Current Course Offerings

Cross listed as: German 269, LitTrans 269
Prof. Sunny Yudkoff
TR 11:00am – 12:15pm
Credits: 3
Level: Elementary
Breadth: Literature
L&S Credit Type: Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Description: Exploration of European Yiddish fiction, poetry, folklore, and cinema, with a focus on works of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Cross listed as: LitTrans 318
Prof. Sunny Yudkoff
TR 1:00pm – 2:15pm
Credits: 3
Level: Intermediate
Breadth: Literature
L&S Credit Type: Counts as Liberal Arts and Science credit in L&S
Description: Pre-modern Jewish society’s breakdown, immigration, the challenges of integration and exclusion, and the establishment of new communities will serve as a backdrop for the analysis and comparison of Jewish literary texts written in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Russian, and English.

Instructor: Erin Faigin
TR 4:00 – 5:15 + T/W Discussion Section
Credits: 4
Gen Ed: Ethnic Studies
Breadth: Humanities
Level: Elementary
Description: Explores the interplay between Jews and U. S. popular culture, covering such subjects as early 20th century vaudeville, the “golden age” of Hollywood, rhythm and blues music, television, and stand-up comedy.

Instructor: Sunny Yudkoff
MWF 12:05 – 12:55
Credits: 3
Breadth: Literature
Level: Elementary
Description: The following course introduces students to the space of the hotel as a site of cross-cultural exchange and medical recuperation. The literature and films under examination focus on Central European sites of rest and healing between the World Wars. Driving the syllabus are the hotels, health resorts, and sanatoria that came to serve as locations in which Jewish identity was negotiated against a complex backdrop of increasing integration and exclusion. We will survey material originally produced in Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Polish, French, and English, including work by: Sholem Aleichem, David Vogel, Vicki Baum, Arthur Schnitzler, Zofia Nałkowska, Siegfried Kracauer, Wes Anderson, Thomas Mann, Adam Sachs, and Olga Tokarczuk.

Instructor: Sunny Yudkoff
MWF 1:20-2:10 p.m.
Credits: 3
Gen Ed: Ethnic Studies
Breadth: Literature
Level: Elementary
Description: Focuses on the Jewish immigrant experience in Yiddish, a fusion language that brings together German, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, Latin, Aramaic, and more. In addition to identifying and analyzing points of Jewish-Christian difference, students will explore how Jews writing in Yiddish navigated America as members of a religious minority and how they narrated the experiences of other minoritized groups, such as African Americans and Native Americans. How are hierarchical social relationships constructed in multi-ethnic and multi-lingual America? How, in turn, does the Jewish experience become and not become a paradigm of Americanization for subsequent communities of migrants? Major themes include cultural translation, ethnicity, migration, “melting pot,” multilingualism, and assimilation.

Instructor: Ofer Ashkenazi
MW 2:30 – 3:45
Credits: 3
Breadth: Humanities
Level: Intermediate
Description: References to the Holocaust abound in contemporary political debates and our popular culture. But most people know very little about the history of the Holocaust, despite the mountains of superb historical scholarship that experts in the field have produced over decades of dedicated research. In this course, we will utilize correspondence, diaries, or other firsthand accounts of Holocaust victims, together with study of the larger events around them, to reconstruct the experiences of ordinary families swept up in the Nazi genocide.

Fulfills the “Core Seminar” requirement for the major; also open to certificate students
Instructor: Tony Michels
MW 2:30 – 3:45pm
Credits: 3
Level: Intermediate
Breadth: Humanities
Requisites: Sophomore standing
Description: Introduces Jewish studies as an interdisciplinary field and examines Jewish history, culture, and thought through the major questions that guide the field, including: What is Jewish practice? What is a Jewish text? What is diaspora? What is antisemitism? And, who are the Jews? Explores a variety of responses offered by scholars, writers, theologians, and artists. Develop the ability to think transhistorically, bringing together biblical, medieval, modern, and contemporary perspectives. Anchor inquiries into the field of Jewish studies through the completion of a substantial research project.