personal experience, historical events, and forms of representation. This class will introduce students to the debates about the politics of memory and the artistic representation of the Holocaust, with special focus on public debates about the complex ways in which Holocaust memory surfaces in contemporary Germany and Austria, and by the accrual of layers of text and discourse about the Holocaust. We will explore the controversies and debates about public Holocaust memorialization in Germany, Austria, and the U.S. We will also explore the complex interplay between documentary and fictional accounts of the Holocaust, with attention paid to literary and film texts that challenge and "remediate" the limits of Holocaust representation. Additional topics will include Holocaust testimony; Holocaust memoirs, and 2nd and 3rd generation Holocaust literature, the Historians' Debate of the 1980s. No knowledge of German required.
JWST 3729 - Nazi Germany and Hitler's Europe
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: HIST 3729 (starting 02-SEP-08)
Comprehensive exploration of Third Reich. How Nazis came to power, transformations of 1930s, imposition of racial politics against Jews/others, nature of total war. Historical accounts, memoirs, state documents, view films.
JWST 3837 - Orienting Hebrew Literature [LITR GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: AMES 3837 (starting 07-SEP-21)
An introductory survey of Modern Hebrew Literature and its journey from Eastern Europe through Ottoman/British Palestine to the State of Israel. The class centers on the manner in which Hebrew literature has envisioned the Middle East or "the Orient," reflecting, manipulating, or challenging orientalist paradigms. The first part of the course focuses on Hebrew literature written by Eastern European writers, their fantasies of the East as well as their engagements with orientalist or anti-Semite prejudices. The second part examines Hebrew literature's attempts to "nativize" in Palestine. Finally, we will read a series of texts by Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, and Palestinian Israeli writers that complicate any attempt to position Hebrew within an Orient/Occident dichotomy. No prior familiarity with Hebrew literature is necessary. All texts will be read in English.
JWST 3896 - Jewish Studies Internship for Academic Credit
(1 cr [max 4]; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 4 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
The Jewish Studies Internship is intended to support an applied learning experience in an agreed-upon, short-term, supervised workplace activity, with defined goals which are related to the field of Jewish studies. The work can be full or part time, paid or unpaid, primarily in off-campus environments. Internships integrate knowledge and theories gained previously within the classroom context with practical application and skill development in professional or community settings, alongside academic assignments intended to reflect upon, inform, and reinforce the workplace experiences. The skills and knowledge learned within the workplace setting should be transferable to other employment settings and not simply to advance the operations of the employer. Typically the student's work is supervised and evaluated by a site coordinator or instructor, and the instructor is responsible for evaluating the specifically academic component of the internship course. Academic credit reflects academic learning, with the understanding that such learning may also take place within the workplace environment.
JWST 3993 - Directed Study
(1 cr [max 4]; Prereq-instr consent; A-F only; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 8 credits; may be repeated 2 times)
Guided individual reading or study.
JWST 4000W - Final Project, Writing Intensive [WI]
(4 cr; Prereq-JwSt major, permission of dir of undergrad studies; A-F or Audit; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Independent research/writing under supervision of a faculty sponsor. A student may approach any JwSt faculty member to develop a program of independent research/writing in an area of student's choosing.
JWST 4001W - Final Project, Writing Intensive [WI]
(1 cr; Prereq-concurrent registration is required (or allowed) in 5xxx, JwSt major, permission of dir of undergrad studies; A-F or Audit; offered Every Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was JWST 3951 until 20-JAN-04
Independent research and writing, under supervision of a faculty sponsor. Student makes a contract with instructor to write an in-depth research paper, or comparable project, to be completed in conjunction with a JwSt 5xxx course.
JWST 5013W - Biblical Law and Jewish Ethics [WI]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was JWST 5013 until 17-JAN-12, RELS 3013W (starting 04-SEP-12, ending 17-JAN-06, starting 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3013W until 02-SEP-08, was RELA 3013 until 05-SEP-00), RELS 5013W (starting 06-SEP-16, ending 17-JAN-06, was RELS 5013 until 05-SEP-17, was RELA 5013 until 02-SEP-08), CNRC 5016W, JWST 3013W (starting 07-SEP-99, was JWST 3013 until 05-SEP-00), CNRC 3016W, LAW 6916 (starting 03-SEP-19)
This course introduces students to the original meaning and significance of religious law and ethics within Judaism. Law is the single most important part of Jewish history and identity. At the same time, law is also the least understood part of Judaism and has often been the source of criticism and hatred. We shall therefore confront one of the most important parts of Jewish civilization and seek to understand it on its own terms. In demonstrating how law becomes a fundamental religious and ethical ideal, the course will focus on the biblical and Rabbinic periods but spans the entire history of Judaism. Consistent with the First Amendment, the approach taken is secular. There are no prerequisites: the course is open to all qualified students. The course begins with ideas of law in ancient Babylon and then studies the ongoing history of those ideas. The biblical idea that a covenant binds Israel to God, along with its implications for human worth - including the view of woman as person - will be examined. Comparative cultural issues include the reinterpretations of covenant within Christianity and Islam. The course investigates the rabbinic concept of oral law, the use of law to maintain the civil and religious stability of the Jewish people, and the kabbalistic transformation of law. The course concludes with contemporary Jewish thinkers who return to the Bible while seeking to establish a modern system of universal ethics. The premise of the course is the discipline of academic religious studies. The assumptions of the course are therefore academic and secular, as required by the First Amendment. All texts and all religious traditions will be examined analytically and critically. Students are expected to understand and master this approach, which includes questioning conventional cultural assumptions about the composition and authorship of the Bible. Willingness to ask such questions and openness to new ways of thinking are essential to success in the course.
JWST 5111 - Problems in Historiography and Representation of the Holocaust
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: was RELS 5111 until 02-SEP-14, was RELS 5111 until 18-JAN-05, was RELS 5111 until 07-SEP-99
An advanced course focusing on issues connected with the Holocaust. Inclusiveness of other groups, Holocaust versus "Shoah," historiographical conflicts about perpetrators, an examination of the problems of representation in literature and art, problems of narrative theology after Auschwitz.
JWST 5115 - Midrash: Reading and Retelling the Hebrew Bible
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNRC 5115, CNRC 3115, RELS 5115 (starting 26-MAY-15, ending 17-JAN-12, starting 02-SEP-08, ending 18-JAN-05, was RELA 5115 until 02-SEP-08), RELS 3115 (starting 23-MAY-16, ending 17-JAN-12, starting 02-SEP-08, ending 02-SEP-03, was RELA 3115 until 02-SEP-08), JWST 3115 (starting 07-SEP-99, was RELA 3115 until 07-SEP-99)
How did the Jews of the first seven centuries of the common era read and understand the Hebrew Bible? What were the problems they faced -- interpretive, historical, theological -- in trying to apply their holy scriptures? This course explores key issues that led to the development of a new form of Judaism in late antiquity, rabbinic Judaism, and its methods of scriptural interpretation. The course?s study will focus on the forms and practices of rabbinic scriptural interpretation (midrash) as it developed in Roman Palestine and Sasanian Babylonia, focusing on key narrative and legal passages in the Five Books of Moses (Torah). A main focus of the course will be on the ways the rabbis adapted the Hebrew Bible to express their own core concerns.
JWST 5204 - The Dead Sea Scrolls
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: RELS 5204, JWST 3204 (inactive), CNES 3204 (inactive), RELS 3204 (inactive), CNRC 5204
Introduction to Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran. Contents of Dead Sea Scrolls, significance for understanding development of the Bible. Background of Judaism and Christianity. Archaeological site of Qumran. Open to graduate students across the college; knowledge of classical Hebrew will not be required. The course is open to upper level undergraduate students with permission of the instructor.
JWST 5992 - Directed Readings
(1 cr [max 12]; Prereq-instr consent; Student Option; offered Every Fall, Spring & Summer; may be repeated for 12 credits)
Guided individual reading or study.

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