Course Descriptions

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Jewish Studies Discipline Courses Details

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JS 151 : First Semester Modern Hebrew

Prerequisites: None
Description: Understanding, speaking, reading, and writing the modern Hebrew language; elements of Israeli and Jewish culture. Acquisition of communicative skills in situation/cultural contexts. (Formerly JS 101.) (Cross listed with HEBR 151. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 152 : Second Semester Modern Hebrew

Prerequisites: JS 151 or equivalent.
Description: Continuation of first semester modern Hebrew. (Formerly JS 102.) (Cross listed with HEBR 152. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 201 : Third Semester Modern Hebrew

Prerequisites: HEBR/JS 152 or equivalent.
Description: Continuation of modern Hebrew at the intermediate level. (Cross listed with HEBR 201. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 202 : Fourth Semester Modern Hebrew

Prerequisites: JS 201 or equivalent.
Description: Continuation of modern Hebrew at the intermediate level. (Cross listed with HEBR 202. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 280 : Introduction to Jewish Studies

Prerequisites: ENG 114 or equivalent.
Description: Foundational beliefs, stories, and practices of the Jewish religious tradition; various transformations the tradition has undergone throughout history and into the modern period. (Formerly JS 300)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 301 : Judaism, An Introduction

Prerequisites: Upper division standing or consent of instructor.
Description: Explores religious and cultural practices of Judaism in United States by surveying religious practices of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jewish congregations. Relates these practices to Jewish experience and history. (Formerly JS 270)
General Education:
  • Segment II Area - Humanities and Creative Arts Area (HCA)
Units: 3

JS 317 : The Holocaust and Genocide

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent, and upper division standing or consent of instructor.
Description: Cross listed with HIST 317. For course description, see HIST 317. (May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 350 : Jewish Social Responsibility

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: A 2,000 year history of a people commanded to repair the world. From Biblical sources defining the nature of poverty to contemporary philosophical debates on issues as varied as social inequality and care for the environment. [CSL may be available; consult index for page reference.]
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Segment III Cluster - Ethics for the Contemporary World
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 377 : Jerusalem

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent and upper division standing.
Description: Cross listed with HUM 377. For course description, see HUM 377. (May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Islamic Societies and Cultures
  • Segment III Cluster - Dynamics of the City
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 378 : Beyond the Bagel

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Explores "food" in Jewish culture from Bible to current Jewish communities, including Israeli fusion food, and Jewish-American cuisine. By analyzing "authenticity and purity" in Jewish kitchens, students learn literature, folklore of Jewish cooking.
Units: 3

JS 405 : Film and the Holocaust

Prerequisites: Upper division standing or consent of instructor.
Description: Cross listed with CINE 305. For course description, see CINE 305. (May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 408 : Israeli Cinema

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Survey of Israeli cinema with critical readings. (Cross listed with CINE 408. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 410 : Kabbalah and Mysticism in the Jewish Tradition

Prerequisites: ENG 114 or equivalent.
Description: The spiritual life and various ways in which Jews have sought spiritual resources from Jewish tradition. Topics include: Kabbalah, Jewish renewal, feminist spirituality, grieving the Holocaust. (Cross listed with PHIL 514. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Folklore
  • Segment III Cluster - Religious Studies
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 414 : Arendt and Heidegger

Prerequisites: First-year composition or consent of instructor.
Description: Cross-listed with HUM/PHIL 434. For course description, see HUM 434. (May not be repeated under an alternate prefix.)
Units: 3

JS 415 : The Hebrew Bible

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: The Hebrew Bible in English translation from historical, literary, and religious points of view; culture and religion of ancient Israel and the ancient Near East. (Cross listed with PHIL 415. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 425 : Judaism: Religion and Text

Prerequisites: ENG 114 or equivalent.
Description: The manner and process of external/internal influences that move Jewish thought; the matters with which the rabbis and particular Jewish philosophers have concerned themselves. (Cross listed with PHIL 552. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Religious Studies
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 430 : Israeli Democracy: Politics, Institutions, and Society

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Knowledge of Israel's political system, its origins, its formal structure, the way it functions, and its main attributes in comparison to other democratic political systems. Ideology, state and religion, and civil liberties. (Cross listed with IR/PLSI 430. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 437 : Holocaust and Literature

Prerequisites: ENG 214.
Description: Fiction and non-fiction Holocaust literature by Saul Bellow, T. Borowski, Etty Hillesum, I.B. Singer, and Elie Wiesel. (Cross listed with ENG 533/CWL 437. May not be repeated under an alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 449 : American Jewish History

Prerequisites: ENG 114 or equivalent.
Description: American Jewish History from 1654 to the present. Traces social, political, religious and economic history of Jews in colonial America and the United States. Topics: influence of government, immigration, religion, anti-Semitism, regionalism, acculturation. (Cross listed with HIST 449. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
Units: 3

JS 451 : Jewish Literature of the Americas

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Explores literatures of the Americas through the lens of Jewish identity and tradition. Texts in translation from Latin America, Canada, and the US reveal how Jewish writers have rethought modernity's intersection with Jewish traditions. (Cross listed with CWL/ENG 451. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 477 : Topics in Israel Studies

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Advanced nuanced analysis of topics in Israel Studies. May be repeated as topics vary. Topic will be specified in Class Schedule. Topic descriptions may be found in the online Bulletin.
Units: 3

JS 477 : Introduction to Israel Studies

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Survey field of Israel Studies; exploration of themes in Israeli political thought and where those themes intersect with concerns of greater Middle East. Examination of left, right, and centrist positions in Israel Studies, identifying emerging trends and problems.
Units: 3

JS 480 : European Jewish Writers

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Survey of the works of modern Jewish writers throughout Europe between the nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries; influence of the Jewish Enlightenment on modern Jewish literatures.
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 485 : Modern Israeli Literature

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Survey of the works of modern Israeli writers of fiction, poetry, and drama; conceptual underpinnings of modern Israeli aesthetic projects in literature; how Israel?s multilingual heritage marks the modern writer.
Units: 3

JS 501 : Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Prerequisites: ENG 114 or equivalent.
Description: Beliefs, practices, social organization, and history of the three monotheistic religious traditions; importance of these traditions for European and Middle Eastern civilizations. (Cross listed with PHIL/HUM 501. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Islamic Societies and Cultures
  • Segment III Cluster - Religious Studies
  • Segment III Cluster - Mediterranean and Middle East: Cultural Crossroads
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 530 : Yiddish Literature, History, and Society

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Examination of Yiddish literature, history, culture, and society in Europe, America, and Israel through Yiddish fiction, poetry, and theater, as well as journalism, political writing, philosophy, and religion.
Units: 3

JS 540 : Anti-Semitism

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Survey of the historical, political, cultural, and religious contexts and manifestations of anti-Semitism. Examines its different forms and trajectories and evaluates its effects on both Jews and non-Jews and Jewish and non-Jewish societies.
Units: 3

JS 546 : 20th Century American Jewish Women Writers

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Cross listed with WGS/ENG 546. For course description, see ENG 546. (May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Segment III Cluster - Gender and Culture: Identities, Images, Interactions
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 560 : The Arab-Israeli Conflict

Prerequisites: ENG 114 or equivalent.
Description: Examination of causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict; beginnings in the late nineteenth century; Jewish-Palestinian confrontation during the British Mandate (1917-1948); Arab-Israeli wars since 1948; Israeli-Palestinian confrontation since 1948; attempts to end the confrontation since 1967. (Cross listed with I R 530. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
Units: 3

JS 600 : Internship

Prerequisites: Consultation with program director.
Description: Supervised work in the setting of a Jewish communal organization or an institution serving Jewish clients. Paired with JS 800. Students who have completed JS 600 may not take JS 800 later for credit. [CSL may be available; consult index for page reference.]
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 632 : Jewish History I: Beginnings to 1650

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent.
Description: Jewish history from the sixth century B.C.E. to the rise of European modernity. Politics, culture, and religion under empires of Persia, Hellenism, and Rome, and in medieval diasporas of Europe and lands of Islam. (Cross listed with HIST 632. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.) (Formerly JS 320/HIST 635.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 633 : Jewish History II: 1650 to Present

Prerequisites: ENG 214 or equivalent or consent of instructor.
Description: Jewish history from 1650 to present. Central theme is the encounter of traditional ethnic and religious minority with modernity. Topics: emancipation, antisemitism, immigration, Zionism, Israel, America, Holocaust. (Cross listed with HIST 633. May not be repeated under alternate prefix.)
General Education:
  • Segment III Cluster - Jewish Experience
  • Cultural, Ethnic, or Social Diversity (CESD)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Spring 2013

JS 699 : Independent Study

Prerequisites: Upper division standing or consent of instructor.
Description: Individual supervision of intensive independent work on a particular problem or subject in Jewish studies chosen by the student.
Units: 1-3

JS 741 : The Holocaust and Postwar Germany in English

Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor.
Description: Cross listed with GER 741/HIST 741. For course description, see GER 741. (May not be repeated under alternate prefix.) (Plus-minus letter grade only.)
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 800 : Internship

Prerequisites: Admission to certificate program and consultation with program director.
Description: For course description, see JS 600. Paired with JS 600. Students who have completed JS 800 may not take JS 600 later for credit. May be repeated once. [CSL may be available; consult index for page reference.]
Units: 3
Latest Offering: Fall 2013

JS 899 : Independent Study

Prerequisites: Consent of supervising faculty member.
Description: Study is planned, developed, and completed under the direction of a member of the program faculty. Open only to graduate students who have demonstrated the ability to do independent work. Enrollment is by petition. May be repeated for a total of 9 units.
Units: 1-3
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