Course	JS 315 The Culture of Yiddish
Professor	Cecile Kuznitz
CRN	15130
Schedule	Wed 10:30 - 12:50 pm OLIN 304
Distribution	OLD: D	NEW: History

Cross-listed: History

For nearly one thousand years Yiddish was the primary language of European Jewry and its emigrant communities. This class will explore the role of Yiddish in Jewish life and the rich culture produced in the language. Topics will include the sociolinguistic basis of Jewish vernacular languages; medieval popular literature for a primarily female audience; the role of Yiddish in the spread of Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment); attempts to formulate a secular Jewish identity around the Yiddish language; the flourishing of modern Yiddish press, literature, and theater and their intersection with European modernism; contemporary Hasidic (ultra-Orthodox) culture; and the ongoing debate over the alleged death of Yiddish. All readings will be in English translation. Familiarity with the Hebrew alphabet and/or Jewish history helpful but not required.

Course	HEB 102 Elementary Hebrew II
Professor	Hezi Brosh
CRN	15152
Schedule	T W Th 1:30 -2:50 pm Olin L.C. 118
Distribution	OLD: D	NEW: Foreign Language, Literature, & Culture

The second in a two‑semester introduction to modern Hebrew as it is spoken and written in Israel today. Beginning with script and pronunciation, the course works rapidly into a wide range of texts and topics that build active and passive lexicon as well as grammatical structures. Differences between standard and colloquial Hebrew and significant aspects of Israeli culture are highlighted. Indivisible.

Course	HIST / REL 181 Jews in the Modern World 1492 - 1948
Professor	Cecile Kuznitz
CRN	15129
Schedule	Tu Th 10:00 - 11:20 am OLIN 306
Distribution	OLD: C	NEW: History / Rethinking Difference

Cross-listed: History, Religion

This course will survey the history of the Jewish people from the expulsion from Spain until the establishment of the State of Israel. It will examine such topics as the expulsion and its aftermath; social, intellectual, and economic factors leading to greater toleration at the start of the modern period; the varying routes to emancipation in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Islamic world; acculturation, assimilation, and their discontents; modern Jewish nationalist movements such as Zionism; the Holocaust; the establishment of the State of Israel; and the growth of the American Jewish community

Course	REL 201 Theology of Judaism
Professor	Jacob Neusner
CRN	15003
Schedule	Tu Th 3:00 -4:20 pm OLIN 306
Distribution	OLD: A	NEW: Humanities

Cross-listed: Theology

Theology thinks philosophically about religion: generalizes and orders, proportions and regularizes the complex and diverse data of behavior and belief that the data of a religion ‹ its canonical writings for example ‹ convey. The outcome is a system and a structure of belief that not only coheres but accounts for further data. This course illustrates what it means to think philosophically about the data of a religion.  The case is that of Judaism in its normative writings deriving from the formative age, the first six centuries C.E. In them Judaism sets forth a theological system and structure, making a coherent statement through the myriad of the details of those legal, exegetical, and narrative writings. This course sets forth the theology of Judaism animating the Rabbinic canon that defines the norm: the system and structure that animate the law and narrative and exegesis of the canon and that all together form the philosophical statement of religion, the theology of Judaism.

Course	HIST 2701 The Holocaust, 1933-1945
Professor	Cecile Kuznitz
CRN	15112
Schedule	Tu Th 3:00 -4:20 pm OLIN 310
Distribution	OLD: C	NEW: History / Rethinking Difference

Cross-listed: Jewish Studies, Human Rights, German Studies
This course will provide an overview of the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jewish people during the Second World War. We will examine the background of modern antisemitic movements and the aftermath of World War I; the experience of German Jews during 1933-1938; the institution of ghettos and the cultural and political activities of their Jewish populations; the turn to mass murder and its implementation in the extermination camps; and the liberation and its immediate aftermath. Emphasis will be on the development of Nazi policy and Jews’ reactions to Nazi rule, with special attention to the question of what constitutes resistance or collaboration in a situation of total war and genocide. Previous coursework in Jewish and/or European history helpful but not required.

Course	HIST 2122 The Arab-Israel Conflict
Professor	Joel Perlmann
CRN	15134
Schedule	Tu Th 4:30 -5:50 pm OLIN 202
Distribution	OLD: C	NEW: History

Cross-listed: GISP, Human Rights, Jewish Studies

This course is meant to provide students with an understanding of this conflict from its inception to the present. Considerable attention will be given to the present; nevertheless, the conflict is simply incomprehensible without a solid understanding of its evolution – incomprehensible not merely in terms of details, but in terms of broader themes and aroused passions. Among the themes to be discussed are the following. A Jewish national movement arose in the late nineteenth century to oppose the conditions of Jewish life in Europe, and an Arab national movement (as well as a specifically Palestinian movement) arose to oppose Ottoman and European rule of Arab peoples. Out of the clash of these movements emerged the State of Israel and the Palestinian refugees in 1948. The political character of the conflict has changed over the decades: first it involved competing movements (before 1948), then chiefly a conflict of national states (Israel vs. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, etc), and now it is conceived as chiefly a conflict between Israeli military rule of territories (occupied since the 1967 war) and an insurgent Palestinian independence movement. Military realities also changed greatly, as did the accusations about the role of “terror” as a tactic (from the Jewish Irgun to Hamas). And not least, the conflict has been shaped by strategic and economic considerations of the great powers (Ottoman, British, American/Soviet, hegemonic American) as well as by considerations of domestic political culture in Israel and in the Arab world.

Course	PS 346 Democrats, Theocrats and Tyrants: Seminar on Middle East Politics
Professor	James Ketterer
CRN	15477
Schedule	Wed 10:30 – 12:50 pm OLIN 301
Distribution	OLD: C	NEW: Social Science

Cross-listed: GISP, Human Rights, Jewish Studies

This seminar is designed to give students an overview of approaches to the study of Middle Eastern politics, a background in selected salient issues, and a general knowledge of significant political events in the region. The course material covers a variety of topics in the Arab World, including the Mashreq (Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, etc.) and the Maghreb (North Africa). The course also focuses on the non-Arab Middle Eastern countries of Israel and Iran - and to a lesser extent Turkey. Within that context, the course examines issues central to both the study of the region and the mastery of key concepts in comparative politics. These include the role of Islam in Middle Eastern politics, chances for and obstacles to democratization, terrorism, the development of institutions, the ways and means of dictatorships, and revolution. Readings will include Ajami’s Dream Palace of the Arabs, Munson’s Islam and Revolution in the Middle East, Esposito’s Islam and Democracy, Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World (by Brynen, et. al.), Makiya’s Republic of Fear, Baaklini’s, Legislative Politics in the Arab World, and The Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin. We will also watch some films including, The Battle of Algiers, Lawrence of Arabia, and Wedding in Galilee.