Fall 2023 Courses

Jewish Studies

1002W – Introduction to Jewish Studies

Taught by Shaul Kelner

Introduction to Judaism and Jewish history through philosophical, political, social, psychological, and artistic perspectives. Biblical studies; culture, philosophy, and literature. Antiquity and the medieval world; modern and contemporary experience.

Eligible for AXLE: 1000-level W course and AXLE: International Cultures and Religious Studies

1111 12 – FYS: Jews and Hollywood

Taught by Judy Klass

Immigrant Jews built the twentieth century movie industry as a patriotic U.S. fantasyland. We’ll examine how Jews created the Hollywood studio system and how Hollywood has chosen to represent and often not represent Jews. We will discuss roles in front of and behind the cameras. We’ll ask why Jewish characters virtually disappeared from American screens by the late 1930s. We will examine charges of Hollywood “collaboration” with Nazi Germany, and we’ll look at Holocaust refugees’ contributions to American film. We’ll also discuss the blacklisting of accused communists during the Cold War. We will conclude with contemporary popular film.

Eligible for AXLE: First-Year Writing Seminar

2250W – Witnesses Who Were Not There: Literature of the Children of Holocaust Survivors

Taught by Adam Meyer

Fiction and non-fiction produced by children of Holocaust survivors.

Eligible for AXLE: 2000-level and above W course and AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts and English and European Studies and Religious Studies

2290W – Imagining the Alien: Jewish Science Fiction

Taught by Judy Klass

Science fiction and speculative fiction by Jewish writers in cultural context. Aliens, robots, and secret identities; time travel; utopia and political critique; questions of Jewish identity.

Eligible for AXLE: 2000-level and above W course and AXLE: Humanities and the Creative Arts and Religious Studies

2995 – Antisemitism: A History

Taught by Emily Greble and Ari Joskowicz

Pre-history and history of modern anti-Jewish sentiments and actions from the Middle Ages to the present; focus on Europe and the United States.

Eligible for AXLE: International Cultures

Cross-listed with HIST 2995

3894 – Topics in Modern Jewish History: Memory and the Holocaust

From 1492 to the present.

Hebrew

1101 – Elementary Hebrew

Taught by Mazalit Haim

Introduction to alphabet, the basics of grammar, and elementary conversation. Classes meet three times per week with an additional two hours a week required in the language laboratory.