JWST

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

A continuation of the on-campus course JWST 181, The Many Faces of Israel. Students travel to Israel and experience first-hand the diversity of religions, cultures, and ethnicities in modern Israel and meet with experts on its economy and society. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

0.5

Credits (max)

0.5

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

JWST 181

Covers representative works of fiction by Italian, French, English, Russian, Hungarian, American, Canadian, and Israeli Jewish writers. Not all nationalities are covered in the syllabus for any given year. Discussion centers on a close analysis of the novels, comparing individual and national responses to the Jewish 20th- century experience. By including fiction written across Europe, North America, and Israel, while limiting the time frame to the years following World War II, the question of whether there exists one or more approaches to fiction that are characteristically Jewish is addressed. All readings are in English translation. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

The Bible is not only the best-selling book in America, but is arguably the book that has most profoundly shaped the United States. This course is an introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in its American

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

What role does literary art play in the shaping of biblical narrative? How does the construction of the sacred text reflect its theological meaning? The religious vision of the Bible is given depth and subtlety precisely by being conveyed literarily; thus, the primary concern in this course is with the literature and literary influence of the received text of the Bible rather than with the history of the text's creation. As students read through the canon they establish the boundaries of the texts studied, distinguish the type(s) of literature found in them, examine their prose and poetic qualities, and identify their surface structures. Students also consider the literary legacy of the Bible and the many ways that subsequent writers have revisited its stories. Crosslisted: RELG 273 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Comparative scriptural analysis or what is now called "Scriptural Reasoning." The focus will be on close readings of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur'an with an eye to common themes and differences. Students will engage in a comparison of interpretive traditions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam to see how particular scriptural passages are understood in the religious traditions. The course will also spend time studying the ways in which scriptural reasoning has been used as a form of religious conflict resolution and peace-building in situations of conflict in the UK and Middle East. Crosslisted: RELG 222 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Examines the similarities and differences between rational and religious understandings of God. By pursuing close readings of classic texts in the field of philosophy of religion, students considers how both philosophical and religious ideas are often developed together. Students explore various arguments about the rationality of God as responses to wider intellectual, cultural, and historical contexts in which they are made and to the specific shape and needs of a particular religious tradition (e.g., Catholicism, Protestantism, or Judaism). Students also explore the "rationality" of religious forms such as scripture, symbol, ritual, and prayer. In different semesters, select themes such as revelation, theodicy (the justification of God in the face of human suffering), providence and free will, or the theism/atheism debate are investigated. Crosslisted: RELG 226 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Jews have held a central place in Hollywood and American popular culture. This ranges from early Hollywood moguls including Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Goldwyn to contemporary film executives and filmmakers including Amy Heckerling, Stephen Spielberg and Joel Silver. And it extends from early and mid- century comedians such as Milton Berle, Carl Reiner, and Joan Rivers, to more contemporary comics like Larry David, Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow, Sarah Silverman, and Nathan Fielder. How did this come to be? How has a relatively small minority, making up less than 3% of the U.S. population, occupied such an outsized role in American culture? A range of media, including theatrical performances; radio; early and contemporary film and television; home movies; stand-up comedy; popular music; and new media, sheds light on how Jews have navigated their outsider, minority position within the United States, all the while occupying places at center stage in certain sectors of American popular culture. That speaks to the ways in which American Jews have been positioned (and positioned themselves) as being "White" and/or "Other." At the center of this class are fundamental questions about the historical and political stakes of representing ethnic, racial, religious, and other minority groups. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

JWST 243L

Examines the evolution of East European Jewry at the turn of the twentieth century, as a community with a single way of life finds itself in the vastly different environments of immigrant New York, Ottoman-era Palestine, and Soviet Russia. What stays the same and what changes? What is the fate of Marxist-inspired Jews in Palestine and in Soviet Russia? What happened, and what did they think as it happened? The course starts in the 1880s and ends in 1953 (the end of World War II, the formation of the State of Israel, the

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

The death of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War represents a radical challenge to faith in Judaism, in Christianity, and in humanism. Study begins with a historical overview of the Holocaust and uses accounts of Holocaust survivors to articulate the challenge of the Holocaust to faith. Then students review philosophical and theological responses to this challenge by a variety of Jewish, Christian, and secular authors. Crosslisted: RELG 251 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Communism, Nazism and Exile Examines life under Communism as distilled through the fiction of Russian, East European, and Jewish writers who experienced it firsthand. Students follow the intertwining of political and private life from the inception of a new regime, with many people exuberantly hopeful, through the various stages of acquiescence, resistance, escape, and sometimes death. Authors include Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Babel, Vasily Grossman, Kundera, and Nabokov. Crosslisted: REST 254 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation and The Process of Writing Core Component: None Formerly: JWST 354

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

The trajectories of the Jim Crow South and Nazi Germany departed from each other in fundamental ways: the Jim Crow South harnessed racism to subjugate African Americans, Nazi Germany relied on racism for persecution and extermination. And yet Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler, looked to the United States as both a model, and a cautionary tale, of how to put racial ideas into political practice. By examining the intertwined histories of these two societies, students are asked a series of vexing questions about the creation and memories of societies of oppression: What cultural, political and scientific ideologies did leaders use to justify racial segregation and violence? How and why did ordinary people support, comply with, or resist racist and antisemitic policies? How did ordinary individuals experience, and remember, their personal histories of persecution? Can making comparisons (to Jim Crow and to other victim groups in Nazi Germany) complicate how we understand the mechanisms and intent of the Holocaust? These two historical epochs are historically intertwined and share universal phenomena that continue to resonate. Crosslisted: HIST 276

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Corequisite

None

As a minority culture, throughout history, Jews and Judaism have always been subject to the influence of the majority cultures in which Jews have found themselves. In response to the shocks of modernity, ruptures, scientific advancements, and philosophical ideas and challenges, Jewish thinkers, culture, and individuals formulated responses—religious and otherwise. Students explore how Judaism has responded to modernity, the "age of secularism." To wit, students focus on distinctively modern expressions of Judaism: the range of denominations, their historical origins, ideologies, and attitudes to Jewish law and its development, secularism, religious and secular Zionism. Students explore these developments through primary texts within their historical contexts to better understand contemporary Judaism as it is expressed and practiced, mainly in North America and Israel, as a religion and also as a culture. Crosslisted: RELG 205 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

A course on European and American Jewish thought, covering a spectrum of liberal and traditional figures. The course studies the ways in which Jewish thinkers have responded to the challenges of modern philosophy, religious pluralism, and feminism. Modern reformulations of traditional Jewish ideas and religious practices are discussed as well as contemporary theological exchanges between Jews and Christians. Readings are taken from such figures as Mendelssohn, Buber, Rosenzweig, Heschel, Fackenheim, and Plaskow. Crosslisted: RELG 339 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Focused on the creation and conception of gender within Judaism. Students explore the ways in which gender is built into the scriptures, structures, institutions, and ideologies of Judaism, into Jewish religious, cultural and social life. According to Genesis, from the beginning there were male and female. To what degree are these two categories essential? To what degree artificial? How do religion and tradition enforce the gender divide, and in what ways can they be used to blur the distinctions between male and female? Crosslisted: RELG 343 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Bringing together students who have had diverse introductions to Polish culture after WWII, students examines how, in distinct but interrelated ways, Polish art and post-WWII religion each reacted to an era of extreme political instability and horrific violence. Students on this trip pay special attention to how, even

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Explores the accounts of individual lives as a means of understanding the past and gauging historical change through time. Students examine memoirs written from the early modern era to the present year, from a gambling rabbi in 11th century Italy to a French Jewish child surviving the Holocaust in hiding to the contemporary reflections of an IDF soldier. Among the questions students will consider are the limitations of memoirs as dependable historical sources and the ability of the individual to participate in and reflect historical processes. Crosslisted: HIST 374 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

What does it mean to write in German as a Jew today? A diverse group of contemporary German-language authors position themselves as Jewish writers engaged in probing the complex constellations of identity and intergenerational trauma and memory after the Shoah. Much of their work is centered on the Jewish experience in German and Austrian cultures, yet always in a web of relations to other places, their contexts,

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

JWST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None