23 courses with the subject JWST, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
JWST 101JudaismS: An Introduction1
(Same as RELI 101 ) This course offers an introductory exploration of Jewish histories, politics, cultures, texts, practices, and beliefs in all their diversity. Designed for beginners with no prior background, it serves as a foundational course for the Jewish Studies major. Students trace the development of diverse expressions of Jewish culture and religion, examining their engagement with scripture, interpretation, Jewish law, and the observance of commandments. The course introduces fundamental dimensions of Jewish life, including the life-cycle, calendar, and holidays, while exploring evolving understandings of God, Torah, and the People and Land of Israel from antiquity to the present. It also examines the various methodologies employed in Jewish Studies to analyze these traditions and transformations. Marc Epstein. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
JWST 110Jewish Studies Fishman Family Travel Seminar0.5
A biennial exploration of the historical and contemporary Jewish world, topic varies from year to year. The course involves in-depth investigation of historical, cultural and religious topics in the life of the community under consideration. Includes travel to the locale studied during Spring Break, for which some financial aid is available. Application by submission of an anonymous statement of interest, including courses and interests that are relevant. Once a student is accepted, financial assistance is disbursed by anonymous application to Student Financial Services. Marc Epstein. Topic for 2026/27b: How can the Jews of Italy be understood through the intertwined histories of Rome, Venice, Florence, and Padua? The course examines how Jewish life developed within the distinct urban, political, and cultural settings of these four cities, tracing patterns of settlement, community formation, civic interaction, and artistic and intellectual exchange. It considers Venice’s ghetto and its cosmopolitan Jewish population, Rome’s ancient community, Florence’s humanist environment, and Padua’s university and rabbinic networks. Attention is given to material culture, including ceremonial objects, synagogue spaces, and the pivotal role of Hebrew printing, as well as to the ways Jews were depicted in Christian art. Together these cities offer a framework for understanding the diversity and continuity of Italian Jewish experience within the wider European and Mediterranean worlds. Marc Epstein. Offered Spring semester in alternating years. First six-week course. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 150 ) An historical comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The course focuses on such themes as origins, development, sacred literature, ritual, legal, mystical, and philosophical traditions, and interactions among the three religions. Kirsten Wesselhoeft. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 154 ) Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Yeshua bar Yosef of the town of Nazaret in the Upper Galilee in the Roman-occupied territory Jews called “Eretz Yisrael” and the Occupation renamed “Palestine,” was a radical and extraordinary historical figure, and an even more fascinating literary figure. With the Gospels—not only the four that made it into the New Testament, but some of the hundreds of others—as our guide, we attempt to situate Jesus in his indigenous context at a crucial time in the history and development of Jewish thought, before there were either “Christians” or “Christianity.” Jesus himself asks, “Who do you say I am?” One might answer in terms we may think we understand: “Radical teacher, preacher, healer, political revolutionary.” But historically, the terms “Messiah, Son of God, God,” have also been applied to Jesus. What can we know historically? And when do we cross the line from history into theology? Marc Epstein. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
JWST 181Sacred Scripts:Torah, Text and Restoration0.5
(Same as RELI 181 ) Students study Jewish scribal tradition while working with master scribes and faculty to restore a late 18th–early 19th century Bavarian Torah scroll with unique and exquisite textual flourishes and effects. Students cut quills, mix ink, clean parchment, patch holes, and restore letters, while learning about Bavarian Jewish history, manuscript culture, and preservation. The scroll, otherwise destined for ritual burial, instead is returned to teaching and ritual life for the first time in more than two centuries. Marc Epstein. First six-week course. One 2-hour period. Course Format: INT
JWST 214The Roots of the Palestine-Israel Conflict1
(Same as HIST 214 ) An examination of the deep historical sources of the Palestine-Israel conflict. The course begins some two centuries ago when changes in the world economy and emerging nationalist ideologies altered the political and economic landscapes of the region. It then traces the development of both Jewish and Arab nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before exploring how the Arab and Jewish populations fought—and cooperated—on a variety of economic, political, and ideological fronts. It concludes by considering how this contest led to the development of two separate, hostile national identities. Joshua Schreier. Joshua Schreier Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
JWST 222Psychological Perspectives on the Holocaust1
(Same as PSYC 222 ) The Holocaust has spawned several now classic programs of psychological research. This course considers topics such as: anti-Semitism and stereotypes of Jews; the authoritarian and altruistic personalities; conformity, obedience, and dissent; humanistic and existential psychology; and individual differences in stress, coping and resiliency. The broader implications of Holocaust-inspired research is explored in terms of traditional debates within psychology such as those on the role of the individual versus the situation in producing behavior and the essence of human nature. The ethical and logical constraints involved in translating human experiences and historical events into measurable/quantifiable scientific terms are also considered. Debra Zeifman.
(Same as HIST 223 ) This course examines one of the most formative and cataclysmic events of the modern era: the Holocaust. By positioning the subjective experiences and actions of perpetrators, victims, bystanders, and outside observers as the foundation of our inquiry, we seek to answer pressing questions about its origins, evolution, and aftermath. Among other topics, we discuss: the rise of political antisemitism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, links between German colonial violence and the Holocaust, the Nazis’ instrumental use of propaganda, the transition from persecution to genocide, forms of resistance, and the place of Holocaust memory in postwar politics. The course emphasizes that although the Nazis’ persecution and mass murder of Jews and other minorities occurred in Europe between 1933 and 1945, the Holocaust was shaped by global historical processes. It also has had significant and lasting impacts on historical developments beyond the European theatre. Throughout the semester, students learn how to work with primary source materials such as survivor and perpetrator testimony, diaries, memoirs, material objects, memorials, and photographs. The Department. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 230 ) An introduction to the heart of Judaism—the law developed by the rabbis over the course of millennia. We explore highly challenging legal institutions including themes of marriage and divorce, conversion, the relationship between Jews and non-Jews, gender and sexuality, questions of authority and rebelliousness. How were these practices—seemingly around forever— first established? How have they developed over the centuries, and how are they being reconfigured in post-modernity by contemporary halakhic activism? Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
JWST 241The Land of Israel Before the State of Israel1
(Same as RELI 241 ) This course deals with the Holy Land in Jewish (as well as Christian and Muslim) reality and imagination before Zionism. Love of and attachment to the Land in religious texts, poetry, art, literature and music, as well as the tensions between such sentiments and diasporist thought; and the collusions and collisions between and among the communities which claimed these attachments from antiquity through the Ottoman Period. Agnes Veto. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
1 1 unit(s) (Same as RELI 242 ) An exploration of the historical trajectory from religious to racial Jew-hatred through the study of religious, historical, political and sociological sources as well as art, literature and music. Agnes Veto. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 249 ) This course has a tripartite aim. First, to familiarize students with the various literary genres of the Biblical corpus — myth, treaty, legal collection, prophecy, political propaganda, historiography — in order to highlight the diversity and richness of the corpus as a literary product. Second, we seek to establish the agenda of some sections of the Biblical text and to understand how the widely different genres can and do contribute to a complex theological message. Finally, we attempt to unveil and analyze the underlying assumptions of the differing scholarly opinions concerning the meaning of the Biblical texts. In the course of the semester students read important samples of the Biblical texts and will be introduced to the most influential scholarly views of the field. Agnes Veto. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
JWST 254A Hundred Gospels and the Confusing, Conflicted Life of Jesus1
(Same as RELI 254 ) Who was Jesus? What does the Bible say about him? How did it come to say what it does? Was he a humble carpenter? A divine being? A revolutionary? A rabbi? Was he learned in ancient wisdom, or simple and charismatic and fresh in his teaching? The sources dance in, about and around the issues as they alternately confirm and confound definitions. The canonical Gospels-accounts of Jesus’ life accepted as authoritative by Christians-number four. But even these four contradict each other and require “harmonization” in the eyes of believing Christians. And they are only four out of ten completely preserved examples. In addition to these ten, there are a further six Gospels describing only the childhood of Jesus, four partially preserved Gospels (including the Gospel of Mary Magdalene), and tens of fragmentary, reconstructed, and completely lost Gospels. Once thing is certain from all of these documents: Jesus wasn’t a Christian. How, then, did he come to be regarded as the founder of a new religion, a religion that would be called Christianity? And how did he come to be understood as God, the Son of God, or both at the same time? Marc Michael Epstein. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27.
(Same as RELI 255 ) Textual, phenomenological and theological studies in the religious mysticism of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.
Any 100-level course in Religion or Jewish Studies or permission of the instructor. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
JWST 277The Jews of Italy. History, Geography, Texts1
(Same as ITAL 277 ) This course tracks the history and the geography of Jewish communities living in and moving around the Italian peninsula from Late Antiquities to the present day. We follow the developments of the many groups scattered south of the Alps mainly through their own literary voices, reading excerpts from Immanuel of Rome, Leone Ebreo, Leone de’ Sommi, Samuel Luzzatto, Sara Copia Sullam, Primo Levi, Liana Millu, Giacomo Debenedetti, Franco Fortini. We also sample significant moments of interaction – peaceful or tense, productive or disruptive – between the Christian and the Jewish communities across time, with selected readings from Dante, Boccaccio and the novella tradition, Giuseppe Verdi, Rosetta Loy. Taught in English, no previous knowledge of Italian required. Alberto Gelmi. Two 75-minute periods. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
(Same as RELI 283 ) What does it mean to be Jewish today—when belief, practice, politics, and culture don’t line up neatly? This course examines lived Jewish experience both “religious” and “secular,” asking when those categories converge and when they diverge, and thinking about how ritual, ethics, storytelling, and everyday choices create both connection and conflict. Team taught by two professors who both heartily agree and deeply disagree, we track arguments over authority, authenticity, gender, sexuality, nationalism, and identity across the U.S., Israel, and Europe. Marc Epstein, Jonathon Kahn. Two 75-minute periods. Course Format: CLS
Optional for students concentrating in the program. Must be elected for student to be considered for Honors in the program. Permission required. Course Format: INT
One course in Jewish Studies, Religion or permission of the instructor. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
JWST 333The Question of Palestine and Israel: A Dialogical Approach1
(Same as HIST 333 and RELI 333 ) What does it take to live and learn in a community of people who disagree on core values? On U.S. campuses, the question of Palestine and Israel has acutely exposed such fundamental disagreements. This seminar pursues two parallel aims: First, we engage in deep study of the contested history of Israel and Palestine since the end of the 19th century, and second, we consider the resonances of this history and present on U.S. campuses, and investigate what interpretive and intellectual communities are possible when members do not share identities, backgrounds, commitments, or assumptions. Team-taught by two professors from different disciplinary backgrounds, the seminar proposes that strident disagreement does not preclude dialogue – in fact, these arguments can be valuable resources for learning. Topics addressed include historical formulations of Palestinian and Jewish nationalism and self-determination, competing historiographies of the events of 1948, eliminationism in Zionist and pan-Arab thought, the legacies of violence for moral and political imaginations, theological and ethical relations to the land, and the competing narratives of “indigeneity” and the “right of return” of Palestinians and/or Jews. Joshua Schreier, Kirsten Wesselhoeft. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
Advanced study in selected aspects of religion and contemporary philosophical and political theory. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes. One 2-hour period. Not offered in 2026/27. Course Format: CLS
