IMES 104a: Islam: Civilization and Institutions
Cengiz Sisman (MWTh 10-11)
Islamic civilization from its origins to the current state of affairs. Topics include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, women in Islam, and Islam and Middle-Eastern politics.
NEJS 10a: Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
Marc Brettler (MWTh 11-12)
Biblical Hebrew grammar and survey of the major genres of the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Torah, history, prophecy, psalms, wisdom). Texts are read in Hebrew; the course is taught in English. Emphasis on literary and grammatical aspects of the texts.
NEJS 25a: Introduction to Talmud
Reuven Kimelman (TF 12-1:30)
Treatise Sanhedrin, on the subject of judicial procedure and capital punishment. Attention is paid to modes of argument, literary form, and development of the Talmudic text.
NEJS 101a: Elementary Akkadian
Kynthia Taylor (MW 5-6:30)
Introduction to Akkadian grammar and lexicon and cuneiform script. For beginning students of Akkadian.
NEJS 113a: The Bible in Aramaic
David Wright (MWTh 1-2)
A study of the language and text of the Targumim, Qumran Aramaic Paraphrases, and the Syric Peshitta.
NEJS 122b: Biblical Narrative Texts: The Historical Tradition
Marc Brettler (MW 2-3:30)
A close reading of biblical “historical” texts from Deuteronomy, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Exploration of the basic tools for biblical research and the literary study for the Bible. The newer methods of analyzing biblical texts will be discussed.
NEJS 128a: Introduction to Christianity
Bernadette Brooten (MW 3:30-5)
Introduction to Christian beliefs, liturgy and history. Surveys the largest world religions; analyzes Christian debates about God, Christ, and human beings; and studies differences among Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox.
NEJS 139a: Varieties of Medieval Judaism
Jonathan Decter (TF 10:30-12)
Jewish culture during the medieval period in the Christian and Islamic worlds. Focus on Ashkenazic and Sephardic intellectual culture, also communal organization and the influence of Islamic and Christian intellectual culture.
NEJS 140a: History of the Jews from the Maccabees to 1497
Benjamin Ravid (MW 2-3:30)
Judea during the Second Commonwealth; Jews in the Roman Empire; origins of anti-Judaism; Jewish religious heritage; Islam and the Jews; the Jewish community; church, state, society, economy and the Jews; the expulsion from Western Europe.
NEJS 145a: History of the State of Israel, Zionism to the Present
Ilan Troen (TTh 5-6:30)
The development of the State of Israel: politics, society, and culture will be thematically analyzed.
NEJS 152b: Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Anti-Zionism
Benjamin Ravid (MW 5-6:30)
A historical survey of the three major forms of hostility towards the Jews from classical antiquity to the present.
NEJS 164a: Judaism Confronts America
Jonathan Sarna (MW 2-3:30)
Examines, through a close reading of selected primary sources, central issues and tensions in American Jewish life, paying attention to their historical background and to issues of Jewish law.
NEJS 164b: The Sociology of the American Jewish Community
Sylvia Fishman (MW 5-6:30)
Transformations in modern American Jewish societies and families, organizations, and behavior patterns in the second half of the 20th century. Draws on social science texts, statistical studies, and memoirs, and examines evidence from journalism, fiction, film, and other artifacts of popular culture.
NEW COURSE!
NEJS 170b: Inside Jewish Education
Sharon Feiman-Nemser (T 9-12)
Examine Jewish education from the perspectives of learners and teachers, through research, reflection, reading, and discussion. Focus on different purposes, practices, and outcomes of Jewish education as it is enacted in different countries
NEW COURSE!
NEJS 174a: Promises and Fulfillment: Israeli Life in Hebrew Literature
Ilana Szobel (MWTh 12-1)
An exploration of poetics and identity in modern Hebrew literature. By offering a feminist and psychoanalytic reading of various Hebrew texts, this seminar explores questions of self, identity, visibility, and marginality in the Israeli context.
NEJS 182a: Jewish Life in Film and Fiction
Sylvia Fishman (T 1:30-4:30, M 6:30-9:30)
Cinematic and literary depictions of religious, socioeconomic, and cultural change over the past half-century, which reflect and help to shape shifting definitions of the American Jew.
NEW COURSE!
NEJS 183b: Exhibiting Religions
Ellen Smith (T 1:30-4:30)
NEJS 187a: Political Islam
Cengiz Sisman (MWTh 12-1)
Traces the recent reemergence of Islam by examining its position in modern Middle Eastern socioeconomic and political life. Uses Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Afghanistan, and Iran as major test cases for assessing the success of political Islam.
NEJS 191b: Messianism and the State of Israel
Mordechai Inbari (Th 2-5)
The messianic idea as a religious, political, and sociological phenomenon in modern Jewish history, how the messianic narrative entered Jewish political discourse. Messianism in Zionist activities as an example of continuity or discontinuity with an older tradition.
NEJS 193a: Societies in Conflict: Exploring the Middle East through Authentic Materials
Vardit Ringvald & Lutf Al-Kebsi (MW 2-3:30)
Upper-level language course for advanced learners of Hebrew and Arabic to deepen their understanding of the relationship between conflicting societies, Arab and Israeli, through implementation of their knowledge of the languages.
NEW COURSE!
NEJS 194b: Sufi Teachings
Joseph Lumbard (MWTh 12-1)
Teachings and Practices of the Sufi Tradition, the foundations of Sufism, its relation to other aspects of Islam, and the development of Sufi teachings in both poetry and prose.
NEJS 200a Akkadian Literary Texts I
Jamie Novotny (Th 3-6)
In this course students will read and analyze selected Akkadian texts that are commonly referred to as 'historical', such as chronicles, royal inscriptions, and historical-literary compositions. Texts in various scripts and dialects will be studied.
NEJS 206a: Intermediate Ugaritic
David Wright (MW 3:30-5)
NEJS 231a: New Frontiers in Jewish Studies
ChaeRan Freeze (T 9-12)
Examines works in Jewish studies that reflect the shifting currents in a variety of disciplines. The approach is generally thematic and chronological, ranging from historiographic treatises to provocative monographs and articles in literature, history, sociology, and religion.
YDSH 10a: Beginning Yiddish
Lillian Leavitt (MWTh 1-2, Th 2-3)
USEMS TAUGHT BY NEJS FACULTY
USEM 3a: Slavery, Religion, and Women
Bernadette Brooten (MWTh 1-2)
Will examine female slave narratives, proslavery biblical interpretations, American slave religion, and biblical, early Christian, and early rabbinic statutes and teachings.
USEM 18a: Understanding Evil and Human Destiny
Reuven Kimelman (TF 10:30-12)
Introduction to Western classics that deal with the impact of evil on human destiny. Suffering, justice, and death is studied in their relationship with God, the world, and history.
NEW COURSE!
USEM 24b: The Howl of Simple Words: Reading Gender in Israeli Literature and Cinema
Ilana Szobel (MW 5-6:30)
The poet Rachel Bluwstein describes her poetics as "the howl of simple words." With these words she exposes the normative expectation of women's writing at the beginning of the century, on the one hand, and the subversive potential that lies in women's creativity, on the other. This course explores this ongoing duality in Modern Hebrew literature and Israeli cinema.
USEM 28b: The Jewish Family
ChaeRan Freeze (TF 12-1:30)
Examines the transformation of the Jewish family in four different settings (Europe, America, North Africa, and the Middle East) from medieval to modern times, focusing primarily on the internal dynamics of family life and interaction with majority cultures.
USEM 53a: Between Conflict and Cooperation: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain
Jonathan Decter Section 1 (TF 12-1:30)
Section 2 (TF 3-4:30)
An examination of social and intellectual interaction among the three religious communities of medieval Spain focusing on literature, philosophy, and how the interaction of the three faiths helped produce a unique culture.
