Spring 2018

JDS 210LEC: Introduction to the Old Testament – Staff
Class # 23466
TuTh 6:30 – 7:50
Clemens 708

Critical, thematic, historic, and literary study of the roots of Judeo-Christian tradition as recorded in the writings of ancient Israel; different methods of biblical criticism.

RSP 213LEC: World Religions – Marla Segol
Class # 22215     
TuTh 3:30 – 4:50   
Clemens 708

This course introduces the world’s religious systems and their cultural bases, including Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. In this course we will examine the expression of some primary characteristics of religion in primary sources from a variety of religious traditions. We will focus specifically on the ways in which ideas about the sacred are formed and how they are used to order experience, with a focus on space, time, and story. All of these, in turn, are part of imagining deity. We will then look at how these ordering concepts are used to formulate guidelines for daily life, as expressed in scripture, ritual, cosmogony, conceptions of the deity, and ethics.

JDS 229LEC/HIS 229LEC/RSP 229LEC: Medieval Judaism – Alexander Green
Class # 22173      
TuTh 2:00 – 3:20    
Natural Sciences Complex 215

Medieval Judaism is an exploration of Judaism as a minority religion living between the Crescent and Cross, the Islamic and Christian empires between the 9th to 16th centuries. We will explore the dual nature of the medieval period for Jews: part intellectual and cultural flourishing and part persecution and tragedy. Topics to be discussed include: the origins of anti-Semitism, the crusades, philosophy vs. mysticism, the Maimonidean controversy, Jewish-Christian dialogue and polemics, the inquisitions, marranos and the responses to tragedy.

JDS 235LEC/HIS 295LEC American Jewish Experienc: Art, Literature, & Social Justice – Noam Pines
Class # 23464     
TuTh 11:00 – 12:20     
O’Brian 109

During the 19th and 20th Centuries, Jews fled persecution to become an integral part of American culture and society. This experience played a key role in their participation in art, music literature, and social justice movements. This course explores Jewish involvement in countercultural art, music, literature, and comedy in the context of the workers,’ civil rights, and feminist movements.

JDS 237LEC/RSP 237LEC/HIS 237: History of Israel & Zionism – Daniel Kotzin
Class # 20802     
TuTh 5:00-6:20      
Clemens 708

This course will examine the development of the Zionist idea from its ancient and rabbinic origins to its modern political implementation. A particular area of focus will be on the modern Zionist movement, the variety of perspectives on Zionism within the movement, their conflicting visions, and the various ways in which Zionists sought to approach the Arab population. The history of Israeli politics, culture, and society since 1948 will also be a central element of the course.

JDS 284LEC: Justice in Bibles, Law & Philosophy – Sergey Dolgopolski
Class # 23128      
TuTh 12:30 – 1:50      
Natural Sciences Complex 215

A comparative study of the relationship between justice, law, and society in pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Thought.

JDS 391LEC/GGS 376LEC: Gender, Body, Kabbalah – Marla Segol
Class # 23465     
TuTh 12:30 – 1:50       
Clemens 708

In this course, we will explore Jewish Mysticism from its earliest sources in ancient Jewish texts to its contemporary use in New Age Religion. While stories and ideas are important to kabbalah, experience and feeling are its very essence. Mystics seek out deep, transformative, and even potentially destructive feeling with everything they have, beginning with their own, gendered bodies, and the strong emotions most familiar to them through love and sexuality. Often, people cultivate these emotions by means of stories and ritual practices that change or queer gender categories and sexual norms. This class will trace the development of mystical experience and feeling in Jewish mystical narratives and practices over time and space. By the end of the course students will be familiar with the core texts in kabbalah, they will have a good grasp of its cosmological models, and the role of gender, sexuality, and the body in cultivating experience and affect to act on these models.

JDS 396SEM: Science & Politics in Jewish Thought – Alexander Green
Class # 23463     
TuTh 9:30 – 10:50      
Clemens 708

Communication Literacy 2 Course – What is the relationship between science and religion? Is science true and religion merely a myth? How does the relationship between the two affect the structure of human societies? A group of contemporary critics of religion, known as the “New Atheists,” such as Christopher Hitchens, Charles Dawkins and Sam Harris, present a scathing and harsh attack on traditional religious doctrines and beliefs seeking to liberate the public sphere from the influence of religion. This course will seek to explore some of the major players in this debate in the Jewish tradition throughout the last thousand years. Topics to be discussed include prophecy, rationality of the commandments, ethics, providence, election, God, creation, dogmas and the meaning of life.

JDS 402LEC: Jewish Law in Development – Sergey Dolgopolski
Class # 23467     
TuTh 11:00 – 12:20     
Clemens 708

Historical, sociological, and legal concerns in early and later rabbinic literature; how Jewish life and thought relate to trends in legal interpretation though the centuries.

JDS 709SEM: Jewish Law and Theory – Sergey Dolgopolski
Class # 23475     
Wed 6:30 – 9:10         
Clemens 640

This seminar explores classical Jewish Legal Texts (Late Ancient Talmud and Medieval commentaries) in a comparative theoretical perspective with philosophy, literary theory and critical theory. Selections of texts and periods can vary.

JDS 499TUT Independent Study – Richard Cohen        
Class # 19021

JDS 499TUT  Independent Study – Sergey Dolgopolski 
Class # 19235

JDS 499TUT Independent Study – Alexander Green      
Class # 19293

JDS 499TUT  Independent Study – Noam Pines             
Class # 20055

JDS 499TUT  Independent Study – Marla Segol             
Class # 19236

HEB 102LEC: Elementary Modern Hebrew 2 – Lilia Dolgopolskaia
Class # 13408     
MoWeFr 9:00 – 10:25
Clemens 21

Hebrew 102 is the second part of the Elementary Hebrew course at UB. This course aims to further present students with the basis of Modern Israeli Hebrew and to assist them in developing the fundamental linguistic skills of Hebrew aural and reading comprehension, conversation and writing in a communicative approach. To supplement the course packet, enrichment activities, ranging from traditional handouts to the

HEB 202LEC: Intermediate Hebrew 2 – Lilia Dolgopolskaia
Class # 13407      
MoWe 11:00 – 12:20   
Clemens 708

Hebrew 202 is the second part in the continuation of Intermediate Hebrew at UB. This course aims to offer students further basis of Modern Israeli Hebrew and to facilitate their communicative and linguistic skills in Hebrew aural comprehension, conversation, reading and writing. To supplement the course packet, enrichment activities, ranging from traditional handouts to the use of new digital technology are incorporated in the course.

JDS 250: Introduction to Biblical Hebrew – Lilia Dolgopolskaia
Class # 23499     
Mo 6:00 – 8:40       
Clemens 708

This course introduces students to the grammatical structure and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew. It includes basic Biblical passages for students to translate into English and to analyze. The course has no prerequisites and is offered in English.

HEB 499TUT: Independent Study – Lilia Dolgopolskaia   
Class # 19242