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Judaic Studies
Hebrew
Yiddish/Modern
All JUST undergraduate courses that are 3000 and higher (except JUST 3065, JUST 5532 W, and JUST 5582) and 4000-level HEBR courses are considered capstone courses. Choose any one to satisfy the capstone course requirement for yeshiva/seminary transfer credits from an Israeli institution. Cross-listed courses taught by faculty outside the department do not count as a capstone.
Tuesday, Thursday, 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Professor Hanni Garti-Bar In person
Come learn Hebrew in an open and supportive environment! This is an elementary-level Hebrew-language class open to beginners. We will learn the Hebrew alphabet and all the speaking, reading, and writing basics. Class will include small-group work, listening to songs, and watching Israeli TV and films. This course is eligible for LOTE credit. Students are encouraged to e-mail the instructor with any questions. This course is not open to students who have taken the Regents Exam. In-person instruction.
In-Person (LOTE)
Tuesday, Thursday, 2:15 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Professor Hanni Garti-Bar In person
HEBR 1002 Elementary Hebrew II (1984)
Tuesday, Thursday, 3:40 p.m.–4:55 p.m. Professor Hanni Garti-Bar In person
Continue learning Hebrew in an open and supportive environment! This is the next level of elementary-level Hebrew-language, open to beginners who have taken HEBR 1001 or equivalent background. We will continue speaking, reading, and writing basics. Class will include small-group work, listening to songs, and watching Israeli TV and films. This course is eligible for LOTE credit. Students are encouraged to e-mail the instructor with any questions. This course is not open to students who have taken the Regents Exam. In-person instruction.
Tuesday, Thursday, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Associate Professor David Brodsky In person (Pathways: Individual & Society)
This course surveys the Jewish approaches to leading moral issues including: truth and lying; self-sacrifice, martyrdom and suicide; the just war; abortion; euthanasia; capital punishment; sexual ethics and morality; and business ethics. In each class we will examine the classical Jewish sources (Bible, Talmud, medieval codes) pertaining to an ethical issue and discuss the range of ethical positions that may be based on the sources. (Not open to students who have completed JUST 4017.) Starting Spring 2021 Satisfies Pathways Flexible Core Individual and Society requirement.
Tuesday, Thursday, 9:30–10:45 a.m. Professor Robert Shapiro Online (Pathways: US Experience in its Diversity)
This course surveys American Jewish history from the 17th century to the 20th century. It asks how and why the United States became the primary destination for Jewish immigrants around the world. At the same time, we will explore how a relatively young Jewish center matured by the 20th century into a role of worldwide Jewish leadership. With an eye to the mobility that Jews benefited from in America, we will ask how the relative freedoms they found shaped multiple ways of “being Jewish” in America. Comparisons around the country and to other American minorities will highlight what that story can tell us about American society, particularly its hierarchies based in religion and race. We will examine the lives of individual women and men as well as the national and global institutions they founded representing religious denominations, charities, cultural networks, and political defense. What questions can we ask of America when we focus on Jewish experiences there? At the same time, what can American Jewish history tell us about modern Jewish history beyond it?
Tuesday, Thursday, 2:15 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Associate Professor David Brodsky In person (Capstone)
This course will look at the impact that Greek philosophy had far beyond the limits of the schools of philosophy themselves. We will begin in the ancient period with the theologies of Homer and the Hebrew Bible, to set the scene before Greek philosophy existed. Then we will trace the notion of perfection that developed in Greek philosophy, beginning with Parmenides and working through Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus. In this system of thought, for an entity (such as God) to be perfect, it cannot change. Yet, at the same time, even learning or movement constitute change for these philosophers. The impact this rigid notion of change had on the concepts of God espoused by theologians and in sources far from the schools of philosophy will be the focus of the second half of the course. From Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible to early Christian debates about the nature of Christ to medieval Jewish mysticism, we will see the problem of the perfection of God reverberating around the Mediterranean, across Mesopotamia, and down through the centuries. The central questions “Who wants a perfect God” and “What must we give up if we want our God to be perfect” will resound throughout the semester. Same as CLAS 3022, PHIL 3729, and RELG 3022.
Mondays, Wednesdays 9:30–10:45 a.m. Professor Robert Shapiro Online Capstone
History and analysis of Nazi Germany’s attempt to annihilate European Jewry, 1933-45. Ghettos and killing centers. Deportations and killings. Jewish physical and spiritual resistance, liberation, and postwar displaced persons camps. This course is the same as History 3243.
Thursdays 6:30–9:15 p.m.
Prof. Adam Ferziger Off-campus: 25 Broadway In-person (Capstone)
Examine critical areas within Israeli society as they are expressed through debates over Jewish law and religious practice, including: religious-secular relations, non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, feminism and gender, marriage, burial, conversion, and citizenship.
Mondays, Wednesdays 6:30–7:45 p.m.
Professor Robert Shapiro Online (World Cultures & Global Issues)
This course examines the nature of the persistent and varied forms of anti-Jewish prejudice from antiquity through the middle ages and into the modern era. Some peoples claimed that Jews hated every other nation or religion, while others spread rumors and outrageous myths about Jews being bloodthirsty predators. In more recent centuries, Jews were characterized by Shakespeare and others as greedy merchants peddling substandard goods. With the rise of secular movements of socialism and revolution, Jews were labeled “Reds” who could not be loyal. The dilemma for Jews was how to survive and overcome hatred that reached its peak during the Nazi Holocaust and continues to be powerful among those dissatisfied with democratic norms and those opposed to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Our readings and discussions will delve into all these matters at a time when anti-Jewish language and violence is now flaring up ever more violently. Synchronous online. Starting Spring 2025: this course fulfills Pathways World Cultures Global Issues. No ENGL pre-requisite required. Contact department for permission if you have not already taken ENGL 1012).
What Can You Do With a Degree in Judaic Studies?
