Course Description
Examines Judaism and Jews with reference to internal and external relationships in particular historical and contemporary contexts. Topics may include religion, theology, community, interfaith relations, literature, social location, and even internal Jewish heterodoxy from the birth of Judaism to the present.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Two class presentations, one a lecture and one leading a
discussion. A research paper on the evolution of some
significant rabbinic or authoritative doctrine or on the
evolution of external relations in a particular historical
context.
Athena Title
The Jewish Experience
Prerequisite
RELI 1001 or RELI 1003 or permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Familiarization both with the content of and with the resources available for the study of Judaism and Jews in a specific historical context.
Topical Outline
I. Medieval Judaism II. Medieval Commentary III. Medieval Piyyut (literature, primarily poetic and devotional) IV. The Fixing of the Passover Haggadah V. Christian Appropriation of the Haggadah VI. The Haggadah and Blood Libels VII. Renaissance Disputations and the Rise of Christian Hebraism VIII. Early Modern Eschatology: Shabbetai Zvi IX. Early Modern Eschatology: the Rise of Hassidism X. The Haskalah: the Jewish Enlightenment XI. The Rise of Judenwissenschaft and Liberal Anti-Semitism XII. The Origins of Reform Judaism XIII. The Rise of Modern Orthodoxy XIV. The Origins of Conservative Judaism XV. Israel and Traditional Jewry