Hebrew & Judaic Studies (HBRJD-UA)

Active introduction to modern Hebrew as it is spoken and written in Israel today. Presents the essentials of Hebrew grammar, combining the oral-aural approach with formal grammatical concepts. Reinforces learning by reading of graded texts. Emphasizes the acquisition of idiomatic conversational vocabulary and language patterns.

Continuation of HBRJD-UA 1. Open to students who have completed HBRJD-UA 1 or who have been placed at this level through the placement examination. For description, see Elementary Hebrew I (HBRJD-UA 1).

Open to students who have completed HBRJD-UA 2 or HBRJD-UA 5, or those who have been placed at this level through the placement examination. Builds on skills acquired in Elementary Hebrew I and II and develops a deepening command of all linguistic skills. Modern literary and expository texts are read to expand vocabulary and grammatical knowledge, with conversation and composition exercises built around the texts. Introduces selections from Israeli media. Addresses the relationship between classical and modern Hebrew.

Continuation of HBRJD-UA 3. Open to students who have completed HBRJD-UA 3 or who have been placed at this level through the placement examination. For description, see Intermediate Hebrew I (HBRJD-UA 3).

Students in the summer intensive Introductory Biblical Hebrew sequence learn the fundamentals of Hebrew as this language is employed in the Hebrew Bible. Students will master a broad vocabulary that touches on all areas of life, from agriculture and animal husbandry to theology and politics. By means of these approaches, we will equip ourselves with the essential tools for exploring the fascinating and complex literature of the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Hebrew writings. This class will also include several excursions to view Hebrew manuscripts and monumental Hebrew throughout New York City.

Prerequisites: Four semester of Hebrew or equivalent or permission of the instructor. An advanced language course conducted in Hebrew, focusing on aspects of Israeli society as they are portrayed in primarily 21st century Israeli films and television. The aspects examined include immigration and immigrants, ethnic groups within Israeli society, religious communities and their relationship to the secular world, the kibbutz , periphery vs. center, the Israeli-Arab conflict and military service. The course will foster a deeper understanding of the Hebrew language’s various registers and their manifestation in different social contexts and genres. The class will strengthen the students’ proficiency in the four language skills, with emphasis on listening and speaking. Students will be required to view films, and to engage in pre- and post-viewing activities such as reading background materials in Hebrew, participate in class discussions, and writing in Hebrew about the films. Program in Hellenic Studies

Reading and discussion of modern literary and expository works. Focuses on the many stylistic registers that modern Hebrew has developed. Intended to train students in fluent expository writing and advanced reading comprehension, concentrating on Hebrew idiom and vocabulary, emphasizing literary form and style of composition.

This course investigates the constitution of male and female -- both human and divine -- in the Hebrew Bible through close readings of selected biblical texts. We probe the difference between biblical gender roles and their analogues in the Greco-Christian tradition and its 20th-century heir – Freudian psychoanalysis. We also ask what light biblical views on sexual difference can shed on contemporary feminist demands for equal-rights. No prerequisites.

Over the past few decades, many readers have come to a fuller appreciation of the emotional and imaginative power of the Bible?s narratives, which still speak with remarkable clarity to our own sensibilities, leading one critic to characterize the Bible as a ?full-fledged kindred spirit? of modernism. The course pursues this ?kindred spirit,? using a broadly literary approach as its guide. While the focus is on narrative?the Pentateuch (Genesis?Deuteronomy) and the Former Prophets (Joshua?Kings), as well as shorter narrative books (Ruth, Jonah, and Esther)?it also studies Ecclesiastes and Job as ancient precursors to modern skepticism. Finally, it studies one modernist engagement with the Bible: Kafka?s Amerika.

This course examines the musical construction of Israeli national identity. Through this course, students will (1) learn to think critically about the political and cultural aspects of music and other expressive forms; (2) become acquainted with Israeli society, culture, and identity politics; (3) develop a sophisticated understanding of contemporary Israeli music; (4) enhance their understanding of the theoretical literature on nationalism, postnationalism, and globalization; and (5) learn the fundamentals of performance and discourse analysis.

This two-credit course examines the tolerance or intolerance of dissent both in the pages of Jewish tradition and on the stage of Jewish history. The course is organized along chronological lines, beginning with sectarianism in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the development of a pluralistic tradition in rabbinic literature and culminating with the denominational turn in modern Jewish life. We will pay attention to tensions between ideological purity and social pragmatism, how individuals and communities navigated these boundaries, and the extent to which Jewish society could sustain, and even argue for, diversity and dissent within its ranks.

Extensive selections from a representative range of Israeli media, including newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting. Stresses study of various approaches in the different media as well as practical exercises in comprehending Israeli press styles.

Comprehensive introduction to representative works of modern Hebrew literature from the writers of the Hebrew national renaissance of the late 19th century to the present. Focuses on thematic and structural analysis of texts in light of social and intellectual movements of the period. Readings include selections from Peretz, Berdichevsky, Ahad Ha?am, Gnessin, Brenner, Agnon, Hazaz, Yehoshua, and Appelfeld.

What is a monster? How does it come into being? Why do monsters capture modern imagination and at what historical junctions do they tend to reappear? From the Golem to Frankenstein, monsters have often figured the anxieties, fantasies, and collective distress of the societies from which they hail. Jewish modernity in particular saw the rapid reproduction of monstrous figures as metaphors for the ambivalent state of European Jews vis-à-vis their surrounding societies. Whether an outcast, a dangerous force from within or a defender against external persecutions, monsters totter on the border between imagination and destruction, conveying at once a promise and a threat. This course explores monstrosity as a critical framework through which we may reflect on such issues as belonging, gender, race, abnormality and hybridity. We shall consider the monstrous as it relates to “Jewish questions”, but also as a cultural figure with a life of its own, who recurs across times, languages, and cultures, embodying different states of outsiderness and exception.

Provides a general introduction to Judaism in its many ancient and modern expressions. Students are introduced both to the historical narrative of the Jewish people and the beliefs and practices of the Jewish religion. We address the questions of "what do Jews believe?" and "what do Jews do?" Ideas and motifs of Judaism to be addressed include: the Bible in Judaism, rabbinic literature, theology, Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) and philosophy, Jewish law, Jewish nationalism, anti-Semitism, messianism, Jewish culture and identity, the synagogue, ritual and worship, life cycle, festivals and calendar. We will take advantage of the many resources in New York City for understanding Jewish history and culture. This will include visits to the Jewish Museum, The Center for Jewish History, the Eldridge Street Synagogue, the Lower East Side, and the second cemetery (1805-29) of the Spanish and Portuguese community. These visits complement our in-class topics of study. All museum admission costs are covered by NYU.

Major developments in the history and culture of the Jews from the 16th to the 20th centuries, emphasizing the meanings of modernity in the Jewish context, differing paths to modern Jewish identity, and internal Jewish debates over the relative merits of modern and traditional Jewish values.

Intellectual-historical examination of continuities and discontinuities between medieval and modern Judaism as revealed in selected texts produced during the last thousand years. Emphasis is placed upon how the interactions of Jewish thinkers with the cultures of their surroundings affected their understandings of Judaism.

Surveys Jewish ethical perspectives on leading moral issues, including capital punishment; business ethics; self-sacrifice, martyrdom and suicide; truth and lying; the just war; abortion; euthanasia; birth control; and politics. Explores philosophical questions concerning the nature of ethics and methodological issues related to the use of Jewish sources. Examines classical Jewish texts (Bible, Talmud, and medieval codes) pertaining to ethical issues and discusses the range of ethical positions that may be based on the sources.

The myths of the ancient Near East represent the earliest literary expressions of human thought. Students in this class read myths from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ugarit, Anatolia, and Israel, studying the myths themselves as literary works as well as exploring the ideas and broader issues that shaped them. These myths, including both extensive literary masterpieces such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and shorter work such as the Flight of Etana to Heaven, offer a window into the religious mentality of the ancient Near East, which in turn laid the foundation for many elements of modern Western culture.

Introduces students to the modern study of the Bible from historical, literary, and archeological points of view. Reading and analysis of texts in translation.

Survey of the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the history of early Judaism and Christianity. Reading and discussion of English translations of the major texts.

Anti-Semitism has been called the longest hatred in the history of the West. The roots of anti-Jewish animosity begin in antiquity, taking on many forms throughout the history of Christian Europe. Anti-Semitism takes a new racial and political turn in the modern period, both in Christian and Muslim societies, on the far right and the far left of the political spectrum. Through lectures and discussion we take a deep dive into the history of anti-Semitism and cover much terrain, from classic anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery in western Christendom to modern anti-Semitic hatred and its devastating consequences in Europe and the United States.

This course examines ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts and the ongoing influence of apocalyptic ideas in modern religious movements and contemporary culture. Jewish and Christian apocalypses express their authors’ most profound thoughts, anxieties, and hopes about the mysteries of the creation of the world, the relationship between God and humanity, the nature of evil, and, most prominently, expectations about the impending end of the world. This course explores the social and historical setting of these texts and provides students with the tools to decode the symbolic vocabulary of apocalypses. The modern fascination with apocalypse is discussed alongside modern religious movements and contemporary films that are heavily steeped in the vocabulary and theology of apocalypse.

The Babylonian Talmud, the foundational source of Jewish law, also contains a vast corpus of stories that tell of the lives and deeds of the Talmudic Rabbis. Although the stories preserve many historical and biographical details, they are best approached as didactic fictions that serve a variety of functions. Some stories transmit values, portray ethical living, provide role models for students and teach elements of Jewish religious practice. Other stories engage Talmudic laws, explain their origins, justify changes, and even challenge or undermine them. Still others grapple with the enduring questions of human existence: suffering and illness, death, the relationship between the sexes, free will and fate. Other stories focus on particular dimensions of rabbinic life within the Talmudic academy, such as the demands of Torah study, competition with other sages, and even jockeying for leadership positions. Apart from providing an introduction to basic Jewish beliefs and practices, this course will focus on method, on how to read and interpret Talmudic stories. Originally transmitted orally, Talmudic stories are extremely terse, and demand careful attention to the artful use of language, vocabulary, figurative expressions, metaphors, the use of irony, and literary structure, much like the study of poetry. Most of class time will be devoted to the close reading, discussion and interpretation of stories. We will also learn how to apply different methods of literary analysis, including structuralism, folkloristic methods, comparative analysis, new historicism, and gender criticism.

4 points, lecture. First offered spring 2016, and every 3rd or 4th semester thereafter. No prerequisites. The course explores the role of Yiddish in the history and culture of the United States. The chronological coverage is from the age of mass migration at the turn of the twentieth century to our days. Students will learn about Yiddish-speaking farmers and trade unionists, Anarchists, Socialists, Zionists, and Communists. The course examines the Yiddish press, theater, cinema, scholarship, and literature. Special attention is paid to such leading Yiddish authors as Morris Rosenfeld, Sholom Asch, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Abraham Cahan. It discusses the role of Yiddish in education, religion, and other domains of American Jewish life, both historically and in contemporary times.

The current state of Jewish-Islamic relations is tragically fraught with mutual suspicion and competing historical narratives that are manifest as much in the religious as in the political arena. In the midst of this fractious debate, it is sometimes forgotten that Jews have for centuries been a

Ancient Egyptian Mythology and Religion will focus on many aspects of Egyptian religion: conceptions of the divine in a polytheistic context, temple ritual, hymns, personal piety, the relationship between religion and magic, mortuary religion and its evolution and material consequences. Questions will be approached through both study of the primary sources in English translation: myths (very broadly conceived), other religious writings (including mortuary texts such as the Book of the Dead and the Underworld books), as well as art and artifacts connected with religious practice, such as amulets and votives. In addition, students will read the standard secondary source analyses by noted historians of Egyptian religion and critique them based on the primary sources.

Explores the Jewishness of Jesus and its reception within ancient, medieval, and modern Judaism. Situates Jesus and his first followers in relation to the Jewish religion and culture of their time, considering the place of Judaism in the origins of Christianity. Explores reactions to Jesus' Jewishness within later Jewish literature, art, and philosophy. Surveys the history of Jewish/Christian relations from antiquity to the present.

Study of the major events and personalities in American Jewish history since colonial times; the waves of Jewish immigration and development of the American Jewish community.

Explores the origin, development, and future of American Judaism. Attention will be paid to the development of the major religious denominations, the emergence of secular Judaism and the impact of factors such as immigration, feminism, sub-urbanization, the Holocaust and the State of Israel on American Jewish life.

Examines the relations between the Jewish community in Israel (including Palestine before the establishment of the state) and the American Jewish community from 1914 to 1992. Considers ideological issues (especially different views of Jewish collectivity) as well as political and diplomatic developments in the relations between Israel and the American Jewish community in the generation prior to the Six Day War of 1967. Concludes with an examination of the internal Israeli political debates that have invoked the greatest concern among American Jews: ?who is a Jew?? the Law of Return, and the peace process.

This class explores international migration as a shaping force in modern Jewish history. Since the 17th century, Jews have been involved in an ongoing process of shifting residences en masse from and within Europe as well as from the Islamic lands. They have relocated to North and South America, South Africa, and Australia, as well as to Israel. This course explores many of the issues raised by the prominence of migration as a feature of modern Jewish migrations, including the similarities and differences between Jewish and non-Jewish migrations of the same time, the causes and structures of the migrations, and the impact of migration upon the various aspects of integration in the receiving societies.

Examines the history of Zionism and as an ideology and political movement from its origins in the 19th century to the present as reflected in the modern State of Israel. Topics include ideological foundations, the role of Herzl and the rise of political Zionism, the Balfour Declaration, early Jewish settlements in Palestine, Zionism as a cultural focus for diaspora Jewry, the Arab-Zionist encounter, modern Israeli society, and contemporary critiques of Zionism.

This course explores the social, cultural and political histories of Jewish women in modern Europe and the United States from the French Revolution through World War II, focusing on the era of Emancipation, the bourgeois 19th century, both World Wars, and the Holocaust. We will examine the options women had, the boundaries against which they pushed, and the roles they created for themselves in public and in private. Students will read secondary sources as well as memoirs, diaries, and letters.

The course focuses on Jewish history in imperial Russia, from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th centuries. It also contains overview lectures covering the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The topics discuss the government’s politics towards Jews, attempts to integrate them into larger society, establishment and development of Russian Jewish civil society, Jewish participation in the revolutionary movement, and aspects of Jewish social, economic, and cultural life in villages, towns, and cities. Other topics analyze the role of women in family and communal life, military service, anti-Jewish violence, and emigration.

This course is a survey of the history of Palestine in the modem period, focusing on the conflict for control of this land from its origins in the late nineteenth century until the present. The purpose of this course is to examine the evolution of this ongoing struggle in its historical context and to try to understand why the various parties to this conflict have thought and acted as they did.

This course explores the interactions of Jews and other Western Europeans after World War II, noting their interlocking histories and memories even after the Holocaust. Students will learn about Western European Jewish life from Emancipation through the early 20th century, the Holocaust and the immediate postwar turmoil especially in Germany, Italy and France. They will analyze how Italians, Germans -- East and West – and French citizens did or did not come to terms with the Fascist and Nazi past. They will study Jewish perspectives on their lives in Europe, including those of the Displaced Persons, but also those of Jews who chose to stay in their homelands. The class will learn why these Jews remained, how they experienced their citizenship, and how they interacted with non-Jews. Readings will analyze Jewish memories and memory cultures in a variety of nations and segments of society. Assignments look at conflicting European and Jewish historical memories, including the general silence about the Holocaust of the early postwar years, the Jewish demand for reparations, the attractions of Israel for some Jews, and the growing acknowledgement of the Holocaust in political culture as well as the building of museums and monuments about Jewish history and the Holocaust.

Topics vary by term

From the mass arrival of Middle Eastern Jewry in the 1950s to the emergence of the tent protests in 2011, this course will examine how a wide-range of societal issues, conflicts, and dilemmas shaped the historical trajectory of Israeli society. It is meant to provide an introduction to some of the complexities present in Israeli society.

What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? How has Jewish tradition been enriched and transformed by its creative engagement with philosophy? This course is an intensive introduction to the classics of Jewish philosophy from its origins in the Bible and Greek antiquity through its creative integration of medieval Arab philosophy, culminating with the Jewish philosophers of modernity, from Europe to the United States. We grapple with how these thinkers forged a synthesis between reason and religion and creatively integrated Jewish and non-Jewish sources of wisdom. We will pay close attention to how Jewish thinkers continually reimagine their ancestral tradition in light of the burning questions and ideas of each generation.

What makes a life well-lived? Central questions to be explored include: Does living well require acquiring knowledge and wisdom? What is the place of moral responsibility in the good life? Is the good life a happy life or does it require sacrificing happiness? Does religion lead to living well or does it hinder it? What is friendship and how does it contribute to the good life? Thinkers to be studied may include: Aristotle, Seneca, Maimonides, Glikl, Spinoza, and Levinas.

This course explores Greek, Christian and Jewish responses to the problem: How does one create a good society? Central questions to be explored include: What is the best form of government? What economic system is ideal? Should the government actively promote a vision of the good life or leave it to individual to decide the good for themselves? Should the government prioritize the freedom, equality, or happiness of its inhabitants? What role should religion and nationhood play in society? What models of education should the government promote? How does gender inform these considerations? The course will focus on careful analysis of primary texts. Thinkers to be studied include: Plato, Maimonides, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mendelssohn, Marx, Hess. Having first taken the course: Living a Good Life: Greek and Jewish Perspectives is highly desirable.

Study of a selected topics in Hebrew and Judaic Studies, with careful attention to literary and cultural problems. This includes analysis of major texts and issues in the field. Topics may vary from History of Jewish Languages to Violence, Sex and Culture in Biblical Israel, and more. Example: History of Jewish Languages Around the world, wherever Jews have lived, they have spoken and written somewhat differently from the non-Jews around them. Their languages have differed by as little as the addition of a few Hebrew words or by so much that they are largely "unintelligible" to outsiders. This class explores this spectrum of Jewish linguistic practice, including languages like Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish, as well as the use of Yiddish words among secular Jews in America or Jewish Russian spoken in Israel today. The course uses sociolinguistic methods and emphasized the connection between Language and Religion.

Introduction to the literary and cultural activity of modern Yiddish-speaking Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the United States from 1890 to 1950. Focuses on the distinct role that Yiddish played in modern Jewish culture during the first half of the 20th century, when the language was the vernacular of the majority of world Jewry. Examines how ?Yiddish modernism? took shape in different places and spheres of activity during a period of extraordinary upheaval.

Historical investigation of the evolution of Nazi policies toward Jews; of Jewish behavior in the face of those policies; and of the attitudes of other countries, both within and outside the Nazi orbit, for the situation of Jews under the rule of the Third Reich.

Concentrates on the social, political, and cultural forces that shaped Jewish life in post-1945 Europe. Topics: reconstruction of Jewish communities, repression and anti-Semitic campaigns in the Soviet Union and Poland, the impact of Israel, emigration and migration, Jewish-Christian relations, and assimilation and acculturation. Students also learn about various reactions to the Holocaust.

Examines the power structure and mechanisms of contemporary Israeli politics beginning with the emergence of the provisional government in 1948. Traces how Israel's national institutions, key basic bills and the legislation mechanism, and electoral system developed. The course also examines key fault lines in Israeli social, political, and economic life, including Jewish-Arab relations; the balance between the welfare state and economic liberalism; Union workers and gender relations.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, Hebrew literature became a major site of transformation and reform. But how could a “modern” literature be written in a non-spoken, holy tongue? In both its themes and aesthetics, the literature of “Hebrew Revival” reshaped the Hebrew language and employed it to envision modern Jewish subjectivity and create it anew. This literature articulated new modes of thinking on Jewish nationalism, identity, body and sexuality. Identifying literature as a modern institution, entwined with the rise of nationalism, this course examines the links between modernist poetics and the nationalist imagination. It asks how literature constructs nationalist consciousness and whether, and in what ways, it ever exceeds it. Our weekly sessions will be dedicated to reading diverse texts (short stories, poems, novels, essays and literary theory and tackling some of the issues that they raise, including the emergence of Zionism, gender and sexuality, Jewish immigration to Palestine, religion and secularization. We will acquire methodologies of literary analysis, pay attention to rhetoric and style, and practice close reading.

Explores the body of imaginative literature (novels, short stories, poetry, and drama) written by American Jews. Links these literary works to the changing position of Jews within American society.

Studies a selected section of the Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Babylonian Talmud, utilizing both traditional and academic methods of study.‎ Emphasis is on mastering the themes and concepts while studying the text and its commentaries in depth.

This two-point course explores the variety of Orthodox rabbinic responses to the complex challenges of modernity. It covers key questions posed to rabbinic authorities on urgent topics of the day, from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, including the novelty of secular education, the impact of religious reform, the winds of political change and democratic government, and advances in technology and medicine. Each week we will explore another aspect of modern life to which Jewish law responded by combining adherence to tradition with social realism. Our main source material will be the responsa literature from rabbinic authorities across the Jewish world, from Western and Eastern Europe to the Middle East and North Africa, and from the State of Israel to the United States.

Topics vary by semester

Topics in the Bible and the Ancient Near East offers a range of particular subjects. These vary by term. This course engages the reality that the Bible pervades public media and discourse even where it is not named or acknowledged. The ultimate interest of the course is the Bible itself, how it is read (or not read, but still used) today in relation to the purposes and contexts of its writing in ancient time.

This course offers a range of subjects within the field of modern Jewish history. Topics vary by semester.

The archaeology of Israel has a long and important history for understanding the people and literature connected to its land. This course introduces students to the principal theories and methods of archaeological research and the history of the land of Israel, with a particular focus on the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Through the study of several significant sites and the material culture of the land, students will learn how archaeological findings contribute to the study of Israel and its history.

Open to honors and nonhonors students. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Offered every semester. 1 to 4 points.

Active introduction to modern Hebrew as it is spoken and written in Israel today. Presents the essentials of Hebrew grammar, combining the oral-aural approach with formal grammatical concepts. Reinforces learning by reading of graded texts. Emphasizes the acquisition of idiomatic conversational vocabulary and language patterns.

This course is a continuation of Elementary Hebrew I, and following the communicative approach, it will make an extensive use of the four language skills: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Likewise, it puts an emphasis on the cultural aspects of Hebrew. The teacher will provide a constructive framework for the course and guidance to the students. The role of the students is instrumental in making this course a successful and enjoyable experience. Therefore, you must come always prepared to class, particularly by doing your homework and arriving on time to the class. This course involves full interaction in Hebrew between students and the teacher, and speaking and writing assignments are more varied and more demanding than the assignments for Elementary Hebrew I

The course is a continuation of Intermediate 1 level. The course will enhance students' vocabulary.Proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and hearing the Hebrew language. There will be a focus on the comprehension of literary texts, newspaper articles together with morphology and syntactic structures.

The course is a continuation of Intermediate 1 level. The course will enhance students' vocabulary, proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and hearing the Hebrew language. There will be a focus on the comprehension of literary texts, newspaper articles together with morphology and syntactic structures.

Aimed at training students in exact and idiomatic Hebrew usage and at acquiring facility of expression in both conversation and writing. Reading and discussion of selections from Hebrew prose, poetry, and current periodical literature.

Designed to provide a thorough grounding in Hebrew grammar with special emphasis on phonology, morphology, and syntax. Concentrated study of vocalization, accentuation, declensions, conjugations, and classification of verbs.

The contours of Jewish life in Europe (and around the world) transformed drastically between the 16th and 20th centuries: legally, culturally, religiously, and politically. As empires gave way to nation-states and new globalizing structures emerged, the main arenas of Jewish politics and politics about Jews shifted. During these years, Jews acquired new rights as individuals, including the right to re-interpret what it meant to be Jewish. At the same time, communal institutions lost many of their coercive and political functions. No aspect of Jewish experience remained unchanged by these processes of modernization, which acted upon Jews and in which Jews also took part. But what does “modern” mean? Is it a quality of a society or of individuals? Might it simply be an historical period and, if so, when and why did it begin? Has it ended and what were its main features? In this class, we will explore how modernization affected Jewish communities and individuals identified as Jewish in various European contexts. We will also seek to understand how different cohorts of Europeans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, sought to claim or reject modernity, with specific reference to the modern “Jewish Question.” What place, if any, do Jews have as individuals and collectives in new socio-political and cultural orders? We will thereby come to appreciate better what it meant to be a Jew (or not to be a Jew) in the modern world. Though globalization was a key feature of modernization, our course will pay more attention to histories of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, in order to take advantage of your unique opportunity to study history where it unfolded.

The story of the archaeological discipline in the Land of Israel is strongly tied with the major developments that the region has undergone in the last two centuries. This course offers an overview of the history of archaeology in Palestine since the appearance of the first European travelers and missionaries in the mid-19th century, along the vibrant interest of collectors, forgers and robbers in the Promised Land, through the appearance of the first scientific excavations, the rise of the American biblical archaeology and its influence on local Israeli research. Special attention will be given to the way the newly born Israeli archaeology helped to establish the Zionist identity that wished to pass over two thousand years of Diaspora history; the methods by which the nascent Israeli archaeology connected new-comers to the land of the patriarchs and the manner by which Israeli scholars served state interests in the creation of the national Zionist ethos. The aftermath of the Six Days War and the increasing tension between the Bible and archaeology will be discussed in light of the intense debate over the historicity of the Exodus story, Joshua's conquests and the United Kingdom of David and Solomon. Finally, at the turn of the millennium, post-modern archaeology presented a new pluralistic view of the past. This multi-vocal framework will be used as a background for discussing the archaeology of otherness and minorities in 21st century Israel.

The course will tackle questions of sexuality in the Middle East from a historical perspective. Applying methodologies of queer theory, it will discuss the complex history of sexuality in the Middle East, and sketch the genealogy of Western attitudes towards both Arab and Jewish sexuality. Relying on theorists and historians like Michel Foucault, Robert Aldrich, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Samar Habib, and Joseph Massad, we will explore the essential role that the queer issue plays in the contemporary politics of the region.

Is Israel a multilingual or a monolingual country? This is a question with which many educators, linguists, politicians and laypeople have been struggling. In this course we will explore several issues of language use and practice in Israel, language ideology and language policy. We will start by learning the orthographies (spelling systems) of Hebrew and Arabic and practice them through the methodology of Linguistic Landscape. We will tour Tel Aviv-Jaffa and other places and study public signs and their use in Hebrew and Arabic as well as in other languages. We will look at signs, advertisements, instructions, buildings, streets, billboards, etc. This exercise will teach us much about the public space, who controls it and what cultural and political messages it sends us. We will then study parts of the basic lexicon of Hebrew and Arabic and also review their grammatical structure as well as their historical background—all of this in the larger context of the Semitic language family. Furthermore, in this course we will review the language policies of Israel. Language policies refer to decisions regarding language use in education and in society in general. Some language policies are explicit, others are not; some are top down, others are bottom-up; yet, policies are always derivatives of the groups that make up political entities (e.g., majority elites, minorities, immigrants, indigenous) interacting with a variety of political, ideological, social and economic factors. We will pay a special attention to the mechanisms used to determine language policies on the ground. We will also investigate language use in Israel; the practice and ideology behind the use of Hebrew as well as of the participating language Arabic (standard and colloquial varieties); the use of English, everybody’s second language in Israel; the use of recent immigration languages, Russian and Amharic as well as previous immigrants (French, Polish, Rumanian, and more); the use and loss of heritage Jewish languages in Israel, and much more.

This course explores the interactions of Jews and other Western Europeans after World War II, noting their interlocking histories and memories even after the Holocaust. Students will learn about Western European Jewish life from Emancipation through the early 20th century, the Holocaust and the immediate postwar turmoil especially in Germany, Italy and France. They will analyze how Italians, Germans -- East and West – and French citizens did or did not come to terms with the Fascist and Nazi past. They will study Jewish perspectives on their lives in Europe, including those of the Displaced Persons, but also those of Jews who chose to stay in their homelands. The class will learn why these Jews remained, how they experienced their citizenship, and how they interacted with non-Jews. Readings will analyze Jewish memories and memory cultures in a variety of nations and segments of society. Assignments look at conflicting European and Jewish historical memories, including the general silence about the Holocaust of the early postwar years, the Jewish demand for reparations, the attractions of Israel for some Jews, and the growing acknowledgement of the Holocaust in political culture as well as the building of museums and monuments about Jewish history and the Holocaust.

This course will take the students through the history and the various realities and challenges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The course aims to introduce the fundamental historical trajectories of the conflict, and to present and analyze the conflicting narratives and perceptions of both Palestinians and Israelis over key moments and issues in its history. By so doing, we will pay specific attention to the respective histories of the conflict, as well as to the challenges that each side is encountering over the future of the conflict and possible solutions to it. Among other issues, the course focuses on key moments in the history of Palestine during the British mandate; the conflicting narratives over the 1948 war; Israel and the Palestinians between 1948-1967; the 1967 war and its implications on Israel and the Palestinians; the development of the Palestinian national movement; the first and second Intifadas and the challenges to the Oslo peace process. The course will address these issues through a variety of readings, primary sources and films. As a conclusion, the students will present their own reflections and analyses of various aspects of the history of the conflict and debate its future implications.