An examination of works of Jewish legal literature from the periods of the Rishonim and Aharonim. The course will analyze the authorship, content and methodology of specific works, and assess the purpose of these works. 3 credits.

This course will introduce the student to the literature surrounding the Hasidei Ashkenaz (German Pietists) and its seminal ethical work, Sefer Hasidim (Book of the Pious). Several of the main features of the movement and its doctrines will be revealed through immersive study of the text of Sefer Hasidim. The course will examine intensively a specific topic within Sefer Hasidim, the role of the dead and notions of the afterlife, and seek to demonstrate how Jewish beliefs and practices in these areas reflected more closely those of the Germano-Christian environment in which the book was created than the Rabbinic tradition which Ashkenaz inherited. An emphasis will be placed on methodological and didactic issues such as the treatment of Halakhic sources from a historical perspective (both vertically and horizontally), the mining of Jewish ethical works for novelty and innovation, charting the dynamic evolution of folktales, an assessment of the degree of penetration of outside influences upon the thought-world of the German Pietists, and evaluation of different models of religious and cultural appropriation and interaction characteristic of medieval Ashkenaz.

An examination of the controversy in Spain and Provence, exploring the underlying reasons for the eruption of the controversy, the major issues contested, the varied positions of proponents and opponents of Maimonides\' writings, and the question of the strength and effectiveness of the ban of 1305.  3 credits. 

A study of Jewish historical writing from the Second Temple period to the Spanish expulsion in 1492. Readings include the Letter of Aristeas, Josephus, Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon, Sefer Josippon, Sefer ha-Kabbalah, Crusade Chronicles and selected writings of the Spanish Inquisition period. Attention is paid to the question of medieval Jewish attitudes toward the study and meaning of history.  3 credits.

A study of Jewish historical writing from the works of sixteenth century authors including Solomon ibn Verga, Joseph ha-Kohen, Samuel Usque and Azariah de Rossi, to the diary of Gluckel of Hameln and Nathan Hannover’s Yeven Metzulah, to the writings of the Wissenschaft des Judenthum in the nineteenth century.  3 credits.

An examination of the various ways in which a sense of national mission shaped the intellectual contours of Jewish historical scholarship in interwar Poland.  The course focuses upon the writings of Schipper, Schorr, Balaban, Mahler, Friedman and Ringelblum.  3 credits.

In this course, we will identify and discuss some of the central questions facing historical scholarship in recording and analyzing the origins and implementation of the Nazi “final solution” of the Jewish question. We will follow the debates that these questions have aroused among professional historians in the US, Germany, Israel and Poland, including the ideological roots of modern anti-Semitism, psychological and cultural explanations of the Holocaust, and historical revisionism.  3 credits.

Students will read substantial portions of major works on various themes of the modern Jewish experience and analyze the historical methodology of the authors. Topics will include: Emancipation; the Anglo-Jewish experience; Jewish life in France; German-Jewish life; Jews in Czarist Russia; the Mussar movement; the emergence of a Jewish middle class; Zionism; and the American Jewish experience.  3 credits.

The course offers a hands-on exploration of local history as it is practiced and conceived in the Jewish context. It will examine the methods used in studying local history and engage doctoral students in researching the history of Jewish communities. 

An interdisciplinary analysis of social, political and intellectual currents in medieval and modern Jewish history through readings of selected texts.  3 credits.

The attitude of Rishonim toward aggadot Hazal; how the commentators  distinguished among various types of aggadot; and how they put their theory into practice in the form of commentary on the aggadot. Among the Rishonim whose views and approaches will be studied are R. Abraham ibn Ezra, Rambam, Ramban, Rashba, and R. Menahem Hame\'iri.  Special emphasis on the place that aggadah and its interpretation occupied in the world outlook of halakhists, philosophers, and kabbalists in the Middle Ages.  3 credits.

Studies in the history of interpretation of passages in Tractate Avot as barometers of trends and developments in Jewish intellectual and social history.  3 credits.

Text-based analysis of topics related to the development and literature of halakhah, with emphasis upon the medieval and modern periods. 3 credits.

Credits by arrangement.

Seminar on Digital Humanities and the ways in which it can inform and augment Jewish Studies research.

Doctoral level seminar involving close analysis of texts, with emphasis on proper utilization of primary source material, general and specific methodological problems in the study of Jewish history, currents in recent scholarship, and practical use of bibliographical and research aids.  3 credits.

Doctoral level seminar in which students pursue guided research into the sources of Jewish history and present the results of their investigation for discussion and critical evaluation.  3 credits.

Writing and submission of doctoral dissertation.  6 credits.

Maimonides’ literary corpus will be studied as the focus for consideration of central ideas of Jewish thought.  3 credits.

Analysis of a selected topic in medieval or modern Jewish philosophy through readings of primary sources. 3 credits.

Analysis of a selected topic in medieval or modern Jewish biblical exegesis through readings of primary sources. 3 credits.