Graduate Program

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Course Offerings

Graduate Spring 2001 Courses

JS 530: Hebrew Bible
JS 561: Methods in Jewish Studies
JS 597R: Directed Study
JS 598R: Thesis/Exam Preparation
JS 599: Thesis
JS 730: Comparative Sacred Texts: Exegesis and Contemporary Politics of India and Israel

JS 530-000: Hebrew Bible: Biblical Literacy
Blumenthal, W 7:30-10:00, MAX: 12

Content: TBA

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JS 561-000: Methods in Jewish Studies               
Lipstadt, Tues: 1:00-4:00pm,  MAX: 15

Content: Jewish studies is a data field; it is not a discipline. Hence, Jewish studies can be, and is studies in many disciplines. This course is intended to display various methods for studying the data of Jewish studies, historical, philological, exegetical, literary, theological, feminist, artistic, legal, and social scientific. We will, therefore, spend the semester by examining several different approaches to antisemitism. We will begin by looking at how Biblical commentators responded to the persecution of the Jews. We shall proceed from there by looking at exegetical, theological, historical, artistic, and literary approaches to antisemitism. This will be followed by an orientation in library sources. The main part of the course will be devoted to reading in each of the methods and applying the basic tools of that discipline to various texts. At the end, we will consider what we have done and, then, apply our learning to a topic for a final paper. Students completing this course will have a good idea of the range of methods in Jewish studies and those who wish to go on to doctoral work will be able to intelligently choose one of these disciplines.

Texts:    TBA

Particulars: TBA

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JS 597R-000: Directed Study                          
Faculty, Time: TBA

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JS 598R-000: Thesis/Exam Preparation          
Faculty, Time: TBA

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JS 599-000: Thesis                                       
Faculty, Time: TBA

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JS 730-000: Comparative Sacred Texts: Exegesis and Contemporary Politics of India and Israel
Patton/Goldman, Time: 1:00-4:00pm, MAX: 10

Content: This course will focus on religion and nationalism in the reading of sacred texts in two
different cultures. Both of these cultures gained independence at around the same time (1947 and
1948 respectively), and both are struggling with the nature of secular and religious identity.  Both
have been the focus of religiously motivated violence in the last decade, and have seen the ascendancy
of conservative religious groups (Hindu and Jewish) into mainstream politics. Both construct their
identity over and against the Muslim outsider. Our question for the graduate seminar will be:  How
are religious texts read in these highly charged religious and political contexts? What lessons can be
learned from Israel about India, and from India about Israel? How do these contexts affect the
formation of religious identity, and the practices of religious reading in each culture?

Texts: Primary Sources:  The Tanakh, The Talmud, The Rg Veda, The Upanisads, The Ramayana.
Secondary Sources may include: A. Rivitzky, Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism;
Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State; D. Sharansky, Modern Israel
and Ancient Israel; E. Luz, Parallels Meet; Y. Harkabi, Israel's Fateful Hour; Roald Hoffman, Old
Wine, New Flasks: Reflections on Science and the Jewish Tradition; Larson, India's Agony of
Religion; Thomas Blom Hansen, The Saffron Wave; Dalmia and Von Steitencron, Representing
Hinduism; Uma Chakravarty, "Whatever Happened to the Vedic Dasi?" In Rethinking Women;
Tanika Sarkar, Women and the Hindu Right: A Collection of Essays; Laurie Patton, ed., Jewels of
Authority: Women, Text, and Tradition in Hindu India

Particulars: TBA

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View undergraduate offerings

For information on the M.A. in Jewish Studies, go to: Graduate Programs in Jewish Studies

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