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.
Eligible for Religious Studies
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.
2201 – Intermediate Hebrew
Taught by Mazalit Haim
Introduction to modern Hebrew reading, conversation, advanced grammar, and conversation. Classes meet three times a week with an additional three hours a week spent in independent work in the language laboratory.
Eligible for AXLE: Foreign language proficiency and AXLE: International Cultures