Fall 2006 Courses
History | MEALAC | Religion | Germanic Languages and Literatures
History
History W3606—Messianic Movements in Jewish History I
Yosef Yerushalmi - TR 11:00am-12:15pm Location: 310 Fayerweather
An intensive survey of messianism as a central force in Jewish history. Topics include: the historical context of biblical messianism; messianism and apocalyptic in Hellenistic Jewry; Qumran; rise of Christianity; messianic sectarianism under Islamic rule; messianic speculation in medieval Jewish philosophy, mysticism, and Judaeo-Christian polemics; messianic movements from the Crusades to 1492.
History W4305—The European Enlightenment
Michael F Stanislawski - T 11:00am-12:50pm Location: 513 Fayerweather
Notes: Application required; see undergraduate seminar section of History dept's website.
This course will include an in-depth examination of some major tinkers and texts of the French, Germans, and Scottish Enlightenments. By reading works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Lessing, Mendelssohn, and Hume, we will examine their radically divergent responses to the central intellectual quandries of their day, and in many ways our own: the realtionship between rationalism, science, and faith; religion and the state; the individual and the polity; cosmopolitanism and particularism; pluralism and relativism; and the meaning of liberty.
History W4603—Jewish Migrations to America
Rebecca Kobrin - M 11:00am-12:50pm Location: 513 Fayerweather Hall
In the late-19th and early 20th-centuries, over two million Jews migrated from Eastern Europe resettling in North and South America. They and their descendents created much of what became known as Jewish culture and Jewish communal life in these countries. We will examine this formative period in American Jewish history, a period in which these previously marginal Jewish communities emerged as two of the most influential in the world. Why did so many Jews leave Eastern Europe? Why did they choose to settle in the United States or Argentina? What were the social, political and cultural forces that shaped immigrant Jewish life in each of these countries? How did the immigrants respond to these conditions? And, finally, how did immigrants influence their surrounding societies and vice versa? This seminar will enmesh its participants in a transnational investigation of modern Jewish migration, American immigration and acculturation. By exploring the history of immigrant Jews, this course aims to shed light on the history of immigrants in the United States and Argentina more generally.
Comparative Literature and Society G9020—Job and Arguments with the Lord
Yosef Yerushalmi - T 2:10pm-4:00pm Location: 513 Fayerweather Hall
The challenge of human suffering to divine justice as expressed in Jewish literature from the Bible to Franz Kafka, including Talmud and Midrash, medieval Hebrew poetry and exegesis, Hassidic parable, modern Yiddish and Hebrew literature. Toward the end, and against this background, an attempt at a fresh and understanding of certain aspects of Kafka's The Trial.
Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures
Middle East W1510—Elementary Modern Hebrew I
Tamar Ben-Vered - MTWRF 9:00am-9:50am Location: 511 Kent Hall
An introduction to modern Hebrew, with equal emphasis on listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar.
Middle East W1512—Intermediate Modern Hebrew I
Section 001: Nehama Bersohn - MTWRF 9:00am-9:50am Location: 307 Mathematics
Section 002: Nehama Bersohn - MTWRF 10:00am-10:50am Location: 307 Mathematics
Prerequisite: MDES W1510-W1511 or the equivalent. Vocabulary building, grammar, practice in conversation, reading comprehension, and composition. Sections 1 and 2 are separated according to students' language proficiency.
Middle East W1514—Upper Intermediate Hebrew I
Nehama Bersohn - MTWR 1:10pm-2:00pm Location: 302 Hamilton Hall
For students who have acquired basic knowledge of Hebrew at Hebrew school. Review of grammar, reading, writing, and conversation in Hebrew.
Middle East W4510—Advanced Modern Hebrew I
Ruth Raphaeli-Slivko - MWR 12:00pm-12:50pm Location: 522B Kent Hall
Prerequisite: MDES W1513 or W1515 or the equivalent. Readings in fiction and nonfiction modern Hebrew texts. Discussions and compositions in Hebrew. Unadapted texts are gradually introduced in the second semester of this course.
Middle East W4512—Readings in Hebrew Texts I
Ruth Raphaeli-Slivko - MWR 1:00pm-1:50pm Location: 522B Kent Hall
Prerequisite: MDES W4511 or W1515 or the equivalent. Readings of unadapted fiction and nonfiction Hebrew texts as preparation for courses in Hebrew literature or for graduate work in Jewish studies. Discussions and compositions in Hebrew.
Middle East W4514—Advanced Hebrew Conversation I
Section 001: Ruth Raphaeli-Slivko - T 12:00pm-12:50pm Location: 522B Kent Hall
This course is open only to students enrolled in Advanced Hebrew as an optional fourth weekly hour, or to students who attended Advanced Hebrew in the past.
Section 002: Ruth Raphaeli-Slivko - T 1:10pm-2:00pm Location: 522B Kent Hall
This course is open only to students enrolled in Readings in Hebrew Texts as an optional fourth weekly hour, or to students who attended Readings in Hebrew Texts in the past.
Middle East W3542—Introduction to Hebrew Literature
Dan Miron - MW 1:10pm-2:25pm Location: To be announced
Comparative Literature: Middle East G4530—Conflict (Non) Resolution: Israeli Culture and the Conflict
Uri Cohen - R 12:00pm-2:00pm - Location: 522C Kent
Zionism is a movement that was born out of conflict. From its beginnings in Europe to Jewish immigration to Palestine, culture played different roles in the elaboration of these conflicts. This course sets out to examine Zionist and Israeli culture in conflicts that seems to be without resolution, in the pre-state phase and after the creation of the state. The course will also observe conflict as it is played out in different mediums and genre from film to plastic art.
Middle East G6530—Dynamics of Israeli Culture: Poetry
Dan Miron - T 9:00am-10:50am Location: 628 Kent Hall
The course will survey the development of Israeli Literature within three time sections and along the evolving process of its three main genres. The time sections are those a) the birth of Israeli literature in the aftermath of the 1948 War (the 1950s); b)the maturation of Israeli literature during the 1960s and 1970s; c) Israeli Literature in the era of the peace process and the Intifadas (1980s and 1990s). The genres are those of lyrical poetry, prose fiction (mainly novels), and drama. The course will also follow the crystallization of three sets of Israeli poetics: the conservative (realistic) one, the modernist, and the post-modernist ones. All texts will be available in English translations. Participation does not depend on former knowledge of Hebrew or Israeli literature.
Religion
Religion W4510—The Thought of Maimonides
David C Shatz - T 6:10pm-8:00pm Location: 201 80 Claremont Ave
A close examination of Maimonides' major ideas, with emphasis on: the relationship between law and philosophy; biblical interpretation; the nature of God; creation and providence; human nature; ethics and law; human perfection.
Religion W4802—The Church and the Jews
Miriam Bodian - R 2:10pm-4:00pm Location: 101 80 Claremont Ave
Tensions have been a constant and integral aspect of Christian-Jewish relations over the course of two millennia. This course will examine the underlying theological issues, the changing balance of power between the two groups, and the political, social and economic developments that have shaped those relations. It will focus on a limited set of critical junctures, and restrict itself to the orbit of Western Christendom.
Germanic Languages and Literatures
Yiddish W1101—Elementary Yiddish I
Section 001: Miriam Hoffman - MTR 11:00am-12:15pm Location: 317 Hamilton Hall
Language Lab: one fifty-minute period every other week. Credit is not given for Yiddish W1101 until Yiddish W1102 has been completed. With the instructor's permission the second term may be taken without the first. Thorough study of elementary Yiddish grammar, with reading, composition, and oral practice. The cultural and linguistic background of the language.
Yiddish W1201—Intermediate Yiddish I
Miriam Hoffman MTR 1:10pm-2:25pm Location: 317 Hamilton Hall
Language Lab: one fifty-minute period every other week. Credit is not given for Yiddish W1101 until Yiddish W1102 has been completed. With the instructor's permission the second term may be taken without the first. Thorough study of elementary Yiddish grammar, with reading, composition, and oral practice. The cultural and linguistic background of the language.
Yiddish W3333—Advanced Yiddish I
Miriam Hoffman MW 2:40pm-3:55pm Location: 406 Hamilton Hall
Language Lab: one fifty-minute period every other week. Credit is not given for Yiddish W1101 until Yiddish W1102 has been completed. With the instructor's permission the second term may be taken without the first. Thorough study of elementary Yiddish grammar, with reading, composition, and oral practice. The cultural and linguistic background of the language.