JWSC 11000. Biblical Aramaic. 100 Units.

Course in Biblical Aramaic

Instructor(s): S. Creason     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Second-year standing and knowledge of Classical Hebrew
Equivalent Course(s): ARAM 10101

JWSC 11100. Old Aramaic Inscriptions. 100 Units.

Course in Old Aramaic Inscriptions

Instructor(s): S. Creason     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Second-year standing and ARAM 10101
Equivalent Course(s): ARAM 10102

JWSC 11200. Imperial Aramaic. 100 Units.

Course in Imperial Aramaic.

Instructor(s): S. Creason     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Second-year standing and ARAM 10102
Equivalent Course(s): ARAM 10103

JWSC 20001-20002-20003. Jewish History and Society I-II-III.

Taking these courses in sequence is not required. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. Students explore the ancient, medieval, and modern phases of Jewish culture(s) by means of documents and artifacts that illuminate the rhythms of daily life in changing economic, social, and political contexts. Texts in English.

JWSC 20004-20005-20006. Jewish Thought and Literature I-II-III.

Taking these courses in sequence is not required. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. Students in this sequence explore Jewish thought and literature from ancient times until the modern era through a close reading of original sources. A wide variety of works is discussed, including the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and texts representative of rabbinic Judaism, medieval Jewish philosophy, and modern Jewish culture in its diverse manifestations. Texts in English.

JWSC 21003. Archaeology of the Ancient Near East III: Levant. 100 Units.

This course will take advantage of the detailed archaeological research taking place, from the very first German excavation in the 'Orient' to the most recent international projects. Students will become familiar with the archaeology and the history of the Norther Levant through lectures and the readings and will learn how to critically analyze the archaeological arguments that underlie current reconstructions of the past. Emphasis will be placed on how to read excavation reports and how to evaluate the quality of fieldwork in terms of both publication and its historical conclusions.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Topic: Northern Levant. This sequence does not meet the general education requirement in civilization studies.
Equivalent Course(s): NEAA 20003

JWSC 22000-22100-22200. Elementary Classical Hebrew I-II-III.

The purpose of this three-quarter sequence is to enable the student to read biblical Hebrew prose with a high degree of comprehension. The course is divided into two segments: (1) the first two quarters are devoted to acquiring the essentials of descriptive and historical grammar (including translation to and from Hebrew, oral exercises, and grammatical analysis); and (2) the third quarter is spent examining prose passages from the Hebrew Bible and includes a review of grammar.

JWSC 22201-22302. Tannaitic Hebrew Texts I-II.

This course consists of readings in the Mishnah and Tosefta, the main corpus of legal and juridical texts assembled by the Palestinian academic masters during the second and early third centuries. Goals are to introduce: (1) views and opinions of early rabbinic scholars who flourished in the period immediately following that of the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls; (2) aspects of the material culture of the Palestinian Jews during that same period; and (3) grammar and vocabulary of what is generally called “early rabbinic Hebrew” and thereby to facilitate the ability to read and understand unvocalized Hebrew texts.

JWSC 22300-22400-22500. Intermediate Classical Hebrew I-II-III.

A continuation of Elementary Classical Hebrew. The first quarter consists of reviewing grammar, and of reading and analyzing further prose texts. The last two quarters are devoted to an introduction to Hebrew poetry with readings from Psalms, Proverbs, and the prophets.

JWSC 23000-23100-23200. Medieval Jewish History I-II-III.

This sequence does NOT meet the general education requirement in civilization studies. This three-quarter sequence deals with the history of the Jews over a wide geographical and historical range. First-quarter work is concerned with the rise of early rabbinic Judaism and development of the Jewish communities in Palestine and the Eastern and Western diasporas during the first several centuries CE. Topics include the legal status of the Jews in the Roman world, the rise of rabbinic Judaism, the rabbinic literature of Palestine in that context, the spread of rabbinic Judaism, the rise and decline of competing centers of Jewish hegemony, the introduction of Hebrew language and culture beyond the confines of their original home, and the impact of the birth of Islam on the political and cultural status of the Jews. An attempt is made to evaluate the main characteristics of Jewish belief and social concepts in the formative periods of Judaism as it developed beyond its original geographical boundaries. Second-quarter work is concerned with the Jews under Islam, both in Eastern and Western Caliphates. Third-quarter work is concerned with the Jews of Western Europe from the eleventh through the fifteenth centuries.

JWSC 23401. Genocide Euro Jews, 1933-1945. 100 Units.

What were the main features of the Jewish society that the Nazis destroyed and what were the conditions of Jewish life in inter-war Europe?  Why and how did the genocide occur?  Who were the perpetrators? What were the respective roles of the German policy apparatus, of the Germany army, of the Nazi Party, of the state bureaucracy, of ordinary Germans?  What were the responses of occupied populations of neutral countries, of the Allies, and of the Jews themselves?

Instructor(s): B. Wassserstein     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 23401,HIST 33401,LLSO 28311,PLSC 23401,PLSC 33401

JWSC 24500. America's White Ethnics: Contemporary Italian- and Jewish-American Ethnic Identities. 100 Units.

Using American Italians and Jews as case studies, this course investigates what it means to be a white “ethnic” in the contemporary American context and examines what constitutes an ethnic identity. In the mid-20th century, the long-standing ideal of an American melting-pot began to recede. The rise of racial pride, ushered in by the Civil Rights era, made way for the emergence of ethnic identity/pride movements, and multiculturalisms, more broadly, became privileged. To some extent, in the latter half of the 20th century America became a post-assimilationist society and culture, where many still strived to “fit-in,” but it was no longer necessarily the ideal to “blend-in” or lose one’s ethnic trappings. In this context, it has become not only possible, but often desirable, to be at the same time American, white, and an ethnic. Through the investigation of the Jewish and Italian examples, this discussion-style course will look at how ethnicity is manifested in, for example, class, religion, gender, nostalgia, and place, as well as how each of these categories is in turn constitutive of ethnic identity. The course will illustrate that there is no fixed endpoint of assimilation or acculturation, after which a given individual is fully “American,” but that ethnic identity, and its various constituent elements, persists and perpetually evolves, impacting individual identities and experience, and both local/group specific and larger cultural narratives even many generations after immigration.

Instructor(s): L. Shapiro     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 27317,CRES 27317

JWSC 24790. Self-Transformation and Political Resistance: Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot, Primo Levi, Martin Luther King, Jr. 100 Units.

How should we understand the connections between an ethics of self-transformation and a politics of resistance to established relations of power? How are forms of the self and strategies of power intertwined?  We shall examine the philosophical frameworks of Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot with respect to these questions and then study two particular cases: Primo Levi’s account of Auschwitz and Martin Luther King Jr.’s account of the civil rights movement.  We will look at the ways in which these two historically specific cases allow us to develop and test the philosophical frameworks we have examined.

Instructor(s): A. Davidson     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 24790

JWSC 25000-25100-25200. Introductory Modern Hebrew I-II-III.

This three quarter course introduces students to reading, writing, and speaking modern Hebrew. All four language skills are emphasized: comprehension of written and oral materials; reading of nondiacritical text; writing of directed sentences, paragraphs, and compositions; and speaking. Students learn the Hebrew root pattern system and the seven basic verb conjugations in both the past and present tenses, as well as simple future. At the end of the year, students can conduct short conversations in Hebrew, read materials designed to their level, and write short essay.

JWSC 25300-25400-25500. Intermediate Modern Hebrew I-II-III.

The main objective of this course is to provide students with the skills necessary to approach modern Hebrew prose, both fiction and nonfiction. In order to achieve this task, students are provided with a systematic examination of the complete verb structure. Many syntactic structures are introduced (e.g., simple clauses, coordinate and compound sentences). At this level, students not only write and speak extensively but are also required to analyze grammatically and contextually all of material assigned.

JWSC 25600-25700-25800. Advanced Modern Hebrew I-II-III.

This course assumes that students have full mastery of the grammatical and lexical content of the intermediate level. The main objective is literary fluency. The texts used in this course include both academic prose, as well as literature. Students are exposed to semantics and morphology in addition to advanced grammar.

JWSC 25601. Advanced Readings in Modern Hebrew. 100 Units.

Although this course assumes that students have full mastery of the grammatical and lexical content at the intermediate level, there is a shift from a reliance on the cognitive approach to an emphasis on the expansion of various grammatical and vocabulary-related subjects. After being introduced to sophisticated and more complex syntactic constructions, students learn how to transform simple sentences into more complicated ones. The exercises address the creative efforts of students, and the reading segments are longer and more challenging in both style and content. The language of the texts reflects the literary written medium rather than the more informal spoken style, which often dominates the introductory and intermediate texts.

Instructor(s): N. Rokem     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): HEBR 20503 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): HEBR 30601,LGLN 23001,LGLN 33001

JWSC 25903. The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Literature and Film. 100 Units.

How do historical processes find their expression in culture? What is the relationship between the two? What can we learn about the Arab-Israeli conflict from novels, short stories, poems and films? Covering texts written by Palestinians and Israelis, as well as works produced in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and the United States, this course attempts to discover the ways in which intellectuals defined their relationship to the "conflict" and how the sociopolitical realities in the Middle East affected their constructions of such term as nation and colonialism.

Instructor(s): O. Bashkin     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Arabic and/or Islamic studies helpful but not required
Equivalent Course(s): NEHC 20906,HIST 26004,HIST 36004

JWSC 26100. Maimonides and Hume on Religion. 100 Units.

This course studies in alternation chapters from Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed and David Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, two major philosophical works whose literary forms are at least as important as their contents. Topics include human knowledge of the existence and nature of God, anthropomorphism and idolatry, religious language, and the problem of evil. Time permitting, we read other short works by these two authors on related themes.

Instructor(s): J. Stern     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Not offered in 2011-2012
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 25110,PHIL 35110,RLST 25110

JWSC 26250. The Philosophical Interpretation of Scripture in the Middle Ages: The Problems of Evil and the Book of Job. 100 Units.

An important genre of philosophical writing during the Middle Ages was the commentary, both commentaries on canonical philosophical works (e.g., Aristotle) and on Scripture. This course is an introduction to medieval philosophical exegesis of Scripture, concentrating on the Book of Job and the philosophical problems of evil and suffering. Authors will include Saadiah, Maimonides, and Aquinas, and readings will include both their commentaries on Job and their systematic philosophical discussions of the problems of evil. (IV)

Instructor(s): J. Stern     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): PHIL 26100,HIJD 36100,PHIL 36100,RLST 25902

JWSC 26360. Bruno Schulz: An Unfinished Project. Units.

This course examines the fictional, non-fictional and visual oeuvre of the brilliant Polish-Jewish modernist Bruno Schulz who perished in the Holocaust. This year marks not only the 120th anniversary of his birth but also the 70th anniversary of his death in the same town of Drohobycz on the southeastern border of Poland. These dates bracket his relatively short life and are evocative of his several unfinished authorial projects. During the course, we will focus on Schulz’s concept of creation through his use of aesthetics of trash and a debased form, kabalistic origins of a fragment, temporality and its movements, myths of province and childhood. We will seek critical answers to his artistic predilection of parochial places and conspiratorial perspectives, masochism, as well as the notion of the moment as both auratic and poetic, in sum, for those components of his world which made him an illusive modernist like no other in his time. The course will be supplemented by the construal of Schulz’s legend in contemporary American fiction (Cynthis Ozick, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Nicole Krauss). All readings in English translation.

Instructor(s): B. Shallcross     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): POLI 38600

JWSC 26450. Jewish Political Thought. 100 Units.

This course is an introductory survey of Jewish political thought from the Bible to the present day. Jews have had a unique political history: for the majority of Jewish history, Jews have not been a sovereign nation. As a result of this history of statelessness, Jewish thinkers have approached political questions in ways that differ from the mainstream of Western political theory. In this course, we will survey the different genres in which Jewish thinkers have addressed political questions, and we will explore what these thinkers have to say about power, authority, law, obligation, community, and national sovereignty. Readings will include selections from the Bible; Midrash; Halachah; medieval and modern philosophy (Maimonides, Spinoza); arguments for and against Zionism; and Israeli constitutional law. (A)

Instructor(s): J. Cooper     Terms Offered: Spring

JWSC 26602. Human Rights II: History and Theory. 100 Units.

This course is concerned with the theory and the historical evolution of the modern human rights regime. It discusses the emergence of a modern “human rights” culture as a product of the formation and expansion of the system of nation-states and the concurrent rise of value-driven social mobilizations. It proceeds to discuss human rights in two prevailing modalities. First, it explores rights as protection of the body and personhood and the modern, Western notion of individualism. Second, it inquires into rights as they affect groups (e.g., ethnicities and, potentially, transnational corporations) or states.

Instructor(s): J. Sparrow     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 20200,HMRT 30200,CRES 29302,HIST 29302,HIST 39302,INRE 31700,LAWS 41301,LLSO 27100

JWSC 29700. Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor and Undergraduate Program Adviser
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.

JWSC 29900. BA Paper Preparation Course. 100 Units.

Terms Offered: Autumn, Winter, Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor and Undergraduate Program Adviser
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Required of honors candidates. May be taken for P/F grading with consent of instructor.