Core

JUS 301 is intended as an introductory survey and as a gateway to more specialized courses in Judaic Studies. The subject of the course is the Jewish people, one of the oldest nations of the world, whose culture has developed both among and within other cultures as a distinct and relatively continuous whole since Antiquity. Although its content and its precise borders are sometimes difficult to ascertain, "Jewish Civilization" may be defined as the evolving culture--or constellation of related cultures--that the Jews and their Israelite ancestors created and have understood as their collective heritage.