Courses
Spring 2025 Offerings Fall 2025 Offerings Course Info on SIS Archives
Course Descriptions
The list below includes descriptions of all undergraduate and graduate courses offered by the Judaic Studies Program.
Review specific course requirements for the Judaic Studies Program. For up-to-date information on course offerings, schedules, room locations and registration, please visit the Student Information System (SIS).
General Courses
JS 21 Introduction to Hebrew Bible. Survey of the Hebrew Bible in its historical context. Development of the religion of Ancient Israel , the life of Moses, production of Israelite codes of law, construction of theological language and imagery, rise of monarchy and temple, accounts of creation, psalms and wisdom literature, and lives and legacies of the Israelite prophets. Cross-listed as REL 21.
JS 25 Imagining the Holocaust on Stage and Screen. Plays and films dealing with the Holocaust, From Nazi-era propaganda to contemporary reflections on genocide. Special emphasis on the ethics of Holocaust represented and the responsibilities of artists (and audiences) who engage the Holocaust story. Texts include such plays as Camp Comedy, Ghetto, Kindertransport, Good, Bent, Who Will Carry the World?, and Annulla, as well as critical and theoretical readings. Triumph of the Will, Night and Fog, The Architecture of Doom, Partisans of Vilna, The Boat is Full, My Mother's Courage, Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful and Shoah are among the feature films and documentaries considered. (Graduate Students should register for TPS 125). Cross-listed as FMS 62, TPS 25 and TPS 125.
JS 34 Introduction to Judaism. Judaism as a diverse textual tradition and lived religion, with a focus on beliefs, ethics, and rituals. Contemporary Jewish communities from a global perspective; Hebrew Bible; rabbinic literature; medieval and modern theology and mysticism; social forms, law, and practice. Cross-listed as REL 18.
JS 68 Arab/Jewish Literature and Film (Cross-listed with ARB 68 and ILVS 68) Literature and cinema by or about Mizrahi Jews, communities from Arab or Muslim lands produced both in Israel and in the Arab countries. Themes of exile, trauma, memory, haunting, estrangement, return, and hope. Cinema as a means of forging connections and retracing bonds between Mizrahim and non-Jewish Arabs, including links between Mizrahi and Palestinian histories, memories, and cinemas.
JS 79 Jewish Voices in Russian Culture. The identity and self-identity of Russian-Jewish authors and characters from the standpoints of literary analyses, cultural ethnography, folklore, visual studies, and social and political history. Discussion of primary sources, including literary works, visual media, popular songs, and lectures on art, religion, and theater and dance, either written or produced in English, or translated into English from Russian and Yiddish. Topics include the responses of Russian and Soviet Jewish writers to such topics as Zionism, the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust with specific attention to anti-Semitism, emigration, limits of assimilation, and the future of Jews in Russia, Israel, and America. No prerequisites. Cross-listed as RUS 79.
JS 87 Introduction to Talmud. Selected passages from the Talmud and rabbinic literature, Mishna, Gemara, Commentaries. Relevance to contemporary moral and ethical issues. All texts in English. Cross-listed as REL 23.
JS 88 Gender in Rabbinic Literature. Overview of the ways in which gender is used as an analytical tool in the study of rabbinic literature. Examines how rabbinic sources challenge the traditional understanding of the gender binary. Contrasts traditional historical questions about the roles of men and women in society with more contemporary approaches that view gender as socially constructed, contested, and fluid. In English. No prerequisites. No knowledge of Judaism or rabbinic literature is assumed.
JS 113 Jewish American Theatre (Cross-listed as TPS 113) Explores how “Jewish” theatre has changed over different periods of United States history, in the context of the broader history of Jewish culture in the United States. Definitions of “Jewishness” in the United States and how those definitions have been used to help, harm, or unite communities. Representation of Jewish characters on the U.S. stage over the past three centuries and how Jewish-American artists have negotiated their Jewish and American identities in the theatre.
JS 114 Political Liberalism and Religion (Cross-listed as REL 114 & CVS 74) The relation between religion and politics from the perspective of liberalism and its critics. The early modern philosophical and theological foundations of political liberalism. Contemporary debates concerning religious claims in the public sphere, focused on Rawls and his competitors and opponents.
JS 132 Book of Genesis and its Interpreters. (Cross-listed as REL 132) A detailed study of the biblical book of Genesis, with special attention to the role the book played in postbiblical Jewish tradition. All texts read in English.
JS 136 The Story of Moses and King David. (Cross-listed as REL 187 and HEB 136) Exploration of biblical narratives dealing with ancient Israel’s rise and crises as a nation, including the Exodus from Egypt; reception of the Torah at Mt. Sinai; the desert wanderings and rebellions; the conquest of Canaan; life under the Judges; the reigns of King Saul and King David; the succession of Solomon; his building of the Temple in Jerusalem; and the kingdom’s eventual schism. Emphasis on modern historical and literary analysis, as well as cultural theory.
JS 142 Jewish Experience on Film. (Cross-listed as REL 142) Selected classic and contemporary films dealing with aspects of Jewish experience in America, Europe, and Israel, combined with reading on the cultural and philosophical problems illuminated by each film. One weekly session will be devoted to screenings, the other to discussion of the films and readings. In English.
JS 164 Representing the Jew. (Cross-listed as ENG 164) Advanced seminar on Jewish representations and self-representations in England and America, and in literature and popular culture. Mass culture and the Jews, anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism, Jewishness and sexuality, Jews and other ethnic groups, assimilation. Readings in critical and theoretical texts. Recommendations: ENG 1/2 REQUIRED or Fulfillment of College Writing Requirement. Recommended that the student already have taken either ENG 20,21,22, or 23.
JS 172 Introduction to Jewish Mysticism. (Cross-listed as REL 182 and HEB 172) Overview of the intellectual history of Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism. Introduction to mystical ideas and doctrines from Biblical texts to contemporary sources, also within a wider, non-Jewish context. Inherent tensions within the mystical enterprise and the conflict between mysticism and rationalism. Reflects on uses and limits of mysticism in shaping contemporary religious experience.
JS 180 Introduction to the Zohar. (Cross-listed as REL 184 & HEB 179) Broad overview of the Zohar, the 13th-century foundational text of Kabbalah with roots in mysticism. Expiration of the Zohar and its enduring influence on Jewish thought and life, through various lenses: literary, theological, mystical, and artistic. No prerequisites.
JS 181 Judaism and Modernity. (Cross-listed as REL 181 and HRB 174) Judaism's encounter with modernity with a focus on Europe, North America, and the Middle East. How Jewish texts, practices, and communities were construed as religion, nationality, race, ethnicity, culture, literature, and philosophy. Political, social, and ethical implications of the category of religion as applied to Judaism.
JS 183 Jewish Philosophy (Cross-listed as REL 183 & HEB 173 & PHIL 83) Pre-modern Jewish philosophy at the nexus of Jewish tradition, classical Greek philosophy, and its prior Islamic reception. Topics include human perfection and ethics, revelation and reason, religious and political law, and the ideal state. Primary texts include writings of Saadia Gaon, Moses Maimonides, and Baruch Spinoza. All readings in English translation. Recommendations: one course in philosophy, political theory, or Judaic Studies.
Special Courses
JS 92 Special Topics. Courses on selected themes and authors in Hebrew literature and in Jewish literature translated from various languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Yiddish, Spanyol, German, Russian), including both classical and modern authors; and on selected subjects, such as Ladino language and culture and Israeli film.
JS 93 / JS 94 Directed Study. Guided independent study of an approved topic. Variable credit.
JS 95 Topics in Jewish Literature. Selected topics in Jewish literature and cultural expression, which may vary from year to year. Variable credit. Recommendations: Consent of instructor.
JS 99 Internship. No description at this time.
JS 191 / JS 192 Advanced Special Topics. For advanced and graduate students.
JS 193 / JS 194 Advanced Directed Study. For advanced and graduate students. Variable credit.
JS 199 Senior Honors Thesis. No description at this time.