Course listing subject to change. Please see Workday for most current information. For help navigating, visit the Registration in Workday webpage. For registration dates, visit the Office of the University Registrar's Registration for Spring 2025 webpage.
Eugene Sheppard – Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Examines the political relationship between Jewish communities and the states and empires within which they lived from the ancient to the modern world. What forms of Jewish political power are considered legitimate and desirable? What political strategies have Jewish groups and communities pursued as they sought to assert themselves when Jewish sovereignty was absent or limited? How did these strategies change over time and how did the convulsions of the modernity alter the Jewish approaches politics? How did Jews understand and respond to the rise of national socialism, the Holocaust, the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel, the Cold War? How have recent debates about Jewish reactions to criticisms of Israel and Zionism in the wake of the war with Hamas in Gaza relate to these earlier phenomena? Usually offered every third year.
Yuval Evri – Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Against the backdrop of the partition of the 'Jew' from the 'Arab' in the modern national era, this course focuses on the Arab-Jewish borderland cultural world which simultaneously embodies Arab and Jewish histories, traditions, and identities. It traces different manifestations of Arab-Jewish culture from the early 20th century to today and explores the complex relationship between culture and politics in relation to questions of language, identity, nationality, borders, exile and memory. Usually offered every second year.
ChaeRan Freeze – Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Explores the construction of Jewish sexuality from Talmudic times to the present. Themes include rabbinic views of sex, niddah, illicit relations, masculinity, medieval erotic poetry, Ashkenazi and Sephardic sexual practices, and sexual symbolism in mystic literature; the discourse on sex, race, and nationalism in Europe; debates about masculinity, sexual orientation, and stereotypes in America and Israel. Usually offered every third year.
Ilana Szobel– Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
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 personal and national identity, otherness, visibility, and marginality in the Israeli context. Usually offered every second year.
Yuval Evri – Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Examines the history of Israel/Palestine during the 20th century by focusing on several formative moments that took place pre and post 1948. It reexamines key issues that emerged around each of those events and explores the implications they had on the formation of Israeli and Palestinian societies. Usually offered every second year.
Nader Habibi - Economics
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a or the equivalent. Does not count toward the upper-level elective requirement for the major in economics.
Examines the Middle East economies ' past experiences, present situation, and future challenges ' drawing on theories, policy formulations and empirical studies of economic growth, trade, poverty, income distribution, labor markets, finance and banking, government reforms, globalization, and Arab-Israeli political economy. Usually offered every year.
Shai Feldman – Politics
Addresses a uniquely important and timely topic: What caused and what were the consequences of the Gaza War that began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel? What characterized the attack and Israel’s response and its ramifications? The class will examine Israeli, Arab, and other experts’ writings about these topics. It will ascertain the historical background to these events, from the 1993 Oslo Accords to the rise of Hamas and the subsequent Israel-Hamas mini-wars of 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. It will explore the international and regional environments that led to the October 7, 2023 attack as well as the regional dimensions of the subsequent Gaza War, such as the role of Iran, the Hezbollah-Israel violence, and the participation of other members of the “axis of resistance” such as Yemen’s Houthis and the pro-Iran militias in Iraq. The class will also ascertain the Israeli and Palestinian domestic scenes and their impact before and after the eruption of the war. Finally, the class will explore the possible long-term ramifications of the war, including the possibility that it would lead to new efforts to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Usually offered every second year.
Gary Samore – Politics
Examines the role of nuclear weapons in international relations from World War II to the present. We will cover the technology of nuclear weapons, the development of nuclear strategy and doctrine, arms control and nonproliferation efforts, and the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the Western powers (the U.S., Russia, United Kingdom and France) to the Middle East and Asia, including China, India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea. Usually offered every year.
Guy Antebi – Hebrew Language, Literature, and Culture program
Prerequisite: Any 20-level Hebrew course or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.
A continuation of HBRW 20b. A beginner-intermediate level course that helps students strengthen their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Contemporary cultural aspects will be stressed and a variety of materials will be used. Usually offered every semester.
Guy Antebi – Hebrew Language, Literature, and Culture program
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent. Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.
Reinforces the acquired skills of speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing at the intermediate level. Contemporary cultural aspects are stressed; conversational Hebrew and reading of selections from modern literature. Usually offered every semester.
Sara Hascal — Hebrew Language, Literature, and Culture program
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
Enhances students' oral communication skills by analyzing and discussing family dynamics, fostering empathy and ethical reflection. Develops cultural awareness by examining Israeli societal values, trauma, and conflict resolution, promoting a nuanced understanding of diverse perspectives based on popular Israeli television series "In Treatment." Usually offered every year.
Sara Hascal – Hebrew Language, Literature, and Culture program
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor. Does not meet the requirement in the school of humanities.
Provides students with tools and competence to deal with the Israeli business community. For advanced-intermediate Hebrew students who wish to gain cultural understanding and business language speaking skills. Usually offered every second year.
Alon Burstein - Hornstein
Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.
Focuses on understanding the qualities and skills required of Jewish leadership facing our most complex challenges and choices. How particular? How universal? Is Israel the most divisive issue in American Jewish life or our most powerful unifying force? What will community and Peoplehood mean for the Millennial generation and the ones that follow. In particular we'll focus on Jewish community and its relationship to the crucial institutions and networks that comprise Jewish Community, The important role that community and its institutions play in shaping Jewish identity and conversely the critical role that Jewish identity plays as the glue that holds community together. We will therefore explore the nature and meaning of Jewish identity, historically and for the next generation and our critical relationship to Israel as it goes through its own challenges. We will also try to better understand the interaction between leadership and management when confronting periods of redefinition. As leaders we must do more than manage a good 'process.' We must have a future vision of our own and a preferred path for getting there. Usually offered every second year.