For the entire Jewish Studies course catalog, and full course descriptions, please see Jewish Studies, Minor < Case Western Reserve University

For the entire Hebrew course catalog, and full course descriptions, please see Hebrew Course Descriptions – Department of Modern Languages and Literatures

JWST/RLGN 173: Introducing Judaism

Alanna Cooper – MW 12:45-2:00

Judaism – like all religions – structures the way its adherents view the world and inhabit it. In this course we will explore five aspects of the human experience and interrogate the ways in which the religion provides a framework for navigating each one. TIME: How is time marked and measured? SPACE: What sort of cultural work is done to create religious and cultural home/s? THE DIVINE: How might God be described and understood? And what is the nature of the relationship between the Divine and humanity? TEXTS: What are the Jewish sacred texts? When did they appear and who authored them? How are they read, studied and understood? COMMUNITY: What are the contours of the “Jewish Community” and how are boundaries drawn between who is “in” and who is “out”?

Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST 223 /ENGL/ARTS/WLIT 233: How to Do Things with Books

Barbara Mann & Kurt Koenigsberger M 3:20 – 4:35 and W 3:20 – 6:05*

*Wednesday’s class includes a mandatory lab component

This course introduces students to components of the book and bookmaking, including printing, which for centuries has been known as “the art preservative of all arts.” Primary goals of this course include ensuring the accurate and precise description of parts of books, fostering a familiarity with essential bookmaking processes, extending to some scholarly applications of bibliography, and inviting creative approaches to twenty-first century bookmaking and book modification. The course pays special attention to the interplay between lexical content, expressive form, and artistic reflection. Class sessions balance attention to scholarly and historical readings, demonstrations and explorations of media, and independent and collaborative hands-on work.

JWST/ETHS/HSTY/RLGN 286: Jews in the Modern World

Jay Geller – MWF 10:35 – 11:25

This course examines the social, economic, political, and cultural development of the Jews in the modern world from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. While particular emphasis will be on the Jews of Europe, we will examine the Jewish communities of the Middle East, pre-1948 Palestine, Israel, and the United States. Central themes of the course are the challenges to the traditional religious and social structures of pre-modern Jewry, migration, cultural innovation, and politicization.

Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

JWST/WGST/WLIT 381: Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Culture in Israel

Nadav Linial – TR 11:30-12:45

How do people talk about sex in Israeli culture? How have Israeli authors, artists, and filmmakers approached gender and sexuality? How do the categories of gender, sexuality, and identity map onto questions of collective memory, religion and nationalism? Since its revival at the end of the nineteenth century, issues of gender and sexuality have stood at the forefront of Hebrew literature and culture. In this course, we discuss literary texts (short stories, novels and poems), visual art (photos, artwork and sculpture), and film that foreground the role of gender in the Israeli project of nation-building and identity construction. We track how attitudes towards gender, sex, and sexuality shifted from an implicit, coded approach to more explicit forms of expression. This shift took place across a century of Jewish immigration to Palestine/Israel and establishment in the country, and the focus on gender and sexuality allows us to discuss this history from a cultural perspective. The course also focuses on the LGBTQ+ community in Israel and its struggle for same-sex rights and gender equality, exploring the tensions between this struggle for equality and Israel’s self-identity as a democratic and Jewish state.

Counts as a Communication Intensive course. Counts as a Human Diversity & Commonality course. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course.

HBRW 101: Elementary Modern Hebrew I

Nadav Linial-MWF- 8:25-9:15

The course objective is to enable students to develop basic communicative skills in standard Modern Hebrew. Students will become acquainted with the Hebrew alphabet and vowels, and with basic grammar and vocabulary.

HBRW 201: Intermediate Modern Hebrew I

Nadav Linial-MWF- 2:15-3:05

The course objective is to advance the students’ Hebrew communicative skills by studying the language in its cultural context. The focus will be on speaking, reading, and writing, with an emphasis on the use of the language as reflected in Israeli culture.