Spring 2025 Courses

Gen Ed

Ethics Utopia Dystopia

Syllabi: JST3930(25299), REL4092(25274)

By Dr. Yaniv Feller

T | Periods 10-11 (5:10 PM – 7:05 PM) R | Period 10 (5:10 PM – 6:00 PM)

This course examines the relations between ethics and utopias, imagined ideal societies. We will read a number of fictional utopias, including both classic and contemporary works. We will also look at some efforts to put utopian ideas into practice, including religious communities and millennia movements. In addition to looking at specific utopian visions, we will explore some theoretical discussions and critiques of the idea of utopia. One major interest throughout the course will be the ways that utopian and anti-utopian ideas interact with ethics, understood as systematic thinking about the good for individuals and societies. This course fulfils the H, and WR 2000 GenEd requirements.

Israel Courses

Make Love, Not War

Syllabi: JST3930(25251), LIT 317(17440)

By Dr. Roy Holler

T | Period 7 (1:55 PM – 2:45 PM) R | Periods 7-8 (1:55 PM – 3:50 PM)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

In light of the ongoing war waged by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran against Israel, this course aims to uncover past and present Israeli voices that challenge and critique the conflict, resisting the status quo through art, film, and literature.

British Palestine, 1917-1948

Syllabi: JST3930(22323)

By Dr. Yehoshua Ecker

M | Periods 8-9 (3:00 PM – 4:55 PM) F | Period 8 (3:00 PM – 3:50 PM)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

Palestine under British rule, the arrival of Jewish immigrants from Europe and the building of Yishuv society, the reaction of the Arab population, the impact of the Holocaust, and the eventual movement toward Israeli independence.

Jews of the Arab World in Documentary Film

Syllabi: JST3930(25346)

By Dr. Yehoshua Ecker

W | Periods 8-10 (3:00 PM – 6:00 PM)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

Examination of Jewish populations in Arab countries, how they lived under Muslim rule, and how their lives
were documented and represented in film.

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in a Comparative Perspective

Syllabi: JST3930(25359), INR4931(26707)

By Dr. Or Honig

T | Period 4 (10:40 AM – 11:30 AM) R | Periods 4-5 (10:40 AM – 12:35 PM)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

Examines forces shaping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but also compares this conflict to other modern ethnoreligious conflicts.

Israeli Security Policies

Syllabi: JST3930(25360), INR4931(26708)

By Dr. Or Honig

T | Periods 5-6 (11:45 AM – 1:40 PM) R | Period 6 (12:50 PM – 1:40 PM)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

Examines different Israeli security policies and their effectiveness. Israel has faced a variety of serious security challenges, ranging from hostile nuclear and biological weapons programs to conventional warfare, insurgency and terrorism. We will explore how effective Israeli responses have been.

Freedom in Israeli Thought

Syllabi: HBR4905(22920)

By Prof. Iris Cohen

MTWRF | Period 7 (1:55 pm-2:45 pm)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

This class is taught in Hebrew: The idea of freedom in Israeli thought. We will look at philosophy, religion, and social structures.

Israel, Law State, and Society

Syllabi: JST3930(25028), CPO4000(24607)

By Dr. Patricia Sohn

T | Period 10 (5:10 PM-6:00 PM) R | Periods 10-11 (5:10 PM – 7:05 PM)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

The course will center upon several themes in law and society in the Israeli case, including Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; religion, law, and state; civil rights; the (long) constitutional tradition (e.g., Claude Klein), and the (1992) constitutional revolution; judicial review of executive acts (1969); judicial review of legislation (1992); the spirit of Jewish law in Israeli (secular and religious) law; and women’s rights.

European Courses

History of the Holocaust

Syllabi: EUH 3033, JST 3930(22751)

By Dr. Norman JW Goda

MW | Period 4 (10:40 AM - 11:30 AM) Discussion: F | Period 3 (9:35 AM - 10:25 AM)

Class 22752: MW | Period 4 (10:40 AM - 11:30 AM) Discussion: F | Period 4 (10:40 AM - 11:30 AM)

Class 22753: MW | Period 4, (10:40 AM - 11:30 AM) Discussion: F | Period 6 (12:50 PM - 1:40 PM)

Counts for Holocaust Studies Certificate and European Studies Certificate

An inquiry into history’s greatest crime. We will examine the evolution of Nazi Germany’s policy toward the Jews; Jewish reactions across Europe from escape to hiding to resistance; and the roles of collaborators and bystanders from Denmark to the Vatican.

Ukraine and Jews

LIT4930(22154), JST3930(22353)

By Dr. Dragan Kujundzic

T | Period 8-9 (3:00 PM-4:45 PM) R | Period 9 (4:05 PM-4:55 PM)

Counts for Holocaust Studies Certificate and European Studies Certificate

Fascinating literature, art, and films have been produced by the Jews living in Ukraine and the territories of Russia and East and Central Europe. The course will discuss these works, sometimes written in Yiddish but deeply steeped in Ukrainian and Russian history, (Tevye the Dairman by Sholem Aleichem) and watch the films based on them (Fiddler on the Roof). Paintings by Marc Chagall will be discussed, as well as writings by Isaak Babel. Particular accent will be placed on issues of Ukraine Jews, in film and media (Loznitsa, Volodimir Zelenski), in the context of the Holocaust (“Babin Yar” film by Sergej Loznitsa) and the current Russian aggression on Ukraine. The class will be held in the form of a seminar with active student participation, presentations, and class discussions.

Contemporary French Culture (Prerequisite: Intermediate French II)

Syllabi: JST 3930(22952), FRE 3564(22739)

by Dr. Gayle Zachmann

T | Periods 5-6 (11:45 AM - 1:40 PM) R | Period 6 (12:50 PM - 1:40 PM)

Counts for Holocaust Studies Certificate and European Studies Certificate

In the summer of 2024, Paris sparkled with the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The France that reeled in the wake of political turmoil and the October 7 attacks in Israel seemed far off. And yet it was not. We will examine key issues that have transformed contemporary French politics and culture including the place of French Jews. The course includes a variety of texts, artworks, monuments, films, interviews, and speakers. This course is taught in French.

Religion and the Public Sphere: Secularism Debates in Europe

Syllabi: JST3930(26515), EUS3930(22331), SYA4930(26396)

by Dr. Armin Langer

T | Period 7 (1:55 PM - 2:45 PM) R | Periods 7-8 (1:55 PM - 3:50 PM)

Counts for European Jewish Studies Certificate

Interdisciplinary course on the relationship between religion and secularism in contemporary Europe. Examine how secularism shapes public policy with a focus on public expression of Jewish and Muslim religious practices.
Religion, Bible, Talmud

Arguing Jewish Law

Syllabi: JST3930(22905), PHI3930(16481), REL3938(23523)

By Professor Howard Lidsky

MWF | Period 3

The course is designed to improve the students’ persuasive skills through reading the Talmud, other Rabbinic Texts, and Aristotle's Rhetoric. The course covers the Rabbinic system of persuasion and Aristotle’s theory of Logos.

The Hebrew Bible as Literature

Syllabi: JST3930(21039), REL3213(24869), LIT3374(25757)

By Dr. Robert Kawashima

T | Periods 8-9 (3:00 PM - 4:55 PM) R | Period 9 (4:05 PM - 4:55 PM)

Counts for Israel Studies Certificate

Literary study of the Hebrew Bible within its ancient Near Eastern context. It contains some of the great literary works to come down to us from antiquity, and biblical narrative constitutes the oldest prose literature that we know of at present.

The Old Testament in the New: The Jewish Foundations of the Christian Scriptures

Syllabi: JST3930(25749), REL3249(24866)

By Dr. Robert Kawashima

T | Period 4 (10:40 AM - 11:30 AM) R | Periods 4-5 (10:40 AM - 12:35 PM)

The New Testament is in essence a Jewish text. Almost all of the writers were apocalyptic Jews who identified Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. All were also clearly steeped in Jewish scriptures. We will focus on the biblical allusions found in the four Gospels and Acts. Students will come to recognize and understand better the Jewish background of the New Testament.
Jews and The Arts

Jews in Cinema

Syllabi: JST4936(18320), LIT4930(22149)

By Dr. Dragan Kujundzic

T | Period 10 (5:10 PM-6:00 PM) R | Periods 10-11 (5:10 PM – 7:05 PM)

The course will introduce students to the rich history of Jewish cinema and the latest critical and theoretical literature about it. Particular attention will be paid to the ways cinema constructs the figure of the Jew in terms of gender, race, politics or citizenship (Israel). It will be organized thematically, and chronologically, starting with the topics of Jewish Diaspora, emigration to the US and integration, the first sound film, and then films about the Holocaust, comedy, Israeli Cinema.

Photoethnography

Syllabi: JST 3930(22352) ANT4930(26082)

By Dr. Jack Kugelmass

M | Periods 10-E1 (5:10 PM - 8:10 PM)

Photoethnography includes readings and discussion of major texts on photo theory providing guidance on how to read photographs and the composition of classic photo essays. theory and workshop. Simultaneous to a discussion of theory is a workshop on producing short photographic essays to be presented in class. Students need not be familiar with nor need they have cameras other than phones with photo apps. Beyond content and how to structure a photo essay the workshop will also consider the aesthetics and editing of photographs.