Explores issues of image worship and destruction in several cultural contexts. Topics include: images as magic; fetish and taboo; Judaic, Christian and Muslim interpretations of the Second Commandment; the 9thc. Christian Iconoclastic Controversy; individual, state and revolutionary destruction of images. In a world increasingly saturated with visual images and information across a range of media, […]
Examines art produced in times of crisis, social and personal extremes: imprisonment, totalitarianism, political occupation, illness, war. Focuses chiefly on the Holocaust of WW2, as well as Indigenous American Reserve cultures, contemporary Palestinian art, representation of atrocity.
The course reinforces and builds upon speaking, reading, and writing skills introduced in Elementary Yiddish. Emphasis is placed on enabling comprehension of a variety of types speeches and texts and on developing fluent, idiomatic speech in every day situations. Prerequisite: AP/YDSH 1000 6.00 or permission of the department.
This course is an introduction to Yiddish designed for students with no formal training in or knowledge of the language. The course focuses on basic literacy, grammar and conversation.
The meeting between Jews and Arabs in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict is famous. Less familiar is the encounter between Muslims and Jews in Muslim lands. This course explores Jewish life under Islam from the rise of Islam until modern times, with a special focus on Sephardi Jews.
This course is an historical and critical inquiry into the religious thought of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (1135-1204).
This course is an introduction to Yiddish Modernist poetry of the early to mid-twentieth century with emphasis on the schools of Yiddish Modernism in America.
Introduces and explores Jewish theological challenges and issues of the 21st century as articulated in the writings of feminist, queer, secular and liberal thinkers. Analyzes perspectives and concepts regarding such issues as the relationship between science and religion, the relationship of gender to mainstream concepts of theology, the meaning of existence, revelation, and post Holocaust […]
A study of the encounter of Greek religious ideas, practices and institutions with the Egyptian, Persian and Jewish religions in the period from Alexander to the First Century BCE.
This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine Jewish communities in a variety of historical and contemporary settings, including immigration experience, family life, culture and Identity.