University Bulletin (2022-2023)

• Minor
• Major (BA)
• Combined BA/MA
• Master of Arts
• Doctor of Philosophy

The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS) is home to a strong and diverse international faculty who research the Bible and Ancient Near East, early Jewish civilization, Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, medieval and modern Jewish worlds, Arabic and Islamic Civilizations, as well as Israel Studies. Our classes are taught on many levels, in disciplines including textual and literary studies, history, social sciences, legal studies, philosophy, religion, and the arts. In addition to ancient and medieval languages, the department offers courses in three modern languages and their literatures: Arabic, Hebrew, and Yiddish. More information is found elsewhere in the Bulletin under each language name.

Undergraduate Major

Undergraduate students are welcome to study in the department as majors, as minors, or simply to take individual courses. NEJS graduates go on to the full range of programs and careers in law, health care, business, politics, writing, and the arts. Some NEJS grads build on their outstanding undergraduate education to continue their academic pursuits in doctoral programs. Others pursue Brandeis MA degrees such as the five-year NEJS MA or the Hornstein Jewish Leadership Program.

The undergraduate major in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, divided into three parallel tracks (see below), is designed to combine a broad education in the various disciplines and periods that constitute this field, with a degree of specialization in one specific area. It is the intent of the major also to introduce students to the critical study of Near Eastern and Judaic sources, classical and modern, within academic contexts. Majors are strongly encouraged to diversify their courses within the department and to consider related courses in other departments in order to acquaint themselves with the different disciplines and approaches that Near Eastern and Judaic Studies embraces.

(For the major in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, please see that heading in this Bulletin.)

Graduate Program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

The graduate program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree, is designed to train scholars and teachers in various areas of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. On the MA level, the department offers general and specialized programs. Two 5-year BA/MA programs are available to undergraduate majors in the department: A BA/MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, and a BA/MA in Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership.  A two-year joint MA program is offered in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as well as a joint MA in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (within the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) and the Graduate Program in Conflict Resolution and Coexistence (within the Heller School for Social Policy and Management). In addition, a two-year dual degree program leading to the MA in Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership and the MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies is available.

At the graduate level, the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies is divided into three interdisciplinary areas: Bible and Ancient Near East, Judaic Studies, and Arabic and Islamic Civilizations.

Undergraduate Major

The learning goals of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department encompass the three categories stressed in Brandeis University's general learning goals: Knowledge, core skills, and social justice. This statement of the learning goals of NEJS reflects our conviction that knowledge, values, and skills are often interconnected in the university and in the lifelong learning process as well--indeed that articulating skills and social justice as they are embedded in knowledge acquisition is, for us, the most useful and concrete way of formulating our objectives.

Knowledge

1. Students will understand the development of concepts and practices of the religious traditions currently taught in the department: ancient Near Eastern religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
2. Students will be familiar with and recognize scholarly conventions and contemporary knowledge concerning Near Eastern or Judaic Studies to critically assess claims in the academic literature of those fields and in the popular media.
3. By reading texts in their original languages, students will appreciate ways in which language shapes and is shaped by the people and cultures they study.

Core Skills

1. Students will be able to synthesize, as well as articulate orally and in writing, a cogent narrative about the history, religions, cultures, and societies of the Near East or those that developed from the Near East, including the Jewish experience generally.
2. Students will be able to frame questions, investigate problems, and evaluate conclusions using one or more academic disciplines or approaches (e.g., literary and artistic criticism, philology, historical analysis, social scientific analysis, women’s and gender studies, and religious studies).
3. Students will be able to situate texts, documents, traditions, ideas, artistic productions, and other data in their contexts and assess their meaning in the light of those contexts.

Social Justice

1. Students will learn to appreciate diversity in and between religious and cultural traditions and thus contribute to greater understanding in the service of a more peaceful and just society.

Graduate Program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Please note that all joint or dual programs with NEJS have the same learning goals

MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Knowledge

1. Acquire a broad familiarity with the central historical and conceptual questions in the field of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
2. Understand the principal tenets and religious practices of one or more of the religious traditions currently taught in the department: ancient Near Eastern religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
3. Understand how scholars employ diverse sources and methodologies to study the past or contemporary issues.

Core Skills

1. Demonstrate proficiency in one research language (Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish).
2. Develop analytical skills to synthesize, contextualize, and evaluate scholarly arguments using one or more disciplinary approaches (i.e., literary criticism, philology, etc.).
3. Develop the ability to situate primary texts, documents, traditions, ideas, artistic productions, and other data in their contexts and assess their meaning.

Social Justice

1. Learn to appreciate diversity in religious and cultural traditions and contribute to greater understanding in the service of a more peaceful and just society.

For additional Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies learning goals for the joint MA, visit the WGS program Bulletin.

PhD in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Knowledge

1. Acquire a broad familiarity with the central historical and conceptual questions in the field of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
2. Understand the principal tenets and religious practices of one or more of the religious traditions currently taught in the department: ancient Near Eastern religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
3. Understand how scholars employ diverse sources and methodologies to study the past or contemporary issues.
4. Read texts in their original languages to appreciate language as a shaper and reflection of the people and cultures that are being studied.

Core Skills

1. Demonstrate proficiency in research languages of one’s specialization including one of the following languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish).
2. Develop critical analytical skills to synthesize, contextualize, and evaluate scholarly arguments using one or more disciplinary approaches (i.e., literary criticism, philology, etc.).
3. Develop the ability to situate primary texts, documents, traditions, ideas, artistic productions, and other data in the context of the relevant Jewish and Ancient Near East traditions, as well as the context of surrounding cultures, and to assess their meaning.
4. Demonstrate ability to conduct research (conceptualize, plan, and execute) and write a significant piece of scholarship that contributes to one or more scholarly discourses within the subfields of Near Eastern and Judaic studies.
5. Develop expertise in pedagogy and teaching.

Social Justice

1. Learn to appreciate diversity and transformations in religious and cultural traditions.
2. Contribute to greater understanding in the service of a more peaceful and just society.

Students who wish to major in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies meet with the undergraduate advising head and are assigned a faculty adviser in accordance with their individual areas of interest. Together with their adviser, they develop a plan of study designed to fulfill the requirements of the major and to meet their personal interests and needs. With the approval of the department, a limited amount of credit may be awarded for appropriate courses taken at other universities. For further details, please see below.

The general requirements for admission to the Graduate School, as specified in an earlier section of this Bulletin, apply to candidates for admission to this program.

Jon A. Levisohn, Chair
Philosophy of education. Purposes, processes, and outcomes of Jewish education in various settings. Scholarship of teaching classical Jewish texts.

Guy Antebi
Hebrew language.

Darlene L. Brooks Hedstrom, Chair of Classical Studies
Christianity. Classics. Archaeology. Monasticism. Late antique Middle East.

Jonathan Decter, Division Head of Humanities
Sephardic studies. Jews of the Islamic world. Medieval Hebrew and Arabic poetry.

Carl Sharif El-Tobgui, Director, Arabic Languages
Classical Islam. Islamic thought, theology, law and jurisprudence. Arabic language (Qur’anic, classical, and modern). Classical Arabic literature and poetry.

ChaeRan Freeze
Russian-Jewish historian with research interests in gender, family, sexuality, radical movements, and everyday life.

Sara Hascal, Director of Hebrew Language and Literature
Hebrew language.

Laura Jockusch, Director of Graduate Studies
Modern Jewish history. Holocaust studies.

Alexander Kaye 
Jewish history. Political thought. Israel studies. Intellectual history.

Lynn Kaye
Law, hermeneutics, narrative, and thought in rabbinic literature. Philosophies of time. Legal theory. Religions of late antique Mesopotamia. Critical and literary theory.

Ellen Kellman (on leave, fall 2022)
Yiddish language and literature. East European Jewish cultural history.

Hanan El-Sayed Khashaba
Arabic language.

Reuven Kimelman
Classic Rabbinic literature. Talmud. Midrash. Liturgy. Ethics and Jewish political tradition.

Jonathan Krasner, Undergraduate Advising Head
History of American Jewish education. Teaching and learning of Jewish history. Social studies. Jewish youth. LGBT Jews.

Yehudah Mirsky 
Jewish thought. Jewish law and ethics, Israeli religion and culture and Zionist intellectual history. Political thought and human rights.

Jonathan D. Sarna
American Jewish history, religion and life.

Miriam Shebani (on leave, academic year 2022-2023)
Classical Islam, Islamic Law, Intellectural History

Eugene Sheppard 
Modern Jewish history and thought. European intellectual history and the history of ideas. History of political thought.

Esther Shorr
Hebrew language.

Ilana Szobel
Modern Hebrew poetry and literature. Trauma and disabilities studies. Gender and Sexuality studies.

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe (Hadassah Brandeis Institute)

David Katz (History of Ideas)

Sharon Pucker Rivo (National Center for Jewish Film)

Amy Singer (Islamic and Middle Eastern studies)

Aaron Spevack (Center for Spiritual Life)

The minor consists of a coherent set of five courses in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, of which two may be cross-listed courses or courses taken at other universities.

1. No more than two of the following semester courses may be applied toward the minor: YDSH 10a (Beginning Yiddish), YDSH 20b (Continuing Yiddish), ARBC 10a (Beginning Literary Arabic), and ARBC 20b (Continuing Literary Arabic). HBRW 10a (Beginning Hebrew) and HBRW 20b (Intermediate Hebrew).
2. Students are required to declare the minor in NEJS no later than the beginning of the senior year. Each student declaring a minor will be assigned a departmental adviser after conferring with the undergraduate advising head.
3. By departmental rule, a maximum of two semester course credits for courses taken at other universities, whether in the United States or abroad, may be accepted toward the minor in NEJS. Students are encouraged to seek advance approval from the department's undergraduate adviser for all courses intended for transfer credit. For courses taken in Israeli universities, one Brandeis semester credit will be given for a three-hour-per-week one-semester course; a two-semester, two-hour-per-week course; or two two-hour, one-semester courses. Nonresident credit for purpose (not numeric course credit) may be granted for summer Ulpan programs at qualifying Israeli university programs, based on the approval of the Director of Hebrew and Arabic Languages in conjunction with the Study Abroad Office.
4. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward fulfilling the minor requirements in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
5. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the minor requirements.

Double-Counting

No more than two courses that count for the IMES major or minor may count toward the NEJS minor.

Near Eastern and Judaic Studies majors may choose from among three tracks reflecting three focus areas of the department: (1) Judaic Studies; (2) Bible & Ancient Near Eastern Studies; (3) Hebrew Studies. The requirements for each focus area entail language proficiency, which may be demonstrated on the basis of a placement test. Students who wish to major in the study of Islam and the modern Middle East should consult the requirements for the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies major or minor.

No course with a grade below a C- or any course taken pass/fail will count toward the major. Up to four courses of those required for the major may be courses cross-listed with other departments or courses taken at other universities. The remaining ones must be taken with NEJS Faculty.

The department recommends that majors complete introductory courses (below the 100 level), preferably by the end of the sophomore year.

Required of All Majors

Foundational Literacies: As part of completing the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies major, students must:

• Fulfill the writing intensive requirement by successfully completing one of the following: Any NEJS course approved for WI, or HBRW 124a, HBRW 144a, HBRW 146a, HBRW 161b, HBRW 164b, HBRW 170a, or YDSH 30a.
• Fulfill the oral communication requirement by successfully completing one of the following: HBRW 121b, HBRW 144a, HBRW 152b, HBRW 164b, NEJS 123a, NEJS 123b, NEJS 153a, NEJS 174b, or NEJS 184b.
• Fulfill the digital literacy requirement by successfully completing one of the following: HBRW 124a, HBRW 167b, NEJS 10a, NEJS 123a, or NEJS 186a.

No single course may satisfy all three foundational literacies.

Judaic Studies Track

A minimum of nine semester courses, apart from the courses taken to fulfill the fourth semester language requirement, are required for this major. A single course may fulfill requirements in multiple categories.

1. Distribution Requirement: Students must complete one course in each of the following three chronological periods:
   

   Biblical

   CLAS 119b, NEJS 10a, 10b, 18a, 29a, 104a, 107a, 110b, 111a, 112a, 113a, 113b, 114a, 115b, 117b, 121b, 122a, 122b.

   Early Post-Biblical, Rabbinic, and Medieval Judaism

   IMES 104a, NEJS 3a, 6a, 25a, 123b, 124b, 125a, 125b, 126a, 126b, 127a, 127b, 128a, 133b, 134a, 140b, 144a, 155a, 166a, 166b, 186a, 194b, 195a.

   Modern and Contemporary Jewish Studies

   FA 76a, FA/NEJS 183a, IMES 105a, NEJS 29a, 37a, 123b, 125a, 132b, 133a, 135a, 136a, 136b, 139b, 141a, 141b, 142a, 144a, 145a, 146a, 147b, 148a, 149b, 150a, 153a, 154b, 156a, 157b, 158b, 159a, 159b, 160a, 161a, 161b, 162a, 162b, 163a, 164a, 164b, 166a, 166b, 169a, 169b, 170a, 170b, 171a, 171b, 173a, 174a, 176b, 177a, 178a, 181a, 181b, 182a, 183b, 184a, 184b, 185b, 189a, 189b, 191b, 195a, 196a, 247b, NEJS/WGS 110a, YDSH 10a, 20b, 30a, 40b.

2. Comparative Requirement: Students must complete one course that provides a comparative context for Judaic Studies in either 1) Ancient Near East, 2) Christianity, or 3) Islam. CAST 170a, NEJS 3a, 9a, 114a, 128a, 129b, 133b, 134a, 139b, 143a, 186a, 187b, 190b, 193a, 194b, and 195b fulfill this requirement. Consult the Undergraduate Advising Head concerning courses outside NEJS that may also fulfill this requirement.
3. Hebrew Language Requirement: Students must complete any fourth-semester or higher Hebrew course or NEJS 173a, 174a, 174b, or 178a. Exemptions will be granted to those students who place out on the basis of the Hebrew placement test administered by the Hebrew program at Brandeis.
4. Text-intensive Requirement: Students must complete one advanced NEJS course either in Modern Hebrew Literature or in Classical Hebrew Texts including: NEJS 10b, 25a, 110b, 112a, 113a, 117b, 119a, 121b, 122b, 125b, 126a, 126b, 127b, 173a, 174a, 174b, 178a.

Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies Track

Nine courses pertaining to Bible and Ancient Near East, apart from the primary ancient near eastern language requirement (C), are required for the major. A single course may fulfill requirements in multiple categories.

1. Distribution Requirement: Students must complete one course in each of the following three chronological periods:
   

   Hebrew Bible/Ancient Israel

   CLAS 119b, NEJS 10a, 10b, 104a, 106a, 107a, 110b, 111a, 112a, 113a, 113b, 114a, 115b, 117b, 121b, 122a, 122b.

   Ancient Near East

   NEJS 113a, 122a.

   Early Post-Biblical or Rabbinic Judaism, early Christianity, medieval commentaries

   CLAS 117b, NEJS 25a, 113a, 117b, 123b, 125a, 125b, 126a, 126b, 127a, 127b, 128a, 133b, 148b.

2. Comparative Requirement: Students must complete one course that provides a comparative context for Bible and Ancient Near East that broadens the contextual or methodological horizons of Near Eastern study (e.g., in classics, linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, or literary theory), to be determined in consultation with the student's advisor. These courses may include: ANTH 136a, 153a, 186b, CAST 170a, CLAS 100a, 167b, 170a, 190b, LING 100a, 110a, 115a, 120b, 125b, NEJS 123b, 125a, 187b. 
3. Primary Language Requirement: Students must complete four semesters of the study of an ancient Near Eastern language (typically biblical Hebrew or Akkadian). For biblical Hebrew, students should take or test out of first year modern Hebrew, then take NEJS 10a and one Biblical Hebrew text course. These courses include: NEJS 110b, 112a, 119a, 121b, 122b.
4. Secondary Language Requirement: Students must study one other ancient Near Eastern or related language to the second semester level (Hebrew, Akkadian, Greek, Arabic, or two semesters from a combination of Ugaritic, Aramaic, Hittite, or Comparative Semitics).
   
   Akkadian: NEJS 200a and 200b; Hebrew: HBRW 10a and 20a; Greek: GRK 10a and 20b; Arabic: ARBC 10a and 20b; or two of the following: NEJS 104a (Comparative Semitics) and NEJS 113a (Aramaic).

Hebrew Language Track

Nine courses, apart from the courses taken to fulfill the fourth semester language requirement, are required for this major. A single course may fulfill requirements in multiple categories.

1. Text-intensive Requirement: Students must complete NEJS 10a, NEJS 10b, or at least one course in Classical Hebrew Texts; and one course with a NEJS prefix in Modern Hebrew Literature.
2. Hebrew Language Requirement: Students must complete any fourth-semester or higher Hebrew course or NEJS 173a, 174a, 174b, or 178a. Exemptions will be granted to those students who place out on the basis of the Hebrew placement test administered by the Hebrew program at Brandeis.
3. Distribution Requirement: Students must complete at least five advanced-level Hebrew courses (above Hebrew 40).
4. Israel Studies Requirement: Students must complete one course in Israel Studies. Courses that fulfill this requirement: FA 68a, 76a, FA/NEJS 183a, HIST 114a, NEJS 135a, 136a, 139b, 141b, 145a, 145b, 154b, 157b, 173a, 174a, 174b, 177a, 178a, 184b, 189a, 189b, 191b, 196a, and HRNS 350a. Courses offered by Schusterman visiting scholars and others may also satisfy this requirement; consult the Undergraduate Advising Head.
5. Jewish Studies Requirement: Students must complete one NEJS course from among the following list: NEJS 5a, 6a, 123b, 124b, 125a, 127a, 135a, 140b, 150a, 160a, 161a, 169b, or NEJS/WGS 110a.
6. History of Hebrew Requirement: Students must complete Hebrew 167b (Back to the Roots: The Revival of Modern Hebrew)

Honors

Satisfactory completion of NEJS 99d (Senior Research) is required of candidates for degrees with honors. Students should start planning and preparing early in their career for their honors thesis and take courses with the faculty members related to that area. The undergraduate advising head should be contacted for assistance in the selection of a senior thesis adviser. Those proposing to seek honors must petition the department no later than September of their senior year.

Double-Counting

No more than two courses that count for the IMES major or minor may count toward the NEJS major.

1. By departmental rule, a maximum of four semester courses taken at other universities may be accepted toward the departmental major requirements. Each course transferred from another university must have the approval of the department in order to be acceptable for credit toward the major requirements. This rule applies to courses completed at any other institution, whether in the United States or abroad.
2. No more than two courses taken at special programs for overseas students may be applied. Students are encouraged to seek advance approval from the department's undergraduate advising head for all courses intended for transfer credit. If approved, these courses will normally count toward degree electives and not core, distribution, or language requirements for the degree.
3. Nonresident credit for purpose (not numeric course credit) may be granted for summer Ulpan programs at qualifying Israeli university programs, based on the approval of the Director of Hebrew and Arabic Languages in conjunction with the Study Abroad Office.

The Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies encourages students to participate in internships that integrate academic knowledge and practical experiences. It sponsors credit-bearing internships (NEJS 92a) for junior and senior majors and minors. Internships combine off-campus or on-campus work that provides significant learning in the areas of NEJS with academic study supervised by a departmental faculty sponsor. Students may count one NEJS 92a toward their major or minor. Students doing summer internships may register for course credit in the following fall semester. A minimum of a B+ GPA in NEJS courses is required for eligibility. For additional information, please contact the undergraduate advising head.

NEJS 92a involves as much work as a regular NEJS course. In addition to following the general internship guidelines established elsewhere in this Bulletin, NEJS internships must include each of the following:

1. Before the end of the add/drop period at the start of each semester, the NEJS faculty member who is supervising the internship must approve the written contract proposed by the student; the blank internship contract should be used as a basis. This contract should at a minimum outline the following: the number of hours on the site, scheduled meetings with the faculty member supervising the internship, and significant academic readings that enrich and deepen the field experience.
2. The student must keep a detailed diary of the internship experience, to be shared with the faculty member.
3. The student must complete a substantive research project that synthesizes what has been learned from the internship and links it to appropriate literature.
4. The undergraduate advising head must approve, in advance and in writing, every NEJS 92a and b.

Additional information and forms may be found on the NEJS website.

Brandeis undergraduates who are NEJS or IMES majors are invited in their junior year to apply for admission to the five year BA/MA. Students must complete all requirements for the BA at the end of the fourth year, including the successful completion of the major in NEJS or IMES. The MA is awarded in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.

Program of Study

Fourteen courses are required:

1. Internal transfer credit: seven Brandeis undergraduate courses (NEJS, IMES, and/or approved cross-listed courses) numbered 100 or above for which grades of B- or higher have been earned.
2. Seven courses taken in the fifth year: four approved NEJS courses taught by NEJS faculty and three approved electives. Approved undergraduate language courses may be taken and count toward the required three electives.

Capstone requirement

Students must complete one of the three capstone options listed under the requirements for the NEJS MA.

Residence Requirement

One year of full-time in-person residence (the fifth year) is required subsequent to completing the BA.

Language Requirement

All candidates are required to demonstrate language proficiency, normally in biblical or modern Hebrew or in Arabic.

The Hornstein BA/MA degree supplements undergraduate study in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Hebrew, or Yiddish with a master’s degree in Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership. Please see The Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program for complete details.

Program of Study and Residence Requirement

There are two tracks for the MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies: 

1. The first track is an accelerated, one-year program of 32 credit hours, including one language course (4 credits) at or beyond the fourth-semester level or a text-intensive course and a thesis or final project. This track, designed for students already proficient in Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish, requires one year of in-person residency.
2. The second track is a two-year program of 48 credit hours, including four courses (16 credit hours) in Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish, and a thesis or final project. This track, designed for students with no prior training in one of the languages listed, requires two years of in-person residency.

At least five of these required courses (20 credit hours) must be taught by faculty members of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department. Students must obtain prior approval from the MA adviser before taking courses outside of NEJS. 

Accelerated, One-year MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

This accelerated, one-year program is for students who enter the program with advanced language proficiency.

Requirements:

• One year full-time in-person residence 
• Complete eight courses 
• One of the eight courses is a 40-level language (Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Modern Hebrew, or Yiddish) course or above. 
• One of the eight courses is a capstone course, either NEJS 298a or 299a 
• Complete at least five of the eight courses with NEJS faculty

Two-year MA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Requirements:

• Four semesters of full-time in-person residency 
• Complete twelve courses 
• Four of the twelve courses are language courses to ensure a student reaches a 40-level proficiency in the desired language (Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, Modern Hebrew, or Yiddish). 
• One of the twelve courses is a capstone course, either NEJS 298a or 299a 
• Complete at least five of the seven content courses with NEJS faculty. 
• If a student completes language study in the summer between the first and second years, the time to degree may be shortened.

Advising

Students are assigned advisers from the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department. Students must meet with their adviser(s) regularly and before enrolling in courses to ensure appropriate course coherency.

Language Requirement

The MA programs are designed to prepare students for advanced study of primary and secondary sources in the original languages of composition. Towards that end, the program expects a basic level of proficiency in at least one language. All candidates are required to demonstrate language proficiency, normally in Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish. The language requirement for Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish may be fulfilled in one of two ways:

1. By enrolling in and receiving a grade of B- or higher in a 40-level or higher Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish course, or by passing a classical Hebrew text course, or modern Hebrew literature course taught in Hebrew;
2. By passing the language examination offered by the adviser or by the Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish, faculty. Students are permitted the use of an appropriate (hard copy) dictionary. Electronic dictionaries are not permitted.

Only students in the two-year MA may fulfill the language requirement with courses below the 100-level.

Capstone

All candidates for the MA are required to complete a culminating assignment under the supervision of two regular NEJS faculty members.  NEJS 299b Master’s Thesis may be taken for credit one semester only. Students must select one of the following culminating assignments:

1. Write an MA thesis. The thesis is typically thirty-fifty pages (or an article-length paper) and involves original research. The Master's thesis must be deposited electronically to the ProQuest ETD database. For students writing a MA Thesis, the appropriate course is NEJS 299a or b, "Master’s Thesis." The thesis or project requires a second reader from the NEJS faculty and a formal 1-hour defense of the thesis before the date established by the NEJS department.
2. Complete a significant final project. A final project might involve creating a curriculum, curating an exhibit including writing a catalogue, and/or creating a website. The one-hour oral examination typically tests factual knowledge, analytical skills, and ability to synthesize relevant material. The number of hours involved in producing a project is comparable to writing a thesis; only the format is different. Standards for evaluating the thesis and the project are also comparable. Students preparing a final project may register for NEJS 295a "Readings for MA Projects." The thesis or project requires a second reader from the NEJS faculty and a formal 1-hour defense of the thesis before the date established by the NEJS department.
3. Take an oral examination. The examination is one-hour, oral (rather than written), and typically tests factual knowledge, analytical skills, and ability to synthesize relevant material. It may include work covered in courses as well as new material. Students should establish with their examiners an agreed-upon list of materials that the examination will cover. A student electing a MA oral exam will not need to sign up for a course.

This program prepares future Jewish leaders to understand contemporary issues within the context of Jewish history, culture, and tradition. The program provides the knowledge, research skills, and practical tools necessary to envision and help shape twenty-first-century Jewish life. Graduates of this dual degree program receive a Master of Arts in Jewish Professional Leadership from the Hornstein Program, and a Master of Arts from the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.

Degree Requirements

The dual degree requires seventy-six course credits, usually completed in five semesters, including the summer between years one and two. Approximately thirty-six credits are taken as Hornstein courses, thirty-two credits (100-level or above) as NEJS courses (of which at least 24 credits are taught by NEJS faculty members) with the remaining credits taken as electives. Students must also complete a comprehensive examination, thesis, or capstone project related to both Hornstein and NEJS learning. The remainder of each student’s program is individualized and is created in conjunction with advisors from Hornstein and NEJS.

Supervised Professional Field Experience

Supervised professional field experience forms an important part of the Hornstein program. It is designed to immerse students in the best professional practices and organizations within the Jewish community, to help students refine their practical skills, learn to turn theory into action, and become self-reflective and effective practitioners.

Field experience usually takes place in the summer and/or second year of the program and consists of approximately 150-250 hours of work managing a project jointly created by the student, the Hornstein faculty, and the supervisor in the field organization.

Myra Kraft Seminar in Israel

Students take a classroom seminar (usually two credits each of the two fall semesters) and then travel to Israel (twice, 10 days each winter break) as a required part of the curriculum to examine contemporary issues in Israeli society and its relationship with diaspora communities.

Language Requirement

All candidates are required to demonstrate language proficiency in modern Hebrew upon completion of the program. Please see language requirement for MA degree under Near Eastern and Judaic Studies in this Bulletin.

Capstone Project

Students must complete one of the three capstone options listed under the requirements for the NEJS MA, in a manner that reflects and integrates their study in this joint program.

Co-curricular Requirements

Hornstein Community Time

Meeting periodically throughout the year, these required sessions enable Hornstein community planning, bring innovative Jewish leaders into an intimate setting with Hornstein students for conversations about Jewish leadership and decision-making, and enable students to present their learning to one another. Students are involved in planning and coordinating the various Community Time activities.

Betty Starr Colloquium

Students spend four days in New York City visiting the national offices of major and start-up Jewish organizations to explore aspects of the communal agenda with agency executives.

Milender Seminar in Jewish Communal Leadership

Students participate in a three-day seminar about Jewish leadership with an outstanding leader of the Jewish communal world. 

Residence Requirement

The residence requirement is 4.5 semesters of in-person full-time study or the equivalent thereof in part-time study.

Program of Study and Residence Requirement

Ordinarily, two years of full-time residence are required at the normal course rate of 28-32 credit hours  each academic year.

1. At least thirty-two credit hours must be taken in the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department and must include the joint MA capstone project and paper (see below). Students may not include courses taken to prepare for the MA language examination (HBRW 102a and b and below, or ARBC 40b and below) among thirty-two credit hours.
2. At least  thirty-two hours must be taken in Coexistence and Conflict program. They include twenty-eight credit  hour, COEX core courses: HS 210a (Coexistence and Conflict: Theory and Analysis, 4 credits), HS 227f (Introduction to Design, Monitoring and Evaluation, 2 credits), HS 230f (Coexistence Research Methods, 2 credits), HS 244a (Responsible Negotiation, 4 credits), HS 277a (Planning and Implementation, 2 credits), and HS 294F (Mediation Principles and Skills, 2 credits). Students must also take POL 164A (Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East) and choose at least 4 credits in the list of COEX core elective courses.

All course selections and their relevance must be discussed with and approved by the NEJS Director of Graduate Studies and the COEX program director.

Language Requirement

All candidates are required to demonstrate language proficiency, normally in biblical or modem Hebrew or Arabic, upon entry to the program. The language requirement for Hebrew or Arabic may be fulfilled in one of two ways:

1. By enrolling in and receiving a grade of B- or higher in a 40-level or higher Hebrew or Arabic course, or by passing a classical Hebrew text course, or modem Hebrew literature course taught in Hebrew;
2. By passing the language examination offered by the adviser or by the Hebrew faculty or Arabic faculty. Students are permitted the use of an appropriate (hard copy) dictionary. Electronic dictionaries are not permitted.

Joint Master's Project and Paper 

All students are required to complete an internship or independent fieldwork, with a concluding paper written under the supervision of two faculty mentors, one from NEJS and one from COEX. Students must develop an MA project designed to test their application of Conflict Resolution and Coexistence theory to practice while applying their background in NEJS. This will entail expanding students' policy and practical experience, and, under supervision, increasing their security and comfort levels at working in what is usually a contentious and sometimes dangerous field. In addition, the field project is planned to test and improve the breadth and depth of student's professional skills and to significantly increase their networks of collaboration.

The project will consist of either of the following options:

1. An internship of at least three months in a governmental or nongovernmental organization (consistent with the NEJS focus) assisting with the development and implementation of a policy or a program of coexistence intervention. Students will (1) identify an intervention or their particular part of an intervention; (2) set objectives and timelines; (3) secure partners and terms of references, where necessary for its implementation; (4) ensure that appropriate monitoring and evaluating techniques are built into the program design; and (5) write a final report on the intervention.
2. Independent fieldwork for at least three months in a conflict area (consistent with the NEJS focus). Such fieldwork will be designed to assist the generation and development of new coexistence and conflict management intervention options, and must be undertaken in partnership with policymakers or practitioners who are already working in the area. The report of this fieldwork includes feedback and evaluations from prospective partners already working in the area.

The option of doing a Master’s thesis can be discussed with, and approved by, the NEJS Director of Graduate Studies and the COEX program director.

Students interested in the joint two-year terminal MA degree program must first be admitted to the MA degree program in NEJS in the regular manner.

Program of Study

Courses must include:

1. WGS 205a, the foundational course in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
2. A course in feminist research methodologies (WGS 208b, or the Feminist Inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies, or an alternate).
3. Two elective courses in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies—one inside and one outside the NEJS department. Normally, only one of these courses may be a Directed Readings course (WGS 310a,b).
4. The remaining courses must be jointly approved by each student's NEJS adviser and by the NEJS Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies adviser.
5. Successful completion of one of the following: a comprehensive examination, a culminating project or a Master's thesis. If a Master’s thesis encompasses both a NEJS and a WGS language component (e.g., primary research in a Near Eastern Language like Hebrew or Arabic) it may satisfy requirement G below.
6. Completion of a Master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department and one of whom is a member of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies core or affiliate faculty. NEJS 299a Master’s Thesis may be taken for credit one semester only.
7. All candidates are required to demonstrate language proficiency, normally in Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish, by graduation. The language requirement for Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish, may be fulfilled in one of two ways:
   
   1. By enrolling in and receiving a grade of B- or higher in a 40-level or higher Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish, course, or by passing a classical Hebrew text course, or modern Hebrew literature course taught in Hebrew;
   2. By passing the language examination offered by the adviser or by the ​​Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish, faculty. Students are permitted the use of an appropriate (hard copy) dictionary. Electronic dictionaries are not permitted.
8. All candidates for the Master of Arts degree are required to pass a comprehensive examination.

Residence Requirement

Ordinarily, two years of full-time in-person residence are required at the normal course rate of 28 credit hours each academic year.

Doctoral Programs

Students admitted to the NEJS PhD program are admitted to specific programs within the department. These are: Bible and Ancient Near East (BANE), Arabic and Islamic Civilizations (AIC), and Jewish Studies (JS). Movement from one program to the other is generally discouraged and is dependent upon a student's meeting of the requirements for admission into that program and acceptance by that program's faculty. Movement from one adviser to another within a program is likewise dependent upon the consent of the new adviser.

Residence Requirement

Three years of in-person residence are required at the normal rate of at least seven courses (28 credits) each academic year.

Teaching Requirement

All PhD students are required to participate in undergraduate teaching during the course of their studies. Every graduate teaching assistant (TA) is supervised by a member of the faculty, who serves as a mentor to improve the quality of the TA's teaching. Please see the GSAS section on Teaching Requirements and the program handbook for more details.

Advising

Students are assigned advisers from the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department in the program to which they were admitted. Students must meet with their adviser(s) regularly and before enrolling in courses, to ensure appropriate course coherency. The programs for each graduate area may be found in the departmental office and are posted on the NEJS departmental Web site.

Annual Academic Performance Review and Progress to the Degree

Every student, whether or not currently in residence, must register at the beginning of each term. All graduate students will be evaluated by the program each spring. At this evaluation the records of all graduate students will be carefully reviewed with reference to the timely completion of coursework and non-course degree requirements, the quality of the work and research in progress and the student’s overall academic performance in the program. 

Language Requirements

Students are required to demonstrate competence in primary and secondary research languages, according to the requirements of their specific programs.

All exams, including the Arabic, Hebrew (Modern or Biblical), or Yiddish exams, are composed by the students' advisers. The formats for these exams differ throughout the department, but they are typically three-hour examinations, where a hard copy of a dictionary may be used. Electronic dictionaries are not permitted. Typically, some part of a scholarly article must be translated. The questions and answers for this examination are all in English. 

Comprehensive Examinations

All candidates for the PhD are required to pass comprehensive examinations. Specific requirements vary from program to program. Details may be obtained from the department website. In the semester in which students plan to take their qualifying examinations, they may sign up for Readings courses with the members of the faculty who will participate in those examinations.

Dissertation Proposal

After successfully completing all comprehensive examinations and language requirements, students must submit their dissertation proposal to the department faculty by the end of the third year or the beginning of the fourth year (by the beginning of the fifth year for students in the program in Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies), after first obtaining the approval of their dissertation director and the other two members of the dissertation reading committee. Proposals should be up to six pages in length, plus bibliography. They should contain a clear articulation of the topic with rationale, a summary of current research in its area, its intended contribution to scholarship, methodology, sources, structure and table of contents, preliminary bibliography, and any other relevant material. Additional information about the proposal is available on the NEJS department website.

Dissertation and Defense

The dissertation, ordinarily between 250 and 400 pages in length, must demonstrate the candidate's thorough mastery of the field and competence in pursuing independent research; it must also constitute an original contribution to knowledge. Two copies of the dissertation are to be deposited in the office of the program chair three weeks before the dissertation defense deadline for the semester in which the candidate expects to earn the degree. The student must successfully defend the dissertation at a final oral examination.

Course Subgroupings

Ancient Languages (NEJS 100a-108b)
Bible and Ancient Near East (NEJS 109a-122b)
Rabbinics (NEJS 123b-127b)
Early Christianity (NEJS 128a-130b)
Non-American Jewish History (NEJS 131a-153b)
Jewish Thought (NEJS 153a-160b)
American Jewish History and Sociology (NEJS 161a-168b)
Jewish Education (NEJS 169a-171b)
Jewish and Hebrew Literature (NEJS 172a-180b)
Creative Arts and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies (NEJS 181a-184b)
Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (NEJS 185a-199b)
Ancient Languages (NEJS 200a-208b)
Bible and Ancient Near East (NEJS 209a-222b)
Jewish Studies Core Methodology Seminars (NEJS 231a-235b)
Jewish History (except the Americas) (NEJS 236a-252b)
Jewish Thought (NEJS 253a-260b)
American Jewish History and Sociology (NEJS 261a-268b)
Modern Middle East (NEJS 285a-299b)
Reading Courses (NEJS 315a-389b)
Israel Studies (NEJS 72a, 135a, 141b, 145a, 145b, 152a, 154b, 160b, 172b, 173a, 174a/b, 177a, 178a, 178b, 180b, 184b, 185a, 189a, 191b, 211b, 253a, 259a, 285b)

NEJS 2a Understanding Judaism: An Introduction
[ 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 Religions of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, 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.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 5a How Did Biblical Judaism Evolve into Modern Judaism?
[ 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 6a Jewish History: From Ancient to Modern Worlds
[ hum nw ]

Surveys ideas, institutions, practices and events central to critical approaches to the Jewish past and present. Dynamic processes of cross-fertilization, and contestation between Jews and their surroundings societies will be looked, as well as tradition and change, continuity and rupture. No background in the subject matter is required. Usually offered every second year.
Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

An accelerated grammar course in Biblical Hebrew. Students engage with biblical Hebrew texts from the first class. They build from words and phrases to a literary translation and grammatical analysis of a student’s choice of biblical Hebrew narrative. Topics include: phonology and the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, syllables and stress patterns, nouns, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, possession, prepositions, the prefix and suffix conjugations, derived stems, tense and aspect, volitives, infinitives, and irregular roots. The class uses music and digital tools to aid memorization. It builds students’ vocabularies and understanding of the unusual features of biblical grammar and syntax compared with other semitic languages and modern Hebrew.
Staff

NEJS 10b Biblical Hebrew Practicum
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or permission of the instructor. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

Activates students' language knowledge through composition (writing). The class builds on NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts, advancing students' knowledge of verb forms, syntax, and vocabulary. Students are exposed to and attempt to emulate narrative and poetic biblical styles. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 12a Who Wrote the Bible?
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Hebrew Bible (Christian “Old Testament”) is a collection of diverse and powerful books that is central to worldwide social, political, and religious experience. Despite this centrality, there are innumerable misconceptions about how the Bible came into being and what it really says. In this class, we will ask and answer questions about the Bible’s historical context and ancient meaning, with a focus on matters of composition and early reception. Who wrote the Bible? When was it written? To what circumstances were its authors responding? Moving beyond the often impossible project of identifying complex texts with individual authors, we will use both biblical and ancient non-biblical sources to situate biblical authors with respect to chronology, geography, institutions, class, gender, and more. Usually offered every second year.

Madadh Richey

NEJS 18a Understanding Evil and Human Destiny
[ hum ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took FYS 18a in prior years.

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. Usually offered every second year.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 23a The Bible and Contemporary Arts, Literature and Film
[ hum wi ]

The Bible is a foundational text for contemporary art, literature, and political discourse as well as a sacred text in some religious traditions. This course examines Biblical reflections in cultural production, in global perspective, drawing on artists and writers from Eastern and Western Europe, the US, the Middle East and Latin America. It also gives students opportunities to see their own cultural contexts anew, and to explore the Bible's possible relevance to our time. Usually offered every second year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 25a Introduction to Talmud
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: A 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent is recommended.

An introduction to Treatise Bava Metzia, on the subject of labor law. Topics include: payment for commuting time, eating on the job, benefits a worker can expect from their employer. The course introduces the Babylonian Talmud. 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.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 27a Abortion, Reproduction, and Contraception in Jewish Law and Ethics
[ hum ]

Challenges the usual framing of abortion in the U.S. as a conflict between religious and secular, or murder versus personal autonomy, and challenges the predominant Christian framings of ethical considerations for abortion, by introducing Jewish sources from the bible until today. Students will gain detailed, critical, and historical information about how Jewish law and Jewish individuals have deliberated about ending pregnancies. The primary sources, along with guest speakers and academic scholarship, will empower students to weigh and propose alternative framings of abortion and reproduction in the U.S. Topics include: Is a fetus considered alive? What grounds do Jewish ethics offer for abortion? How does a pregnant woman or person’s mental and physical health affect a decision for abortion? Do Jewish ethics recognize rape to be grounds for abortion? Who should be the decision-maker on abortion? How should genetic testing affect decisions to terminate pregnancies? How greatly do modern Jewish legal voices range on abortion? Special one-time offering, fall 2022.

Lynn Kaye

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.
Staff

NEJS 30a Reading the New Testament: Origins and Communities of Faith
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

Introduces the New Testament, its authors, and early Christian communities. The course examines the development of the New Testament in a broader Jewish and Roman context and how communities selected both canonical and non-canonical texts for shaping Christian life. Focus on decolonizing scholarship and scholars of the New Testament with attention to migration, empire, authority, race, ethnicity, gender, personhood, and reading communities within a historical framework. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

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 37a The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry
[ hum ]

Open to all students. May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 137a in prior years.

Why and how did European Jews become victims of genocide? A systematic examination of the planning and implementation of Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question' and the Jewish and general responses to it. Usually offered every year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 85a Defining Status in the Modern State: Citizens, Nationals and Refugees
[ djw hum ]

Examines terms like 'citizen,' 'national,' 'refugee,' 'stateless,' and 'indigenous' using theory, law, and historic case studies to understand the different relationships between states and people. From voting, to travel, to social security, our basic rights are determined by how a state views our legal status. In the current era of border control, refugee crises, and resurgent nationalism, a critical study of citizenship is more relevant than ever. This course will help students understand the legal terms used to categorize humanity and appreciate the complexities and limitations of those definitions in practice. Special one-time offering, spring 2021.
Maham Ayaz

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

CLAS/NEJ 118a Queens of the Ancient Mediterranean World
[ hum ]

Investigates the depiction of queens in the ancient world in terms of gender, power, difference, and sexuality. Readings include translated Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Arabic literature, including the Bible and Homer, as well as modern studies on the historical-critical method and academic feminism. Special one-time offering, fall 2020.
Jillian Stinchcomb

ED/NEJS 170b Inside Jewish Education: Language, Literacy, and Reading
[ hum ]

Combines autobiography, classroom videotapes, curriculum investigation and fieldwork to explore the purposes, practices and effects of contemporary Jewish education in its many forms and venues. Usually offered every other year.
Ziva Hassenfeld

FA/NEJS 183a Breaking Boundaries in Contemporary Israeli Culture
[ ca hum ]

Explores how the Creative Arts reflect, challenge, and reconfigure various cleavages and barriers that characterize contemporary Israeli society. This course will focus on literary, visual and cinematic artworks, organized around thematic clusters and major theoretical issues. Usually offered every second year.
Gannit Ankori and Ilana Szobel

NEJS 183b* Global Jewish Literature
[ hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 171a in prior years.

Introduces important works of modern Jewish literature, graphic fiction, 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.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 190a* 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 104a Comparative Semitic Languages
[ hum nw ]

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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 107a Biblical Prophecy
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or HBRW 41a.

Studies the unique phenomenon of ancient Israelite literary prophecy through a close reading of the Book of Jeremiah in Hebrew. Attention will be given to its composition, relationship to other texts, manuscript history, ideology, and themes. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 110b Psalms in the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

Prerequisites: NEJS 10a or 40-level HBRW course or permission of the instructor.

A close reading of selected Psalms in Biblical Hebrew, with study of their poetic, historical, and mythological features and contexts. Usually offered every third year.
Madadh Richey

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 third year.
Staff

NEJS 113a Jewish and Christian 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 second year.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 114a Death, Memorial, and Immortality in Biblical Literature
[ hum nw ]

Surveys biblical concepts of death in its social, historical, and literary context. Topics include human mortality and divine immortality, dying as a social process,the afterlife and the 'soul', and communication with the dead. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 115b Gender and Sexuality in the Bible
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Bible's depiction of gender, relationships, and social values in narrative, poetry, and law. Topics include the legal status of women, masculinity, prostitution, and how particular readings of the biblical text have shaped modern ideas about gender and sexuality. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 117b Dead Sea Scrolls
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Studies in the literature of Qumran texts, with particular attention to the exegetical literature. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 121b Biblical Poetry
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Overview of biblical poetry, its major genre categories, and the various ways biblical scholarship has understood this mode of discourse. Texts read in Hebrew with attention to grammar, poetic structure, and translation. Biblical genres will be contextualized within broader ancient Near Eastern literary traditions. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]

Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East. 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.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 123a Maps, Graphs and Timelines: Technology and Design in Historical Research
[ dl hum oc ]

Learn the practical skills to represent data digitally as graphs, maps, timelines and other models. Students will develop their own research projects in topics of their interest and learn to think critically about the opportunities and pitfalls that digital methods pose, for scholarship, inclusion and for social justice. The course will include extensive practical instruction. Usually offered every second year.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]

Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 124b Divinity, Difference and Desire: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
[ hum ]

A study of Jewish mysticism through history. While investigating the nature of mysticism and the idea of mysticism itself and the transformation of key motifs of Judaism into a mystical key, the course will also be concerned with how to read a Jewish mystical text. All readings are in English. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 125a Just Communities and Neighborhoods in Talmudic Literature
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Talmudic texts debate how to create communities led by trustworthy people with fair relations between neighbors. Class includes in-depth textual analysis and introduces contemporary Talmudic studies from multiple perspectives. This course traces how the Babylonia Talmud featured legal reasoning and storytelling to address issues of contested space and authority in a community committed to justice. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

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.
Reuven 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 third year.
Reuven 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.
Reuven 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 127b How Is the Jewish Liturgy Different from Muslim and Christian Liturgies?
[ 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 128a Introduction to Christianity
[ hum ]

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.
Staff

NEJS 128b Gender, Multiculturalism, and the Law
[ hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took PHIL 128a in prior years.

Can the state determine what children must learn in schools run by religious minorities? Can the state accommodate religiously-based demands to provide separate but equal public services to men and women, in prayer, on public transportation, or at universities? These are some of the issues we will explore in this class through the lens of political philosophy, law, and Jewish studies. Usually offered every second year.
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

NEJS 129a Gender, Sex, and the Family in Ancient Near East and Beyond
[ hum ]

In the ancient world, the family was a critical site for the construction of gender, sex, and sexuality of its members. In this course, we will explore how identities such as father, mother, and child were constructed in ancient discourse. We will use feminist and queer perspectives to unpack texts from the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman world, the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament. Special one-time offering, spring 2020.
Sari Fein

NEJS 129b Debating Jesus: Diverse Beliefs in the Early Church
[ hum wi ]

Examines the nature of Jesus, the Trinity, and scripture, both canonical and non-canonical, in the first four centuries of early Christianity. Students analyze material culture and written documents related to a wide array of diverse Christian voice. The course explores scandals, heresies, and dissension along with points of unity and changing alliances within the Early Church in diverse religious and political landscape. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

NEJS 130b Denial and Desires: Gender and Sexuality in Early Christianity
[ hum wi ]

Formerly offered as NEJS 218a.

Investigates how Christians (1st-4th C.) contested and reshaped attitudes toward the family gender expectations (for nonbinary persons, men, and women), sexuality, and aging in cities, the countryside, and in monasteries. Readings include the New Testament, early Christian literature, and modern studies regarding the body, sexuality, and theological frameworks for defining how to maintain the Christian body. Usually offered every fourth year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

NEJS 132a The Jews of Latin America
[ hum ]

Through historical analysis of literature, theater and art, this course will explore the multiple understandings of Jewishness that arose in Latin America from the colonial times to the present, as well as how the idea of Jewishness and Jewish inclusion in society was incorporated into larger national conversations of identity and belonging. Usually offered every second year.
Dalia Wassner

NEJS 132b Against the Apocalypse: Jewish Responses to the Holocaust
[ hum ]

Provides an overview on the multifaceted Jewish responses to the Nazi destruction of European Jews in the years 1945-1961. Familiarizing students with Jews' historical, legal, cultural, political, religious and commemorative reactions to the Holocaust, it refutes the unwarranted claim of a postwar Jewish silence. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

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.
Staff

NEJS 133b Judaism in the Time of Jesus
[ hum ]

Studies the dynamics of Judaism in the Roman empire in the first century CE through a study of the textual, archaeological, and art-historical evidence from the late Second Temple period to explore the cultural context out of which both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism emerged. Special one-time offering, fall 2021.
Jillian Stinchcomb

NEJS 134a Debating Religion: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Dialogue and Dispute
[ hum ]

A history of interreligious polemic, disputation, and dialogue among Jews, Christians, and Muslims from antiquity to modernity. The course highlights points of difference and contention among the traditions as well as the ways in which the practice of disputation played a formative role in the coevolution of those traditions. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

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.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 136a Israeli Popular Culture: Language, Gender, and Politics
[ hum ]

Ever wondered why Israeli television is all over Netflix, or why Sabra hummus came to dominate your supermarket shelves? In this course, we will examine multiple forms of popular culture, including television, music, cookbooks, social media, fashion, and more, to understand contemporary Israeli society, with a focus on debates over language, gender, and politics in a global context. Special attention will be paid to cultural production from Israel's minorities, including Israeli Palestinians, Orthodox Jews, and Mizrahim (Jews from Arab and Islamic lands.) Course readings will combine theory, primary sources, and popular criticism. No previous knowledge of Israel, Judaism, or the Middle East is required, and all materials will be provided in English translation. Usually offered every second year.
Shayna Weiss

NEJS 136b Revenge, Justice, and Reconciliation: Mass Atrocity Trials in the Long Shadow of Nazi Crimes
[ djw hum ]

Can crimes of the magnitude of the World War II and the Holocaust be redressed by legal means? This course explores the complex history of prosecuting Nazi crimes and how the political contexts and the legal frameworks have changed over time. It also studies the extra-judicial implications of mass atrocity trials: the societal discourse they stir, the educational lessons they teach, and historical records they create. Moreover, the course analyzes how the history of prosecuting Nazi crimes has impacted the legal redress of other gross human rights violations in the more recent past and whether the lessons learned from prosecuting Nazi crimes can be applied to the quest for racial justice in America today. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 138a Genocide and Mass Killing in the Twentieth Century
[ hum ]

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 second year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 139b Christians and Israel
[ hum ]

Explores how different Christian groups--from American evangelicals to Orthodox Palestinians--have wrestled with both the idea and reality of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Staff

NEJS 140b Gender, Ghettos, and the Geographies of Early Modern Jews
[ 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.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

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.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 141b Human Rights: Law, Politics, Theology
[ hum ]

How did human rights work arise in recent decades, and why only then? Is it a new sort of religion? What critical thinking will help this vast work of advocacy, international law, democratization and humanitarianism alleviate human suffering? Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

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.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 143a Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain
[ djw hum ]

Examines interactions among the three religious communities focusing on political and social development, intra-religious conflict, and intellectual and artistic production. We will investigate the degree to which Castilian culture can be described as "Christian" or as "Muslim-Christian-Jewish" in character. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

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.
Jonathan 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 year.
Staff

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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 148a Inside Nazi Germany: Social and Political History of the Third Reich
[ hum ]

Provides an overview on the social and political history of Nazi Germany (1933-1945) covering the most significant topics pertaining to the ideological basis, structure and functioning of the regime as well as the social and political mechanisms that led millions of Germans to perpetrate war and genocide. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

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.
Staff

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.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 149b Jewish Spaces, Global Cities
[ hum ]

Explores Jewish experiences in the city--from the early modern ghetto to the mellah in Muslim countries and the cosmopolitan metropolis. It will examine Jewish contributions to urban planning, architecture, culture, sports, and inter-ethnic relations in global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 150a The Jews in Weimar and Nazi Germany
[ hum ]

Explores the history of the German Jewish community in the years 1918-1945, a period characterized by the dramatic change from the solid social, professional and cultural integration of the Jews into German society to their disfranchisement, discrimination, and ultimate destruction. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 153a Between Ecstasy and Community: Hasidism in Jewish Thought and History
[ hum oc ]

Explores Hasidism, from the 18th century until today, as one of the dynamic forces in Jewish life, mixing radicalism and reaction, theology, storytelling and music, thick community and wild individualism, deep conformity and spiritual abandon. Usually offered every third year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 153b The Philosophies of Abraham J. Heschel and Joseph B. Soloveitchik
[ hum ]

The two most influential American philosophers of twentieth-century Judaism were Joseph Soloveitchik and Abraham Heschel. Their distinctive combinations of modernity and tradition changed the nature of Jewish philosophical reflection in America and abroad. The course will focus on their commonalities and differences. The topics include epistemology, the understanding of the human, the nature of revelation and redemption, the function of prayer, the understanding of the Sabbath, and inter-religious dialogue. Usually offered every third year.

Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 154b Zionism, Israel, and the Reshaping of Jewish Identity
[ hum ]

Explores the relations between pluralism, religious resurgence, secularism and democracy in our time through readings in history, literature, philosophy, sociology, theology and law. Focuses on one fascinating, contentious and deeply consequential place: The State of Israel. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

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.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 156a Modern Responsa Literature: The Sephardic Tradition
[ hum ]

The genre of Jewish literature known as Responsa has long been central to Jewish law. This course will focus on a large spectrum of responsa with significant attention being given to ones written by Israeli rabbis on a host of contemporary issues. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

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.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 157b Arab-Jewish Modern Thought and Culture
[ djw hum ]

Against the backdrop of the partition of the 'Jew' from the 'Arab' in the modern national era, this course focuses on the Arab-Jewish borderland cultural world which simultaneously embodies Arab and Jewish histories, traditions, and identities. It traces different manifestations of Arab-Jewish culture from the early 20th century to today and explores the complex relationship between culture and politics in relation to questions of language, identity, nationality, borders, exile and memory. Usually offered every second year.
Yuval Evry

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.
Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 158b Yiddish Literature and the Modern Jewish Revolution
[ hum wi ]

Students with reading knowledge of Yiddish may elect to read the original texts.

Surveys and analyzes Yiddish fiction, poetry, and drama of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readings include several works of the classic Yiddish writers, but the primary focus is on works by succeeding generations of modernist writers. Taught in English using texts in translation. Weekly additional section for students with advanced reading knowledge of Yiddish who elect to read some texts in the original. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen 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.
Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 160a Jewish Feminisms
[ deis-us hum ]

Examines the role of Jewish women in the broader feminist movement and the impact of feminist theory and activism on Jewish thought, law, ritual practice and communal norms in the 20th and 21st century. We will explore classic feminist critiques and transformations of traditional Judaism and examine contemporary controversies involving issues such as equality under Jewish ritual and family law, sex segregation in public life, inclusion of Jewish People of Color and of LGBTQ Jews and antisemitism in the women's movement. Usually offered every year.
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

NEJS 160b Legal Controversies in Israeli History
[ djw hum nw ]

Investigates Israeli history, politics, and culture through the lens of major legal controversies including the tension between "Jewish" and "democratic," the Shoah in Israeli history, the Occupied Territories, legislation of family life and religious practice and more. Usually offered every second year.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 161b American Jewish Family Matters
[ hum ]

Examines the evolution of the American Jewish family from the colonial period to the present from historical, sociological and cultural perspectives. We will explore how the definition of family; the rituals and performance of family life; and the challenges that families negotiate have changed in response to cultural forces. We will also utilize the lenses of ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality to analyze the representations of the Jewish family in American popular culture, including literature, film and television. Usually offered every third year.
Jonathan Krasner

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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 162b It Couldn't Happen Here: American Antisemitism in Historical Perspective
[ 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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 163a Jews and American Capitalism
[ hum wi ]

Explores the central role played by capitalism and the market economy in the lives and religion of American Jews, from colonial times onward. Through a series of case studies, the course explores the occupational structure of the American Jewish community, the values that shaped occupational choices, and some of the surprising ways in which religion and capitalism have interacted. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America
[ hum wi ]

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.
Jonathan 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.
Staff

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 third year.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 166b Jewish Identities: Navigating the Boundaries of Religion, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality
[ hum ]

Explores the central question, 'who is a Jew' and what constitutes Jewishness from late antiquity times to the present through an interdisciplinary lens. Beginning with the rabbinic texts that sought to construct and strengthen the boundaries between Jews and non-Jews, the class will explore thorny questions about identities through the lens of religion, ethnicity and race, culture, nationality, and science. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 169a Inside the Religious School Classroom
[ hum ]

This course offers a 2-credit optional Experiential Learning practicum for students teaching in an area religious school.

Examines the purposes, pedagogies and outcomes of religious education broadly refined by analyzing records of practice (e.g. classroom videotapes, student work, curricula). Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 169b From Sunday Schools to Birthright: History of American Jewish Education
[ hum ]

Empowers students to articulate a reality-based, transformative vision of Jewish education that is grounded in an appreciation for the history and sociology of American Jewish education. It will familiarize students with and contextualize the present Jewish educational landscape, through the use of historical case studies and current research, encouraging students to view the field from an evolutionary perspective. The seminar will address Jewish education in all its forms, including formal and informal settings (e.g., schools, camps, youth groups, educational tourism). Usually offered every third year
Jonathan Krasner

NEJS 170a Studying Sacred Texts
[ hum ]

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.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 171b Tikkun Olam/Repairing the World: Service and Social Justice in Theory and Practice
[ hum ]

What does tikkun olam mean? What is a life of service? What should one learn from service-learning? Does "social justice" actually do any good? This is a service-learning course, and includes a service component in the field. Usually offered every third year.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 173a Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew.

Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on 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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ deis-us djw fl hum oc ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 176b Jewish Graphic Novels
[ hum ]

Examines the complex genre of the Jewish graphic novel. Explores Jewish artists' use of graphic narratives to grapple with issues of acculturation, trauma, and identity. Special focus on the reconfiguration of Jewish gender identities. Structured around primary texts. Secondary readings provide historical context and theoretical analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 177a The Holocaust in Israeli and Jewish Literature
[ hum ]

Taught in English.

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. Usually offered every third year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew. May be repeated for credit.

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 180b Israeli Film, Literature, and Culture
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Taught in English.

Surveys the development of Israeli literature and culture over the past 100 years and includes selections of poetry and prose from a wide range of writers. The course aims to illuminate what makes Hebrew literature distinct as well as investigate the themes, symbols, and subject matter that have come to constitute its central concerns since the early 20th century. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 181a Jews on Screen: From "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.
Sharon 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.
Sharon Rivo

NEJS 182a Jewish Life in Television, 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.
Rachel Greenblatt

NEJS 184a Cultural and Historical 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.
Staff

NEJS 184b Disability Cultures: Art, Film and Literature of People with Disabilities
[ deis-us djw hum oc ]

Explores cultural representations of disability in Israel, Europe, and the US. By focusing on literature, film, dance, and visual art, it explores physical, mental, and emotional disability experiences, and their relations to gender, sexuality, nationalism, and identity politics. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 185b The Making of the Modern Middle East
[ hum nw ss wi ]

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
[ djw dl 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 Islamic teachings and its global impact. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 187b The Book and Writing in the Islamic World
[ hum ]

The rise of Islam and its expansion as a political entity coincided with the widespread use of paper as a cheap writing material and the rise of an urban scholarly elite. Therefore, in the "Golden Age" of Islamic civilization, thousands and thousands of manuscripts, beautifully illuminated books, ornate copies of the Qur'an and exquisite inscriptions in mosaics and stone were produced. In this course we will study the history of Islamic civilization through one of its greatest achievements: the art and the craft of writing and books. Usually offered every third 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 Formative Moments in the Disputed Land of Israel-Palestine
[ djw hum ]

Examines the history of Israel/Palestine during the 20th century by focusing on several formative moments that took place pre and post 1948. It reexamines key issues that emerged around each of those events and explores the implications they had on the formation of Israeli and Palestinian societies. Usually offered every second year.

NEJS 191a The Bible and the Qur'an
[ hum ]

Formerly offered as NEJS 186b.

The Qur'an retells many narratives of the Tanakh and the New Testament. Compares the Qur'anic renditions with those of the earlier scriptures, focusing on the unique features of the Qur'anic versions. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 191b The World to Come: Jewish Messianism from Antiquity to Zionism
[ 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.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 192b Power, Morality and Identity: Jewish Political Thought
[ hum ]

Though Jews were stateless for centuries, they had many political institutions and thought deeply about basic questions of politics, authority, ethics and power. In modernity, the age of emancipation, revolution, democracy, nationalism, Holocaust and Zionism, those ideas and institutions were put to new, shattering tests. All readings are in English with a HEBREW option for those who would like. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 193a Pirates, Mystics and Scholars: Travel Literature from the Islamic World
[ hum ]

Studies medieval and early modern travelogues from the Islamic world in English translation. These works provide us with a candid view of the Muslim Mediterranean including things like urban topography, social life, orthodox and subversive religious practices, status of minorities, conditions and limits of hospitality and so on. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 194b Sufism: Mystical Traditions in Classical and Modern Islam
[ 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, the development of Sufi teachings in both poetry and prose, and the manner in which Sufism is practiced in lands as diverse as Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Malaysia, and Europe. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 195a Muhammad: From Early Muslim Accounts to Modern Biographies
[ hum ]

Studies the life of Muhammad based upon the earliest biographical accounts and the academic analyses in both Islamic and non-Islamic sources, accompanied by an examination of his legacy in different aspects of Islam, such as Shi'ism and Sufism. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 195b Early Islamic History from Muhammad to the Mongols
[ hum nw ]

Introduces Islamic history from the birth of Islam in the 7th century to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Students will examine trends in political, social, and intellectual history, focusing on three main periods; Islamic Origins, The High Caliphate, and Fragmentation/Efflorescence. Readings will include primary sources in translation, as well as academic analyses from traditional, critical, and revisionist perspectives. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 196a Cultural Contact Zones in Israel-Palestine
[ djw hum ]

Explores the different ways in which boundaries have been constructed and imagined in the cultural scene in Israel/Palestine from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. It traces different cultural arenas that emerged during this period using examples from literature, cinema, music and visual arts – exploring the Hebrew-Arabic contact zones, religious and secular borderlands, the national divide between Jews and Arabs, and the fluid borderland across the gender divide. Usually offered every second year.

Yuval Evri

NEJS/WGS 110a Sexual Violence in Film and Culture
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Explores the effects of sexualized violence in society. While exploring representations of gender-based sexual violence in documentaries and features, stand-up comedy, memoirs, poetry, and visual art, this course will offer a critical discussion on Rape Culture in the 21st century, with particular attention to the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, and disability in the construction of sexual violence. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

HRNS/NEJ 261a Strategies and Quandaries in Contemporary Leadership

Examines models of leadership and challenges facing leaders in contemporary organizational life, through Jewish history and culture placed in conversation with other cultural and disciplinary perspectives from critical race studies, women's and gender studies, disability studies, and indigenous studies. Classes will be discussion-based, centered around the productive contrasts and interactions between the readings, and the contemporary practices and experiences of students' leadership. Usually offered every second year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 206a* Advanced Northwest Semitics

Continued reading of various Northwest Semitic texts (Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Moabite, Deir Allah, Hebrew inscriptions, etc.) with attention to historical grammar and historical context. Topics vary from year to year; may be repeated for credit. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 201a Akkadian Literary Texts I

Prerequisite: NEJS 102b or the equivalent.

Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 201b Akkadian Literary Texts II

Prerequisite: NEJS 201a or the equivalent.

Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 202a Akkadian Mythological/Religious Texts I

Prerequisite: NEJS 102b or the equivalent.

Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 202b Akkadian Mythological/Religious Texts II

Prerequisite: NEJS 202a or the equivalent.

Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 203a 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.
Staff

NEJS 208a Biblical Hebrew Lexicography

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.
Staff

NEJS 211b The History of Israelite Religion and Law

May be repeated for credit.

Examines different biblical texts and recent scholarly reconstructions of the development and nature of religion and law in ancient Israel. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 221a Reading Yiddish Literary and Historical Texts

Prerequisite: YDSH 30a or 40b.

Examines modern Yiddish literary and historical texts. Introduces genres and texts of Yiddish literature and scholarship in modern Jewish history. Journalistic texts are studied to prepare students to conduct research using the Yiddish press. Grammatical concepts are reviewed as needed. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 231a Graduate Proseminar: Historiography and Jewish Studies

Offers Master's and Doctoral students the opportunity to engage foundational elements of modern Jewish history and historiography on an advanced level while also exploring changes in relevant fields that have emerged over the last decade or two. The purpose of the course is to provide graduate students with a structure to build their own reading lists for comprehensive exams and be able to situate their own research fields within broader patterns of modern Jewish history and historiography. Usually offered every year.
Eugene 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.
ChaeRan Freeze, Laura Jockusch, Jonathan Sarna, or Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 235c Topics in Jewish Education

Topics vary from year to year and the course may be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor. 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 semester.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 236a Seminar on Modern Jewish and Israeli 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.
Staff

NEJS 247b The Craft of Holocaust Research: Questions, Sources, Interpretations, and Debates

Provides an introduction to the emergence and development of Holocaust studies as an academic discipline. It will acquaint students with the main questions and sources of the historical scholarship and teach them to critically analyze the works of the major historians of the Holocaust. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 255b Jews in Western Political Thought

Examines the dynamics between real and imagined Jews and their role in western political thought from the 17th century to the present. It will include both historical and theoretical material and discussions of comparisons to the experiences of the other political minorities. Usually offered every second year.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 259a Renaissance, Revolution, Redemption: Readings in Early Zionist Thought

Explores the writings of a fascinating group of figures - including Bialik, Brenner, Gordon, Kook Rachel - poised on the cusp of traditional Jewish society and the nascent Zionist revolution. They explored the dilemmas of Jewish identity and modern politics and philosophy with great literary power and intellectual intensity. Usually offered every third year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 260b The Jewish Intellectual and Historical Consciousness

Explores foundational primary and secondary texts relating to the development of the "Jewish Intellectual" and its articulation of historical consciousness since medieval times. The course looks at how Jews came to rethink their temporal and special situatedness in dramatically changing conditions from medieval times to the present. Usually offered every third year.
Eugene Sheppard

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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 271c Teaching and Learning Modern Jewish History, the Holocaust, and Israel

May be repeated once for credit with permission of the instructor. Examines why we teach history, how students learn history, the uses of public history, and what history means within a Jewish context. Special emphasis is placed on teaching with primary sources, digital resources, and oral history. Includes an oral history project in cooperation with the Jewish Women's Archive and Keshet (a Jewish LGBTQ organization), and an introduction to Holocaust education with Facing History and Ourselves. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Krasner

NEJS 295a Readings for Master's Capstone

Staff

NEJS 296a Independent Study

Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

NEJS 297a Internship

Staff

NEJS 298a Directed Research for Master's Project

Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

NEJS 299a Directed Research for Master's Thesis

Specific sections for individual faculty members as requested.
Staff

NEJS 303a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Jonathan Decter

NEJS 303b Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Staff

NEJS 304a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Carl El-Tobgui

NEJS 306a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Staff

NEJS 307a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 308a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Ellen Kellman

NEJS 308b Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 309a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Jon Levisohn

NEJS 310a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Laura Jockusch

NEJS 311a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 313b Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 314a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 314b Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Jonathan Krasner

NEJS 315a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Ilana Szobel

NEJS 316b Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Staff

NEJS 318a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Staff

NEJS 318b Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Rachel Fish

NEJS 319a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Staff

NEJS 321a Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Matthew Fraleigh

NEJS 322b Readings in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Alexander Kaye

ARBC 10a Beginning Arabic I

Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation. Six class hours per week.

A first course in literary Arabic, covering essentials of grammar, reading, pronunciation, translation, and composition. A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 10a is required to take ARBC 20b. Usually offered every year.
Hanan Khashaba and Staff

ARBC 20b Beginning Arabic II

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 10a or the equivalent. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation. Six class hours per week.

Continuation of ARBC 10a. A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 20b is required to take a 30-level ARBC course. Usually offered every year.
Hanan Khashaba and Staff

ARBC 30a Intermediate Arabic I
[ fl ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 20B or the equivalent. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation. Six class hours per week.

Continuation of ARBC 10a and 20b. Study of more advanced grammatical and syntactical forms, reading, speaking, composition and translation. A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 30a is required to take any higher-level course. Usually offered every year.
Hanan Khashaba

ARBC 40b Intermediate Arabic II
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 30a or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.

Continuation of ARBC 30a. A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 40b is required to take ARBC 103a. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ARBC 98a Independent Study

Staff

ARBC 103a Lower Advanced Arabic
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 40b or the equivalent. Four class-hours per week.

Designed to help the student attain advanced proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding. The syllabus includes selections from modern texts representing a variety of styles and genres, advanced composition, and sustained development of oral-aural proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic. A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 103a is required to take ARBC 103b. Usually offered every year.
Carl Sharif El-Tobgui

ARBC 103b Middle Advanced Arabic: Contemporary Arab Media
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 103a or the equivalent. Four class hours per week.

Continuation of ARBC 103a. Intensive honing primarily of oral-aural skills and vocabulary building with concentration on the spoken media of the contemporary Arab world. Review and reinforcement of major grammatical topics as needed. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ARBC 106a Advanced Arabic I: Contemporary Arabic Literature
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 103b or the equivalent. Four class hours per week. May be repeated for credit.

Develops advanced reading competence through a variety of modern literary texts focusing on contemporary Arab society, culture, and intellectual life. Continued solidification of advanced grammar and style with application through frequent writing assignments, both analytical and creative. Class conducted entirely in Arabic. Usually offered every year.
Carl Sharif El-Tobgui

ARBC 106b Advanced Arabic II: Classical Arabic & Islamic Literature
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 106a or the equivalent. Four class hours per week. May be repeated for credit.

Continuation of ARBC 106a. Develops advanced competence in reading and understanding classical texts, including a systematic introduction to some of the grammatical features typical of this genre. Readings include a variety of materials ' including poetry ' related to classical Arabic and Islamic literature, religion, history, and culture. Usually offered every year.
Carl Sharif El-Tobgui

HBRW 10a Beginning Hebrew

Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

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

Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

A beginner course for those students with some previous exposure to Hebrew. Builds upon the initial exposure, continuing to teach the basics of grammar, vocabulary, speaking, and writing. Usually offered every fall.
Esther Shorr

HBRW 20b Intermediate Hebrew

Prerequisite: HBRW 10a or HBRW 19a or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

Continuation of HBRW 10a, employing the same methods. Intensive training in Hebrew grammar, listening, comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Several sections offered every semester.
Esther Shorr

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. Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

A continuation of HBRW 20b. A beginner-intermediate level course that helps students strengthen their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Contemporary cultural aspects will be stressed and a variety of materials will be used. Usually offered every semester.
Guy Antebi

HBRW 35a Conversation and Writing Skills for Heritage Learners
[ fl ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

A beginner-intermediate level course designed to improve the reading, writing, and linguistic skills of students who have been raised in a Hebrew speaking environment. 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 with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

For students who have acquired an intermediate knowledge of Hebrew and who wish to develop a greater fluency in conversation. Usually offered every second year.
Guy Antebi

HBRW 44b Advanced Intermediate Hebrew: Israeli Culture and Media
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent. Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

Reinforces the acquired skills of speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing at the intermediate level. Contemporary cultural aspects are stressed; conversational Hebrew and reading of selections from modern literature. Usually offered every semester.
Guy Antebi

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 121a Let's Converse in Hebrew 1: Life Challenges and Post Trauma of an Israeli Family through a TV Series
[ fl oc ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts, based on popular Israeli television series, assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every year.

Sara Hascal

HBRW 121b Let's Converse in Hebrew II: Life Challenges of an Israeli Family through a TV Series
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts, based on the popular Israeli TV series, "Yellow Peppers", assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 124a Hebrew for Business, Doing Business in Start-Up Nation
[ dl fl wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor. Does not meet the requirement in the school of humanities.

Provides students with tools and competence to deal with the Israeli business community. For advanced-intermediate Hebrew students who wish to gain cultural understanding and business language speaking skills. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 141a Advanced Hebrew Conversation
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate 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. Includes one additional weekly hour to practice speaking skills. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HBRW 144a Hebrew through Plays and Drama
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

Focuses on improving Hebrew language skills at the advanced-intermediate level through critical reading and analysis of authentic and contemporary Israeli short plays and studying the comparison between plays in Israel and those in the U.S. The course will examine theories in aspects of drama and implement drama techniques including improvisation, movement, and creative expression. The course readings cover topics such as social diversity and justice as well as human rights and awareness of world identities. The course culminates in the writing of an original scene or one-act play in Hebrew. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 146a The Voices of Jerusalem
[ djw fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate students who wish to enhance their language proficiency and work toward improving fluency and communication through analysis of selected materials covering literature, poetry, history, politics, and art that depict the unique tradition and culture of Jerusalem. Usually offered every fall.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 152b Ethnic Minorities in the Modern State of Israel
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

Examines the cultures and institutions of ethnic minorities in Israel. By examining and discussing the cultural characteristics and political activism of non-Jewish communities in Israel, this course exposes students to various faces of Israeli society, and to its multi-ethnic and multi-cultural identity. Special one-time offering, spring 2021.
Rima Farah

HBRW 161b What's Up?: Hebrew through Israeli News Media
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate students who wish to enhance proficiency and work toward improving fluency and communication. In this course, Israeli media, films,clips from Israeli TV shows, and on-line resources will be used to promote language and cultural competency. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HBRW 162b Translation Practice and Theory
[ hum nw ]

Focuses on the practice and theory of Hebrew to English translation. Students will translate and edit authentic materials (literary texts, television series, film, internet sites, speeches and newspapers.) We will also use short texts on the theory and practice of translation in order to reflect on our own translation practices. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HBRW 164b Israeli Theater
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate course that promotes language skills through the reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing assignments. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 167b The Sleeping Beauty: The Revival of Modern Hebrew
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

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 second year.
Staff

HBRW 170a Take I: Hebrew through Israeli Cinema
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced culture course that focuses on strengthening all language skills by studying the various aspects of Israeli society as 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 second year.
Staff

HBRW 301b Hebrew Practicum II

Continuation of HBRW 301a.
Staff

HBRW 303a Readings in Assessing the Learning and Teaching of Hebrew

Staff

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.
Ellen 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 comprehend more complex texts. The history and culture of Eastern European Jewry are studied through Yiddish songs, films, and literature. Usually offered every year.
Ellen 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.
Ellen 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. Skills for using Yiddish in academic research are taught. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Kellman

YDSH 98b Independent Study

Usually offered every year.
Staff

HBRW 167b The Sleeping Beauty: The Revival of Modern Hebrew
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

An accelerated grammar course in Biblical Hebrew. Students engage with biblical Hebrew texts from the first class. They build from words and phrases to a literary translation and grammatical analysis of a student’s choice of biblical Hebrew narrative. Topics include: phonology and the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, syllables and stress patterns, nouns, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, possession, prepositions, the prefix and suffix conjugations, derived stems, tense and aspect, volitives, infinitives, and irregular roots. The class uses music and digital tools to aid memorization. It builds students’ vocabularies and understanding of the unusual features of biblical grammar and syntax compared with other semitic languages and modern Hebrew.
Staff

NEJS 123a Maps, Graphs and Timelines: Technology and Design in Historical Research
[ dl hum oc ]

Learn the practical skills to represent data digitally as graphs, maps, timelines and other models. Students will develop their own research projects in topics of their interest and learn to think critically about the opportunities and pitfalls that digital methods pose, for scholarship, inclusion and for social justice. The course will include extensive practical instruction. Usually offered every second year.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 186a Introduction to the Qur'an
[ djw dl 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 Islamic teachings and its global impact. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HBRW 121a Let's Converse in Hebrew 1: Life Challenges and Post Trauma of an Israeli Family through a TV Series
[ fl oc ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts, based on popular Israeli television series, assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every year.

Sara Hascal

HBRW 121b Let's Converse in Hebrew II: Life Challenges of an Israeli Family through a TV Series
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate conversation course for students who wish to improve their speaking skills. Role playing, vocabulary building, and guided speaking activities develop conversational skills for various situations. Reading and discussion of contemporary texts, based on the popular Israeli TV series, "Yellow Peppers", assist in vocabulary building. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 164b Israeli Theater
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate course that promotes language skills through the reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing assignments. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

NEJS 123a Maps, Graphs and Timelines: Technology and Design in Historical Research
[ dl hum oc ]

Learn the practical skills to represent data digitally as graphs, maps, timelines and other models. Students will develop their own research projects in topics of their interest and learn to think critically about the opportunities and pitfalls that digital methods pose, for scholarship, inclusion and for social justice. The course will include extensive practical instruction. Usually offered every second year.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]

Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 153a Between Ecstasy and Community: Hasidism in Jewish Thought and History
[ hum oc ]

Explores Hasidism, from the 18th century until today, as one of the dynamic forces in Jewish life, mixing radicalism and reaction, theology, storytelling and music, thick community and wild individualism, deep conformity and spiritual abandon. Usually offered every third year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ deis-us djw fl hum oc ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 184b Disability Cultures: Art, Film and Literature of People with Disabilities
[ deis-us djw hum oc ]

Explores cultural representations of disability in Israel, Europe, and the US. By focusing on literature, film, dance, and visual art, it explores physical, mental, and emotional disability experiences, and their relations to gender, sexuality, nationalism, and identity politics. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

HBRW 124a Hebrew for Business, Doing Business in Start-Up Nation
[ dl fl wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor. Does not meet the requirement in the school of humanities.

Provides students with tools and competence to deal with the Israeli business community. For advanced-intermediate Hebrew students who wish to gain cultural understanding and business language speaking skills. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 144a Hebrew through Plays and Drama
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

Focuses on improving Hebrew language skills at the advanced-intermediate level through critical reading and analysis of authentic and contemporary Israeli short plays and studying the comparison between plays in Israel and those in the U.S. The course will examine theories in aspects of drama and implement drama techniques including improvisation, movement, and creative expression. The course readings cover topics such as social diversity and justice as well as human rights and awareness of world identities. The course culminates in the writing of an original scene or one-act play in Hebrew. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 146a The Voices of Jerusalem
[ djw fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate students who wish to enhance their language proficiency and work toward improving fluency and communication through analysis of selected materials covering literature, poetry, history, politics, and art that depict the unique tradition and culture of Jerusalem. Usually offered every fall.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 161b What's Up?: Hebrew through Israeli News Media
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

For advanced-intermediate students who wish to enhance proficiency and work toward improving fluency and communication. In this course, Israeli media, films,clips from Israeli TV shows, and on-line resources will be used to promote language and cultural competency. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HBRW 164b Israeli Theater
[ ca djw fl hum oc wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced-intermediate course that promotes language skills through the reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing assignments. Usually offered every second year.
Sara Hascal

HBRW 170a Take I: Hebrew through Israeli Cinema
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: Any 40-level Hebrew course or permission of the instructor.

An advanced culture course that focuses on strengthening all language skills by studying the various aspects of Israeli society as 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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 23a The Bible and Contemporary Arts, Literature and Film
[ hum wi ]

The Bible is a foundational text for contemporary art, literature, and political discourse as well as a sacred text in some religious traditions. This course examines Biblical reflections in cultural production, in global perspective, drawing on artists and writers from Eastern and Western Europe, the US, the Middle East and Latin America. It also gives students opportunities to see their own cultural contexts anew, and to explore the Bible's possible relevance to our time. Usually offered every second year.
Lynn Kaye

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.
Staff

NEJS 128b Gender, Multiculturalism, and the Law
[ hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took PHIL 128a in prior years.

Can the state determine what children must learn in schools run by religious minorities? Can the state accommodate religiously-based demands to provide separate but equal public services to men and women, in prayer, on public transportation, or at universities? These are some of the issues we will explore in this class through the lens of political philosophy, law, and Jewish studies. Usually offered every second year.
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

NEJS 130b Denial and Desires: Gender and Sexuality in Early Christianity
[ hum wi ]

Formerly offered as NEJS 218a.

Investigates how Christians (1st-4th C.) contested and reshaped attitudes toward the family gender expectations (for nonbinary persons, men, and women), sexuality, and aging in cities, the countryside, and in monasteries. Readings include the New Testament, early Christian literature, and modern studies regarding the body, sexuality, and theological frameworks for defining how to maintain the Christian body. Usually offered every fourth year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

NEJS 158b Yiddish Literature and the Modern Jewish Revolution
[ hum wi ]

Students with reading knowledge of Yiddish may elect to read the original texts.

Surveys and analyzes Yiddish fiction, poetry, and drama of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readings include several works of the classic Yiddish writers, but the primary focus is on works by succeeding generations of modernist writers. Taught in English using texts in translation. Weekly additional section for students with advanced reading knowledge of Yiddish who elect to read some texts in the original. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 163a Jews and American Capitalism
[ hum wi ]

Explores the central role played by capitalism and the market economy in the lives and religion of American Jews, from colonial times onward. Through a series of case studies, the course explores the occupational structure of the American Jewish community, the values that shaped occupational choices, and some of the surprising ways in which religion and capitalism have interacted. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 185b The Making of the Modern Middle East
[ hum nw ss wi ]

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

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.
Ellen Kellman

CLAS 119b Homer and the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

An accelerated grammar course in Biblical Hebrew. Students engage with biblical Hebrew texts from the first class. They build from words and phrases to a literary translation and grammatical analysis of a student’s choice of biblical Hebrew narrative. Topics include: phonology and the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, syllables and stress patterns, nouns, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, possession, prepositions, the prefix and suffix conjugations, derived stems, tense and aspect, volitives, infinitives, and irregular roots. The class uses music and digital tools to aid memorization. It builds students’ vocabularies and understanding of the unusual features of biblical grammar and syntax compared with other semitic languages and modern Hebrew.
Staff

NEJS 10b Biblical Hebrew Practicum
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or permission of the instructor. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

Activates students' language knowledge through composition (writing). The class builds on NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts, advancing students' knowledge of verb forms, syntax, and vocabulary. Students are exposed to and attempt to emulate narrative and poetic biblical styles. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 12a Who Wrote the Bible?
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Hebrew Bible (Christian “Old Testament”) is a collection of diverse and powerful books that is central to worldwide social, political, and religious experience. Despite this centrality, there are innumerable misconceptions about how the Bible came into being and what it really says. In this class, we will ask and answer questions about the Bible’s historical context and ancient meaning, with a focus on matters of composition and early reception. Who wrote the Bible? When was it written? To what circumstances were its authors responding? Moving beyond the often impossible project of identifying complex texts with individual authors, we will use both biblical and ancient non-biblical sources to situate biblical authors with respect to chronology, geography, institutions, class, gender, and more. Usually offered every second year.

Madadh Richey

NEJS 104a Comparative Semitic Languages
[ hum nw ]

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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 107a Biblical Prophecy
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or HBRW 41a.

Studies the unique phenomenon of ancient Israelite literary prophecy through a close reading of the Book of Jeremiah in Hebrew. Attention will be given to its composition, relationship to other texts, manuscript history, ideology, and themes. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 110b Psalms in the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

Prerequisites: NEJS 10a or 40-level HBRW course or permission of the instructor.

A close reading of selected Psalms in Biblical Hebrew, with study of their poetic, historical, and mythological features and contexts. Usually offered every third year.
Madadh Richey

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 third year.
Staff

NEJS 113a Jewish and Christian 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 second year.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 114a Death, Memorial, and Immortality in Biblical Literature
[ hum nw ]

Surveys biblical concepts of death in its social, historical, and literary context. Topics include human mortality and divine immortality, dying as a social process,the afterlife and the 'soul', and communication with the dead. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 115b Gender and Sexuality in the Bible
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Bible's depiction of gender, relationships, and social values in narrative, poetry, and law. Topics include the legal status of women, masculinity, prostitution, and how particular readings of the biblical text have shaped modern ideas about gender and sexuality. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 117b Dead Sea Scrolls
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Studies in the literature of Qumran texts, with particular attention to the exegetical literature. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

NEJS 121b Biblical Poetry
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Overview of biblical poetry, its major genre categories, and the various ways biblical scholarship has understood this mode of discourse. Texts read in Hebrew with attention to grammar, poetic structure, and translation. Biblical genres will be contextualized within broader ancient Near Eastern literary traditions. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]

Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East. 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.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 113a Jewish and Christian 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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]

Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East. 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.
Staff

CLAS 117b Unmasking Cleopatra: Gender, Power, and A Legacy
[ djw hum ]

NEJS 25a Introduction to Talmud
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: A 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent is recommended.

An introduction to Treatise Bava Metzia, on the subject of labor law. Topics include: payment for commuting time, eating on the job, benefits a worker can expect from their employer. The course introduces the Babylonian Talmud. 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.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 30a Reading the New Testament: Origins and Communities of Faith
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

Introduces the New Testament, its authors, and early Christian communities. The course examines the development of the New Testament in a broader Jewish and Roman context and how communities selected both canonical and non-canonical texts for shaping Christian life. Focus on decolonizing scholarship and scholars of the New Testament with attention to migration, empire, authority, race, ethnicity, gender, personhood, and reading communities within a historical framework. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 113a Jewish and Christian 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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 117b Dead Sea Scrolls
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Studies in the literature of Qumran texts, with particular attention to the exegetical literature. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]

Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 125a Just Communities and Neighborhoods in Talmudic Literature
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Talmudic texts debate how to create communities led by trustworthy people with fair relations between neighbors. Class includes in-depth textual analysis and introduces contemporary Talmudic studies from multiple perspectives. This course traces how the Babylonia Talmud featured legal reasoning and storytelling to address issues of contested space and authority in a community committed to justice. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

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.
Reuven 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 third year.
Reuven 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.
Reuven 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 127b How Is the Jewish Liturgy Different from Muslim and Christian Liturgies?
[ 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 128a Introduction to Christianity
[ hum ]

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.
Staff

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.
Staff

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.
Charles Golden

ANTH 153a Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
[ nw ss ]

Explores the ways in which writing has been conceptualized in social anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. A comparative study of various forms of visual communication, both non-glottic and glottic systems, is undertaken to better understand the nature of pristine and contemporary phonetic scripts around the world and to consider alternative models to explain their origin, prestige, and obsolescence. The course pays particular attention to 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.
Javier 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.
Janet McIntosh

CAST 170a Documenting Immigrant Experiences
[ ss ]

Investigates documentary film as a genre, and explores the potential of the medium for engaging students with immigrant communities in Waltham through hands-on production experiences. Through the process of exchanging narratives with community members, students generate raw material for a film documentary. Usually offered every third year.
Jenny Alexander and Maya Jamaleddine

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.
Cheryl 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.
Ann O. 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.
Joel Christensen

CLAS 190b Ancient Mystery Cults
[ hum ]

Often shrouded in secrecy, ancient mystery cults appealed to people in ways different from traditional Greek and Roman religion. As indicated by their name, the Mysteries come from the Greek word, mystes, which means 'initiate.' Membership in the Mystery Cults was based on initiation into rituals, kept secret from the outside world. We rely on the archaeological evidence, myths, and literary references to build an understanding of these cults who offered more personal and individualized experience towards death and the afterlife. In this class, we will explore Mystery Cults across the Mediterranean world, beginning in ancient Greece and ending in the Late Roman Empire. This course provides an exploration of ancient religion its art, architecture, belief systems, origins, and evolution, as well as understanding it in its socio-political and cultural context. Usually offered every third year.
Alexandra Ratzlaff

LING 100a Introduction to Linguistics
[ ss ]

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 phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and examine their implications for a theory of language as it is encoded in the human mind. Usually offered every year.
Lotus Goldberg or Keith Plaster

LING 110a Phonology I
[ 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 year.
Keith Plaster

LING 115a Morphology
[ ss ]

Prerequisite: LING 100a or permission of the instructor.

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.
Lotus Goldberg

LING 120b Syntax I
[ ss wi ]

Prerequisite: LING 100a is recommended but not required. Four class hours per week.

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.
Lotus Goldberg

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 year.
Lotus Goldberg

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]

Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East. 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.
Staff

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]

Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 125a Just Communities and Neighborhoods in Talmudic Literature
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Talmudic texts debate how to create communities led by trustworthy people with fair relations between neighbors. Class includes in-depth textual analysis and introduces contemporary Talmudic studies from multiple perspectives. This course traces how the Babylonia Talmud featured legal reasoning and storytelling to address issues of contested space and authority in a community committed to justice. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 187b The Book and Writing in the Islamic World
[ hum ]

The rise of Islam and its expansion as a political entity coincided with the widespread use of paper as a cheap writing material and the rise of an urban scholarly elite. Therefore, in the "Golden Age" of Islamic civilization, thousands and thousands of manuscripts, beautifully illuminated books, ornate copies of the Qur'an and exquisite inscriptions in mosaics and stone were produced. In this course we will study the history of Islamic civilization through one of its greatest achievements: the art and the craft of writing and books. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 10b Biblical Hebrew Practicum
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or permission of the instructor. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

Activates students' language knowledge through composition (writing). The class builds on NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts, advancing students' knowledge of verb forms, syntax, and vocabulary. Students are exposed to and attempt to emulate narrative and poetic biblical styles. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 110b Psalms in the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

Prerequisites: NEJS 10a or 40-level HBRW course or permission of the instructor.

A close reading of selected Psalms in Biblical Hebrew, with study of their poetic, historical, and mythological features and contexts. Usually offered every third year.
Madadh Richey

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 third year.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 121b Biblical Poetry
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Overview of biblical poetry, its major genre categories, and the various ways biblical scholarship has understood this mode of discourse. Texts read in Hebrew with attention to grammar, poetic structure, and translation. Biblical genres will be contextualized within broader ancient Near Eastern literary traditions. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

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.
Staff

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.
Ellen Schattschneider

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.
Charles Golden

ANTH 153a Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
[ nw ss ]

Explores the ways in which writing has been conceptualized in social anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. A comparative study of various forms of visual communication, both non-glottic and glottic systems, is undertaken to better understand the nature of pristine and contemporary phonetic scripts around the world and to consider alternative models to explain their origin, prestige, and obsolescence. The course pays particular attention to 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.
Javier 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.
Janet McIntosh

CAST 170a Documenting Immigrant Experiences
[ ss ]

Investigates documentary film as a genre, and explores the potential of the medium for engaging students with immigrant communities in Waltham through hands-on production experiences. Through the process of exchanging narratives with community members, students generate raw material for a film documentary. Usually offered every third year.
Jenny Alexander and Maya Jamaleddine

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.
Cheryl 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.
Ann O. 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.
Joel Christensen

CLAS 190b Ancient Mystery Cults
[ hum ]

Often shrouded in secrecy, ancient mystery cults appealed to people in ways different from traditional Greek and Roman religion. As indicated by their name, the Mysteries come from the Greek word, mystes, which means 'initiate.' Membership in the Mystery Cults was based on initiation into rituals, kept secret from the outside world. We rely on the archaeological evidence, myths, and literary references to build an understanding of these cults who offered more personal and individualized experience towards death and the afterlife. In this class, we will explore Mystery Cults across the Mediterranean world, beginning in ancient Greece and ending in the Late Roman Empire. This course provides an exploration of ancient religion its art, architecture, belief systems, origins, and evolution, as well as understanding it in its socio-political and cultural context. Usually offered every third year.
Alexandra Ratzlaff

GRK 20b Continuing Ancient Greek

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in GRK 10a. Three class hours per week.

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.
Staff

LING 100a Introduction to Linguistics
[ ss ]

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 phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and examine their implications for a theory of language as it is encoded in the human mind. Usually offered every year.
Lotus Goldberg or Keith Plaster

LING 110a Phonology I
[ 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 year.
Keith Plaster

LING 115a Morphology
[ ss ]

Prerequisite: LING 100a or permission of the instructor.

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.
Lotus Goldberg

LING 120b Syntax I
[ ss wi ]

Prerequisite: LING 100a is recommended but not required. Four class hours per week.

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.
Lotus Goldberg

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 year.
Lotus Goldberg

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.
Gannit Ankori

FA/NEJS 183a Breaking Boundaries in Contemporary Israeli Culture
[ ca hum ]

Explores how the Creative Arts reflect, challenge, and reconfigure various cleavages and barriers that characterize contemporary Israeli society. This course will focus on literary, visual and cinematic artworks, organized around thematic clusters and major theoretical issues. Usually offered every second year.
Gannit Ankori and Ilana Szobel

HRNS 350a Jewish Professional Leadership Seminar on Israel

Required core course for all Hornstein students. Yields half-course credit.

Examines contemporary issues in Israeli society and its relationship with Diaspora communities. Course begins with on-campus sessions and culminates in Israel. Usually offered every year.
Staff

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.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 139b Christians and Israel
[ hum ]

Explores how different Christian groups--from American evangelicals to Orthodox Palestinians--have wrestled with both the idea and reality of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Staff

NEJS 141b Human Rights: Law, Politics, Theology
[ hum ]

How did human rights work arise in recent decades, and why only then? Is it a new sort of religion? What critical thinking will help this vast work of advocacy, international law, democratization and humanitarianism alleviate human suffering? Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

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 year.
Staff

NEJS 154b Zionism, Israel, and the Reshaping of Jewish Identity
[ hum ]

Explores the relations between pluralism, religious resurgence, secularism and democracy in our time through readings in history, literature, philosophy, sociology, theology and law. Focuses on one fascinating, contentious and deeply consequential place: The State of Israel. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 173a Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew.

Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on 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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ deis-us djw fl hum oc ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 177a The Holocaust in Israeli and Jewish Literature
[ hum ]

Taught in English.

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. Usually offered every third year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew. May be repeated for credit.

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 180b Israeli Film, Literature, and Culture
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Taught in English.

Surveys the development of Israeli literature and culture over the past 100 years and includes selections of poetry and prose from a wide range of writers. The course aims to illuminate what makes Hebrew literature distinct as well as investigate the themes, symbols, and subject matter that have come to constitute its central concerns since the early 20th century. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 184b Disability Cultures: Art, Film and Literature of People with Disabilities
[ deis-us djw hum oc ]

Explores cultural representations of disability in Israel, Europe, and the US. By focusing on literature, film, dance, and visual art, it explores physical, mental, and emotional disability experiences, and their relations to gender, sexuality, nationalism, and identity politics. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

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 Formative Moments in the Disputed Land of Israel-Palestine
[ djw hum ]

Examines the history of Israel/Palestine during the 20th century by focusing on several formative moments that took place pre and post 1948. It reexamines key issues that emerged around each of those events and explores the implications they had on the formation of Israeli and Palestinian societies. Usually offered every second year.

NEJS 191b The World to Come: Jewish Messianism from Antiquity to Zionism
[ 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.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 196a Cultural Contact Zones in Israel-Palestine
[ djw hum ]

Explores the different ways in which boundaries have been constructed and imagined in the cultural scene in Israel/Palestine from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. It traces different cultural arenas that emerged during this period using examples from literature, cinema, music and visual arts – exploring the Hebrew-Arabic contact zones, religious and secular borderlands, the national divide between Jews and Arabs, and the fluid borderland across the gender divide. Usually offered every second year.

Yuval Evri

ARBC 20b Beginning Arabic II

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 10a or the equivalent. Yields six semester-hour credits towards rate of work and graduation. Six class hours per week.

Continuation of ARBC 10a. A grade of C- or higher in ARBC 20b is required to take a 30-level ARBC course. Usually offered every year.
Hanan Khashaba and Staff

GRK 20b Continuing Ancient Greek

Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in GRK 10a. Three class hours per week.

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.
Staff

HBRW 20b Intermediate Hebrew

Prerequisite: HBRW 10a or HBRW 19a or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. Four class hours per week with additional half an hour to practice speaking skills.

Continuation of HBRW 10a, employing the same methods. Intensive training in Hebrew grammar, listening, comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Several sections offered every semester.
Esther Shorr

NEJS 206a* Advanced Northwest Semitics

Continued reading of various Northwest Semitic texts (Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Moabite, Deir Allah, Hebrew inscriptions, etc.) with attention to historical grammar and historical context. Topics vary from year to year; may be repeated for credit. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

An accelerated grammar course in Biblical Hebrew. Students engage with biblical Hebrew texts from the first class. They build from words and phrases to a literary translation and grammatical analysis of a student’s choice of biblical Hebrew narrative. Topics include: phonology and the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, syllables and stress patterns, nouns, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, possession, prepositions, the prefix and suffix conjugations, derived stems, tense and aspect, volitives, infinitives, and irregular roots. The class uses music and digital tools to aid memorization. It builds students’ vocabularies and understanding of the unusual features of biblical grammar and syntax compared with other semitic languages and modern Hebrew.
Staff

NEJS 104a Comparative Semitic Languages
[ hum nw ]

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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 113a Jewish and Christian 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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 203a 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.
Staff

NEJS 5a How Did Biblical Judaism Evolve into Modern Judaism?
[ 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 6a Jewish History: From Ancient to Modern Worlds
[ hum nw ]

Surveys ideas, institutions, practices and events central to critical approaches to the Jewish past and present. Dynamic processes of cross-fertilization, and contestation between Jews and their surroundings societies will be looked, as well as tradition and change, continuity and rupture. No background in the subject matter is required. Usually offered every second year.
Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]

Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 124b Divinity, Difference and Desire: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
[ hum ]

A study of Jewish mysticism through history. While investigating the nature of mysticism and the idea of mysticism itself and the transformation of key motifs of Judaism into a mystical key, the course will also be concerned with how to read a Jewish mystical text. All readings are in English. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 125a Just Communities and Neighborhoods in Talmudic Literature
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Talmudic texts debate how to create communities led by trustworthy people with fair relations between neighbors. Class includes in-depth textual analysis and introduces contemporary Talmudic studies from multiple perspectives. This course traces how the Babylonia Talmud featured legal reasoning and storytelling to address issues of contested space and authority in a community committed to justice. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

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.
Reuven Kimelman

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.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 140b Gender, Ghettos, and the Geographies of Early Modern Jews
[ 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.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 150a The Jews in Weimar and Nazi Germany
[ hum ]

Explores the history of the German Jewish community in the years 1918-1945, a period characterized by the dramatic change from the solid social, professional and cultural integration of the Jews into German society to their disfranchisement, discrimination, and ultimate destruction. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 160a Jewish Feminisms
[ deis-us hum ]

Examines the role of Jewish women in the broader feminist movement and the impact of feminist theory and activism on Jewish thought, law, ritual practice and communal norms in the 20th and 21st century. We will explore classic feminist critiques and transformations of traditional Judaism and examine contemporary controversies involving issues such as equality under Jewish ritual and family law, sex segregation in public life, inclusion of Jewish People of Color and of LGBTQ Jews and antisemitism in the women's movement. Usually offered every year.
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

NEJS 169b From Sunday Schools to Birthright: History of American Jewish Education
[ hum ]

Empowers students to articulate a reality-based, transformative vision of Jewish education that is grounded in an appreciation for the history and sociology of American Jewish education. It will familiarize students with and contextualize the present Jewish educational landscape, through the use of historical case studies and current research, encouraging students to view the field from an evolutionary perspective. The seminar will address Jewish education in all its forms, including formal and informal settings (e.g., schools, camps, youth groups, educational tourism). Usually offered every third year
Jonathan Krasner

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

An accelerated grammar course in Biblical Hebrew. Students engage with biblical Hebrew texts from the first class. They build from words and phrases to a literary translation and grammatical analysis of a student’s choice of biblical Hebrew narrative. Topics include: phonology and the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, syllables and stress patterns, nouns, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, possession, prepositions, the prefix and suffix conjugations, derived stems, tense and aspect, volitives, infinitives, and irregular roots. The class uses music and digital tools to aid memorization. It builds students’ vocabularies and understanding of the unusual features of biblical grammar and syntax compared with other semitic languages and modern Hebrew.
Staff

NEJS 10b Biblical Hebrew Practicum
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or permission of the instructor. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

Activates students' language knowledge through composition (writing). The class builds on NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts, advancing students' knowledge of verb forms, syntax, and vocabulary. Students are exposed to and attempt to emulate narrative and poetic biblical styles. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

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.
Staff

NEJS 107a Biblical Prophecy
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or HBRW 41a.

Studies the unique phenomenon of ancient Israelite literary prophecy through a close reading of the Book of Jeremiah in Hebrew. Attention will be given to its composition, relationship to other texts, manuscript history, ideology, and themes. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 173a Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew.

Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on 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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ deis-us djw fl hum oc ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 176b Jewish Graphic Novels
[ hum ]

Examines the complex genre of the Jewish graphic novel. Explores Jewish artists' use of graphic narratives to grapple with issues of acculturation, trauma, and identity. Special focus on the reconfiguration of Jewish gender identities. Structured around primary texts. Secondary readings provide historical context and theoretical analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew. May be repeated for credit.

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.
Ilana Szobel

CAST 170a Documenting Immigrant Experiences
[ ss ]

Investigates documentary film as a genre, and explores the potential of the medium for engaging students with immigrant communities in Waltham through hands-on production experiences. Through the process of exchanging narratives with community members, students generate raw material for a film documentary. Usually offered every third year.
Jenny Alexander and Maya Jamaleddine

NEJS 3a Religions of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, 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.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 114a Death, Memorial, and Immortality in Biblical Literature
[ hum nw ]

Surveys biblical concepts of death in its social, historical, and literary context. Topics include human mortality and divine immortality, dying as a social process,the afterlife and the 'soul', and communication with the dead. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]

Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East. 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.
Staff

NEJS 128a Introduction to Christianity
[ hum ]

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.
Staff

NEJS 133b Judaism in the Time of Jesus
[ hum ]

Studies the dynamics of Judaism in the Roman empire in the first century CE through a study of the textual, archaeological, and art-historical evidence from the late Second Temple period to explore the cultural context out of which both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism emerged. Special one-time offering, fall 2021.
Jillian Stinchcomb

NEJS 139b Christians and Israel
[ hum ]

Explores how different Christian groups--from American evangelicals to Orthodox Palestinians--have wrestled with both the idea and reality of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Staff

NEJS 143a Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain
[ djw hum ]

Examines interactions among the three religious communities focusing on political and social development, intra-religious conflict, and intellectual and artistic production. We will investigate the degree to which Castilian culture can be described as "Christian" or as "Muslim-Christian-Jewish" in character. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 186a Introduction to the Qur'an
[ djw dl 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 Islamic teachings and its global impact. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 187b The Book and Writing in the Islamic World
[ hum ]

The rise of Islam and its expansion as a political entity coincided with the widespread use of paper as a cheap writing material and the rise of an urban scholarly elite. Therefore, in the "Golden Age" of Islamic civilization, thousands and thousands of manuscripts, beautifully illuminated books, ornate copies of the Qur'an and exquisite inscriptions in mosaics and stone were produced. In this course we will study the history of Islamic civilization through one of its greatest achievements: the art and the craft of writing and books. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 193a Pirates, Mystics and Scholars: Travel Literature from the Islamic World
[ hum ]

Studies medieval and early modern travelogues from the Islamic world in English translation. These works provide us with a candid view of the Muslim Mediterranean including things like urban topography, social life, orthodox and subversive religious practices, status of minorities, conditions and limits of hospitality and so on. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 194b Sufism: Mystical Traditions in Classical and Modern Islam
[ 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, the development of Sufi teachings in both poetry and prose, and the manner in which Sufism is practiced in lands as diverse as Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Malaysia, and Europe. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 195b Early Islamic History from Muhammad to the Mongols
[ hum nw ]

Introduces Islamic history from the birth of Islam in the 7th century to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Students will examine trends in political, social, and intellectual history, focusing on three main periods; Islamic Origins, The High Caliphate, and Fragmentation/Efflorescence. Readings will include primary sources in translation, as well as academic analyses from traditional, critical, and revisionist perspectives. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 10b Biblical Hebrew Practicum
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or permission of the instructor. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

Activates students' language knowledge through composition (writing). The class builds on NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts, advancing students' knowledge of verb forms, syntax, and vocabulary. Students are exposed to and attempt to emulate narrative and poetic biblical styles. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 25a Introduction to Talmud
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: A 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent is recommended.

An introduction to Treatise Bava Metzia, on the subject of labor law. Topics include: payment for commuting time, eating on the job, benefits a worker can expect from their employer. The course introduces the Babylonian Talmud. 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.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 110b Psalms in the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

Prerequisites: NEJS 10a or 40-level HBRW course or permission of the instructor.

A close reading of selected Psalms in Biblical Hebrew, with study of their poetic, historical, and mythological features and contexts. Usually offered every third year.
Madadh Richey

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 third year.
Staff

NEJS 113a Jewish and Christian 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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 117b Dead Sea Scrolls
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Studies in the literature of Qumran texts, with particular attention to the exegetical literature. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 121b Biblical Poetry
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Overview of biblical poetry, its major genre categories, and the various ways biblical scholarship has understood this mode of discourse. Texts read in Hebrew with attention to grammar, poetic structure, and translation. Biblical genres will be contextualized within broader ancient Near Eastern literary traditions. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

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.
Staff

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.
Reuven 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 third year.
Reuven 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 127b How Is the Jewish Liturgy Different from Muslim and Christian Liturgies?
[ 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 173a Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew.

Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on 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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ deis-us djw fl hum oc ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew. May be repeated for credit.

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.
Ilana Szobel

AMST 121a The American Jewish Woman: 1890-Present
[ 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.
Keren McGinity

ANTH 118b Culture and Power in 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.
Pascal Menoret

ANTH 120b Ecology and Society in the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula
[ ss ]

Examines how humans interact with the world around them. The course covers the main theories of the relationship between ecology and society, and explores issues related to the environment and agriculture in the Middle East, with a focus on the Arabian Peninsula. Usually offered every third year.

Pascal Menoret

CAST 170a Documenting Immigrant Experiences
[ ss ]

Investigates documentary film as a genre, and explores the potential of the medium for engaging students with immigrant communities in Waltham through hands-on production experiences. Through the process of exchanging narratives with community members, students generate raw material for a film documentary. Usually offered every third year.
Jenny Alexander and Maya Jamaleddine

CLAS 155a Mummies, Myths, and Monuments of Ancient Egypt
[ hum wi ]

Surveys Egyptian archaeology and culture and provides a critical examination of the reception and (mis)use of Ancient Egypt in popular culture over time. Usually offered every second year.
Darlene Brooks Hedstrom

CLAS 192b Slavery in the Roman World (1st-4th C. CE)
[ hum ]

Analyzes the world's first society with massive enslavement. Topics include sources of slavery, slavery's economic role, Roman, Jewish, and Christian legal regulation, gender difference and sexuality, religious teachings, daily life, punishment, incentives, and resistance, and slavery's effects on the freeborn. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

ED 161b Religious Education in America
[ hum ]

No principle stands more sacred in American public education than separation of Church and state. Public schools pride themselves as neutral playing fields when it comes to matters of religion. But this position belies a more complicated history. American public schools were initially founded by protestant leaders concerned with an influx of non-protestant immigrants during the middle of the 19th century. Indeed, despite lip service to ideas like separation of Church and state, American educational leaders long saw schools as a vehicle for promoting a Protestant inflected American culture. This course begins from the premise that American education and American religion have always existed in relationship. Religious groups have sometimes tried to use the public schools as vehicles to advance their religion, sometimes, they have created supplemental schools, and sometimes they have created whole parallel school systems. But in all cases, education and religion in American are intertwined. This course asks when education is religious and when religion is educational. It examines a series of case studies drawn from different faith communities including Judaism, Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam. Usually offered every second year.
Ziva Hassenfeld

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.
Gannit Ankori

HIST 134b The Ottoman Empire: From Principality to Republic by way of Empire
[ ss ]

The Ottomans in history: how did a tiny principality grow from 1300 to be a global empire by 1550 and become a modern nation state by 1923? Who were the Ottomans? What are their legacies in today's world? Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer

HIST 140b Charity and Poverty in Islamic Societies
[ djw nw ss ]

Charity and poverty are universal aspects of human societies, culturally specific and historically contingent. This course studies charitable giving as a fundamental aspect of Muslim belief and practice, reflecting change over time and space, offering comparisons with non-Muslim societies. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer

HIST 165a Starting from Food: New Perspectives on the Middle East and Islam
[ djw ss ]

Studying food - consumption, production, distribution, regulation, representation - illuminates every aspect of human history. This course explores texts, images, objects, local supermarkets and your experience to consider questions of power, identity, faith, taste, and more in Middle Eastern and Islamic history. Usually offered every second year.
Amy Singer

HRNS 231b The American Jewish Community in Historical Perspective

Uses history to shed light on the issues and challenges facing the contemporary American Jewish community. This course asks how the community assumed its current shape, and uses a series of historical case studies to examine past crises and the lessons that might be learned from them. The goal of this course is to help students craft a "usable past" - one that employs the hindsight of history to understand the present and plan ahead for the future. Usually offered every year.
Jonathan Sarna

IMES 104a Islam: Civilization and Institutions
[ hum nw ]

Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the modern period. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, and women in Islam. Usually offered every year.
Carl El-Tobgui

ITAL 134b Nella cultura ebraica italiana: cinema e letteratura
[ fl hum wi ]

Prerequisite: ITAL 105a or 106a or permission of the instructor. Conducted in Italian. Materials fee: $20.

Analyzes Italian Jewish representations in Italian culture from medieval times to the founding of the ghetto in Venice in 1516 and leading Jewish figures of the Renaissance. Works of modern 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.
Paola Servino

PHIL 128b Philosophy of Race and Gender
[ deis-us hum ]

Explores the nature of racism and gender oppression, as well as various remedies to them, including reparations, affirmative action, and policies of group representation at the state level. Usually offered every second year.
Marion Smiley

RECS 135a Russian Short Fictions: Where is Justice in This World?
[ djw hum oc ]

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 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.
Robin Feuer Miller

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.
Gannit Ankori

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ deis-us djw fl hum oc ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew. May be repeated for credit.

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.
Ilana Szobel

CLAS 119b Homer and the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts
[ dl fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HBRW 20b or the equivalent as determined by placement examination. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

An accelerated grammar course in Biblical Hebrew. Students engage with biblical Hebrew texts from the first class. They build from words and phrases to a literary translation and grammatical analysis of a student’s choice of biblical Hebrew narrative. Topics include: phonology and the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, syllables and stress patterns, nouns, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, possession, prepositions, the prefix and suffix conjugations, derived stems, tense and aspect, volitives, infinitives, and irregular roots. The class uses music and digital tools to aid memorization. It builds students’ vocabularies and understanding of the unusual features of biblical grammar and syntax compared with other semitic languages and modern Hebrew.
Staff

NEJS 10b Biblical Hebrew Practicum
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or permission of the instructor. May not be used to satisfy the World Languages and Cultures requirement.

Activates students' language knowledge through composition (writing). The class builds on NEJS 10a Biblical Hebrew Grammar and Texts, advancing students' knowledge of verb forms, syntax, and vocabulary. Students are exposed to and attempt to emulate narrative and poetic biblical styles. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 12a Who Wrote the Bible?
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Hebrew Bible (Christian “Old Testament”) is a collection of diverse and powerful books that is central to worldwide social, political, and religious experience. Despite this centrality, there are innumerable misconceptions about how the Bible came into being and what it really says. In this class, we will ask and answer questions about the Bible’s historical context and ancient meaning, with a focus on matters of composition and early reception. Who wrote the Bible? When was it written? To what circumstances were its authors responding? Moving beyond the often impossible project of identifying complex texts with individual authors, we will use both biblical and ancient non-biblical sources to situate biblical authors with respect to chronology, geography, institutions, class, gender, and more. Usually offered every second year.

Madadh Richey

NEJS 18a Understanding Evil and Human Destiny
[ hum ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took FYS 18a in prior years.

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. Usually offered every second year.
Reuven 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.
Staff

NEJS 104a Comparative Semitic Languages
[ hum nw ]

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 second year.
Staff

NEJS 107a Biblical Prophecy
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or HBRW 41a.

Studies the unique phenomenon of ancient Israelite literary prophecy through a close reading of the Book of Jeremiah in Hebrew. Attention will be given to its composition, relationship to other texts, manuscript history, ideology, and themes. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 110b Psalms in the Hebrew Bible
[ hum ]

Prerequisites: NEJS 10a or 40-level HBRW course or permission of the instructor.

A close reading of selected Psalms in Biblical Hebrew, with study of their poetic, historical, and mythological features and contexts. Usually offered every third year.
Madadh Richey

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 third year.
Staff

NEJS 113a Jewish and Christian 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 second year.
Staff

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.
Staff

NEJS 114a Death, Memorial, and Immortality in Biblical Literature
[ hum nw ]

Surveys biblical concepts of death in its social, historical, and literary context. Topics include human mortality and divine immortality, dying as a social process,the afterlife and the 'soul', and communication with the dead. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 115b Gender and Sexuality in the Bible
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

The Bible's depiction of gender, relationships, and social values in narrative, poetry, and law. Topics include the legal status of women, masculinity, prostitution, and how particular readings of the biblical text have shaped modern ideas about gender and sexuality. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 117b Dead Sea Scrolls
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Studies in the literature of Qumran texts, with particular attention to the exegetical literature. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

NEJS 121b Biblical Poetry
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: NEJS 10a or a strong knowledge of biblical Hebrew.

Overview of biblical poetry, its major genre categories, and the various ways biblical scholarship has understood this mode of discourse. Texts read in Hebrew with attention to grammar, poetic structure, and translation. Biblical genres will be contextualized within broader ancient Near Eastern literary traditions. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 122a Magic and Witchcraft in the Ancient Near East
[ hum nw ]

Examines magical literature, rituals, and beliefs in the ancient Near East. 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.
Staff

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.
Staff

IMES 104a Islam: Civilization and Institutions
[ hum nw ]

Provides a disciplined study of Islamic civilization from its origins to the modern period. Approaches the study from a humanities perspective. Topics covered will include the Qur'an, tradition, law, theology, politics, Islam and other religions, modern developments, and women in Islam. Usually offered every year.
Carl El-Tobgui

NEJS 3a Religions of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, 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.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 6a Jewish History: From Ancient to Modern Worlds
[ hum nw ]

Surveys ideas, institutions, practices and events central to critical approaches to the Jewish past and present. Dynamic processes of cross-fertilization, and contestation between Jews and their surroundings societies will be looked, as well as tradition and change, continuity and rupture. No background in the subject matter is required. Usually offered every second year.
Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 25a Introduction to Talmud
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: A 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent is recommended.

An introduction to Treatise Bava Metzia, on the subject of labor law. Topics include: payment for commuting time, eating on the job, benefits a worker can expect from their employer. The course introduces the Babylonian Talmud. 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.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 27a Abortion, Reproduction, and Contraception in Jewish Law and Ethics
[ hum ]

Challenges the usual framing of abortion in the U.S. as a conflict between religious and secular, or murder versus personal autonomy, and challenges the predominant Christian framings of ethical considerations for abortion, by introducing Jewish sources from the bible until today. Students will gain detailed, critical, and historical information about how Jewish law and Jewish individuals have deliberated about ending pregnancies. The primary sources, along with guest speakers and academic scholarship, will empower students to weigh and propose alternative framings of abortion and reproduction in the U.S. Topics include: Is a fetus considered alive? What grounds do Jewish ethics offer for abortion? How does a pregnant woman or person’s mental and physical health affect a decision for abortion? Do Jewish ethics recognize rape to be grounds for abortion? Who should be the decision-maker on abortion? How should genetic testing affect decisions to terminate pregnancies? How greatly do modern Jewish legal voices range on abortion? Special one-time offering, fall 2022.

Lynn Kaye

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]

Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 124b Divinity, Difference and Desire: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
[ hum ]

A study of Jewish mysticism through history. While investigating the nature of mysticism and the idea of mysticism itself and the transformation of key motifs of Judaism into a mystical key, the course will also be concerned with how to read a Jewish mystical text. All readings are in English. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 125a Just Communities and Neighborhoods in Talmudic Literature
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Talmudic texts debate how to create communities led by trustworthy people with fair relations between neighbors. Class includes in-depth textual analysis and introduces contemporary Talmudic studies from multiple perspectives. This course traces how the Babylonia Talmud featured legal reasoning and storytelling to address issues of contested space and authority in a community committed to justice. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

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 third year.
Reuven 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.
Reuven 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 127b How Is the Jewish Liturgy Different from Muslim and Christian Liturgies?
[ 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.
Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 128a Introduction to Christianity
[ hum ]

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.
Staff

NEJS 140b Gender, Ghettos, and the Geographies of Early Modern Jews
[ 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.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

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.
Jonathan Decter

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.
Jonathan Decter

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 third year.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 166b Jewish Identities: Navigating the Boundaries of Religion, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality
[ hum ]

Explores the central question, 'who is a Jew' and what constitutes Jewishness from late antiquity times to the present through an interdisciplinary lens. Beginning with the rabbinic texts that sought to construct and strengthen the boundaries between Jews and non-Jews, the class will explore thorny questions about identities through the lens of religion, ethnicity and race, culture, nationality, and science. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 186a Introduction to the Qur'an
[ djw dl 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 Islamic teachings and its global impact. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 194b Sufism: Mystical Traditions in Classical and Modern Islam
[ 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, the development of Sufi teachings in both poetry and prose, and the manner in which Sufism is practiced in lands as diverse as Egypt, Turkey, Iran, India, Malaysia, and Europe. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 195a Muhammad: From Early Muslim Accounts to Modern Biographies
[ hum ]

Studies the life of Muhammad based upon the earliest biographical accounts and the academic analyses in both Islamic and non-Islamic sources, accompanied by an examination of his legacy in different aspects of Islam, such as Shi'ism and Sufism. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 173a Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew.

Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on 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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174b Israeli Women Writers on War and Peace
[ deis-us djw fl hum oc ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew. May be repeated for credit.

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.
Ilana Szobel

ED/NEJS 170b Inside Jewish Education: Language, Literacy, and Reading
[ hum ]

Combines autobiography, classroom videotapes, curriculum investigation and fieldwork to explore the purposes, practices and effects of contemporary Jewish education in its many forms and venues. Usually offered every other year.
Ziva Hassenfeld

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.
Gannit Ankori

FA/NEJS 183a Breaking Boundaries in Contemporary Israeli Culture
[ ca hum ]

Explores how the Creative Arts reflect, challenge, and reconfigure various cleavages and barriers that characterize contemporary Israeli society. This course will focus on literary, visual and cinematic artworks, organized around thematic clusters and major theoretical issues. Usually offered every second year.
Gannit Ankori and Ilana Szobel

NEJS 183b* Global Jewish Literature
[ hum wi ]

May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 171a in prior years.

Introduces important works of modern Jewish literature, graphic fiction, 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.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 27a Abortion, Reproduction, and Contraception in Jewish Law and Ethics
[ hum ]

Challenges the usual framing of abortion in the U.S. as a conflict between religious and secular, or murder versus personal autonomy, and challenges the predominant Christian framings of ethical considerations for abortion, by introducing Jewish sources from the bible until today. Students will gain detailed, critical, and historical information about how Jewish law and Jewish individuals have deliberated about ending pregnancies. The primary sources, along with guest speakers and academic scholarship, will empower students to weigh and propose alternative framings of abortion and reproduction in the U.S. Topics include: Is a fetus considered alive? What grounds do Jewish ethics offer for abortion? How does a pregnant woman or person’s mental and physical health affect a decision for abortion? Do Jewish ethics recognize rape to be grounds for abortion? Who should be the decision-maker on abortion? How should genetic testing affect decisions to terminate pregnancies? How greatly do modern Jewish legal voices range on abortion? Special one-time offering, fall 2022.

Lynn Kaye

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.
Staff

NEJS 37a The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry
[ hum ]

Open to all students. May not be taken for credit by students who took NEJS 137a in prior years.

Why and how did European Jews become victims of genocide? A systematic examination of the planning and implementation of Nazi Germany's 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question' and the Jewish and general responses to it. Usually offered every year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 123b Crossing Boundaries and Being Human in Rabbinic Literature
[ hum oc ]

Being "human" is defined by distinguishing between and ordering different beings according to race, gender, disability and species. This privileges some in society while diminishing the value of others. This course introduces the main texts of rabbinic literature around fundamental questions of what is a legal "person" and what is not. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 125a Just Communities and Neighborhoods in Talmudic Literature
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: Any 30-level Hebrew course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Talmudic texts debate how to create communities led by trustworthy people with fair relations between neighbors. Class includes in-depth textual analysis and introduces contemporary Talmudic studies from multiple perspectives. This course traces how the Babylonia Talmud featured legal reasoning and storytelling to address issues of contested space and authority in a community committed to justice. Usually offered every year.
Lynn Kaye

NEJS 132b Against the Apocalypse: Jewish Responses to the Holocaust
[ hum ]

Provides an overview on the multifaceted Jewish responses to the Nazi destruction of European Jews in the years 1945-1961. Familiarizing students with Jews' historical, legal, cultural, political, religious and commemorative reactions to the Holocaust, it refutes the unwarranted claim of a postwar Jewish silence. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

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.
Staff

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.
ChaeRan Freeze or Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 139b Christians and Israel
[ hum ]

Explores how different Christian groups--from American evangelicals to Orthodox Palestinians--have wrestled with both the idea and reality of a Jewish state in the Holy Land. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Staff

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.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 141b Human Rights: Law, Politics, Theology
[ hum ]

How did human rights work arise in recent decades, and why only then? Is it a new sort of religion? What critical thinking will help this vast work of advocacy, international law, democratization and humanitarianism alleviate human suffering? Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

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.
ChaeRan Freeze

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.
Jonathan 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 year.
Staff

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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 148a Inside Nazi Germany: Social and Political History of the Third Reich
[ hum ]

Provides an overview on the social and political history of Nazi Germany (1933-1945) covering the most significant topics pertaining to the ideological basis, structure and functioning of the regime as well as the social and political mechanisms that led millions of Germans to perpetrate war and genocide. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

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.
Jonathan Decter

NEJS 150a The Jews in Weimar and Nazi Germany
[ hum ]

Explores the history of the German Jewish community in the years 1918-1945, a period characterized by the dramatic change from the solid social, professional and cultural integration of the Jews into German society to their disfranchisement, discrimination, and ultimate destruction. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Jockusch

NEJS 153a Between Ecstasy and Community: Hasidism in Jewish Thought and History
[ hum oc ]

Explores Hasidism, from the 18th century until today, as one of the dynamic forces in Jewish life, mixing radicalism and reaction, theology, storytelling and music, thick community and wild individualism, deep conformity and spiritual abandon. Usually offered every third year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 153b The Philosophies of Abraham J. Heschel and Joseph B. Soloveitchik
[ hum ]

The two most influential American philosophers of twentieth-century Judaism were Joseph Soloveitchik and Abraham Heschel. Their distinctive combinations of modernity and tradition changed the nature of Jewish philosophical reflection in America and abroad. The course will focus on their commonalities and differences. The topics include epistemology, the understanding of the human, the nature of revelation and redemption, the function of prayer, the understanding of the Sabbath, and inter-religious dialogue. Usually offered every third year.

Reuven Kimelman

NEJS 154b Zionism, Israel, and the Reshaping of Jewish Identity
[ hum ]

Explores the relations between pluralism, religious resurgence, secularism and democracy in our time through readings in history, literature, philosophy, sociology, theology and law. Focuses on one fascinating, contentious and deeply consequential place: The State of Israel. Usually offered every second year.
Yehudah Mirsky

NEJS 156a Modern Responsa Literature: The Sephardic Tradition
[ hum ]

The genre of Jewish literature known as Responsa has long been central to Jewish law. This course will focus on a large spectrum of responsa with significant attention being given to ones written by Israeli rabbis on a host of contemporary issues. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 158b Yiddish Literature and the Modern Jewish Revolution
[ hum wi ]

Students with reading knowledge of Yiddish may elect to read the original texts.

Surveys and analyzes Yiddish fiction, poetry, and drama of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readings include several works of the classic Yiddish writers, but the primary focus is on works by succeeding generations of modernist writers. Taught in English using texts in translation. Weekly additional section for students with advanced reading knowledge of Yiddish who elect to read some texts in the original. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen 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.
Eugene Sheppard

NEJS 160a Jewish Feminisms
[ deis-us hum ]

Examines the role of Jewish women in the broader feminist movement and the impact of feminist theory and activism on Jewish thought, law, ritual practice and communal norms in the 20th and 21st century. We will explore classic feminist critiques and transformations of traditional Judaism and examine contemporary controversies involving issues such as equality under Jewish ritual and family law, sex segregation in public life, inclusion of Jewish People of Color and of LGBTQ Jews and antisemitism in the women's movement. Usually offered every year.
Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

NEJS 161b American Jewish Family Matters
[ hum ]

Examines the evolution of the American Jewish family from the colonial period to the present from historical, sociological and cultural perspectives. We will explore how the definition of family; the rituals and performance of family life; and the challenges that families negotiate have changed in response to cultural forces. We will also utilize the lenses of ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality to analyze the representations of the Jewish family in American popular culture, including literature, film and television. Usually offered every third year.
Jonathan Krasner

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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 162b It Couldn't Happen Here: American Antisemitism in Historical Perspective
[ 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.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 163a Jews and American Capitalism
[ hum wi ]

Explores the central role played by capitalism and the market economy in the lives and religion of American Jews, from colonial times onward. Through a series of case studies, the course explores the occupational structure of the American Jewish community, the values that shaped occupational choices, and some of the surprising ways in which religion and capitalism have interacted. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Sarna

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America
[ hum wi ]

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.
Jonathan 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.
Staff

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 third year.
ChaeRan Freeze

NEJS 166b Jewish Identities: Navigating the Boundaries of Religion, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality
[ hum ]

Explores the central question, 'who is a Jew' and what constitutes Jewishness from late antiquity times to the present through an interdisciplinary lens. Beginning with the rabbinic texts that sought to construct and strengthen the boundaries between Jews and non-Jews, the class will explore thorny questions about identities through the lens of religion, ethnicity and race, culture, nationality, and science. Usually offered every year.
Staff

NEJS 169a Inside the Religious School Classroom
[ hum ]

This course offers a 2-credit optional Experiential Learning practicum for students teaching in an area religious school.

Examines the purposes, pedagogies and outcomes of religious education broadly refined by analyzing records of practice (e.g. classroom videotapes, student work, curricula). Usually offered every second year.
Staff

NEJS 169b From Sunday Schools to Birthright: History of American Jewish Education
[ hum ]

Empowers students to articulate a reality-based, transformative vision of Jewish education that is grounded in an appreciation for the history and sociology of American Jewish education. It will familiarize students with and contextualize the present Jewish educational landscape, through the use of historical case studies and current research, encouraging students to view the field from an evolutionary perspective. The seminar will address Jewish education in all its forms, including formal and informal settings (e.g., schools, camps, youth groups, educational tourism). Usually offered every third year
Jonathan Krasner

NEJS 170a Studying Sacred Texts
[ hum ]

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.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 171b Tikkun Olam/Repairing the World: Service and Social Justice in Theory and Practice
[ hum ]

What does tikkun olam mean? What is a life of service? What should one learn from service-learning? Does "social justice" actually do any good? This is a service-learning course, and includes a service component in the field. Usually offered every third year.
Jon Levisohn

NEJS 173a Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew.

Explores trauma and violence in Israeli Literature, film, and art. Focuses on 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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 174a Minorities and Others in Israeli Literature and Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 176b Jewish Graphic Novels
[ hum ]

Examines the complex genre of the Jewish graphic novel. Explores Jewish artists' use of graphic narratives to grapple with issues of acculturation, trauma, and identity. Special focus on the reconfiguration of Jewish gender identities. Structured around primary texts. Secondary readings provide historical context and theoretical analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Kellman

NEJS 177a The Holocaust in Israeli and Jewish Literature
[ hum ]

Taught in English.

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. Usually offered every third year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 178a Love, Sex, and Power in Israeli Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

Taught in Hebrew. May be repeated for credit.

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.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 181a Jews on Screen: From "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.
Sharon 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.
Sharon Rivo

NEJS 182a Jewish Life in Television, 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.
Rachel Greenblatt

NEJS 184a Cultural and Historical 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.
Staff

NEJS 184b Disability Cultures: Art, Film and Literature of People with Disabilities
[ deis-us djw hum oc ]

Explores cultural representations of disability in Israel, Europe, and the US. By focusing on literature, film, dance, and visual art, it explores physical, mental, and emotional disability experiences, and their relations to gender, sexuality, nationalism, and identity politics. Usually offered every second year.
Ilana Szobel

NEJS 185b The Making of the Modern Middle East
[ hum nw ss wi ]

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 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 Formative Moments in the Disputed Land of Israel-Palestine
[ djw hum ]

Examines the history of Israel/Palestine during the 20th century by focusing on several formative moments that took place pre and post 1948. It reexamines key issues that emerged around each of those events and explores the implications they had on the formation of Israeli and Palestinian societies. Usually offered every second year.

NEJS 191b The World to Come: Jewish Messianism from Antiquity to Zionism
[ 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.
Alexander Kaye

NEJS 195a Muhammad: From Early Muslim Accounts to Modern Biographies
[ hum ]

Studies the life of Muhammad based upon the earliest biographical accounts and the academic analyses in both Islamic and non-Islamic sources, accompanied by an examination of his legacy in different aspects of Islam, such as Shi'ism and Sufism. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

NEJS 196a Cultural Contact Zones in Israel-Palestine
[ djw hum ]

Explores the different ways in which boundaries have been constructed and imagined in the cultural scene in Israel/Palestine from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. It traces different cultural arenas that emerged during this period using examples from literature, cinema, music and visual arts – exploring the Hebrew-Arabic contact zones, religious and secular borderlands, the national divide between Jews and Arabs, and the fluid borderland across the gender divide. Usually offered every second year.

Yuval Evri

NEJS 247b The Craft of Holocaust Research: Questions, Sources, Interpretations, and Debates

Provides an introduction to the emergence and development of Holocaust studies as an academic discipline. It will acquaint students with the main questions and sources of the historical scholarship and teach them to critically analyze the works of the major historians of the Holocaust. Usually offered every second year.
Laura Jockusch

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.
Ellen 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 comprehend more complex texts. The history and culture of Eastern European Jewry are studied through Yiddish songs, films, and literature. Usually offered every year.
Ellen 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.
Ellen 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. Skills for using Yiddish in academic research are taught. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Kellman