JWST 101. Jews and Judaism. 3 Units.

This course provides an introduction to Jewish religion, culture, history, and life. It does not presuppose any previous study of Judaism or experience with Judaism, and it prepares students for additional coursework in Judaic studies, Jewish history, or religious studies with an emphasis on Judaism. Required for the minor in Jewish Studies. Offered as JWST 101 and RLGN 213. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

JWST 173. Introducing Judaism. 3 Units.

Judaism - like all religions - structures the way its adherents view the world and inhabit it. In this course we will explore five aspects of the human experience and interrogate the ways in which the religion provides a framework for navigating each one. TIME: How is time marked and measured? SPACE: What sort of cultural work is done to create religious and cultural home/s? THE DIVINE: How might God be described and understood? And what is the nature of the relationship between the Divine and humanity? TEXTS: What are the Jewish sacred texts? When did they appear and who authored them? How are they read, studied and understood? COMMUNITY: What are the contours of the "Jewish Community" and how are boundaries drawn between who is "in" and who is "out"? Offered as RLGN 173 and JWST 173. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 218. Jews in Early Modern Europe. 3 Units.

This course surveys the history of Jews in Europe and the wider world from the Spanish expulsion through the French Revolution. Tracking peregrinations out of the Iberian Peninsula to the British Isles, France, Holland, Italy, Germany, Poland-Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire, and the American colonies, it examines the diverse ways Jews organized their communities, interacted with their non-Jewish neighbors, and negotiated their social, economic, and legal status within different states and empires. What role did Jews play and what symbolic place did they occupy during a period of European expansion, technological innovation, artistic experimentation, and religious and political turmoil? What internal and external dynamics affected Jewish experiences in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries? Through a selection of inquisitorial transcripts, government records, memoirs, and historical literature, we will explore topics such as persecution, conversion, messianism, toleration, emancipation, and assimilation. Offered as HSTY 218, JWST 218, and ETHS 218. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a SAGES Departmental Seminar course.

JWST 220. Jewish Art and Architecture. 3 Units.

Over the course of their long history, Jews have contended with diaspora, boundary-crossing, minority status and anti-Semitism. Along the way, art and architecture have given shape to Jewish reflections on their complex social positionalities, ethical convictions, and religious longings. This course explores the critical role architects and Jewish artists have played in narrating and giving expression to these experiences. Critically, we will also examine the powerful position that artists of Jewish heritage have had in influencing the the course of modern art. Finally, we will study the ways in which Jews have been represented by others, both in anti-Semitic propaganda as well as in more sympathetic portraits, shaping popular ideas and attitudes about Jews and Jewish culture. Offered as ARTH 220, JWST 220, and RLGN 220. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Moral & Ethical Reasoning course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 223. How to Do Things with Books. 4 Units.

This course introduces students to components of the book and bookmaking, including printing, which for centuries has been known as "the art preservative of all arts." Primary goals of this course include ensuring the accurate and precise description of parts of books, fostering a familiarity with essential bookmaking processes, extending to some scholarly applications of bibliography, and inviting creative approaches to twenty-first century bookmaking and book modification. The course pays special attention to the interplay between lexical content, expressive form, and artistic reflection. Class sessions balance attention to scholarly and historical readings, demonstrations and explorations of media, and independent and collaborative hands-on work. Offered as ARTS 233, ENGL 233, JWST 223, and WLIT 233.

JWST 228. The Jewish Image in Popular Film. 3 Units.

This course will explore film as social practice from the flickering silent era, through Hollywood's Golden Age, to the techno-dazzle of today. Standing at the confluence of society, history, ideology and culture, students will come to understand how popular film is shaped by, and how it actively shapes, the constant reconstruction of Jewish identity in the American mainstream. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

JWST 233. Introduction to Jewish Folklore. 3 Units.

Exploration of a variety of genres, research methods and interpretations of Jewish folklore, from antiquity to the present. Emphasis on how Jewish folk traditions and culture give us access to the spirit and mentality of the many different generations of the Jewish ethnic group, illuminating its past and informing the direction of its future development. Offered as ANTH 233, RLGN 233, and JWST 233. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

JWST 254. The Holocaust. 3 Units.

This class seeks to answer fundamental questions about the Holocaust, the German-led organized mass murder of nearly six million Jews and millions of other ethnic and religious minorities. It will investigate the origins and development of racism in modern European society, the manifestations of that racism, and responses to persecution. An additional focus of the course will be comparisons between different groups, different countries, and different phases during the Nazi era. The class concludes with an examination of the memory of the Holocaust. Offered as ETHS 254, HSTY 254, JWST 254 and RLGN 254. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 255. Global Judaism: Diversity Across the Jewish World. 3 Units.

Scattered across the globe over the course of millennia, Jews' diverse histories and environments have given rise to a great range of religious, cultural and social forms. Using ethnographies as our primary texts, we will think critically and comparatively about Judaism and Jewishness in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Along our journey, we examine how Jews have navigated their experiences as minorities in their many diaspora homelands, and how they have they adapted their cultural and religious practices to the various environments in which they have found themselves. In addition to exploring their Jewishness vis-à-vis others, we also examine questions of exclusion and belonging that Jews have faced as they have encountered each another in recent decades through tourism, mass migration, globalization, and the internet. How do the world's varied Jewish groups - who are of different skin colors, who speak different languages, and who carry different historical memories - navigate ethnic divides, race relations, and religious diversity? Should we speak of a single Jewish religion and Jewish people at all? Offered as ANTH 255, ETHS 255, JWST 255 and RLGN 255. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.

JWST 268. Women in the Bible: Ethnographic Approaches to Rite and Ritual, Story, Song, and Art. 3 Units.

Examination of women in Jewish and Christian Biblical texts, along with their Jewish, Christian (and occasionally Muslim) interpretations. Discussion of how these traditions have shaped images of, and attitudes toward, women in western civilization. Offered as RLGN 268, WGST 268, and JWST 268.

JWST 285. Land-Identity-Nation: An Introduction to Israeli Literature. 3 Units.

This course explores Israeli literature from the establishment of the state in 1948 to the present day. We will examine the evolution of Hebrew literary production as it encountered the Mediterranean landscape and developed into a vehicle of vernacular literary expression. Topics include secular cultural expression and religious tradition; gender and ethnicity; political ideology and its discontents. Alongside primary literary sources in translation we will read background sources about Israeli history and culture, and critical readings about literature theory. Students will master basic introductory materials relating to Israeli history and culture, with attention to how literature has served as a platform that both shapes and reflects national identity formation. Students will also gain sensitivity and facility in analyzing specific elements of literary form, especially as related to genre, voice and narrative. Offered as JWST 285 and WLIT 285. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 286. Jews in the Modern World. 3 Units.

This course examines the social, economic, political, and cultural development of the Jews in the modern world from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. While particular emphasis will be on the Jews of Europe, we will examine the Jewish communities of the Middle East, pre-1948 Palestine, Israel, and the United States. Central themes of the course are the challenges to the traditional religious and social structures of pre-modern Jewry, migration, cultural innovation, and politicization. Offered as ETHS 286, HSTY 286, JWST 286, and RLGN 286. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 293. Introduction to Modern Jewish Literature, 1880-1945. 3 Units.

Survey introduction to main themes and canonical texts from modern Jewish writing (1880-1945). Works will be discussed in relation to the cultural, economic and social conditions in which they were produced, and in light of broad questions regarding genre, history, modernity and identity. Authors include Y. L. Peretz, Franz Kafka, Leah Goldberg and Henry Roth. Offered as ENGL 293, JWST 293, and WLIT 293. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 303. Multicultural Spain: Christian, Jewish and Muslim Coexistence. 3 Units.

Why is Medieval Iberia so often depicted as an example of tolerant multiculturalism? What constituted tolerance in the Middle Ages? In what sense can we speak of medieval multiculturalism? Is Americo Castro's optimistic model of convivencia (coexistence) valid, or is Brian Catlos' idea of conveniencia (convenience) more accurate? In this course we will study cultural theory, medieval and modern historiography, and literature from medieval Castile to the present to approach an understanding of Medieval Iberian 'multiculturalism.' This class will allow students to get in contact with the history of Spain through the study of the presence and influence of the Roman Empire, the Jewish and Muslim cultures and religions in the Peninsula. Through literature, cinema and art students will learn how the Spanish civilization and culture developed through the years. The class will be offered during a regular semester, with a study abroad component at the end of it. Students will receive a handout about how to prepare for the class abroad. Offered as ARAB 303, ETHS 303, JWST 303, HBRW 303, RLGN 303, and SPAN 301. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Local & Global Engagement course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 310. Tel Aviv-Jaffa-Jerusalem and the Israeli Cultural Imaginary. 3 Units.

This course examines the importance of urban space in Israeli culture, focusing on three paradigmatic sites: Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Jerusalem. After an introductory discussion of urban space and the Israeli condition, we examine the depiction of these cities in a variety of texts. We will read primary literary sources in light of recent critical material on space and consider the following questions: how have competing political and cultural claims shaped the Israeli cultural imaginary? How do ideas of sacred space explicit in Jerusalem's ancient authority compare to Tel Aviv's claims as a modern city, and Jaffa's status as a historical center? How are notions of exile and homeland, always central to space and identity, transformed as they are grounded in actual geographic sites? How does Jerusalem's status as a politically contested site complicate the meaning of competing national, social and religious claims? Students will learn how to think critically about urban space, its literary depiction and cultural meaning. Offered as JWST 310 and WLIT 310. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 348. Cosmic Ecologies: Medieval Jewish Art. 3 Units.

This course will explore late medieval Jewish art from western Europe and beyond. The first part of the seminar will focus on broad historical and historiographic issues in Jewish visual culture; topics will include, inter alia, issues of word and image, problematics of representation, the iconoclastic argument, and anti-Jewish polemic. In the second part of the course we will look at the great variety of later medieval Hebrew books with a special focus on illuminated Bibles and commentaries, liturgical books, and prayer books produced in both Sephardic and Ashkenazi contexts. In the last part of the class we will study several focused themes in medieval Jewish art, including issues of gender, zoocephalic representations, and the Kabbalah. By way of a coda, we will explore late medieval Yiddish books. Several guest speakers -- leading authorities on these woefully understudied topics -- will Zoom in during the course of the seminar. You will have a chance to examine three remarkable true facsimiles of Hebrew books in the collections of the Ingalls Library, including the Golden Haggadah, the Worms Mahzor, the Barcelona Haggadah, and the Kennicott Bible. Offered as ARTH 348 and ARTH 448 and JWST 348. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 371. Jews Under Christianity and Islam. 3 Units.

This course examines the social and political status of Jews under Muslim and Christian rule since the Middle Ages. Themes include interfaith relations, Islamic and Christian beliefs regarding the Jews, Muslim and Christian regulation of Jewry, and the Jewish response. Offered as HSTY 371, JWST 371 and RLGN 371. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a SAGES Departmental Seminar course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 380. From Maus to The Rabbi's Cat: The Jewish Graphic Novel. 3 Units.

The graphic novel has emerged in recent years as a key text in Jewish cultural discourse. Though related to the array of superheroes and other comic book figures created by American Jewish artists from the mid-20th century, the Jewish graphic novel -- a book-length, illustrated narrative -- has taken off in the last couple of decades as a genre unto itself. This trend shares interesting connections with graphic novels engaging other ethnic and cultural histories, yet the sheer proliferation of titles by Jewish authors, with expressly Jewish themes and content, points to a meaningful shift: consonant with the observed move from brick-and-mortar forms of institutional affiliation to other kinds of communities, the graphic novel also marks the birth of a new form of Jewish storytelling. Indeed, defined by the co-narration of text and image, the graphic novel seems equally at home in print and online, making it potent creative force in postmodern culture. At the same time, the graphic novel as a genre may also recall traditional forms of Jewish iconography (e.g. illuminated manuscripts, the Passover hagadah) in ways both confounding and familiar. The course will tackle this paradox head on but will not attempt to resolve it. Students will read graphic novels for their critical attention to central themes, and their place within Jewish history; we will also learn how to navigate the challenges of "reading" discrete volumes shaped by both word and image. Attention will be paid to the formal aspects of storytelling and narrative construction, as well as the contextual frame necessary for understanding work published nearly-simultaneously in three different geographic/cultural settings (US, France and Israel). Offered as ENGL 370D and JWST 380 and WLIT 380. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 381. Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Culture in Israel. 3 Units.

How do people talk about sex in Israeli culture? How have Israeli authors, artists, and filmmakers approached gender and sexuality? How do the categories of gender, sexuality, and identity map onto questions of collective memory, religion and nationalism? Since its revival at the end of the nineteenth century, issues of gender and sexuality have stood at the forefront of Hebrew literature and culture. In this course, we discuss literary texts (short stories, novels and poems), visual art (photos, artwork and sculpture), and film that foreground the role of gender in the Israeli project of nation-building and identity construction. We track how attitudes towards gender, sex, and sexuality shifted from an implicit, coded approach to more explicit forms of expression. This shift took place across a century of Jewish immigration to Palestine/Israel and establishment in the country, and the focus on gender and sexuality allows us to discuss this history from a cultural perspective. The course also focuses on the LGBTQ+ community in Israel and its struggle for same-sex rights and gender equality, exploring the tensions between this struggle for equality and Israel's self-identity as a democratic and Jewish state. Offered as JWST 81, WGST 381, and WLIT 381. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 389. History of Zionism. 3 Units.

This course seeks to elucidate the major strands of Zionism, their origins, how they have interacted, and their impact on contemporary Israeli society. These may include political Zionism, cultural Zionism, socialist (labor) Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, and religious Zionism. This course will also examine the differences in the appeal of Zionism to Jews in different places, such as Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States. Offered as HSTY 389, JWST 389, and RLGN 389. Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a SAGES Departmental Seminar course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 392. Independent Study. 1 - 3 Units.

Up to three semester hours of independent study may be taken in a single semester.