Description: In this course we will listen to, read about, and discuss the multifaceted, virtuosic, esoteric Yiddish musical traditions of the Pale of Settlement during its 1000 year rise from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea. Specifically, we will look at: the evolution of synagogue composition, the cantor鈥檚 art of chazzonnes; Hassidic niggunim; 鈥渟ong鈥� (folk song, art song, popular song, the evolution of Yiddish musical theatre); 鈥淜lezmer鈥� i.e., Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish instrumental dance music that made its way to the 鈥渘ew world鈥�; Post-Holocaust assimilating satire and fusions; the Yiddish 鈥渞evitalization鈥� or 鈥渞evival鈥� movement; and the living Yiddish musics of today. A portrait will emerge of an incredibly rich, multi-layered, musical-cultural practice worthy of deep study and celebration.

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听The Jewish literary tradition entails a conversation pursued across times, places, languages, and genres. In this course we will overhear the conversation by reading literary works alongside those to which they respond. For instance, we will read parts of the Hebrew Bible along with Michal Lemberger鈥檚 After Abel (2015), a collection of short stories about biblical women. For another instance, we will read stories by Yiddish writers along with Dara Horn鈥檚 novel The World to Come (2006), which adapts those stories. Familiarity with the source text enriches our appreciation of the responding text, and our recognition of conversation as a means of making a literary tradition. All texts will be in English. Format: lecture and discussion.

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听This course offers a wide-ranging introduction to Yiddish literature, tracing its evolution from early modern Europe to its flourishing in North and South America, Israel, and the Soviet Union. We will read short stories, detective novellas, poetry, and critical essays written by rabbis, radicals, travelers, and salon intellectuals. Authors include Rabbi Nachman, Chava Rosenfarb, Yenta Mash, Jonah Kreppel, I. B. Singer, Sholem Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, Mendele, Hanan Ayalti, Rokhl Korn, Morris Rosenfeld, Soviet Yiddish writers, and major Canadian Yiddish voices, among others. Key questions we will explore include: What defines 鈥淵iddish literature鈥�? Does writing in a Jewish language automatically produce Jewish literature? Through which historical moments did Yiddish literature undergo major transformations? And how have Yiddish writers negotiated identity, ideology, gender, ethnicity, and cultural difference across time and place? No prior knowledge of Yiddish is required; all readings are in English translation.

Description: This course is an introduction to the history and literature of the biblical period, the earliest era of Jewish Studies. Its primary goal is to familiarize the student with the text of the Hebrew Bible, the historical context in which it came it be and the academic disciplines that contribute to its analysis, such as linguistics, archaeology, comparative literature and comparative religions.听All texts will be examined in translation, and no prior knowledge of the Bible or its languages is required.

Texts:
Hebrew Bible in English translation. Other primary texts and secondary readings will be available on MyCourses or on reserve in the library.

Evaluation: Grades will be based on three short written assignments, a series of short 鈥渢hinking questions鈥� that emerge from the lectures as well as regular readings for each class from the Bible itself, attendance and participation.

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听The objective is to master basic communication in Modern Hebrew language. Students will develop the four language skills of understanding, speaking, reading and writing through the acquisition of basic structures of the language, i.e., grammar, syntax, vocabulary, as well as idiomatic expressions, in order to be able to communicate in Modern Hebrew orally and in writing. Communicative activities, oral practice, written exercises and compositions will be assigned regularly, in order to help integrate skills and reinforce learning. In addition, because the acquisition of a modern language also entails awareness of the culture of its linguistic community, the students will become aware of cultural elements associated with the language.听

罢别虫迟蝉:听Shlomit Chayat et al.听Hebrew from Scratch, Part I

Evaluation:
60% four class tests
15% essays
20% oral presentation
5% class participation

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听Regardless of whether a Historical Novel is set in the ancient world or in the recent past, it puts all culture into perspective by illuminating attitudes and lifestyles in light of alternative options. In this course we will read historical novels by Israeli authors who depict Jewish communities across a variety of eras ranging from the ancient and medieval world to the modern era in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. We will examine both their artistry and ideological perspectives to discuss questions such as: how do they depict daily life, including the nature of human relationships in intimate and public places, including the relationship to food, transportation, sexuality and professional affairs? What terminology do they use for the personal and collective identities of the characters at home andabroad? Who rules over whom 鈥� how, why, where? Does the author prioritize plot, character construction, or setting?

贰惫补濒耻补迟颈辞苍:听quizzes, workshops, midterm and final

Texts:听

• Recent past: Amos Oz鈥檚 A Tale of Love and Darkness
• Biblical Times: Yael Lotan鈥檚 Avishag & Mapu鈥檚 Ahavat Zion
• Middle Ages: A. B. Yehoshua鈥檚 A Journey to the End of the Millennium
• Modern Era: S.Y. Agnon鈥檚 鈥楾mol Shilshom & A. B. Yehoshua鈥檚 Mr. Mani
• *听all texts will be read in English

Description: The Nazi assault, organized robbery of rights and possessions, and eventual genocide of European Jewry is one of the most consequential events in both Jewish and world history. This course will provide an overview of the context, crimes of the perpetrators, and nightmarish experiences of the millions that fell victim to this Khurbn (Yiddish, 鈥渃atastrophe鈥�). Starting with the early 1930s, we will analyze how it was possible for the Nazis to come to power, what the 铿乺st policies of persecuting Jews in Germany were, and how those policies escalated to expulsion, ghettoization, and mass murder across Europe. Towards the end of the semester, drawing on examples from Europe, Israel, Canada, and the United States, we will discuss contemporary cultural representations and the often-intricate politics of Holocaust memory.

Texts:

• Doris Bergen, War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust, Third Edition

• Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz
• Course Reader

Course Evaluation:
Attendance and participation: 15%
Primary Source Analysis: 25%
Midterm: 30%
Final Take-Home Exam: 30%

Description: From the seventh century until the early modern period, most Jews spoke Arabic and called the Islamic world home. This course explores the Jewish experience among Muslims from the rise of Islam through the eve of colonialism. By engaging close readings of primary sources and historical scholarship, students will learn how Jews under Islam indelibly shaped Judaism and Jewish practice, how engagement with Arabic in Islamic Spain led to the revival of Hebrew, and how the Jewish-Muslim relationship fared along the way. Through film and music, this course also probes themes of history and memory. Students with a particular interest in the modern era, especially the 20th and 21st centuries, are advised to continue on to JWST 334 (Jews and Muslims: A Modern History) in Winter 2027.

Texts:
Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, Sacred Trash: the Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza (Schocken Books, 2011); Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book (The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1979).

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听In this course we will survey the Jewish holiday cycle, including the major Biblical festivals (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover, Shavuot), Purim, Hanukah, Holocaust Memorial Day, and the Sabbath. Emphasis will be placed on the historical development of the festivals and on the philosophical messages contained within them. No prior knowledge is assumed.

Texts:

• Arthur Waskow, Seasons of our Joy

• Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way
• Dalia Marx, From Time to Time: Journeys in the Jewish Calendar

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听This course o铿�ers an intellectual journey through centuries of Jewish thought, where philosophy and faith meet in a fascinating dialogue.

Are you curious about the nature of God? Should we believe in the God of the philosophers鈥攁 pure mind without a body or emotions鈥攐r in the God of the Bible, who sometimes gets so angry that his nose spits 铿乺e? Where should we turn for guidance鈥攑hilosophers like Aristotle or prophets like Moses? Which laws should we follow鈥攖hose revealed by God or those established by wise rulers?

These are just a few of the profound questions Jewish philosophers have wrestled with as they sought to reconcile their philosophical beliefs with their religious tradition. In this course, we will explore the answers Jewish philosophers proposed from Antiquity to the 17th century. We'll start with a sample of Greek philosophical texts and excerpts from the Bible and rabbinic literature to understand this dual legacy. Then, we'll delve into the works of key medieval philosophers, including Saadia Gaon, Maimonides, and Shem Tov Falaquera. Given that classical Jewish philosophy emerged within Islamic culture, we will also examine a text by the Muslim thinker al-Ghazali to appreciate this intellectual setting.

We'll tackle core issues such as God's existence, the creation of the world, divine providence, prophecy, the Law of Moses, the good life, and human perfection. In addition, we'll explore how Jewish philosophers justi铿乪d the study of pagan and Muslim thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and al-Farabi. After all, if you have God's true word in hand, what is the use of reading Aristotle?

The course will end with selections from Spinoza鈥檚 Theological-Political Treatise, which challenges the foundational assumption of classical Jewish philosophy: the harmony of true philosophy and the Jewish tradition.

Evaluation:

• Attendance and participation: 10%

• In Class Mid-Term: 20%
• Take home Final: 35%
• Research paper: 35%

Description: An introduction to Yiddish, the millennium-old language of Ashkenazic Jews. This course will cover the fundamentals of Yiddish grammar and vocabulary and will include practice in speaking, reading, and writing. The course materials draw on Yiddish literature, songs, and films, allowing students to combine the acquisition of practical language skills with an exploration of Yiddish culture鈥攆rom its beginnings in medieval Germany through its past and present in Central and Eastern Europe, the Americas, Israel, and all over the world. An important component of the course is the opportunity students will have to pursue Yiddish-related artistic or research projects (individually or in small groups), combining exploration of Yiddish with creative writing, translation, acting, filmmaking, religion, anthropology, history, painting, and journalism, to name just some of the options.

Description:听

This course will explore the world of Jewish-themed documentary 铿乴ms. We will see how 铿乴mmakers in Canada, the US, Europe and Israel have used the lived reality of Jewish experience as a canvas for their documentary explorations. We will examine how Jewish identity is depicted across a wide spectrum of perspectives 鈥� related to variations in religious and national a铿僱iations, cultural experience, the attachment to Israel, the connection to the Holocaust and the politics of gender and sexual orientation. We will try to understand how documentary 铿乴ms as 鈥渢he creative treatment of actuality鈥� function as an interface between reality 鈥渙ut there鈥� and the original, personal perspectives of 铿乴mmakers. Students are encouraged to developed individual responses to the 铿乴ms as triggers for personal explorations of identity, Jewish or otherwise.

Films may include: Bonjour! Shalom! / Jews and Money / Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream / Dark Lullabies / Baghdad Twist / Trembling before G-d / Promises / The 鈥淪ocalled鈥� Movie.

Evaluation:
6 film reflections 500-750 words each: 60%
Final Paper 2500 - 3000 words: 25%
Class participation / Presentation: 15%

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听Students will develop the four language skills of understanding, speaking, reading and writing through the acquisition of basic structures of the language, i.e., grammar, syntax, vocabulary, as well as idiomatic expressions, in order to be able to communicate in Modern Hebrew orally and in writing. Communicative activities, oral practice, written exercises and article analysis will be assigned in order to help integrate skills and reinforce learning. In addition, because the acquisition of a modern language also entails awareness of the culture of its linguistic community, the students will become aware of cultural elements associated with the language and the diversity of the Israeli society.

罢别虫迟蝉:听Shlomit Chayat et al. Hebrew from Scratch, Part I + CD

Evaluation:听
48% - 4 Class Tests (6%, 10%, 14%, 18%)
12% - Quizzes
12% - 2 In-Class Essays
10% - Compositions
10% - Oral Presentation
8% - Class Participation

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听The objective is to communicate on familiar topics in Modern Hebrew language. Students will develop the four language skills of understanding, speaking, reading and writing through the acquisition of the advanced structures of the language, i.e., grammar, syntax, vocabulary, as well as idiomatic expressions, to be able to communicate in Modern Hebrew orally and in writing. Communicative activities, oral practice, written exercises and compositions will be assigned regularly, to help integrate skills and reinforce learning. In addition, because the acquisition of a modern language also entails awareness of the culture of its linguistic community, the students will become aware of cultural elements associated with the language.

罢别虫迟蝉:听Edna Amir Coffin.听Lessons in Modern Hebrew: Level听II (2)听Publisher: University of Michigan Press听

Recommended Text:听Hebrew Dictionary听(Oxford, Eng-Heb, Heb-Eng Dictionary, Kernerman 鈥� Lonnie Kahn)

Evaluation:听
48% -听4听Class Tests听(6%,听10%,听14%,听18%)
12%听-听Quizzes
12%听-听2听In-Class Essays
14%听-听Compositions听
10%听-听Oral Presentation
4%听-听Class Participation

顿别蝉肠谤颈辫迟颈辞苍:听The study of the hundreds of stories scattered throughout rabbinic literature about the personalities and activities of the rabbis themselves: their lives, their families, their interactions with one another in the study house (beit midrash), and the like, has been at the center of much of recent Talmudic scholarship. These stories, dealing with such fundamental human emotions as pride, desire, anger, fear of death, and the like, are not only of intrinsic interest, but have much to teach us about rabbinic values and belief in their historical and cultural context. In this course we will read a representative selection of these stories, using recently developed tools of literary, cultural, and historical analysis, so as to attain a deeper appreciation and understanding of the stories themselves, and, more broadly, of the rabbinic Judaism they portray.

Evaluation:听
Class Participation: 10%
Paper on First Rabbinic Story: 30%
Paper on Second Rabbinic Story: 30%
Review of a scholarly essay or chapter of a book on a rabbinic story: 30%

Description: This course will explore a range of key themes, trends and aesthetic practices in Israeli cinema. Throughout the decades since the founding of the state in 1948 to the present, Israeli cinema has engaged with the historical events, political shifts, and social forces that have shaped Israeli society and continue to inform its multi-faceted dynamic culture. Students will have the opportunity to analyze films from different periods of Israeli cinema, engaging with their social, cultural, political, psychological and aesthetic dimensions.

Prerequisite:听JWST 340 or 11 years of Hebrew school or equivalent

*This course is conducted in Hebrew and the assignments will be submitted in Hebrew.

Evaluation:
30% - 2 Take-Home Essays (1500 words each)
30% - 3 In-Class Essays (300 words each)
20% - 5 Quizzes (10 mins each)
10% - Text Preparation Assignments (to be marked at random)
10% - Class Participation and Presentation

Description: Focusing on four locales, this course will survey social, cultural, and political Jewish history across the region during the 1920s and 1930s. This time, marked by profound contradictions, contained growing economic and political distress, yet concurrently, an incredible resourcefulness and vitality. We will interrogate the internal developments within various Jewish communities, studying the diversity of Jewish religious, linguistic, cultural, political, and secular expressions. Through film, Jewish press across four languages: Yiddish, Polish, Hebrew and Russian (translated), advertisements, autobiographies of Jewish adolescents, selections from cookbooks, and literary sources, we will further consider everyday life in large Jewish metropolises, vis-脿-vis the realities of shtetlekh (small towns). Throughout this course, we will also examine the economic and social conditions, as well as various increasing pressures that Jewish citizens were experiencing from society at large, namely rampant nationalism and antisemitism.

Texts:

• Ezra Mendelsohn, The Jews of East Central Europe, Between the World Wars, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983.
• Zvi Gitelman, A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
• Course Reader

Evaluation:
Attendance and participation: 15%
Primary Source Analysis (3-4 pg.): 25%
Research Essay: 30%
Final Exam: 30%

Description: Examination of a theme or philosopher in the history of Jewish thought with particular attention to the intersections between Jewish thought and other intellectual traditions (e.g. Greek, Islamic, Christian, etc.).