The Tauber Institute is devoted to the study of modern European Jewish history, thought, culture and society. It has a special interest in studying the Holocaust and its aftermath within the context of modern European intellectual, political and social history.
The institute is organized on a multidisciplinary basis with the participation of scholars in Jewish studies, history, philosophy, political science, sociology, literature and other disciplines. The institute was founded in 1980 as a result of a major benefaction by Dr. Laszlo N. Tauber and is named in honor of his parents.
Classes with Faculty Associates
The Tauber Institute is pleased to announce the Spring 2023 classes taught by our esteemed faculty associates:
ChaeRan Freeze
Carnal Israel: Exploring Jewish Sexuality from Talmudic Times to the Present (NEJS 166A)
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.
Laura Jockusch
The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry (NEJS 37A)
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.
Research and Archival Methods in Modern Jewish History (NEJS 232A)
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.
Eugene Sheppard
Spinoza Now (NEJS 157A)
This seminar has a double aim. First, students will be introduced to Spinoza’s Ethics and the philosophical method he employed in facing fundamental challenges of religion, science, and politics. Second, students will be following Spinoza’s work alongside a set of 20th-21st century re-interpretations and responses that emerged first in France by Marxists and constituting the “New Spinoza,” one which prompted a re-evaluation of the fundamental problems raised when seeing aspirations for liberation and more adequate knowledge of God or nature have morphed into the emergence of deeper forms of human subjugation and the pernicious rule of will of the few in the name of the multitude.