JWST 20300-01 JUDAISM HU LA 1 g
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Rebecca Lesses, Williams 119H, Ext. 4-3556, rlesses@ithaca.edu
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITE: One course in the humanities or social sciences.
OBJECTIVES: This course offers an introduction to Judaism as a religious civilization, with a focus on theology, ethics, and ritual practices. Readings include selected texts from the Biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern periods. Theological and ethical issues include God, good and evil, covenant, death and afterlife, justice and social responsibility. The course examines how these understandings are lived out through practices associated with birth and death, marriage and commitment, sexuality, and the life of study, prayer, and devotion. This semester we will especially focus on how Jewish life is lived in a variety of Jewish communities, Sephardic, Mizrahi (Jews from Arab countries), and Ashkenazic. Please note: This course is cross-listed with RLST-20300. Students may not receive credit for both JWST 20300 and RLST 20300.
STUDENTS: Students interested in religion, philosophy, and the study of diverse cultures.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lectures, discussions, visits to local synagogues, student presentations, and films.
REQUIREMENTS: Exams, papers, class presentations and participation.
GRADING: A-F
JWST 34300-01 BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION IN JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Rebecca Lesses, Williams 119H, Ext. 4-3556, rlesses@ithaca.edu
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISITES: Three courses in the humanities, preferably one or more of which are in English, Jewish Studies, or Religion.
OBJECTIVES: This course examines the theological and literary dimensions of reading the Bible in the Jewish and Christian traditions. In both religions, Biblical interpretation, or hermeneutics, is a special discipline that combines theology with techniques of literary exposition, or exegesis. The focus of the course will be the comparative study of Jewish and Christian readings of the Bible. The Hebrew Scriptures, which were formed out of the historical and religious experiences of the Israelites, became the religious and literary inheritance of two communities. Although it is often said that Jews and Christians share a common scripture, it is perhaps more accurate to say that the differing interpretations of a common scripture have defined the differences between the two communities. Thus, our comparative study will explore in the texts the evidence for conflict as well as those occasions when concurrence and even dialogue is possible. This semester the course will focus on the comparative understanding of stories of the beginning (creation) and the end of days (as revealed in apocalyptic texts). We will also devote some time to comparative Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpretation of certain biblical stories. Please note: This course is cross-listed as RLST 34300-01. Students may not receive credit for both JWST 34300 and RLST 34300.
STUDENTS: All who meet the prerequisites are welcome.
REQUIREMENTS: Papers, in-class presentations, daily participation in discussion.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Discussion, some lecturing, student presentation.
GRADING: A-F
JWST 36000-01 NARRATING THE HOLOCAUST: WITNESSING AND REPRESENTING THE HOLOCAUST THROUGH LITERATURE AND FILM HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Annette Levine, Muller 409, Ext. 4-3252, alevine@ithaca.edu
ENROLLMENT: 15
PREREQUISITES: One course in the humanities or social sciences.
OBJECTIVES: Throughout the semester we will analyze various forms of cultural production (testimony, fiction, poetry, feature films, documentaries, and theatre) with an eye to the complexity of witnessing the Holocaust and the act of remembering and representing such experiences This is an interdisciplinary course designed to appeal to students majoring and minoring in Jewish Studies, English, History, Politics, Sociology, Writing, and Cultural Anthropology.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lectures and discussions
GRADING: A-F
JWST 37500-01 JEWS IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD HU LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Rebecca Lesses, Williams 119H, Ex. 4-3556, rlesses@ithaca.edu
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: Three courses in the humanities or social sciences.
OBJECTIVES: Jewish history and culture from the 1880s to the present, in Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Americas. The course covers modernizing Jewish cultures in eastern and western Europe; the growth of the American Jewish community after 1880; the effects of modernity on the Jews of Arab lands; Zionism and the establishment of the state of Israel; racial anti-semitism, Nazism and the Holocaust; and the post-WWII world of two major Jewish centers in Israel and the United States.
STUDENTS: All who are interested in contemporary Jewish history and culture; may appeal especially to History, Politics, and Jewish Studies students.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lectures, student presentations, and discussions.
REQUIREMENTS: Papers, exam, class participation and presentations.
GRADING: A-F
