Jewish Civilization is the product of diverse causes and contexts.  It has therefore been (and is) manifest in various ways. Like the terms “Jews” and “Judaism,” it has acquired several meanings.  In this course we will explore Jewish Civilization through selected topics that will provide you, the students, with a combination of semi-panoramic and microscopic views of some of those meanings.  Through an examination of those topics, the course will address the questions of how and why Jews and their Israelite forbears created, recreated, and gave expression to their culture(s), and what significance that has had for them and for history.   An overarching goal of the course is that, in the process of exploring these questions, you will develop a disciplined understanding of, and a basic store of knowledge about, Jewish Civilization. 

This course explores aspects of Jewish Civilization, including Jewish religion, ethnicity, history, philosophy, literature and languages. Although this is primarily a history course, in general, it strives to deal with these aspects in an interdisciplinary fashion, rather than as discrete phenomena. The course requires that students develop critical thinking and interpretive approaches to culture and cultural production.

This course is required for JUS majors and minors who are first-year students or sophomores.   It is strongly recommended for Juniors and Seniors who are JUS majors or minors.  It is also strongly recommended for all students who wish to take JUS courses (except Hebrew and internships) at the 300-level and above. Finally, the course also satisfies the University’s Tier II requirements.

The course will consist of lectures and, to a lesser extent, discussions.