The Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711 inaugurated a complex trireligious society that was to endure nearly eight hundred years (and more than eight centuries on the Muslim lunar calendar). This development has given rise to Spain's designation as a ""land of three religions"" and Spain's reputation as premodern western Europe's foremost ""pluralist"" […]
This course offers an exploration of distinctive Jewish approaches to questions of gender, sexuality, and the body, as formulated in their historical, religious, ethical and social dimensions. While we begin our journey with Biblical and other traditional sources, we focus most of our attention on contemporary encounters between gender/sexuality and Jewish life and the gendered […]
In any given year, a limited number of faculty members may be available to supervise a special program of study (for a limited number of students) equal in credit to one full or half course. Note: Enquiries should be directed to the office of the department. Please consult the Enrolment and Registration section, Faculty of […]
This public history seminar explores the origins, development and paradoxes of the Canadian Jewish community from its inception in the 18th century to the present. It pays particular attention to the complexities of immigration, relationships between Jews and non-Jews, inspiration and anxiety about religious change, the Holocaust, Zionism & the State of Israel in public […]
Problems in the determination of the international relations of the Israelite states in the Iron Age. Sources, written and unwritten, from Israel, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt and Israel's smaller neighbours will be examined in the course of these investigations. This course is restricted to History, Classical Studies, Jewish Studies or Religious Studies Honours majors and minors […]
An intensive course designed to acquaint students with advanced aspects of Hebrew grammar, to improve their reading skills and their ability to express themselves fluently in conversation and in written form. Not open to native speakers who have completed Grade 9 in Israel. PREREQUISITE: AP/HEB 3000 6.00 or equivalent. COURSE CREDIT EXCLUSIONS: None. Prior TO […]
Practical performance instruction in the Klezmer/Yiddish song musical traditions. Some performance ability and knowledge of violin, bass, guitar, cello, piano, clarinet, sax, accordion, trombone, flute or trumpet is required. Other instruments—including voice— are welcomed. Prerequisite: None for 1045, appropriate lower level or permission of the instructor required for upper-level registration. Open to majors and non-majors. […]
This course develops an understanding of contemporary North American Jewry using findings of social science. Social, cultural, political, and religious issues of concern to Jewish communities are analyzed, such as assimilation, intermarriage, Jewish identity, etc. The course focuses on the Canadian Jewish experience and where relevant compares this to the United States. It also offers […]
This course explores responses to the Holocaust in imaginative texts - fiction, poetry and film - alongside autobiographical, historical and philosophical accounts. Works by survivors and others enable us to examine forms of Holocaust memory, and their concomitant implications.
The course's learning objectives are multifold. Substantively, the course aims to impart to students a sense of the major periods in the life of Jewish religious expression and illustrate how an essential matrix of elements (God, Torah, Israel) has structured, in a recognizably continuous way, the lives of Jews while also generating new and at […]