Courses: Spring 2022

JDS 199: Modern Revolutions                                                
Professor Cohen                            
Tuesday/Thursday         
12:30-1:50pm
Class # 21909

What are revolutions? What makes a revolution revolutionary? How are we affected by them? Evolution occurs by gradual incremental small changes; revolution tears up, ruptures, changes radically. Revolutions can occur overnight or take centuries. The Industrial Revolution, for instance, is still occurring, eliminating the last remnants of a past world of tradition, community and hierarchy, replacing that slower more personal world with abstract high-speed relations of space, time, communications, commodities and above all of money. In its wake came the prospect of widespread prosperity, and the political ideas of democracy, human rights, equality and liberty, which inspired the American, French, Russian and Chinese revolutions, as well as producing populist counter-movements, culminating in fascism This course will examine selected modern revolutions to better understand the transformations of the human condition, social, economic, political, cultural which they produced and which in large measure determine our world and who we are today.

JDS 284 : Justice in Bibles, Law, and Philosophy                
Professor Cohen                            
Tuesday/Thursday         
3:30-4:50pm
Class # 21912
Crosslist: RSP 284, LAW 284

A comparative study of the relationship between justice, law, and society in pagan, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Thought. This course is the same as RSP 284 and LAW 284, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements

JDS 313 :World Religions                                                          
Professor Zirkle
Two sections of this course are being offered:                  
In-person: Tuesday/Thursday   
2:00-3:20pm
Remote: ARR
Class # 214251 / 24345
Crosslist: RSP 213

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. This course is the same as RSP 313 and course repeat rules will apply.

JDS 497: Special Honors Thesis

Permission of Director of Undergraduate Studies to enroll.

The Honors Program in Jewish Studies offers students the opportunity to develop a substantial thesis based on primary source research. Students enjoy the reward of finishing a prolonged, independent project mentored by a faculty member. It can be on any subject area within the academic study of Judaism, as long as one of the faculty members agrees to supervise the student’s project. Upon admission to the program, junior or senior honors students are responsible for arranging with a faculty mentor to guide their thesis research and writing, normally completed in the senior year. Honors students may, at the discretion of their mentors and upon approval of the directors of undergraduate and graduate studies, participate in a relevant graduate seminar or seminars.

JDS 499: Independent Study

Permission of Director of Undergraduate Studies to enroll. 

JDS 526               
Special Topic: Myth and Enlightenment                              
Professor Pines                              
Wednesday                           
4:10pm-6:50pm
Class # 24344
Crosslist: COL 707REC / COL 707SEM

Topic: Toward a Critique of the Present: Myth and Enlightenment from Kant to QAnon

In critical thought, the concept of myth designates a representation of reality that lies outside the purview of rationality, and in which the heteronomous authority of tradition remains firmly entrenched. Consequently, the objects that draw their meaning from myth are not merely abstract ideas, but political and social realities. Recently, the mythical has resurged in public discourse with the rise of authoritarian political figures. Under their political leadership, the spread of governmental misinformation, “fake news,” and conspiracy theories has reproduced knowledge gaps necessary for the perpetuation of oppressive power relations. In this context, the seminar will focus on key historical reactions to myth by means of a critique of the present known as “Enlightenment.” Readings include Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Lukacs, Benjamin, Adorno and Horkheimer, and Foucault.

HEB 102              
Elementary Modern Hebrew 2                                
Lilia Dolgopolskaia                        
Monday/Wed/Friday                   
9:00-10:25am
Class # 12838

The continuation of Hebrew 101. Note: Students with other previous experience in Hebrew must take a placement exam.

HEB 202              
Intermediate Hebrew 2                                             
Lilia Dolgopolskaia                        
Monday/Wednesday                   
11:00-12:20pm 
Class # 24295

A continuation of Hebrew 201. Note: Students with other previous experience in Hebrew must take a placement exam.