Global Arc

Students will achieve a basic ability to read the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its original language. During the semester, students will learn the script and grammar, develop a working vocabulary, and master the standard dictionaries while reading passages from the Bible itself. Two 90-minute classes.

A continuation of 302. Students will develop their ability to read the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its original language. During the semester, students will deepen their knowledge of the grammar, expand their working vocabulary, and practice reading larger passages from the Bible. Two 90-minute classes.

This course explores the relationship between religion and violence in the ancient Mediterranean world. We will investigate how the shifting discourses and practices of religiously-motivated violence directed both at the self and the other shaped the social, cultural and political histories of specific groups within ancient Mediterranean society. Of special interest will be the emergence of Jewish and Christian traditions of martyrdom against their biblical and Graeco-Roman backgrounds and the impact of the Christianization of the Roman Empire on the relationship between political power, religiously-motivated violence, and communal identity.

Students will achieve a basic ability to read the Hebrew Bible/Old Testamtent in its original language. During the semester, students will study the grammar and develop their vocabulary. Upon completing the grammar textbook, students will read large passages from the Bible from all genres.

Traditionally, Judaism has included an inherently redemptive quality. The Biblical Exodus serves as the supreme example of national redemption, while the Torah and later rabbinic literature speak of both national and individual redemptions. Messianism became a basic tenet of Jewish belief in the medieval period and served as a significant motivator during the early modern period. This course will explore Jewish messianism between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Themes to be discussed include: Jewish unity across political and ethnic boundaries, power dynamics of rabbis and lay leaders, and individual religious expression.

How much power do American Jews have? Instead of trying to answer the question directly, this course will excavate the histories, ideologies, and conflicts embedded in it. We will start with an exploration of what we mean when we talk about politics and power by reading some classic (and, in some cases, antisemitic) theories about the relationship between Jews and state rulers, and Jews and economic modes. As we focus our analysis on American Jews, we will consider how American political, economic, and cultural forms offered Jews opportunities to access various kinds of power and, also, excluded them from other forms.

This course considers the social and cultural encounters between religious/ethnic groups in the ancient Mediterranean world. It aims to challenge the idea that these groups (for example, Greeks, Jews, Romans, Christians) had stable boundaries or that they spoke with a unified and authoritative voice. The dynamic and even fluid relationships among these groups had a deep impact on the nature of religious life during the formative period of Late Antiquity and beyond. The course will thus explore religious contact and conflict, proximity and separation, dialogue and prejudice-both ancient and modern.

This seminar will examine the historic flexibility and variability of the Jewish family in the context of selected times and places: Biblical period, early Common Era Diaspora, 20th-century Europe, contemporary United States and Israel. The major emphasis in this course will be on the different protocols and forms that may collectively be called the "Jewish Family." One three-hour seminar.

An inquiry into how the parable has evolved in Jewish literature. Students will track its development in the Bible and Midrash through the Middle Ages into modernity and postmodernity and see its evolution from a form that conveyed meaning and moralistic insight to one of indeterminacy and moral ambiguity. Prerequisite: one previous course in either literature or religion. Two 90-minute classes.

This course explores the composition and publication of books, manuscripts, and other written material for and by Jews during the medieval and early modern periods (ca. 1000-1800). The course touches on: orality and literacy; scroll and codex; authors, readers, publishers, and scribes; manuscript and print; Jewish-Christian interaction in scriptoriums, artist workshops, and printing houses; censorship; illustration, illumination, and deluxe printing; and major printing centers. Students will consider how these objects drove Jewish societies and reflected larger cultural trends. They will also address the definition of a "Jewish" book.