Program in Judaic Studies

The undergraduate Program in Judaic Studies offers students the opportunity to gain an interdisciplinary perspective on the history, religion, languages, and culture of this dynamic and variegated civilization from biblical times to the modern day. Students may earn a certificate of proficiency by taking a minimum of five courses in Judaic studies and write a senior thesis that draws significantly on some aspect of Judaic studies. Students are required to take JDS 202, Introduction to Classical Jewish Sources, one course in Jewish religion, one course in Jewish history, and two other courses chosen from the other relevant offerings. A sound program of study will involve both historical range (courses in pre-modern and modern periods) and disciplinary breadth. While a junior paper in the field is not required, students are encouraged to explore the field of Judaic studies in their junior-year independent work. A freshman seminar may count as one of the required courses. Occasionally, after consultation with the program director, a student with a strong grounding in classical Jewish texts may be permitted to substitute another course for JDS 202.

Seniors will participate in the program’s noncredit colloquium for thesis writers. Each student’s course of study must be approved by the program director as well as by the departmental representative in the student’s department of concentration. The certificate requirements are compatible with a concentration in any humanities or social science department; combination with other concentrations is also possible, in consultation with the director.

The program draws on approximately two dozen regular undergraduate courses in various departments. These consist of regular offerings, supplemented by a topics course, special one-time-only undergraduate courses, and graduate seminars. Recent examples include Introduction to Rabbinic Literature (religion), Jewish Mysticism: From the Beginnings to Kabbalah (religion), English Literature and Jewish Culture (English), Gender, Sexuality, and the Body in Judaism (Judaic studies), The Transformation of Exile: American Jewish History (history), Jewish Thought and Modern Society (religion), The Art of Jewish Storytelling (Judaic studies), American Jewish Writers (English), Golem: The Creation of an Artificial Man (religion), The Arab-Israeli Conflict (Near Eastern studies), Culture Mavens: American Jews and the Arts (Judaic studies), Israeli Culture Through Film (Near Eastern studies), The Family and Jewish Tradition (Judaic studies) and The Holocaust: Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders (history).

Participating faculty come from the Departments of Anthropology, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, French and Italian, German, History, Music, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, and the Woodrow Wilson School. Teaching and research strengths encompass areas such as Hebrew language and literature, biblical Israel, Judaism in the Greco-Roman world, rabbinic Judaism, Talmud and Midrash, medieval and modern Jewish history, Jewish mysticism, Gentile-Jewish relations, modern Jewish thought, European cultural studies, and study of the Holocaust in literature and film. We also sponsor visiting faculty and bring a wide array of visitors to campus each semester for talks and lectures. Students can avail themselves of excellent library resources, including the Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Collection of Jewish-American Writers and the Sidney Lapidus ’59 Collection of American Judaica to pursue virtually any aspect of Judaic studies. The Near Eastern studies collection contains more than 26,000 modern and rabbinic Hebrew printed books. The program has also been building a substantial library of feature and documentary films on Jewish topics.

The program awards the Carolyn L. Drucker ’80 Prize for the best senior thesis or theses on a Judaic studies topic. All seniors are eligible for nomination by their departments. Some of the recent winning thesis topics include “Yearning for a Voluntary Diaspora: The Place of Israel in American Jewish Identity as Reflected in Recent Philanthropy” (religion); “Confessions of an Abstraction-Monger: Authorial Presence and Jewish Persona in Durkheim’s Science de Sociologie” (sociology); “Of Wives and Other Demons: A Comparative Analysis of The Tale of the Jerusalemite and The Tale of the White Snake” (comparative literature); “The Second Controversy of Paris: Text, Context, and Intertextuality” (history); “Moses of Hamilton Terrace: The Hertz Torah Commentary in Context and Interpretation” (history); “The Quest of the Commentary Intellectuals: Anti-Semitism, Racism, and the Search for Identity in Postwar America 1945–1955” (religion); “Wrestling with Ambiguity: Jewish and Christian Exegetes by the River Jabbok” (religion); “The Sorrows of Young Graetz: A Jewish Historian in the Making, from Aufklärung to Wissenschaft” (German); “A Platonic Relationship, Philo’s Reading of Plato’s Phaedrus and Republic” (classics); and “Ohev Shalom V’Rodef Shalom: A New Perspective on Peacemaking in Ancient Judaism” (religion).

The program has resources to assist students with summer study and senior thesis research in this country and abroad. This includes study in Israel through the Dorot Foundation Grants, when the University allows travel grants to Israel, which is dependent upon the State Department’s safety ratings.

The requirements for the certificate in Judaic studies are consistent with the requirements for departmental concentrations of all types, enabling students to explore Jewish themes within their chosen field of study as well as other disciplines. The certificate can be used to demonstrate serious academic grounding in Judaic studies for students intending to pursue Jewish academic or professional careers. At the same time, any student in the University will find that the program enriches understanding of a civilization that has developed continuously from the ancient Near East to the present.