University Bulletin (2011-2012)

NEJS 2a Introduction to the Jewish Experience
[ hum ]
No prior knowledge of Judaism or Hebrew required. Does not count toward the major in NEJS, but minors are encouraged to take this course.
Topics to be discussed include: the People of the Book; the rabbinic tradition; the Jewish calendar; the prayer book; life-cycle of the individual; Christianity, Islam, and the Jews; from anti-Judaism to anti-Semitism; Holocaust; the land of Israel and the Jews; Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Judaism; American Jewry; Jewish geography today. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 3a Introduction to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
[ hum ]
An introduction to the three major religions originating in the Near East: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Areas of focus include historical development, sacred texts, rituals, and interpretive traditions. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 5a Foundational Course in Judaic Studies
[ hum ]
A survey of the Jewish experience and thought, focusing on the varieties of historical Judaism, including its classical forms, its medieval patterns and transformations, and its modern options. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 8a The Bible in Its Near Eastern Context
[ hum ]
All texts are read in English.
A study of the Bible in light of recently discovered Near Eastern texts that have changed how the Bible is interpreted and read. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 9a The World of the Ancient Near East
[ hum ]
An introduction to the peoples, history, religions, institutions, and culture of ancient Mesopotamia, Syria, Israel, Anatolia, and Egypt from prehistory to 330 BCE. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination.
A review of biblical Hebrew grammar followed by a 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. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 25a Introduction to Talmud
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent is recommended.
An introduction to 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. No previous study of Talmud is presupposed. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 29a Feminist Sexual Ethics in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
[ hum ]
Analyzes a variety of feminist critiques of religious texts and traditions and proposed innovations in theology and religious law. Examines biblical, rabbinic, and Qur'anic texts. Explores relation to U.S. law and to the social, natural, and medical sciences. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 29b Slavery, Women, and Religion
[ hum ]
Slavery is the most extreme form of power that one human being can exercise over another. Religion aims to express humanity's highest ethical aspirations. How, then, does religion support slavery? Are enslaved women treated differently than enslaved men? Do slave-holding women exercise their power differently than slave-holding men? To answer these questions, female slave narratives, pro-slavery biblical interpretation, American slave religion, and biblical, early Christian, and early rabbinic statutes and teachings are examined. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 35a History of the Jews from 1492 to the Present
[ hum ss ]
Open to all students.
Main trends and events in the legal, economic, social, cultural, and religious history of the Jewish people in the context of the general background, with emphasis on major areas of Jewish settlement. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 55a Ethics and the Jewish Political Tradition
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
A study in the structures of authority, power, and leadership in Jewish politics from biblical to modern times that focuses on the change from sovereignty to incorporated community to voluntary association. Issues include the problems of nationalism, the limits of government, the right of revolution, the legitimacy of terrorism, and the ethics of war. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 92a Internship and Analysis in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 98a Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 98b Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 99d Senior Research
Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH/NEJ 169b Digging for National Roots: The Politics of Israeli Archaeology
[ hum ss ]
Examines the uneasy encounter between archaeology and nationalism, with a focus on Israel. Archaeology, beyond being an established academic discipline, has been used and abused in the service of political power structures, among them religious, ethnic and national movements. Looking for "tangible proof" of the nation's ancient glories and past achievements, national movements have made use of archaeological findings and theories in the process of forging a national identity. The rich Israeli case enables discussion of many theoretical motifs and offers a unique gaze on Israeli society and the changes it is undergoing. A one-time special offering, fall 2011.
Mr. Feige

NEJS 101a Elementary Akkadian
[ hum ]
Introduction to Akkadian grammar and lexicon and cuneiform script. This course is for beginning students of Akkadian. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Abusch and Staff

NEJS 101b Old Babylonian Akkadian Texts
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 101a or the equivalent.
Review of grammar and reading of old Babylonian historical inscriptions, laws, letters, and literary texts. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Abusch and Staff

NEJS 102a Elementary Hittite
[ hum ]
An introduction to the Hittite language, mainly through readings in Hittite royal annals, treaties, rituals, laws, and myths. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 103a The Early History of God
[ hum ]
A study of the development of the conceptions about deity in the Levant before the appearance of ancient Israel and the development of these conception in Israelite/biblical religion, including the origins of monotheism. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 104a Comparative Semitic Languages
[ hum ]
An introduction to and description of the Semitic languages, the internal relationships within this linguistic family, and the distinctive grammatical and lexical features of the individual languages. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 104b Ezra, Daniel, and Early Aramaic Texts
[ hum ]
Prerequisites: HBRW 30a, NEJS 10a, ARBC 30a, or permission of the instructor.
A study of the language and text of the Aramaic portions of Ezra and Daniel and of other early Aramaic documents. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 106a Northwest Semitic Inscriptions
[ hum ]
A study of Phoenician, Hebrew, Edomite, and Moabite inscriptions. Issues of epigraphy, historical grammar, dialectology, and historical reconstruction are examined. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 106b Elementary Ugaritic
[ hum ]
An introduction to the language with study of various texts. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 110a Biblical Hebrew Texts
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or equivalent.
A survey of biblical texts, in Hebrew, from a variety of genres. Emphasis is on precise understanding of Hebrew texts within their genres. A variety of perspectives, including the historical and literary, is emphasized. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 110b Readings in the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]
Prerequisites: NEJS 10a or 40-level HBRW course or permission of the instructor.
A close reading of selected biblical texts. Topics may vary from year to year and the course may be repeated for credit. Recent topics have included readings in the prophets. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 111a The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
[ hum wi ]
Open to all students.
A survey of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Biblical books will be examined from various perspectives and compared to other ancient Near Eastern compositions. No knowledge of Hebrew is presumed. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 112a The Book of Genesis
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 122a or b, NEJS 10a, or permission of the instructor.
An in-depth study of the Hebrew text of Genesis, with particular attention to the meaning, documentary sources, and Near Eastern background of the accounts of creation and origins of human civilization in chapters one to eleven, and of the patriarchal narratives, especially those about Abraham. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 113a The Bible in Aramaic
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 122a or b, NEJS 10a, or permission of the instructor.
A study of the language and text of the Targumim, Qumran Aramaic Paraphrases, and the Syriac Peshitta. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 113b Law in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ss ]
Open to all students.
A study of laws and legal ideas in biblical and Near Eastern law "codes," treaties, contracts; economic documents and narratives; the development and function of the documents and ideas; the meaning of the laws; and their significance for the various societies. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 114b Ritual and Cult in the Bible
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 122a or b, NEJS 10a, or permission of the instructor.
A study of ritual and cultic texts of the Bible in Hebrew and their rites and phenomena with historical-critical, Near Eastern-environmental, social-scientific, and literary analysis. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 115a The Book of Deuteronomy
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.
A close examination of the prose and poetry of the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy with special attention to its religious, legal, and compositional features. Traditions found in the Book of Deuteronomy will be compared with their counterparts elsewhere in the Torah. The place of the Book of Deuteronomy in the history of the religion of Israel will be considered. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 115b Gender and the Bible
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
The Hebrew Bible, a complex work, reflects a wide range of attitudes toward gender. This course examines these attitudes as they are reflected in issues such as the legal status of women, women in myths, leadership, prostitution, masculinity, and the gender of ancient Israel's deity. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 116a Ancient Near Eastern Religion and Mythology
[ hum nw ]
Open to all students.
An introduction to the religion, mythology, and thought of the ancient Near East. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 117b Dead Sea Scrolls
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or the equivalent.
Studies in the literature of Qumran texts, with particular attention to the exegetical literature. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 118b The Book of Psalms
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.
Selected readings of biblical psalms. Special attention will be paid to religious ideas, literary forms, and poetics. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 119a The Torah: Composition and Interpretation
[ hum wi ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or equivalent.
Explores Hebrew texts in the Torah or Pentateuch, examining their nature as collections of distinct documents or sources, many of which have a long prehistory, as well as the implications of this compositional model for their interpretation. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 121b Biblical Poetry: Love and Death
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.
A close reading of biblical poetic texts, with a consideration of what makes these texts poetic. Texts will be chosen primarily from Song of Songs, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Job. Topics will vary from year to year and the course may be repeated for credit. Refer to Schedule of Classes for current topic. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]
Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East, especially Mesopotamia. Topics such as demonology, illness, prayer, and exorcism are covered; special attention is paid to witchcraft. This course is organized around the close reading of ancient texts. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 122b Biblical Narrative Texts: The Historical Tradition
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.
A close reading of a variety of biblical "historical" texts from Deuteronomy, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. The basic tools for biblical research and the literary study of the Bible will be explored. The newer methods of analyzing biblical "historical" texts will be discussed. Topics vary from year to year and this course may be repeated for credit. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 123b Classical Biblical Commentaries
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: Advanced reading knowledge of Hebrew.
An intensive study of the Iraqi, Spanish and French schools of Jewish commentators on selected books of the Bible. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Brettler or Mr. Decter

NEJS 124a Arabic Literature, Hebrew Literature (500-1500)
[ hum ]
A comparative study of Arabic and Hebrew literature from before the rise of Islam through the fifteenth century. Studies major trends in Arabic poetry and fiction and how Jewish authors utilized Arabic motifs in their Hebrew writings, both secular and sacred, and sometimes wrote in Arabic themselves. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 125a Topics in Advanced Talmud
Prerequisites: Hebrew, Talmud Aramaic, "Rashi" script, and previous Talmud study. May be repeated once for credit.
This course is the next stage after Introductory and Intermediate Talmud. The topic will change with each course, and will include manuscript readings of rabbinic literature, historical background, classical commentaries, method, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kimelman and Mr. Kaplowitz

NEJS 125b Midrashic Literature: Sifre Deuteronomy
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent.
An analysis of the midrashic method of the Sifre Deuteronomy. Emphasis will be placed on a close reading of the text, with a view to developing in the students the capacity to do independent analysis. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 126a Intermediate Talmud
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent.
Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter three, which deals with the issue of voluntary and compulsory arbitration and the binding nature of gambling agreements. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 126b Agadic Literature: The Ethics of the Fathers with Avot d'Rabbi Nathan
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent.
A study of the Mishnah Avot and its classical commentaries. Focuses primarily on literary and historical questions. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 127a Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism
[ hum ]
A survey course of the Second Temple and rabbinic periods focusing on the Bible, the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writing of Josephus and Philo, the Mishnah, Talmud, and Midrash. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 127b The Jewish Liturgy
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 20-level Hebrew course or the equivalent.
A study of the literature, theology, and history of the daily and Sabbath liturgy. Emphasis will be placed on the interplay between literary structure and ideational content, along with discussion of the philosophical issues involved in prayer. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 128a Introduction to Christianity
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
An introduction to Christian beliefs, liturgy, and history. Surveys the largest world religion: from Ethiopian to Korean Christianity, from black theology to the Christian right. Analyzes Christian debates about God, Christ, and human beings. Studies differences among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 128b History of Jewish and Christian Women in the Roman Empire
[ hum ]
Social, cultural, and religious history of Jewish and Christian women under Roman rule until Constantine ("first century" BCE-"fourth century" CE), using the methods of feminist historiography. Examination of the inter-relationships between Jewish and Christian women in different parts of the Roman Empire. Focus on women's history, rather than on Jewish and Christian teachings about women. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 130a The New Testament: A Historical Introduction
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
A study of the main parts of the New Testament, with emphasis on the contents of the books and the historical development of early Christianity. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 130b Ancient Greek-Speaking Judaism and Christianity
[ hum ]
Reading and interpretation of Greek Jewish and Christian texts that help us to understand the interrelationships between these two groups, as well as what separated them from each other. Greek track available for those with background in Greek. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 133a Art, Artifacts, and History: The Material Culture of Modern Jews
[ hum ]
An interpretive, bibliographic, and hands-on study of the material (nontextual) culture of American and European Jews since 1600 taught in a comparative cultural context. Analyzes how objects, architecture, visual images, bodies, museums, and memorials can help us understand and interpret social, cultural, and religious history. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

NEJS 134b Yiddish Culture in the Modern World
[ hum ]
An examination of the rise of modern Yiddish secular culture in Eastern Europe and North America with a particular focus on the literature it produced. Music, criticism, journalism, drama, film, and painting are also studied. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 135a The Modern Jewish Experience
[ hum ]
Themes include Enlightenment, Hasidism, emancipation, Jewish identity in the modern world (acculturation and assimilation), development of dominant nationalism in Judaism, Zionism, European Jewry between the world wars, Holocaust, the creation of the State of Israel, and contemporary Jewish life in America, Israel, and Europe. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Freeze or Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 136b History and Culture of the Jews in East-Central Europe, 1914 to the Present
[ hum ]
An examination of the history of the Jews in the countries of East-Central Europe (Poland, the Soviet Union and its successor states, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia) from the outbreak of World War I until the present day. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 137a The Destruction of European Jewry
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
Why did the Jews become the subject of genocidal hatred? A systematic examination of the anti-Jewish genocide planned and executed by Nazi Germany and the Jewish and general responses to it. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 137b A History of the Jews in Warsaw, Lodz, Vilna, and Odessa
[ hum ss ]
Examines the history of the four largest Jewish communities in the Russian Empire from the earliest settlement through the Holocaust to the present, comparing internal organization, different political and cultural allegiances, and relations with the majority population. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 138a Genocide and Mass Killing in the Twentieth Century
[ hum ]
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of twentieth-century world history is preferable.
An interdisciplinary seminar examining history and sociology of the internationally punishable crime of genocide, with the focus on theory, prevention, and punishment of genocide. Case studies include Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, Stalin's Russia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 139a Philosophers, Poets, and Mystics: Jewish Intellectuals in the Middle Ages
[ hum ]
Addresses Jewish culture during the medieval period in the Christian and Islamic worlds. Focus on Ashkenazic and Sephardic intellectual culture. Other topics include communal organization, the influence of Islamic and Christian intellectual culture. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 140a Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages
[ hum ss wi ]
Surveys Jewish political, social and intellectual history in the domains of Islam and Christianity from the rise of Islam (622) to the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497). Topics include the legal status of Jews, Jewish communal organization, persecution and response, inter-religious polemics, conversion, the origins of anti-Judaism, and trends in Jewish law, philosophy, literature, and mysticism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 140b Early Modern Jewish History
[ hum ]
Examines Jewish history and culture in early modern Europe: mass conversions on the Iberian peninsula, migrations, reconversions back to Judaism, the printing revolution, the Reformation and Counter Reformation, ghettos, gender, family, everyday life, material culture, communal structure, rabbinical culture, mysticism, magic, science, messianic movements, Hasidism, mercantilism, and early modern challenges to Judaism.
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 141a Russian Jews in the Twentieth Century
[ hum ]
Examines Russian Jewish history from 1917 to the present. Focuses on the tsarist legacy, Russian Revolution, the creation of a new socialist society, development of Yiddish culture, the "Great Turn" under Stalin, Holocaust, post war Judaism, anti-Semitism, emigration, and current events. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 142a Modern History of East European Jewry
[ hum ]
A comprehensive survey of the history (economic, sociopolitical, and religious) of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe from the middle of the eighteenth century until World War II, with emphasis placed on the Jews of Poland and Russia. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 142b Secular Jews: Lives and Choices from 1750 to the Present
[ hum ]
A survey of the lives of Jews who since 1750 have seen their identity in new ways, either as individuals without religious faith but still identified as Jews or as adherents of ideologies which provided alternative definitions of Jewish identity. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 144a Jews in the World of Islam
[ hum nw ]
Examines social and cultural history of Jewish communities in the Islamic world. Special emphasis is placed on the pre-modern Jewish communities. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 145a History of the State of Israel
[ hum ]
Examines the development of the State of Israel from its foundation to the present time. Israel's politics, society, and culture will be thematically analyzed. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Troen

NEJS 145b Ideology and Society in Contemporary Israel: Major Controversies
[ hum ]
Provides advanced students with a comprehensive understanding of several major trends in contemporary Israeli society, by presenting and representing major controversies among scholars of different approaches, paradigms, and disciplines (sociology, political science, law, cultural studies, etc). Usually offered every year.
Mr. Bialer

NEJS 146a World Jewry since 1945
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
Examines the post war Jewish world with special attention to Jewish communities beyond Israel and the United States. Topics include demography, the emergence of new centers, anti-Semitism, identity, and assimilation. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 148b Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews and Christians: Sources and Interpretations
[ hum ]
Introduction to the classical Jewish and Christian sources on same-sex love and on gender ambiguity and to a variety of current interpretations of them, to the evidence for same-sex love and gender fluidity among Jews and Christians through the centuries, and to current religious and public policy debates about same-sex love and gender identity and expression. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 149a The Jews of Muslim and Christian Spain
[ hum ]
A survey of Jewish political, intellectual, and social history in the Islamic and Christian spheres from the beginnings of Jewish life in Spain until the expulsion in 1492. Students develop skills in reading historical, literary, and philosophical texts. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 150b History of Poland since 1750
[ hum ]
May only count toward the NEJS major or minor with the written permission of the instructor.
Surveys the history of Poland from the middle of the eighteenth century to the recent changes since 1989. Emphasizes the specific character of the Polish lands as a borderland and as a multi-religious and multi-ethnic area. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 151a Jewish Life in Weimar Berlin, Wartime England, and the Postwar United States
[ hum ss ]
Prerequisite: Reading comprehension of modern Hebrew as determined by the instructor.
An examination of key issues, including rites of passage, life-cycle events in pre-World War I Eastern Europe; the growth of Nazism; Holocaust; Zionism, Palestine Mandate and the State of Israel; Hebrew culture in the Diaspora; and the early days of Brandeis University, based on typed Hebrew letters written between 1919 and 1967. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 151b Ghettos, Gondolas, and Gelato: The Italian Jewish Experience
[ hum ss ]
Topics include the Jews of classical antiquity, attitude of church and state toward Jews, ghetto, Jewish merchants and moneylenders, Renaissance and the Jews, Marranos and the Inquisition, raison d'état, emancipation, Holocaust, and communities today. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 152a From Inquisition to Holocaust
[ hum ]
Examines the Iberian Inquisition in its religious, social, and economic context as a manifestation of religious anti-Judaism that culminated in the concept of purity of blood. Traces the emergence of modern racial anti-Semitism which culminated in the Holocaust, and contemplates the similarities and differences between it and medieval anti-Judaism. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 152b Anti-Judaism, Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Zionism
[ hum ss ]
A historical survey of the three major forms of hostility toward the Jews from classical antiquity to the present. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 153b Abraham Joshua Heschel: Spirituality and Action
[ hum wi ]
Abraham Heschel's Hasidic spirituality and militant social action provide a meeting ground for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We examine his writings on prayer, mysticism, religious education, the prophets, the Holocaust, Israel, interfaith relations, civil rights, and the Vietnam war. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kaplan

NEJS 154a World Without God: Theories of Secularization
[ hum ]
What is secularization? What does it mean to describe the modern world as wholly secular or independent of any prior religious foundations of beliefs? Is modern political identical intelligible apart from religion? Or does politics remain a translation of religious concepts and is all politics therefore a mode of political theology? This advanced undergraduate course surveys various debates concerning the historical process and philosophical-political significance of secularization, most especially the secularization of political norms. Concentrates on the history of European thought from the 17th century to the 20th century, with special reference to the encounter between Judaism and Christianity and modes of modern rationalist criticism. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 155a Maimonides: A Jewish Thinker in the Islamic World
[ hum ]
A study of the life, world, and thought of Moses Maimonides, the most significant Jewish intellectual of the Islamic world. This course traces his intellectual output in philosophy and Judaism,from its beginning in Islamic Spain to the mature works produced in Morocco and Egypt, in the context of the Arabic-Islamic milieu. Half of the course is dedicated to studying his Guide of the Perplexed, a Judeo-Arabic work that engages the demands of revealed religion and philosophical rationalism. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 156b A Philosophical Introduction to Judaism
[ hum ]
Explores selected topics that are central to Jewish thought and practice. An introduction to Judaism for those without background in Jewish texts and traditions, but also appropriate for those with background. Topics include covenant, ritual, idolatry, interpretation, gender violence, chosenness. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Levisohn

NEJS 157b Jewish Thought in the Islamic World
[ hum ]
A survey of Jewish thought produced in the Islamic world and its influence on later Jewish philosophers. Thinkers include Saadiah Gaon, Judah Halevi, Moses Maimonides, Gersonides, and Spinoza. Topics include reason and revelation, divine attribute theory, providence, ultimate human felicity, and the role of philosophy in biblical exegesis, Halakhah, and poetry. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 158a Divided Minds: Jewish Intellectuals in America
[ hum ]
Jewish intellectuals in the United States have exerted tremendous influence on the changing landscape of American culture and society over the last century. Explores the political, cultural, and religious contours of this diverse and controversial group. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 158b Yiddish Literature and the Modern Jewish Revolution: From Dybbuk to Yentl
[ hum wi ]
May not be repeated for credit by students who have taken NEJS 75a in previous years. Students with reading knowledge of Yiddish may elect to read the original texts.
Introduces students to Yiddish fiction, poetry, and drama created in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Eastern Europe and the Americas. Readings include a sampling of works by classic Yiddish writers, but focus primarily on fiction, poetry, and drama by writers of succeeding generations. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 159a Modern Jewish Philosophy
[ hum ]
Surveys the contours of modern Jewish philosophy by engaging some of its most important themes and voices. Competing Jewish inflections of and responses to rationalism, romanticism, idealism, existentialism, and nihilism. This provides the conceptual road signs of the course as we traverse the winding byways of Jewish philosophy from Baruch Spinoza to Emanuel Levinas. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 159b Classic Yiddish Fiction
[ hum wi ]
May not be repeated for credit by students who have taken NEJS 75b in previous years.
An introduction to the major works of fiction by the three classic Yiddish writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Taught in English using texts in translation. Students with knowledge of Yiddish may elect to read the original texts. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 160b German-Jewish Thought
[ hum ]
Traces the development of German thought from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century. Engages a number of seminal thinkers and their understandings of the challenges posed by the shaping forces of the modern German-Jewish experience: enlightenment, Jewish Reform movement, liberalism, and capitalism, among others. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 161a American Jewish Life
[ hum ss ]
Open to all students.
A sociological analysis of contemporary American Jewish life with special emphasis on the diverse forms of Jewish ethno-religious identity formation. Topics include the social construction of race and ethnicity; Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism; the interplay of American and Jewish values; and the relationship of Jews to the general society and other ethnic groups. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 161b Representations of the Middle Eastern City in Literature, Art, and Architecture
[ hum nw ]
The city is an artifact housing a community of anonymous persons, one that has carried great creative and destructive potential across the ages. Works of the imagination--in literature, theology, and architecture--expose unquantifiable dimensions of that potential. Examines ten such works with a view to what the city has been, is today, and can become. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Makiya

NEJS 162a American Judaism
[ hum ss wi ]
American Judaism from the earliest settlement to the present, with particular emphasis on the various streams of American Judaism. Judaism's place in American religion and comparisons to Judaism in other countries. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 162b It Couldn't Happen Here: Three American Anti-Semitic Episodes
[ hum ]
A close examination of three American anti-Semitic episodes: U.S. Grant's expulsion of the Jews during the Civil War, the Leo Frank case, and the publication of Henry Ford's The International Jew. What do these episodes teach us about anti-Semitic prejudice, about Jews, and about America as a whole? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 163a Jewish-Christian Relations in America
[ hum ss ]
A topical approach to the history of Jewish-Christian relations in America from the colonial period to the present. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America
[ hum ]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 164b The Sociology of the American Jewish Community
[ hum ss ]
Open to all students.
A survey exploring transformations in modern American Jewish societies, including American Jewish families, organizations, and behavior patterns in the second half of the twentieth century. Draws on social science texts, statistical studies, and qualitative research; also makes use of a broad spectrum of source materials, examining evidence from journalism, fiction, film, and other cultural artifacts. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 165a Analyzing the American Jewish Community
[ hum qr ss ]
Prerequisites: NEJS 161a, 162a, 164a, or 164b.
Explores the use of quantitative and qualitative research techniques in recent analyses of American Jewish life. Students engage in hands-on statistical research projects, learning what kinds of information can be gathered through survey research and through a variety of qualitative research techniques. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 165b Changing Roles of Women in American Jewish Societies
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
The lives of American Jews, and especially American Jewish women, have been radically transformed by demographic changes and by American Jewish feminism. These dramatic transformations affect secular and Jewish education for women, personal options and the formation of Jewish families, a growing participation of women in public Jewish life, and a new awareness of women's issues. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 166a Carnal Israel: Exploring Jewish Sexuality from Talmudic Times to the Present
[ hum ]
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 year.
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 166b Who is a Jew? Identity, Conversion, and Citizenship
[ hum ]
Examines the dynamics of conversion to and from Judaism from the rabbinic period to the present. Themes include the construction of identity, the place of the convert in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds, intermarriage and family, as well as social and legal dilemmas. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 167a Twentieth-Century Jewish Immigration to the United States
[ hum ss ]
Open to all students.
A historical survey of twentieth-century Jewish immigration to the United States, including East European, Sephardic, Cuban, Persian, Mizrahi, and Soviet Jewish immigrations. Regular readings will be supplemented by primary sources, immigrant fiction, and film. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 167b Jewish Women and Gender in Europe
[ hum ]
Examines Jewish women's experiences from antiquity to World War II through the lens of gender. Themes include the construction of gender roles and hierarchies in the family, religion, economic life, and the public arena; sexuality; sociability and education-primarily in Europe. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 169a Reading the Classroom as Text
[ hum ]
This is an experiential learning course. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation. Prerequisite: Student must have a teaching position in an area religious school which serves as their "experience" site.
In this experiential course, students analyze "records of practice" from their own and other's classrooms and situate their classroom experience in a broader conversation about the purpose of religious education and the role of supplementary schools. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Feiman-Nemser

NEJS 170a Studying Sacred Texts
[ hum ]
This is an experiential learning course.
What does it mean to study a sacred text? What are the problems with doing so? What is sacred about a sacred text? How is studying a sacred text similar to and different from studying other texts? How do different religious traditions study texts differently? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Levisohn

NEJS 170b Jewish Education in Modern America
[ hum ]
An examination of Jewish education from the perspective of learners and teachers. Through reflection, readings, and discussions, students gain a deeper understanding of changing purposes, practices, outcomes and challenges of Jewish education in different times and settings. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Feiman-Nemser

NEJS 171a Modern Jewish Literatures: Text, Image and Context
[ hum wi ]
Introduces important works of modern Jewish literature and film. Taking a comparative approach, it addresses major themes in contemporary Jewish culture, interrogates the "Jewishness" of the works and considers issues of language, poetics, and culture significant to Jewish identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 172a Women in American Jewish Literature
[ hum ]
Examines portrayals of women in American Jewish literature from a hybrid viewpoint. Using close textual analysis, explores changing American Jewish mores and values and the changing role of women as revealed by portrayals of women in American Jewish fiction. The development of critical reading skills enhances our understanding of the author's intent. The fiction and memoirs read are approached both as literature and as a form of social history. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 172b Classical Hebrew Texts in Context
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: A 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent.
A reading of selected classical Hebrew texts from biblical, classical rabbinic, and medieval periods. The goal is competency in understanding the Hebrew texts within their historical context. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 173a Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 141a, 143a, 144a, 146a, or permission of the instructor. Taught in Hebrew.
Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses in man-made disasters, war and terrorism, sexual and family violence, and murder and suicide, and examines their relation to nationalism, Zionism, gender, and sexual identity. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Szobel

NEJS 173b American Jewish Writers in the Twentieth Century
[ hum ]
American Jewish fiction in the twentieth century presents a panorama of Jewish life from immigration through contemporary times. Short stories, novels, and memoirs illuminate how changing educational and occupational opportunities, transformations in family life, shifting relationships between the genders, and conflict between Jewish and American value systems have played themselves out in lives of Jewish Americans. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 141a, 143a, 144a, 146a or permission of the instructor. Course is taught in Hebrew.
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.
Ms. Szobel

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 141a, 143a, 144a, 146a, or permission of the instructor. Course is taught in Hebrew.
An exploration of nationalism and gender in Modern Hebrew literature. By discussing various Hebrew texts and Israeli works of art and film, this course explores women's relationship to Zionism, war, peace, the state, politics, and processes of cultural production. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Szobel

NEJS 175a Jewish Women in Eastern Europe: Tradition and Transformation
[ hum ]
Examines women's roles in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Eastern European Jewish culture, with a focus on transformation in gender relations, education, and religious practices. Readings are drawn from Yiddish prose, poetry, and women's memoirs, with secondary sources in cultural history. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 175b Responses to the Holocaust in Literature
[ hum ]
The Holocaust has generated a rich and varied body of literary representations of this crucial event in modern history. This course studies significant examples of such representations, dwelling on their historical, cultural, and psychological aspects. The aesthetic and moral problems of representation are raised in each case. Authors examined include Wiesel, Levi, Appelfeld, Spiegelman, Celan, and Pagis. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 176a Seminar in American Jewish Fiction: Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick
[ hum wi ]
Best suited for students with strong reading skills and graduate students.
Focusing in depth on the works of two major American Jewish writers, Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick, and paying close attention to their development as artists and to the evolution of their explorations of Jewish themes, this course will offer students the opportunity to delve into each author's oeuvre. Usually offered every fourth year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 176b Modern Hebrew Literature in Its Historical Contexts
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: Any 100-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.
A literary analysis of significant modern Hebrew literary texts read in their historical contexts. Examines how literary texts embody the cultural currents of modern Jewish life, in the Diaspora and in Israel. Texts and discussion in Hebrew. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 177a The Holocaust in Israeli and Jewish Literature
[ hum ]
A broad survey of Holocaust writings in Modern Jewish literature. Examines the psychological, social, moral, and aesthetic challenges involved in representing the Holocaust in Israeli, American, and European context through literary texts, theoretical research, works of art, and film. Taught in English. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Szobel

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ hum ]
Taught in Hebrew. Prerequisite: HBRW 141a, 143a, 144a, or 146a or permission of the instructor.
Explores questions of romance, gender, marriage, and jealousy in the Israeli context by offering a feminist and psychoanalytic reading of Hebrew texts, works of art, and film. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Szobel

NEJS 178b Masculinity and Femininity in Israeli Film, Literature, and Culture
[ hum ]
Taught in English.
Focuses on Israeli film, literature, and culture, exploring how film and literature represent and establish masculinity and femininity. Examines the ways in which film and literature reflect the politics, religions, conflicts, and ideologies of Israeli society. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Szobel

NEJS 179a Jewish Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 40a, NEJS 10a, or equivalent.
An introduction to the Hebrew literature of Spain, Germany, and Italy during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Focus on Sephardic literature and on the continuities and discontinuities of Hebrew belles-lettres, giving attention to the impact of Arabic and European literature on Jewish authors. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 179b Sephardic Literature
[ hum ]
An exploration of the literatures of Judeo-Spanish peoples from "Golden Age" Spain and the Sephardic Diaspora (including the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, Western Europe, the Americas). Readings are in English or in English translation from the Hebrew, Spanish, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and Portuguese. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 180a Love and Passion in Medieval Jewish Literature and Thought
[ hum ]
An exploration of the love theme in Jewish poetry, fiction, exegesis, and philosophical literature, from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Jewish texts from Palestine, Spain (Sefarad), France, and Italy are compared with texts in Arabic, Spanish, French, and Italian. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Decter

NEJS 180b Introduction to Israeli Literature, Film, and Culture
[ hum ]
Examines trends and myths in modern Hebrew literature. Looking at both central, established and edgy, new stories, poems and films, the course examines various aspects of the way Israelis talk to each other and the world, and presents a multilayered--often conflicting--picture of Israeli culture through different voices and mediums. Taught in English. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Szobel

NEJS 181a Jews on Screen: "Cohen's Fire Sale" to the Coen Brothers
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
Survey course focusing on moving images of Jews and Jewish life in fiction and factual films. Includes early Russian and American silents, home movies of European Jews, Yiddish feature films, Israeli cinema, independent films, and Hollywood classics. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Rivo

NEJS 181b Film and the Holocaust
[ hum ]
Open to all students.
Examines the medium of film, propaganda, documentary, and narrative fiction relevant to the history of the Holocaust. The use of film to shape, justify, document, interpret, and imagine the Holocaust. Beginning with the films produced by the Third Reich, the course includes films produced immediately after the events, as well as contemporary feature films. The focus will be how the film medium, as a medium, works to (re)present meaning(s). Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Rivo

NEJS 182a Jewish Life in Film and Fiction
[ hum ]
Film and fiction are windows through which we can view transformations in American Jewish life. This course concentrates on cinematic and literary depictions of religious, socioeconomic, and cultural change over the past half-century. It does this through films and fiction, which reflect and help to shape shifting definitions of the American Jew. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 184a Introduction to Jewish Museum Studies
[ hum ]
Using readings, case studies, field trips, and class discussions, this course gives students introductory theoretical, historical, bibliographic, and hands-on skills for interpreting and producing exhibitions, museums, and historic sites in American, Europe, and Israel. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

NEJS 185a Topics in Israeli Social and Political History
[ hum ]
Not recommended for first year students.
Focuses on key topics in the shaping of the Israeli experience, including Zionist colonization; absorption of immigrants; shaping Jewish identity, personal and national, in a secular sense; and homeland/Diaspora relations. Comparative perspectives are employed. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Troen

NEJS 185b The Making of the Modern Middle East
[ hum nw ss ]
Open to all students.
Discusses the processes that led to the emergence of the modern Middle East: disintegration of Islamic society, European colonialism, reform and reaction, and the rise of nationalism and the modern states. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 186a Introduction to the Qur'an
[ hum nw ]
Traces the history of the Qur'an as text, its exegesis, and its role in inter-religious polemics, law, theology, and politics. Examines the role of the Qur'an in modern Islamic movements. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Lumbard

NEJS 186b The Quran: Composition, Collection, and Commentary
[ hum ]
Prerequisites: IMES 104a or NEJS 186a or permission of the instructor.
Examines the historical development and collection of the Quran, and the emergence of the different schools of Quranic commentary within various branches of Islam and the central themes upon which they focus. Emphasis is placed upon the guiding principles of Quranic commentary and the way in which they give rise to a hermeneutical tradition that is particular to Islam. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Lumbard

NEJS 187a Political Islam
[ hum nw ]
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. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 188a The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1800
[ hum nw ss ]
A historical survey of the Middle East from the establishment of the Ottoman Empire as the area's predominant power to 1800. Topics include Ottoman institutions and their transformation, and the Ottoman Empire as a world power. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 188b The Destruction of the Ottoman Empire, 1800-1923
[ hum nw ]
Examines the historical processes that led to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of new nation-states in the Balkans and the Middle East: nationalism, European imperialism, and Ottoman reform and its ultimate failure. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 189a The Arab-Israeli Conflict
[ hum ss ]
Consideration of Arab-Jewish relations, attitudes, and interactions from 1880 to the present. Emphasis on social factors and intellectual currents and their impact on politics. Examines the conflict within its international setting. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 189b Memory Wars: Collective Memory, Political Myths and History
[ hum ]
Examines the question of understanding, interpreting and using the past as an issue of growing interest in the world today. This course will discuss theories and cases regarding the presence of the past in contemporary society, culture and politics, with special concentration on Israel and the Middle East. Special one-time offering spring 2012.
Mr. Feige

NEJS 190a Describing Cruelty
[ hum wi ]
Grapples with the difficult subject of cruelty. Focus is on political or public cruelty in the non-Western world with a particular emphasis on the modern Middle East. The method is comparative and involves critical examination of the intellectual, visual, and literary works that engage with the phenomenon. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Makiya

NEJS 190b Islamic Philosophy
[ hum ]
Prerequisite: IMES 104a or NEJS 186a or a course on Islam.
An examination of the development and teachings of the Islamic philosophical tradition, covering its development from the Greek philosophical tradition and in response to Islamic teachings, and the relationship between Islamic philosophy and theology up to the Safavid period. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Lumbard

NEJS 191a Introduction to Islamic Theology
[ hum ]
An introduction to Islamic theology and intellectual tradition. After studying the formative period of the Prophet Mohammad's life, students examine the development of law, doctrines, beliefs, philosophy, and the diversity of thought in Islamic tradition. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 191b Messianism and the State of Israel
[ hum ]
Messianism is an important component in Jewish history. This course examines the messianic idea as a religious, political, and sociological phenomenon in modern Jewish history. Examining how the messianic narrative entered Jewish political discourse enables a critical discussion of its role in Zionist activities as an example of continuity or discontinuity with an older tradition. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 192a War and Peace in Israeli Thought and Praxis
[ hum ]
Despite initial visions of a conflict-free process of settling Palestine, issues of war and peace became central to the Zionist experience. Course examines how Zionism, as an intellectual movement and a polity, has understood the conflict and coped with it. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Troen

NEJS 192b Jewish Political Thought
[ hum ]
Explores the political thought of the Jewish people from biblical times to the present. Surveys the different genres in which Jewish thinkers have addressed political questions. Deals with questions of political legitimacy and authority: Who should rule over the Jewish people? (God, kings, priests, prophets, rabbis, lay leaders and the elected leaders of Israel today). Readiness include selections from the Bible and Talmud, midrashic literature, legal responsa, treatises, and pamphlets. Special two-time offering fall 2010 and fall 2011.
Mr. Jobani

NEJS 193a Societies in Conflict: Exploring the Middle East through Authentic Materials
[ hum nw ]
Prerequisites: A 30-level Hebrew and 30-level Arabic course.
An upper-level language course to help 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. Materials include excerpts from literature, film, and other media. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 194b Sufi Teachings
[ hum nw ]
An examination of the teaching and practices of the Sufi tradition. Explores the foundations of Sufism, its relation to other aspects of Islam and the development of Sufi teachings in both poetry and prose. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Lumbard

NEJS 196a Marriage, Divorce, and Sexual Ethics in Islamic Law
[ hum nw ]
Using law to understand Islamic gender discourses and Muslim women's lives, the class addresses broad areas where law and gender intersect jurisprudential method and classical doctrines; women's use of courts to settle disputes; and contemporary debates over legal reforms. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

NEJS 196b The Middle Eastern City: Intersections of Art, Literature and History
[ hum nw ]
Begins with the pre-modern Middle Eastern city, old constructs that are constitutive of identity, and concludes by examining the culture and forms of Jerusalem, Mecca, Cairo, Tehran, Beirut and Baghdad. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Makiya

NEJS 197a Survey of Islamic Law
[ hum ]
Explores the classical sources of the Islamic legal decision-making process and modern challenges to them. Examines cases of people on the margins, such as heretics, non-Muslims, and women, over different historical periods and geographical regions, to understand compatibility and incompatibles between abstract legal principles and historical realities. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 197b Political Cultures of the Middle East
[ hum nw wi ]
Explores the way in which people make assumptions about power, authority, and justice. Focuses on Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, explaining the evolving language of politics in these states. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Makiya

NEJS 198a Islam, the Middle East, and the West
[ hum ]
Explores the major political, socio-economic, and cultural changes in the Middle East from the rise of Islam to present times with emphasis on Islam's encounter with The West. Focuses on common roots and mutual influences and analysis of (mis)perceptions as historically constructed cultural categories and of their legacy in the modern world. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 199b Contemporary Islamic Thought and Practice
[ hum ]
An overview of the major issues and trends in contemporary Islamic thought and practice. Explores themes including scriptural interpretation, worship and devotion, Islamic law, human rights, social justice, visions of religious leadership, democracy, extremism, representations of Islam, and globalization and transnational networks. Case studies of the United States and Europe, examining moderate and extremist voices, are used as the future of Islam is considered. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS/SOC 171b Religions in Greater Boston
[ hum ss ]
Analysis of religious diversity in greater Boston (Jewish, Christian, Unitarian-Universalist, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Spiritual, and Native American); comparative study of religious symbols and space (with site visits); examination of the role of religion in schools, hospitals, and prisons. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Brooten and Ms. Cadge

HRNS/NEJ 255b Jewish Civic Identity
Examines the idea of Jewishness as citizenship. That is, we will study the ways in which Jews and Judaism understood their civilization in political terms, involving certain rights and obligations to one's own community, tradition, and God. Special one-time offering, Spring 2011.
Mr. Starr

NEJS 200a Akkadian Literary Texts I
Prerequisite: NEJS 101b or the equivalent.
Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 200b Akkadian Literary Texts II
Prerequisite: NEJS 200a or the equivalent.
Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 202a Akkadian Mythological/Religious Texts I
Prerequisite: NEJS 101b or the equivalent.
Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 202b Akkadian Mythological/Religious Texts II
Prerequisite: NEJS 202a or the equivalent.
Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 204a Theory and Practice in Social Scientific Studies of Jews and Jewishness
Explores social scientific study of ethnoreligious minority groups through case study of Jewish societies. Focuses on diverse theories and approaches, quantitative and qualitative research, social capital, identity, ethnography, sociology of religion, material culture, diaspora studies, ethnomusicology and folklore. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 206a Intermediate Ugaritic
Prerequisite: NEJS 106b.
A review of grammar and continued reading in various Ugaritic texts. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 208a Biblical Hebrew Composition
Prerequisite: An advanced knowledge of biblical Hebrew.
An advanced course in biblical Hebrew grammar. The grammar of biblical Hebrew will be reviewed and extended through translation of English prose and poetry into biblical Hebrew. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 210a Exodus: A Study in Method
Prerequisite: A strong reading knowledge of biblical Hebrew and previous exposure to the critical study of the Hebrew Bible.
An examination of the Hebrew text of Exodus in relation to the methodologies of modern biblical scholarship. Particular attention to source criticism, form criticism, and the text in its ancient environment. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 210b Studying Jewish Texts
Open to students in the MAT program (Jewish Day School) and Hornstein students only.
Introduces the genres and texts of rabbinic literature and the diverse array of methods with which these texts are studied, taught, and used. Usually offered every year in the summer.
Ms. Naditch

NEJS 211b The History of Israelite Religions
Examines recent scholarly reconstructions of the development and nature of popular and elite-sanctioned religions in ancient Israel in view of textual and archaeological evidence. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Wright

NEJS 231a Graduate Proseminar in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
This graduate seminar, required for master’s and doctoral students, explores theoretical and critical texts of the humanities and social sciences and their connection to diverse fields within Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. The course has four main objectives: (1) To familiarize students with basic theoretical concepts underlying scholarly works in history, religion, culture, language, literary and textual studies, social and political science, law, education, and women’s and gender studies; (2) To develop a critical approach to texts; (3) To develop students’ professional skills including oral presentation skills; (4) To create an intellectual community of graduate students from different disciplinary backgrounds, who will form a social cohort through a common classroom experience. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Freeze and Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 232a Research and Archival Methods in Modern Jewish History
A critical examination of research methodologies in the study of modern and American Jewish history, with special attention to primary sources and new historical approaches. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 233a Gender and Jewish Studies
Uses gender as a prism to enhance understanding of topics in Judaic studies such as Jewish history and classical Jewish texts, psychology, sexuality and gender role definition, literature and film, contemporary cultures, and religion. Undergraduates may enroll by permission of the instructor. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 234a Major Themes in Jewish Studies: Jews and their Neighbors
Traces the major theme of "Jews and their neighbors" in Jewish life from biblical times to the present while utilizing sources and methods to developed students' analytical skills and acquaint them with different historical eras and approaches. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 235b Philosophy of Jewish Education
What should Jewish education be? What are its legitimate goals? What are the competing visions of an educated Jew, and how do these influence educational practice? How is Jewish education similar to and different from other kinds of religious education? Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Levisohn

NEJS 236a Seminar on Modern Jewish History and Historiography
Strongly recommended for all graduate students in Judaic studies.
Aims to introduce students to the emergence of history as an academic discipline in the nineteenth century and to provide some acquaintance with the classics of historical scholarship. It will also examine the emergence of Jewish historiography and analyze critically the works of the major Jewish historians. In addition, it will assess the contributions of the "new" historians to historical understanding and see how far their insights can aid in the study of key problems in Jewish history. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 236b Russian-Jewish History to 1917
A discussion of Jewish life in the Polish lands, and the Jews under tsarist rule and Imperial rule, the confrontation of traditional Jewish community with modernity, the haskalah movement, the Jewish family, popular culture, anti-Jewish violence, the rise of new political and cultural movements, and emigration. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 253a Zionism and Its Critics: Contested Visions of Jewish Nationalism
The modern articulation of collective Jewish experience in terms of a nation has taken on a variety of competing forms. Places the development of Jewish nationalist visions into historical context and studies the different strands of cultural, religious, and political Zionism, as well as several non-Zionist forms such as Bundism and autonomism. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 256a Secularization and Its Discontents
Addresses the meaning and origins of the process of secularization by looking at a number of modern thinkers and writers who have tried to explain what it means to live in a modern world independent of a transcendent God. The construction and deconstruction of secular politics, culture and society will also be a central focus of the course. Can secularization account for new foundations of politics and culture or must it always be to a certain degree inexplicable without a reference to religious phenomena? Usually taught every third year.
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 262a Graduate Seminar in Modern Jewish Literature: Culture, Place, and Gender
Open to undergraduate students with permission of the instructor.
Introduces students to various works in modern Jewish literature, taking an interdisciplinary comparative approach, incorporating literary theory, cultural history, and film. Explores major themes in twentieth-century Jewish literature: "embracing modernity," "utopia/dystopia," "exile and immigration," "Zionism," and "the Holocaust." Taught in English. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Kellman and Ms. Szobel

NEJS 263b Colloquium in American Jewish History
Examines major themes in the historiography of American Jewry. Readings span a broad range of themes, chronological eras, and historical approaches, including Colonial America, waves of immigration, developments in the diverse wings of Judaism, changes in Jewish educational strategies, and the impact of the Holocaust and Holocaust studies on American Judaism. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 285b Conflict and Controversies in Israeli History
From early scenarios to contemporary debates, Zionist society has experienced solidarity and discord. Explores tensions caused by ethnic diversity, religious/secular friction, Arab/Jewish rivalry, and the dilemma of defining a state that is at once Jewish and democratic. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Troen

NEJS 287a Seminar on Nationalism and Religion in the Middle East
Examines major issues in the development of nationalism and its interaction with religion in the Arab countries, Israel, Turkey, and Iran in the twentieth century. Topics vary from year to year. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 289a Seminar: States and Minorities in the Middle East
Examines major issues in the relations between the state and ethnic and religious minorities in the Arab countries, Israel, Turkey, and Iran in the twentieth century. Topics vary from year to year. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 296a Independent Study
Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

NEJS 297a Internship
Staff

NEJS 298a Master's Project
Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

NEJS 299a Master's Thesis
Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

NEJS 299b Master's Thesis
Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

NEJS 315a Readings in Contemporary Israeli Society
Staff

NEJS 316a Readings in Arabic Language and Literature
Staff

NEJS 317a Readings in Assyriology
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 318a Readings in Sumerian
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 320a Readings in Jewish Bibliography
Staff

NEJS 321a Readings in Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Staff

NEJS 322a Readings in Modern Intellectual History
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 325a Readings in Israeli History
Mr. Troen

NEJS 326a Biblical Literature
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 327a Readings in Contemporary Biblical Scholarship
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 328a Readings in Ancient Near Eastern Languages
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 329a Readings in Ancient Near Eastern Religions and Cultures
Mr. Abusch

NEJS 330a Readings in Israeli History
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 331a Readings in Yiddish Literature
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 332a Readings in American Jewish History
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 333b Readings in Holocaust Testimonies
Ms. Michlic

NEJS 334a Readings: History of American Jewish Institutions
Staff

NEJS 335a Readings in East European Jewish History
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 336b Readings in American-Jewish Cultural Studies
Mr. Whitfield

NEJS 337a Readings in Talmudic and Midrashic Literature
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 339a Readings in Biblical Texts
Mr. Singer

NEJS 340b Readings in Modern Middle East History
Mr. Makiya

NEJS 341a Readings in Holocaust History
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 342a Readings in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 343a Readings in Bible and the Ancient Near East
Mr. Wright

NEJS 344a Readings in The Bible and Teaching the Bible
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 345a Readings in Bible and Ancient Near East Studies
Mr. Brettler and Mr. Wright

NEJS 346a Readings in Biblical Hebrew and Related Studies
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 347a Readings in History and Archaeology of the Ancient Near East
Mr. Wright

NEJS 348b Readings in Jewich Thought
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 349a Readings in the Sephardi Experience in the New World
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 350a Readings in Modern Middle Eastern Historiography
Staff

NEJS 351a Readings in Visual Culture and Religion
Ms. Smith

NEJS 352a Readings in the History of American Jewish Education
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 353a Readings in American Jewish Women
Ms. Smith

NEJS 356a Readings in American Jewish Museum Studies
Mr. Sarna or Ms. Smith

NEJS 360b Readings in Contemporary Jewish Literature and Life
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 361a Readings in Jewish Sociology
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 362a Readings in Polish History 1764-1914
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 362b Readings in Polish-Jewish Relations
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 363a Readings in the History of Eastern Europe 1750-1947
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 363b Readings in the History of East-Central Europe
Mr. Polonsky

NEJS 364a Yiddish Readings: Works of Chaim Grade and Isaac Bashevis Singer
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 364b Yiddish Readings in Post-Holocaust History
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 365a Yiddish Readings: Modernist Prose Fiction
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 366a Doctoral and Postdoctoral Seminar on Early Judaism and Christianity
Ms. Brooten and Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 367a Readings in Modern Hebrew Literature and Modern Jewish Culture
Staff

NEJS 368b American-Jewish Women's Literature
Ms. Antler

NEJS 369a Readings in New Testament
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 370b Readings in Language and Art
Ms. Ringvald

NEJS 371a Readings in Canadian Jewish History
NEJS 371a Readings in Canadian Jewish History
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 372b Readings in American Religious History
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 373a Readings in Russian Jewish History
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 374a Readings in Hebrew Curriculum Design
Ms. Ringvald

NEJS 375a Readings in Jewish Polity Studies
Mr. Sasson

NEJS 376a Readings in Jewish Culture
Ms. Fishman

NEJS 377a Readings in Jewish Identity
Ms. Freeze

NEJS 379a Hebrew Language and Culture
Staff

NEJS 379b Readings in Al-Ghazali
Mr. Lumbard

NEJS 380a Readings in German-Jewish History
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 382a Readings in Jewish Education
Ms. Feiman-Nemser and Mr. Levisohn

NEJS 383a Readings in Medieval Islam
Mr. Lumbard

NEJS 384a Readings in Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Mr. Decter

NEJS 385a Readings in Liturgy
Mr. Kimelman

NEJS 385b Readings in Jewish Feminism
Ms. Smith

NEJS 386a Readings in Research in Jewish Education
Ms. Feiman-Nemser and Mr. Levisohn

NEJS 387a Readings in Hittite
Mr. Wright

NEJS 388a Readings in Black-Jewish Relations
Mr. Sarna

NEJS 389a Readings in Bible Interpretation
Mr. Brettler

NEJS 390a Readings in Medieval Judaism
Mr. Decter

NEJS 391a Readings in Sephardic Studies
Mr. Decter

NEJS 392a Readings in Arab Nationalism
Staff

NEJS 393a Readings in American Jewish Literature
Staff

NEJS 394a Yiddish Readings in Holocaust History
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 394b Readings in Modern Yiddish Literature
Ms. Kellman

NEJS 396a Jewish Experience and Thought
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 396b Readings in Israel Studies
Mr. Troen

NEJS 397a Readings in Material Cuture Studies
Ms. Smith

NEJS 398a History of Zionist Thought
Mr. Sheppard

NEJS 398b Readings: Abraham Joshua Heschel
Mr. Kaplan

NEJS 399a Directed Readings: Classical Sufi Texts
Mr. Lumbard

NEJS 399b Readings in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
Ms. Brooten

NEJS 401d Dissertation Colloquium
Independent research for the PhD. Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

HBRW 10a Beginning Hebrew
Six class hours and one additional lab hour per week.
For students with no previous knowledge and those with a minimal background. Intensive training in the basics of Hebrew grammar, listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Several sections will be offered. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HBRW 19a Beginning Hebrew: Honors
Prerequisite: Hebrew placement exam. Only one 10-level Hebrew course may be taken for credit.
A beginner course for those students with some exposure to Hebrew. Builds upon the initial exposure, continuing to teach the basics of grammar, vocabulary, speaking, and writing. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HBRW 20b Intermediate Hebrew
Prerequisite: HBRW 10a or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Only one 20-level Hebrew course may be taken for credit. Four class hours and one lab hour per week.
Continuation of HBRW 10a, employing the same methods. Intensive training in Hebrew grammar, listening, comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Several sections offered every semester.
Staff

HBRW 29b Intermediate Hebrew I: Honors
Prerequisite: HBRW 10a or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Only one 20-level Hebrew course may be taken for credit. Four class hours and one lab hour per week.
This course is designed for honor students who wish to excel in the language. Students are admitted upon recommendation of the director of the Hebrew language program. Usually offered every year in the spring.
Staff

HBRW 34a Intermediate Hebrew II: Aspects of Israeli Culture
[ fl ]
Prerequisite: Any 20-level Hebrew course or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Two 30-level Hebrew courses may be taken for credit. Four class hours and one lab hour per week.
A continuation of HBRW 20b. An intermediate- to mid-level course that helps students strengthen their skills at this level. Contemporary cultural aspects will be stressed and a variety of materials will be used. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HBRW 35a Conversation and Writing Skills
[ fl ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. This course is recommended for students who have not previously studied Hebrew at Brandeis and have been placed at this level. This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken HBRW 31a in previous years. Four class hours and one lab hour per week.
An intermediate-level course designed to improve the linguistic and writing skills of students who have an extensive background in the language but lack the academic skills to fulfill the language requirements or to pursue a higher level of Hebrew or Judaic studies. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Staff

HBRW 39a Intermediate Hebrew II: Honors
[ fl ]
Prerequisite: HBRW 29b or permission of the instructor. Four class hours and one lab hour per week.
A continuation of HBRW 29b. Designed for honor students who wish to excel in Hebrew. Students are admitted upon recommendation of the director of the Hebrew language program. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Staff

HBRW 41a Advanced Intermediate Hebrew: Intensive Conversation
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent. Students may take this course and HBRW 44b for credit. Four class hours per week. This is an experiential learning course.
For students who have acquired an intermediate knowledge of Hebrew and who wish to develop a greater fluency in conversation. This course does not satisfy the language requirement for the NEJS major or the major in Hebrew. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Staff

HBRW 44b Advanced Intermediate Hebrew: Israeli Culture and Media
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent. Students may not take this course and HBRW 49b for credit. Four class hours per week.
Reinforces the acquired skills of speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing at the intermediate to mid/high level. Contemporary cultural aspects are stressed; conversational Hebrew and reading of selections from modern literature, political essays, and newspaper articles. Required for NEJS majors and Hebrew majors and recommended for others who would like to continue studying Hebrew beyond the foreign language requirement. It is a prerequisite for many upper-level Hebrew courses. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HBRW 49b Hebrew Culture and Media: Honors
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course, or the equivalent, or placement by the director of the Hebrew Language Program. Students may not take this course and HBRW 44b for credit. Four class hours per week.
A fourth semester course that prepares honors students for advanced-level courses. Intended for students who have completed HBRW 35a or 39a or by recommendation. Usually offered every year in the spring.
Staff

HBRW 97a Senior Essay
Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HBRW 97b Senior Essay
Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HBRW 98a Independent Study
Usually offered every year in the fall.
Staff

HBRW 98b Independent Study
Signature of the instructor required.
Usually offered every year in the spring.
Staff

HBRW 99a Senior Thesis
Signature of the director required to enroll. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HBRW 99b Senior Thesis
Signature of the director required to enroll. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HBRW 102a Hebrew Reading Proficiency
Prerequisite: Intermediate knowledge of Hebrew reading. Primarily intended for graduate students. Not for credit.
An intermediate- to mid-level course for graduate students interested in strengthening their reading skills. Emphasizes recognition of grammatical structures in the written language and the acquisition of recognition vocabulary. Intended to help students in their research or in preparation for the Hebrew language exam. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HBRW 102b Advanced Reading Proficiency and Comprehension
Prerequisite: HBRW 102a or high-intermediate reading knowledge of Hebrew. Not for credit.
A continuation of HBRW 102a. Different materials and texts are studied. This class is conducted in English. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HBRW 121a Let's converse in Hebrew, I
[ fl hum ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent. This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken HBRW 103a as Israel: The Early Years. Four class hours per week.
An intermediate-mid/high-level conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills before entering more advanced-level courses. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Ms. Azoulay

HBRW 121b Let's converse in Hebrew, II
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.
An intermediate- to mid/high-level conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills before entering more advanced-level courses. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Azoulay

HBRW 122a Introduction to Classical Hebrew I
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, except HBRW 41a (formerly HBRW 42a), as approved by the director of the Hebrew language program. Four class hours per week.
Concentrates on the study of biblical and classical Hebrew literary works, such as epigraphy, rabbinic, as well as selections from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Written and oral expression in modern Hebrew are also stressed.
Staff

HBRW 122b Introduction to Classical Hebrew II
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, except HBRW 41a, as approved by the director of the Hebrew language program. Four class hours per week.
An intermediate- to mid/high-level course that focuses on comparing grammatical, textual, and lexical forms and ideas in classical Hebrew texts ranging from the biblical literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls (1000 BCE to 68 CE). Written and oral expression in modern Hebrew are also stressed.
Staff

HBRW 123a Creative Reading and Writing in Hebrew I
[ fl hum wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, as determined by the director of the Hebrew language program. Four class hours per week.
An intermediate- to mid/high-level course, which focuses on modern Hebrew prose and poetry stressing major trends. Students are expected to acquire better fluency in reading, writing, and conversation. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Hascal

HBRW 123b Creative Reading and Writing in Hebrew II
[ fl hum wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or its equivalent, as determined by the director of the Hebrew language program. Four class hours per week.
An intermediate- to mid/high-level course that focuses on the representation of the Holocaust and the generational relationships in modern Hebrew prose and poetry. Students are expected to acquire better fluency in reading, writing, and conversation. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Hascal

HBRW 141a Advanced Hebrew Conversation
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Four semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours and one additional hour of lab work or speaking practice per week are required.
For advanced students who want to work on accuracy, fluency, and vocabulary building. The course prepares students to become advanced speakers of Hebrew. Reading of contemporary texts and newspaper articles and listening to Israeli videos will serve as a basis for building higher-level speaking proficiency. One additional weekly hour of lab work or speaking practice is required. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Azoulay

HBRW 143a Advanced Survey of Hebrew and Israeli Literature I
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: Four semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours per week.
An advanced course that enhances advanced language skills through a survey of early Israeli literature and poetry (1950-1975) while stressing the various trends and reactions to different aspects of Israeli daily life during this period. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Hascal

HBRW 143b Advanced Survey of Hebrew and Israeli Literature II
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: Four semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours per week.
An advanced-level course that enhances advanced language and literary skills. Surveys the later Israeli literature and poetry (1975-present). Stresses the various trends and reactions to different aspects of Israeli daily life during this period. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Hascal

HBRW 144a Hebrew through Plays and Drama
[ ca fl hum wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Four semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours and two additional weekly hours of lab work are required.
Helps improve Hebrew language skills at the intermediate-high/advanced-level by focusing on various creative aspects such as improvisations, drama, performance, and other acting techniques such as movement, imagination, and other basic skills necessary to act out scenes from various plays in the Hebrew language. Writing assignments and self-critique enhance the students' skills in language acquisition. The course culminates in the writing of one-act plays in Hebrew along with a theatrical performance and production. Usually offered every year in the fall.
Ms. Azoulay

HBRW 146a The Voices of Jerusalem
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: Four semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours per week. This is an experiential learning course.
Aims to develop students' language proficiency through analysis of selected materials that depict the unique tradition, literature and poetry, history, politics, art, and other features related to Jerusalem. Usually offered every second year in the fall.
Ms. Hascal

HBRW 161b What's Up?: Hebrew through Israeli News Media
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: Five semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours per week.
For advanced students who wish to enhance proficiency and accuracy in writing and speaking. Israeli newspapers, films, clips from Israeli TV series and shows, and on-line resources will be used to promote language and cultural competency. Usually offered every spring.
Ms. Porath

HBRW 164b Israeli Theater
[ ca fl hum wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Five semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours and two lab hours per week.
An advanced course that enhances advanced language skills through reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing lab. In reading plays, students can also participate in Hebrew acting lab. Usually offered every second year in the fall.
Ms. Azoulay

HBRW 166b Portrait of the Israeli Woman
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: Five semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours per week.
An advanced culture course that enhances advanced language skills through examination of the Israeli woman's role, image, and unique voice reflected in Israeli literature, history, tradition, and art. Usually offered every second year in the fall.
Ms. Hascal

HBRW 167b Back to the Roots: The Revival of Modern Hebrew
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: Five semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours per week.
An advanced course that surveys the origins of the Hebrew language and its development throughout the centuries, focusing on its major stages (biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern). Explores the unique phenomenon of its revival as a spoken language and its adaptation to the modern world. Usually offered every fall.
Ms. Porath

HBRW 168a Hebrew Language Teaching I
[ fl hum ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Five semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Three class hours per week.
An advanced-level methodology course that focuses on the theories and methodologies for teaching Hebrew. Course taught in Hebrew and in English. Designed primarily for students at the advanced level who are interested in eventually being able to teach Hebrew. Usually offered every fall.
Ms. Ringvald

HBRW 168b Hebrew Language Teaching II
[ fl hum ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Five semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Three class hours per week.
An advanced seminar that focuses on students' understanding of second languages, particularly the students of Hebrew, as well as understanding the foundations of curriculum development. The course is taught in Hebrew and in English and is a continuation of HBRW 168a. Students participate in teaching practicum through internship and learn how to apply their knowledge. Usually offered every spring.
Ms. Ringvald

HBRW 170a Take I: Hebrew through Israeli Cinema
[ fl hum wi ]
This is an experiential learning course. Prerequisite: Five semesters of Hebrew or permission of the instructor. Four class hours per week.
An advanced culture course that focuses on the various aspects of Israeli society as they are portrayed in Israeli films and television. In addition to viewing films, the students will be asked to read Hebrew background materials, to participate in class discussions, and to write in Hebrew about the films. Usually offered every spring.
Ms. Azoulay

YDSH 10a Beginning Yiddish
Meets for four class hours per week.
The first of a four-semester sequence, this course introduces basic Yiddish grammar. Students also develop reading, writing, and conversational skills. Yiddish songs, poetry, and folklore are incorporated throughout. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Kellman

YDSH 20b Continuing Yiddish
Prerequisite: YDSH 10a or permission of the instructor. Meets for four class hours per week.
Continues the study of grammar begun in YDSH 10a. Writing and speaking skills receive more emphasis than in the previous course, and students begin to build vocabulary and reading skills that will enable them to approach more complex texts. The history and culture of Eastern European Jewry are studied through Yiddish songs, films, and literature. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Kellman

YDSH 30a Intermediate Yiddish
[ fl wi ]
Prerequisite: YDSH 20b or permission of the instructor. Meets for four class hours per week.
Third in a four-semester sequence. Students continue to develop reading skills as they sample texts from Yiddish prose fiction, folklore, and memoir literature. Grammatical instruction is more contextualized than in the previous courses. Speaking and writing skills are strongly emphasized. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Kellman

YDSH 40b Advanced Intermediate Yiddish
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: YDSH 30a or permission of the instructor. Meets for four class hours per week.
The fourth in a four-semester sequence, this course is a continuation of YDSH 30a. Students discuss assigned texts in Yiddish. Written assignments emphasize the development of fluency and grammatical accuracy. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Kellman

YDSH 98b Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 121a The American Jewish Woman: 1890-1990s
[ ss ]
Surveys the experiences of American Jewish women in work, politics, religion, family life, the arts, and American culture generally over the last 100 years, examining how the dual heritage of female and Jewish "otherness" shaped often-conflicted identities. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Antler

ANTH 118b Cultures of the Middle East
[ ss ]
Examines the peoples and societies of the Middle East from an anthropological perspective. Explores problems of cross-cultural examination, the notion of the Middle East as an area of study, and the role of anthropology in the formation of the idea of the “Middle East.” To this end, the course is divided into sections devoted to understanding and problematizing key concepts and themes central to our understanding of the region, including tribe and state, family and kinship, gender and sexuality, honor and shame, tradition and modernity, and religion and secularism. Course materials will include critical ethnographies based on field work in the region as well as locally produced materials such as literature, music, film and other visual arts. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

BISC 2b Genes and the Human Story
[ sn ]
Does NOT meet requirements for the major in biology.
Findings from the Human Genome Project are correlated with cultural, historical, and religious information about human origins, human reproduction, infectious diseases, and lineages of human populations. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Wangh

FA 68a Israeli Art and Visual Culture: Forging Identities Between East and West
[ ca ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 153a in prior years.
An examination of the visual arts created in Israel since the beginning of the twentieth century. Combines a chronological overview of major trends with an in-depth examination of select case studies of individual artists and specific themes.
Ms. Ankori

FA 76a Palestinian and Israeli Art, Film and Visual Culture: Intersecting Visions
[ ca ]
Israelis and Palestinians have been creating vibrant and bold works of art that both reflect and transcend the region's conflict-ridden history. This course offers a critical comparative study of Israeli and Palestinian art, exploring contentious expressions of pain and trauma as well as shared visions of hope and peace. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ankori

FREN 147a Jewish Identities in France since 1945
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
After the Holocaust, French thinkers such as Sartre, Levinas, and Memmi provided a foundation for reconstructing Jewish life. Topics include assimilation, Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews, Muslim, black, and Jewish identity, the role of women, secularism, ethics, and religious faith. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kaplan.

FYS 18a Understanding Evil and Human Destiny
[ hum ]
Designed to introduce students to some of the Western classics that deal with the impact of evil on human destiny. Suffering, justice, and death are studied in their relationship with God, the world, and history.
Mr. Kimelman (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

FYS 28b The Jewish Family: Past and Present
[ hum ]
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.
Ms. Freeze (Near Eastern and Judaic Studies)

GECS 155a Modern German Jewish History
[ hum ]
Course to be taught at Brandeis summer program in Berlin.
Study of Germany and the European Jews from the period of emancipation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century to the present. Examines the role of German Jews in German politics, economic life, and culture; the rise of anti-Semitism in the nineteenth century; the Nazi government's anti-Jewish policies to the postwar period. Usually offered every year.
Ms. von Mering

IMES 104a Islam: Civilization and Institutions
[ hum nw ]
Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the current state of affairs. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, women in Islam, and Islam and Middle Eastern politics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

IMES 105a War and Revolution in the Middle East
[ hum nw wi ]
Considers the impact of war and revolution in the shaping of the modern Middle East starting with the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Focuses on the violent turning points that have changed the lives of millions of people.
Mr. Makiya

ITAL 134b Nella cultura ebraica italiana: cinema e letteratura
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or equivalent. Conducted in Italian. Materials fee: $20.
Analyzes Italian Jewish representations in Italian culture from the founding of the ghetto in Venice in 1516 to modern times. Works of Italian Jewish writers and historians are examined as well as Italian movies that address Jewish themes within the mainstream of Italian culture. This course has an interdisciplinary approach while focusing on advanced Italian language skills. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Servino

RECS 135a The Short Story in Russia
[ hum ]
Open to all students. Conducted in English. Students may choose to do readings either in English translation or in Russian.
Focuses on the great tradition of the short story as practiced by Russian and Russian Jewish writers and the connection and divisions among them. This genre invites extreme stylistic and narrative experimentation ranging from the comic to the tragic, as well as being a vehicle for striking expressions of complex social, philosophical, and religious themes. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Miller

REL 121a Mysticism and the Moral Life
[ hum wi ]
The lives and writings of Jewish, Roman Catholic, and African American protestant mystics who exemplify connections between the inner life of prayer, the encounter with God, and social action. Special focus on Heschel, Merton, Thurman, Teresa of Avila, and others. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Kaplan

WMGS 120b Women and Gender in Religion
[ hum ]
An analysis of how gender is at the heart of religion and of how women, men, and transgendered persons are transforming religious communities today. The course will include: debates over religious leadership; religious discourse about gendered bodies; sacred texts and religious law; and images of the divine and religious ritual. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Brooten and Ms. Langenberg

WMGS 140a Diversity of Muslim Women's Experience
[ ss ]
A broad introduction to the multidimensional nature of women's experiences in the Muslim world. As both a cultural and religious element in this vast region, understanding Islam in relation to lives of women has become increasingly imperative. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Shavarini

ANTH 105a Myth and Ritual
[ nw ss ]
Studies myth and ritual as two interlocking modes of cultural symbolism. Evaluates theoretical approaches to myth by looking at creation and political myths. Examines performative, processual, and spatial models of ritual analysis through study of initiation, sacrifice, and funerals. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Schattschneider

ANTH 123a Archaeology in Theory and Practice
[ ss ]
Focuses on the fundamental problem of archaeology: how can we reconstruct past cultures on the basis of broken pottery, ruined buildings, scattered stone tools, and the other material remains left to us? Drawing on the work of scholars conducting research around the world, this seminar offers an exploration of the great variety of theoretical perspectives on approaching the human past. Readings and discussions will engage students with the major theoretical and methodological issues of the field in the 20th and 21st centuries. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Golden or Mr. Urcid

ANTH 136a Archaeology of Power: Authority, Prestige, and Inequality in the Past
[ nw ss ]
Anthropological and archaeological research and theory provide a unique, long-term perspective on the development of inequality and rise of hierarchical societies, including the earliest ancient states such as the Moche, Maya, China, Sumerians, Egyptians, and others through 5000 years of human history. A comparative, multidisciplinary seminar examining the dynamics of authority, prestige, and power in the past, and the implications for understanding the present . Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Golden

ANTH 153a Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
[ nw ss ]
Compares graphic forms of communication, ranging from semasiographic to alphabetic systems, from archaeological and ethnographic perspectives. Explores the social functions of early writing systems, the linkage of literacy and political power, and the production of historical memory. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Urcid

ANTH 186b Linguistic Anthropology
[ ss ]
Advanced topics in linguistic anthropology, including the study of linguistic meaning in context, pragmatics, the construction of social relationships through language, language and authority, language and religion, and linguistic ideologies. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. McIntosh or Mr. Parmentier

CLAS 100a Survey of Greek History: Bronze Age to 323 BCE
[ hum ]
Surveys the political and social development of the Greek city-states from Bronze Age origins to the death of Alexander. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Walker

CLAS 167b Classical Myths Told and Retold
[ hum wi ]
Surveys several major literary works of the ancient Greeks and Romans in order to study their mythological content, variant myths, and the influence of mythology on later literature and modern cinema. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Koloski-Ostrow

CLAS 170a Classical Mythology
[ hum ]
An introduction to Greek and Roman mythology. Considers ancient song cultures, and the relationship between myth, drama, and religion. Also explores visual representations of myth. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Muellner

CLAS 190b Ancient Mysteries, Cults, and Myths
[ hum ]
An investigation of the phenomenon of the ancient mystery cults as preserved in the surviving art and literature of antiquity. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Johnston

GRK 20b Continuing Ancient Greek
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in GRK 10a.
Fundamentals of Greek grammar through reading. Students must earn a C- or higher in GRK 20b in order to enroll in a 30-level Greek course. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Muellner

LING 100a Introduction to Linguistics
[ ss ]
This is an experiential learning course. Open to all students.
A general introduction to linguistic theory and the principles of linguistic analysis. Students will construct detailed analyses of data from English and other languages in the areas of syntax, semantics, phonetics, and phonology and examine their implications for a theory of language as it is encoded in the human mind. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Malamud

LING 110a Phonological Theory
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: LING 100a.
An introduction to generative phonology, the theory of natural language sound systems. Includes discussion of articulatory phonetics, distinctive feature theory, the concept of a "natural class," morphology and the nature of morphophonemics, and universal properties of the rules that relate morphophonemic and phonetic representations. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LING 112b Sociolinguistics: Language Variation and Change
[ ss ]
Open to first-year students.
Introduces language variation and change, encompassing historical linguistics (how languages change over time), dialectology (regional variation in language), and sociolinguistics (relationships between language and society). Explores how factors like age, gender, and social class influence human behavior and social organization. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

LING 115a Morphology
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: LING 100a. May not be repeated for credit by students who took LING 190b in spring 2008.
An exploration of word structure and its analysis. Topics include the lexicon and lexical entries, word-headedness, argument structure and other issues in morphosyntax, derivational and inflectional morphology, compounds, morphophonology, and non-Indo-European processes like infixing, reduplication, and Semitic root-and-pattern morphology. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Goldberg

LING 120b Syntactic Theory
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: LING 100a is recommended but not required.
An introduction to the process of syntactic analysis, to generative syntactic theory, and to many major syntactic phenomena of English and other languages, including the clausal architecture, the lexicon, and various types of syntactic movement. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LING 125b Linguistic Typology
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: LING 100a or permission of the instructor.
Focuses on linguistic typology, in which the languages of the world are classified in terms of their common grammatical features rather than by genetic relationships. Includes study of language universals: traits and implicational relationships which hold in (nearly) every language. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Goldberg

FA 68a Israeli Art and Visual Culture: Forging Identities Between East and West
[ ca ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 153a in prior years.
An examination of the visual arts created in Israel since the beginning of the twentieth century. Combines a chronological overview of major trends with an in-depth examination of select case studies of individual artists and specific themes.
Ms. Ankori

FA 76a Palestinian and Israeli Art, Film and Visual Culture: Intersecting Visions
[ ca ]
Israelis and Palestinians have been creating vibrant and bold works of art that both reflect and transcend the region's conflict-ridden history. This course offers a critical comparative study of Israeli and Palestinian art, exploring contentious expressions of pain and trauma as well as shared visions of hope and peace. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ankori