Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Schuylkill · Courses
JST
72 courses with the subject JST, 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.
JST 102Ancient Israel3
Ancient Israel names the land and people of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), and it provides important background for the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. Yet, ancient Israel remains difficult to approach historically, perceptible in biblical texts received only through centuries of later transmission and archaeological data often lacking names, voices, and stories. This course will explore the history, society, and culture of ancient Israel in its West Asian context from ca. 1200-330 BCE through a variety of evidence types, with the goal of probing what everyday life was like for people. Attention will be given to such issues as: social and historical setting, archaeology, comparative ancient Near Eastern sources, gender and sexuality, law, ritual, historiography, scribalism, ethics, Israelite religion, food, political ideology, post/de-colonialism and empire, apocalypticism, race and ethnicity, disability, death and afterlife, and more.
This course examines the literature of the Bible. Throughout this course, students will study the language, thought, images, and structures of the book that has arguably proved the central text of Western literature. Students will also actively explore the ways in which the Bible has shaped the literature of English-speaking cultures around the world. Students will read substantial portions of the Old and New Testaments, learning to read critically and to interpret the Bible as they would any other literary text. They will also learn about the historical construction of the Bible, some history of its translation, and contemplate the competing versions of existing Biblical texts. Accordingly, reading the Bible as literature by necessity requires critical engagement with different international cultures from different historical periods.
This course offers an academic introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The course will move through the Hebrew Bible in a roughly historical sequence oriented toward the order of the prose books of the Hebrew Bible, with special topics and issues integrated into the course along the way. The course's primary focus will be on the texts and contents of the Hebrew Bible, seeking to understand the biblical writings from a historical perspective. Attention will be given to such issues as ancient authorship, date and history of composition, social and historical setting, audience, literary shape, narrative techniques, major themes and ideas, religious perspective, political ideology, archaeology, comparative ancient Middle Eastern data, etc. Important topics of discussion also include: gender and sexuality, law, ritual, historiography, scribalism, ethics, Israelite religion, post/de-colonialism and empire, apocalypticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls, canonization, race and ethnicity, disability, and more. Additionally, this course will treat the interpretive contexts that have shaped and continue to shape the modern study of the Hebrew Bible.
Early Judaism will introduce students to the history of Judaism as reflected in Jewish literature from the period of the Babylonian exile (587/6 BCE) to the closure of the Babylonian Talmud (ca. 600 CE). This course will analyze the development of Judaism from its emergence out of the ancient Israelite religion through the formative period of rabbinic Judaism. Attention will be given to the diversity of ideas and practices that characterized early Judaism and the influence the larger Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman worlds had on Judaism's development. We will examine selections from the Hebrew Bible, and from other literature, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Apocrypha, the New Testament, the Mishnah, and the Talmudim.
Although Jesus of Nazareth is the object of Christian devotion, he was not a Christian himself, but a pious Jew. What can be known about the historical figure of Jesus the Palestinian Jew? How would his teachings and actions have fit in the context of Judaism of his day, in the Greco-Roman world? What did he mean when he proclaimed the coming kingdom of God? Because almost all of our source material espouses Jesus as the Christ of Christian faith, the first step is to understand the aims and perspectives of these Christian sources, including the canonical Gospels as well as non-canonical Gospels. Through careful examination of these sources in light of critical scholarship and the social and historical context of Judaism in the Greco-Roman world, we will consider how much the historian is able to reconstruct of Jesus using historical method, what the limits of this investigation are, and how relevant the task is. We will consider and evaluate a few of the different scholarly reconstructions of the historical Jesus. Major emphases will include the historical, social, religious, political, and cultural contexts of Jesus, including important precursors; the political, institutional, and cultural history of the teachings and actions of Jesus in their Jewish setting, and how these are reinterpreted by his followers after his death. Attention will be paid to the development of variant Christian traditions about Jesus including Jesus as Messiah, his death as a saving event, the resurrection as exaltation of Jesus as Lord, the memorialization of Jesus in Christian ritual practice, and the cultural and religious impact of Jesus throughout history. In addition to the early Christian sources on Jesus (especially the canonical Gospels, but also other New Testament texts and non-canonical writings), on each topic students will read selections from early Jewish writings in order to illuminate the cultural context. These include the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, Jewish texts among the so-called Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, early rabbinic texts, and epigraphical writings. Relevant archeological evidence and Greco-Roman sources will also be considered. Broader issues of historical, cultural, linguistic, political and geographical context will be covered in lectures and secondary readings.
Comparative study of diverse interpretations of stories from the Bible in Judaism and Christianity. CMLIT 113 / JST 113 / CAMS 113 / RLST 113 Myths and Legends of the Jews (3) (GH;IL) The impact of the Bible on Western Culture is immense. Beyond its religious importance, the motifs and images from its myths and stories permeate literature and art, providing a basic frame of reference that for much of history could be taken for granted. A degree of familiarity with these motifs so as to be truly fluent is no longer common, and so it requires special effort to discern allusions to biblical traditions. Moreover, these traditions are not static: religious communities continually re-interpret them and appropriate them in very different contexts. Many prominent traditions in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do not appear explicitly anywhere in the Hebrew Bible, but are the product of imaginative and ingenious interpretation and re-tellings. Why, for example, is Noah an example of a righteous person in Christian tradition, but in rabbinic tradition is more often portrayed as a profane, earthly-minded man who was saved only because he was the least bad of an evil generation? Why is Moses commonly portrayed with horns in medieval art? Underlying such different traditions are centuries of debate and reflection on these texts as sacred scripture, and competing religious communities often authorized their distinctive beliefs and practices by reading them into scripture. The differences are often too subtle to discern apart from careful comparison. This course will explore the boundaries between Scripture and tradition by means of a close examination of the myths and stories in the Hebrew Bible and their subsequent interpretation and re-tellings in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Using methods from comparative mythology and folklore, as well as comparative midrash, our procedure will be to compare these traditions closely with the biblical text, asking: What are the main motifs in the mythology of Judaism? Does Judaism have a coherent mythology? How do their myths compare with the myths of their neighbors? Where did these myths come from? How do these traditions relate to the Bible? What was the function of these myths? Why are there competing myths? How is it possible that Judaism affirms belief in only one God, but has myths that include other divine beings? We will also compare with later interpretive traditions (Jewish, Christian, Islamic). Can we trace trajectories of interpretation? Can we discern particular interpretive methods in operation? We will seek to answer: what do these re-workings of the traditions tell us about the development and function of Scripture, and the social circumstances of the communities? Finally, we will seek to detect reflections of these interpretive traditions in literature and art from the medieval to the modern periods. The course is organized around major topics in the Jewish Scriptures: God, creation, heaven and hell, Torah, Sabbath, Abraham and other ancestors, Israel and holy land, exile, and Messiah. Throughout we will consider how sacred stories function to form ethical perspectives and values.
This course will explore the developments in Judaism since the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. Major changes have come to the world since 1700-changes represented by terms such as the Enlightenment, Emancipation, Industrialization, Nationalism, Urbanization, Immigration, and Egalitarianism/Feminism. These broad social changes led to the break-up of traditional communities and, among other things, reformulations of Jewish Life and Jewish Religion. The effects can be seen in a number of Jewish responses-Assimilation, Hassidism, Self-Defense and Nationalism, Denominationalism, and Egalitarianism/Feminism-which we shall study in this class. In particular, we shall look at Jewish spirituality-its historical and theological development, its many historical and modern manifestations, and how it works.
Chronological and topical survey of the story of Jewish life in America. We will trace the social, religious, cultural, and political developments in the Jewish community from the Colonial Period to the present. Topics to be covered include immigration, acculturation, ethnicity, gender, politics, and communal and religious innovation. While "knowing the facts" is obviously important to historical understanding, this course helps students develop critical thinking skills. These skills include: close and thoughtful reading and analysis of primary and secondary sources; looking for a broader coherence or "order" to the material; independent analysis and effective articulation (both in writing and in class discussion) of well-reasoned, well-crafted conclusions and interpretations and arguments (conclusions/interpretations/arguments which are supported by specific factual evidence derived from a variety of sources). The three specific course objectives underscore its scholarly dimensions: (1) Students will gain a knowledge and understanding of the relationship between the experiences of members of the American Jewish community and United States history as a whole. (2) Students will gain an understanding and knowledge of the political, economic, and social processes that shaped the American Jewish experience. (3) Students will learn how to "think historically" by placing documents written in the past in their historical contexts, and to consider the relationship of the past to the present. By the end of the course students will: Demonstrate an understanding of the chronology of American Jewish history. Demonstrate an understanding of the diverse experiences of different groups of Americans. Demonstrate an understanding of the social, political, and ideological structures that shaped the American Jewish experience and continue to shape the modern United States.
Modern Jewish history is a complex and fascinating story. Some scholars depicted it as a long period of suffering and isolation that culminated in the Holocaust and only ended with the founding of the state of Israel. In recent decades a more balanced perspective has found wide acceptance. Today scholars highlight Jewish agency and different conditions in the various places Jews settled without downplaying anti-Jewish prejudice and violence. A recurring theme in this course concerns the relationship between individual Jews and Jewish communities, and on a broader level, the perception and treatment of Jews by societies and states. As Jews in Western and Central Europe "left the Ghetto" around 1800 and became citizens of states, they redefined their relationship to Jewish communities in strikingly different ways. Some Jewish women and men emerged as agents of change, others resisted change. We will explore Jewish "responses to modernity," ranging from assimilation, Zionism, and socialism to migration. While many Jews in Western Europe and the United States prospered, the lives of Jews (and their neighbors) in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire were shaped by social and economic crisis (albeit not constantly and not everywhere). For the twentieth century the course will concentrate on three major events that had a dramatic impact on Jews, especially in Europe: the First World War and the collapse of the large multiethnic Empires in Eastern Europe, the Holocaust and the founding of the first modern Jewish state, Israel.
CAMS 120 / JST 120 / RLST 120 New Testament (3) (GH)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course provides an introduction to the collection of early Christian writings that make up the New Testament. It begins with an examination of the first-century context in which these writings took shape-one overshadowed by the Roman empire, influenced by Hellenistic culture, and based, above all, on varieties of Judaism. From there, the course takes up a few guiding questions. How, in this ancient context, did the first Christians understand and portray the figure at the center of their communities, Jesus of Nazareth? What do the New Testament writings reveal about the beliefs and aspirations of these communities as they advanced a movement that would, in time, become among the most consequential in world history? By the end of the course, students will have gained knowledge of the historical context of New Testament writings and an understanding of why the New Testament has been such an important and influential collection of writings.
This course focuses on the history and historiography of the Holocaust from 1933-1945. In addition to cultivating intellectual skills, such as critical analysis and concise presentation, the primary purpose of this course is to provide an in-depth overview of the Holocaust. The course will touch on various aspects of the Holocaust, including the function of the "Ghettos", the role of the mobile killing units, extermination camps, Jewish resistance, the role of the Allies, Holocaust trials, and the question how the Holocaust can be compared with other genocides. The course will analyze the Holocaust using historical, literary, and philosophical approaches.
Apocalypse and Beyond is a topic (and title) meant to suggest that apocalyptic imagination about the end of the world, first begun in the Ancient Near East with certain Jewish and Christian writings, is constantly re-envisioned for each new age. Apocalyptic literature and world views are frequently produced by marginalized groups who perceive themselves to be persecuted, and who envision a violent (often divine) intervention, which alone will bring justice. In Part One of the course, we will examine the ancient literary genre of apocalypse, which was popular in the Ancient Near East from around 200 BCE to 200 CE, especially in Jewish and Christian writings both in the Bible (e.g., Daniel and Revelation) and outside of it (e.g., First Enoch, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Apocalypse of Paul). The authors of these apocalypses expected the evil age in which they were living to dramatically end in their lifetimes; although that did not happen, apocalyptic thinking became foundational to the three world religions stemming from the Near East Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to varying degrees. In Part Two, we will examine the ideology, sociological underpinnings and some historical examples of apocalyptic groups and movements in medieval to modern times, and look at the impact that apocalyptic world views have had on the secular world, including philosophy, political movements, and popular culture, such as movies.
This course examines the early history of God; that is, the concept of the divine as a single supreme being. In particular, it focuses on the origins of monotheism and the development of its three major traditions in the Near East: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from their respective beginnings to around 1000 C.E. The course will begin with an analysis of the polytheistic religious milieu of the Ancient Near East in the second and first millennia B.C.E., and will consider the question of how, when, and why belief in one God first appeared in ancient Israel. Various modern theories about the origins of Israel's national God (Hebrew Yhwh/Yahweh and Aramaic Yhw/Yaho) will be analyzed, with careful attention to the evidence of ancient texts and archaeology. Following a discussion of the nature of the religion(s) of early Israel, the course will then turn to the development of Judaism as the world's first monotheism. It will then examine the subsequent emergence of Christianity in Roman-era Palestine and Islam in Late Antique Arabia, with a brief glance at the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, which shares some commonalities. Finally, the course will compare and contrast some of the major beliefs, practices, and significant historical trends and movements within the first centuries of the three major monotheisms.
This course provides an introduction to the history of Christianity. It traces, specifically, the development of the Christian movement from its beginnings as a small Jewish sect in Jerusalem to its unlikely emergence as the religion of the Roman Empire and, finally, its subsequent spread and development in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In form and structure, the course is historical, following figures and events in a more or less chronological sequence and taking up questions of causality, influence, and social identity. Yet the course is also concerned with the ideas, concepts, and philosophical viewpoints that have shaped Christianity and given it a certain intellectual coherence over time. The course begins with first-century construals of messianic identity and also with the figure of Jesus, as he was portrayed in the New Testament gospels. It then follows the first generations of the Christian movement, considering it within the context of first-century Judaism and the early Roman empire. Topics include persecution, martyrdom, and the important contributions of Origen. The middle section of the course looks at the second, third, and fourth centuries through three lenses, as it were: the office of bishop, the rise of monasticism, and the realities of empire. Bishops, monks, and emperors all shaped Christianity in essential ways, creating a rich and complicated spiritual, moral, theological, intellectual, and geo-political legacy for generations to come. The final third of the course looks at the development of Christianity beyond the fourth century in geographical groupings including churches in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, western Europe, Byzantium, and the Slavic lands. It is hoped, in all of this, that students will gain an understanding not only of Christian history but also of what made - and what makes - Christianity a distinctive and influential religion.
This class studies how art, literature, film, and other media can help us to gain a perspective on one of the most horrific events in human history, the Holocaust: the genocidal murder of more than six million men, women, and children (mostly Jewish) under the Nazi regime during World War II. We will also examine the theoretical questions involved in any attempt to capture what appears to be beyond our comprehension, in terms of moral outrage and the sheer scale, inhumanity, and bureaucratic efficiency. To this end we will study literary works, such as Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, films such as Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, Roman Polanski's The Pianist, and Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, as well as photographs, poems, artworks, installations, museum architecture, the design of monuments and other artifacts. We will also examine questions of memorialization (Holocaust museums and memorials), national guilt, survivor's guilt, stigmatization, and the ethics of historical representation.
This course will provide an introduction to Jewish American literature through a historical survey of the tradition's key texts, figures, and themes. The course will focus on the defining aspects of the literature and on what the literature "thinks" about Jewish American culture and identity. But rather than assuming a unity to Jewish-American culture, this course will use Jewish literature to seek ways of articulating and representing both the points of cohesion and the points of divergence that characterize Jewish life in America. The United States has absorbed large numbers of Jewish immigrants hailing from many parts of the world, holding many different ideas about Jewish practice, and affiliating themselves with many different political, social, and cultural traditions. Moreover, Jews have settled and made homes in a wide variety of American communities. This course aims to explore Jewish American culture's marked diversity by offering a literary window onto the major fault-lines running through Jewish American culture: lines demarcated by gender, by political affiliation, by geography, by pre-immigration community by religious practice, by attitude toward world Jewry, by national allegiance, and by minhag (or custom), to name just a few. The class therefore provides an opportunity to consider the constitution, origin, and development of Jewish American's identity and social formations by looking at how that identity and those social formations exist and what they "do" in literature written by and about Jews in America. Materials will consist predominantly of primary texts, including prose fiction and nonfiction, poetry, drama, and film. Course methodology will emphasize the close reading of these texts. The course complements offerings in Jewish Studies and English, and it will satisfy the GH and US requirements. Most obviously, the course will offer students of Jewish literature, world literature, and American literature an opportunity for contextualization. It enables students in Jewish Studies to study the rich literature of American Jews, and it adds to courses covering Jewish American history, religion, and culture. The course offers students in English a valuable, sustained introduction to an important U.S. and world sub-culture.
This course takes as its starting point the idea that modern ethical frameworks are deeply rooted in the soil of older traditions. By examining the development of Jewish intellectual traditions and their roots in the Bible, it provides students with an opportunity to study ethics in a philosophically textured, culturally rich, and historically informed way. And by focusing on Jewish engagement with the Bible, the course illuminates other traditions that derive from biblical monotheism: for example, those associated with Christianity, Islam, and the Enlightenment. The first part of the course takes up the idea of tradition and includes a study of biblical texts that serve as the foundation for key moral concepts. Following the traditional division of the scriptures, it examines questions of human identity and responsibility in the Torah, social ethics in the Prophets, and the quest for wisdom in the Writings. The final topic in this unit is the development of ethical tradition among the great sages of Jewish antiquity. The second unit shifts focus to the appropriation of tradition in modern Jewish thought. After reviewing important developments in Jewish thought in the medieval and early modern periods, it turns attention to the ways that some recent figures have addressed perennial concerns in light of commitments and ways of being that are integral to Jewish identity. By reading closely the works of such seminal thinkers as James Kugel, Joseph Soloveitchik, and Abraham Heschel, we will gain a deep acquaintance not only with important vocabulary but also with the ways that traditional words and concepts may be used dynamically to produce fresh ways of looking at questions in moral philosophy.
JST 140The History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (1917-Present)3
This course covers the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how the issues at stake changed over time, up to the present day. The course situates the conflict in the history of the Middle East and the larger context of international relations, including the Cold War and the end of the Cold War. Topics include regional warfare and its significance, efforts at peacemaking, and social, economic, and cultural developments among Israelis and Palestinians.
This course studies the developments of right-wing totalitarianism in the twentieth century with special emphasis on Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, which provided the roots for fascist developments in the modern world. The course concerns itself with understanding the social, political, and economic contexts of fascism, its governing assumptions, ideals, and values, how it worked in practice, and its consequences and historical implications. Another focus will be on the question of why these illiberal, anti-democratic, and ultimately murderous regimes appear to have appealed to many groups during the 1930s and 1940s, not only within Italy and Germany, but also within broader European society.
Fundamentals of Biblical Hebrew grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. J ST (CAMS/HEBR) 151 Introductory Biblical Hebrew (3) The aim of CAMS/J ST/HEBR 151 is to introduce students to the fundamentals of Biblical Hebrew as quickly and thoroughly as possible. Biblical Hebrew is the language in which the Old Testament was written, between the period of approximately 1200-200 B.C.E. This focuses primarily on the morphology and syntax of Biblical Hebrew. Drills on each point of grammar, as well as translation of sentences from Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew, and brief passages taken from the Bible are the basis of the student's homework throughout the semester. By the end of the semester, the students will be prepared to read short, unmodified passages of the Bible. The course will focus primarily on reading and writing, though students will read aloud in class regularly in order to ensure correct pronunciation and understanding. CAMS/J ST/HEBR 151 will prepare students to continue with CAMS/J ST/HEBR 152 and then 400-level courses.The course goals, in addition to providing the students with a firm grounding in Hebrew grammar and vocabulary, include giving the students a basic understanding of the history of the Biblical text. The primary focus will be on mastering paradigms and syntax, but the students will also be introduced to the Biblical texts themselves, which together from such an important piece of literature.
Intermediate study of Biblical Hebrew grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. CAMS (JST/HEBR) 152 Intermediate Biblical Hebrew (3)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. CAMS/JST/HEBR 152 continues from CAMS/J ST/HEBR 151, which is a prerequisite for enrollment. After a brief review of key grammar and morphology from the first semester, the course will complete the process of providing students with a sufficient grasp of Hebrew vocabulary, morphology, and syntax to enable them to read unadapted passages from Biblical Hebrew texts (with the aid of a lexicon) by the end of the course. Class sessions will focus on grammar drills, sentences, and similar exercises as homework to supplement class work. As the semester progresses, students will read more and more from actual Hebrew texts, rather than composed sentences by the textbook author, so that when the students enter more advanced classes, they will find the transition to reading Hebrew as smooth as possible.In tandem with the increasing emphasis on Hebrew written by ancient Hebrews, the course will continue to focus on the linguistic and cultural background for the texts that the students read. Students will be evaluated on a combination of written work, including frequent quizzes, tests, homework completion, and course attendance and participation. CAMS/J ST/HEBR 152 will prepare students to continue with courses at the 400-level.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was one the most important archeological discoveries of the 20th century. This collection of over 900 scrolls found in caves by the Dead Sea includes the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and hundreds of other Jewish writings dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE, many of which were previously unknown. In this course we will examine select examples of the Dead Sea Scrolls in order to understand how these writings have revolutionized our understanding of the formation of the Bible, Jewish groups in the Greco-Roman period, and the origins of Christianity and rabbinic Judaism, and why there is so much scholarly debate around them. We will consider such issues as Jewish law, biblical interpretation, messianism, apocalypticism, prayer and rituals. The course will include discussion of the archaeology of the Qumran settlement and caves, scribal practices and the production of scrolls, and scholarly methods in reconstructing and interpreting ancient texts. We will study this one sectarian movement as a microcosm of the issues related to Jewish identity in this critical period that birthed both rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. We will focus on the beliefs and practices by which this movement constructed their particular community identity and worked out their place in the world.
Sacrifice (from Latin sacer "holy + facere "to make") is one of the most prevalent yet troubling aspects of religion. Its destruction and violence is often at odds with other rituals and core understandings within a religion, so why is it done and what good does it do? For the sacrificer, does it represent a gift to the gods, a renunciation, an exchange, a surrogate, or something else? This course will examine some competing definitions and theories of sacrifice, as well as its manifestations in the cultures and religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially those of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Hatti, Israel, and Phoenicia. A brief look at religious sacrifice elsewhere, such as ancient Mesoamerica and India, will conclude the course.
Sacrifice is one of the most prevalent yet troubling aspects of religious practice. Its destruction and violence is often at odds with other rituals and core understandings within a given religion, so why is it done and what good does it do? The study of sacrifice, thus, poses questions concerning the reasons for its performance and its intended functions. For instance, one may ask whether religious sacrifices represent gifts to the deity or deities, acts of personal or collective renunciation, an intended exchange in expectation of a divine reward, a surrogate tendered as a replacement for a foreseeable punishment, or perhaps something else altogether. CAMS 160H will examine some competing definitions, approaches, and theories of sacrifice, as well as its manifestations throughout the cultures and religious traditions of the ancient Mediterranean world (in particular Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, the Phoenician world, Greece, and Rome). Comparative material from Mesoamerica (Maya, Aztec) and Northern Europe (bog bodies) will be also discussed, in order to articulate a more complete picture of this widespread but puzzling phenomenon. While this course covers much of the same material as CAMS 160, this is an honors course. Students will be asked to do additional readings and to complete a research project at its conclusion. In addition, it fulfills both the GH and IL requirements.
The course offers a survey of the history of the Middle East from the rise of Islam to the present day. The course introduces students to structures of power, society, and economy in three distinctive periods: 1) the rise of Islam and the caliphal era; 2) the pre-modern Ottoman era; 3) the modern era. The course also introduces students to some of the art, architecture, and literature of each period. Students will thus gain some depth in each period of history and acquire a broad view of change over time.
Taking cross-cultural communication and connectivity as its central themes, this course explores the central role that the silk roads and Indian Ocean maritime routes have played throughout Eurasian history. The course provides a historical survey of the land and sea routes and networks connecting Europe and Asia, the peoples and cultures that flourished along these routes, and a variety of exchanges that took place by way of these routes.The course develops insight into trends and patterns over a long period of history, from ancient to modern times; the course also focuses on distinctive periods of history when patterns were disrupted and reformed, and when relationships changed among the peoples and states involved in the silk roads and maritime routes.
This course introduces students to the peoples and places of the contemporary Middle East. The course engages students in discussion of themes that are pertinent to the region and to contemporary issues, including demographic change, youth culture and university life, human rights issues and activism, the trauma of war, effects of globalization, ecology, and the environment. Exploring the Middle East in the present with attention to historical context, students will examine a variety of sources, including news media, novels, stories, poetry, films, soap operas, blogs and vlogs.
This course covers the history of modern Iran from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The course examines significant events and historical trends with attention to local, regional, and global contexts, and examines causes and consequences of policies, protests, and revolutions from a variety of sources and perspectives. Through class lectures and discussions, and reading and written assignments, students will learn important terms, concepts, contexts, individuals, and events. They will learn to identify and analyze trends and patterns in Iran¿s history, make meaningful comparisons, locate specific events in meaningful context, and explain their significance. By the end of the course students will be able to explain current events in terms of Iran¿s long history of revolution as well as in terms of the more immediate history of the Islamic republic. Students will be able to discuss how the modern history of Iran is an example of larger historical trends of the twentieth century.
Jerusalem, a city sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, is often depicted as the spiritual and physical center of the world. Throughout its 5000-year history, Jerusalem has attracted diverse cultures, empires, and peoples who have vied for control of this city that is both religiously significant and a very ordinary site of urban life. Jerusalem: Sacred and Profane surveys the archaeological, religious, cultural, political, social, and historical record of Jerusalem in the ancient, medieval, and modern periods. We will explore a series of themes in the city¿s history: the built urban environment, political power in and over the city, sacred sites and pilgrimage, the everyday experiences of Jerusalemites, the changing cultural meanings of the city across various religious and national traditions, and war, violence, and memory in the urban landscape. The significance of Jerusalem's past, its impact on contemporary society and politics in the modern Middle East, and differing visions for this contested city's future are examined in light of various interpretations of the historical evidence.
JST 195Genocide in Global perspectives: Twentieth Century and beyond3
The history and memory of the Holocaust, the Armenian, Cambodian and other forms of genocide are often taught separately in different disciplines. This course will examine them together through the various ways different societies dealt with, experienced and understood these. Using the extensive literature on the history of genocide this course further suggests ways in which these tragic events affected and were entangled by each other's. Specific content will vary according to individual instructor, but topics may include victim cultures, ethnic cleansing, trauma, human rights, dark tourism, memorials, architecture as well as the general impact of these tragedies on global politics, or the way the memories of the tragedies were entangled with the civil rights and other struggles in American and global history.
Examination of the relationship between Western church and the Jews from the First Century to Enlightenment. HIST 235HIST 235 The Church and the Jews (3) (US;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course will examine a key aspect of western history - the complex relationship between the Western (Roman Catholic) Church and the Jews, from the first century to the present. We will analyze ideas and policies regarding Jews as expressed in different realms, from theology and canon law to church art and popular preaching. We will also examine how changing conditions led to striking changes in church attitudes and policy, and how church policy was often at odds with popular sentiments about Jews.The course will be designed to enable students to grasp the fluidity of attitudes over time, and the interplay of economic, social, political, and theological factors; to grasp of essential elements of a key area of conflict in western culture; and to develop their skills in the close reading of primary texts.Students will be evaluated on the basis of three quizzes and a final exam.The course would offer a chance for students to develop perspectives previously gained in a number of courses, particularly HIST 001 and 002 (The Western Heritage), RL ST 001 (Introduction to World Religions), RL ST 101 (Comparative Religion), HIST 107 (Medieval Europe), HIST 407 (Early Medieval Society), and J ST 010 (Jewish Civilization). It would complement such courses as HIST 108 (The Crusades), HIST 408 (Church and State in the High Middle Ages), HIST 412 (Intellectual History of the Middle Ages), HIST 414 (Renaissance and Reformation), J ST 111 (Early Judaism), J ST 110 (Hebrew Bible), RL ST 120 (New Testament), and RL ST l24 (Early and Medieval Christianity).The course will count for 3 credits toward a) the 22 credits required for the minor in Jewish Studies, b) the 33 credits required for the major in Jewish Studies, c) the 30 credits required for the major in Religious Studies, and d) the 36 credits required for the History major.
Through the medium of film, HIST/JST 260 examines the contemporary and historical transformation of the Middle East from the Ottoman period, through the British and French mandates, and the eventual establishment of the modern nation-states. This course analyzes the political-religious-social tensions of this region, and through film illuminates many of the conflicts in a different light. This course engages in specific film define certain moments in the contemporary history of the Middle East. The films reveal the culture perception of politics, the Arab-Israeli conflict, views on and of religious and ethic minorities, women and gender issues, carious elements of political Islam, and the generational shift in politics and culture. The course will watch, analyze and engage in films (with subtitles) from - among other states - Iran before and after the revolution, Turkey, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Tunisia.
The course is a research seminar for undergraduates majoring in Middle East Studies and for students interested in pursuing a sustained research project on a topic related to the Middle East. Course topics on the Middle East will vary according to the interests of the instructor. This course is writing-intensive with attention to developing, drafting, and producing a quality research paper over the course of the semester.
The course gives students hands-on tools for investigating ideology and propaganda through the analysis of a variety of historical and contemporary texts. With the help of different theoretical perspectives, students learn how to analyze ideologies that can be found in texts, identify whose interests those ideologies serve, and discuss their biases, with the goal of learning how these belief systems can be used to promote and circulate specific political views (i.e., propaganda). The course begins with a historical overview of the role played by language and other meaning-making resources in the production and circulation of ideology and propaganda across a variety of historical contexts. The course will then explore contemporary practices of disinformation, and investigate alternative strategies through which to counter disinformation.
Surveys the history of anti-Semitism from antiquity through the Middle Ages to the present. HIST (J ST) 409Y (RL ST 407Y) European Anti-Semitism from Antiquity to the Present (3) (IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. This course analyzes major episodes in the history of anti-Semitism and tries to clarify the motives and dynamics involved. It seeks to understand what these episodes have in common and what is unique in each case--is there a single universal, eternal antisemitism? Or are there rather 'anti-Semitisms' each belonging to a unique historical context? Is there a single continuous line of development in anti-Semitism? What is the relationship of a particular anti-Semitism to the national culture in which it originates?We will be reading the major original texts of anti-Semitism from Roman and ancient writers, through early Christian texts and medieval Christian Blood Libels against the Jews, documents of the Spanish expulsion, Lutheran tracts, Voltaire's essays, German philosophical texts from Kant to Marx, Wagner's racial essays, the Protocols of Zion, and documents of Nazi anti-Semitism by Hitler and Streicher. The major part of the grade will depend on a short research paper which will be presented in various drafts, so that the final version represents the culmination of discussion and constructive criticism and advice. This course is a parallel course to J ST/HIST 416 (Zionist History) and J ST/HIST 118 (Modern Jewish History). This course will count toward the Religious Studies, Jewish Studies, and History majors and minors in the 400-level category.
The territorial expansion of the Roman empire brought its inhabitants into contact with a vast array of ancient peoples, from the Germans and Britons of the north to the Carthaginians and Meroites of the south and the Arabs and Iranians of the east. This course will explore the encounters between the Romans and these foreign peoples, investigating how the Romans understood them, and how they understood the Romans. Classes will be centered on topics like the Roman army; the representation of foreigners in Greek and Latin literature; the study of Rome's enemies from an internal, non-Roman perspective; and long-distance trade and cultural exchange.
Fundamentals of Aramaic grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the fundamentals of ancient Aramaic. This course focuses primarily on the morphology and syntax of Aramaic, a language used across the Near East from the Neo-Assyrian period onward. Drills on each point of grammar, as well as translation of sentences from Aramaic to English and English to Aramaic, and brief passages taken from the native texts are the basis of the student's homework throughout the semester. By the end of the semester, the students will be prepared to read short, unmodified passages of actual Aramaic. The course will focus primarily on reading and writing, though students will read aloud in class regularly in order to ensure correct pronunciation and understanding. This course will prepare students to work with Aramaic in relevant courses in CAMS, in particular those dealing with other Aramaic dialects, the Bible, and other related ancient languages. No previous knowledge of Aramaic or any other language is necessary for this course.
JST 425WBooks of the Bible: Readings and Interpretation3
Study of a biblical book/topic in terms of literary, historical, and cultural contexts, history of interpretation, and critical scholarship. CAMS (J ST/RL ST) 425W Books of the Bible: Readings and Interpretation (3 per semester/maximum of 12) The Bible is a diverse collection of writings sacred to Jews and Christians written over about 1000 years, in a variety of different genres and historical circumstances. This course allows students the opportunity to study in depth a particular book of the Bible, from either the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament or the New Testament. We will explore the literary, historical and cultural context of the book in question. A literary analysis of the book will include consideration of genre and literary devices, and a close reading of the text. A historical analysis will consider the date of composition, its source materials, comparative traditions in other cultures, and relevant historical and cultural factors relevant to understanding the text. The course will introduce students to various other approaches to interpretation of the Bible in modern scholarship, including feminist and post-colonial critiques. We will also explore the varied interpretations and uses of the book in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam throughout history, and its influences in Western culture, including art and literature. The course will be offered once a year with varying content, and students may repeat it when taught with different content.
This course is an in-depth study of the history of the Holocaust in Europe that puts special emphasis on primary sources. HIST 426 / JST 426 Holocaust (3) (IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. The Holocaust stands out as the most terrible and challenging phenomenon of the 20th Century. Societies and the scholarship struggled for decades to fully grasp how much the Holocaust has questioned widely shared assumptions about modernity and progress. This course pursues the overarching question how the Holocaust could have taken place. Who were the perpetrators, victims and bystanders? How much agency did they have? How was the Holocaust organized? The course will encourage students to critically engage with the Holocaust, and will consider a variety of different kinds of sources and means of representation, including oral testimony, film and fiction, as well as more conventional documentation. After discussing some of the most important studies about the Holocaust and identifying the main historiographical debates, students will look at the origins and the evolution of the "Final Solution." The class will touch on the function of the "Ghettos," the role of the mobile killing units, the extermination camps, and Jewish resistance. The course will also deal with Jewish responses to the Holocaust, notably with attempts to enable Jews to emigrate to safe countries; with efforts to alert the public to the systematic killing after 1940; and the support especially of American Jews for Jewish survivors and DPs. Apart from discussing the historiography, students will work mostly with primary sources. Students are expected to do extensive reading for this class and prepare oral presentations on their respective paper topic. The research paper for this course will be based largely on primary sources. Apart from discussing the historiography, the sessions will concentrate on the interpretation of primary sources: - documents created by the perpetrators, bystanders, and victims; - files relating to postwar trials of perpetrators; - photographs; - representations of objects relating to the Holocaust; - memoirs by survivors; - interviews with survivors and bystanders.
An in-depth examination of important themes, writers, and/or historical developments in Jewish Literature of the United States. ENGL (J ST) 427 Topics in Jewish American Literature (3) This course will provide sustained examination of major themes, texts, and figures in the Jewish American literary tradition. The course will focus on depth rather than breadth in its analysis of the defining aspects of the literature and on what the literature reveals about Jewish American culture and identity. The United States has absorbed large numbers of Jewish immigrants from many parts of the world, holding many different ideas about Jewish practice, and affiliating themselves with many different political, social, and cultural traditions, and moreover Jews have settled and made homes in a wide variety of American communities. Close analysis of literature will therefore provide an opportunity to consider the constitution, origin, and development of Jewish America's wider cultural, political, and social contexts. Materials will consist predominantly of primary texts, including prose fiction and nonfiction, poetry, drama, and film, and the methodology will emphasize the close reading of these texts. The course complements offerings in Jewish Studies, English, and Comparative Literature. Most obviously, the course will offer students of Jewish literature, world literature, and American literature an opportunity for contextualization. It enables students in Jewish Studies to study the rich literature of American Jews, and it adds to courses covering Jewish American history, religion, and culture. The course offers students in English and Comparative Literature a valuable, sustained introduction to an important U.S. and world sub-culture and -literature.
This writing intensive course will examine issues of gender and sexuality in the Bible, including the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the Deuterocanon, and the New Testament. It will introduce students to a variety of academic approaches to the Bible with respect to a broad range of topics. These topics include: gender identity, sexual orientation, sex, marriage and divorce, adultery, monogamy and polygyny, same-sex relations, chastity and celibacy, prostitution, gender violence, pornography, fertility, procreation, abortion, divine gender and sex, incest, and many others. In covering these themes, the course will deal with some of the most challenging and often disturbing stories and passages in the Bible, the ancient library of books that is sacred to Jews and Christians and which has otherwise greatly influenced civilization for more-or-less two thousand years. Alongside a close reading of the text (philology), this course will employ historical and literary criticism, investigations into ancient material culture (archaeology), modern theoretical interpretive approaches, reception theory, and other methodologies to examine not only the biblical writings in their ancient contexts, but their interpretation and use throughout history to construct social norms.
JST 434Movies, Media, and the Jewish American Experience3
Study of Jewish American Film and Popular Culture. COMM (J ST) 434 Movies, Media, and the Jewish American Experience (3) The course examines film and other popular media, including theater, radio, and television, as important sources for understanding the Jewish experience and its impact on and relationship with American culture more generally since the late 19th century. Topics to be considered include US film and popular media as representations of Jewish history, culture, and experience; the role of Jews as prominent directors, producers, actors, and writers in their social-historical context; and the history and function of the representational modes and techniques used in these texts. A major emphasis of the course will be on analyzing film and other media texts as lenses to reflect, refract, and focus on Jewish American identity. By way of analyzing the interrelationships between filmic and other media texts and Jewish American experience, the course will attend to a number of key themes in Jewish cultural history, including Jewish life in late 19th-early 20th century Europe; immigrant life in turn of the century America and questions such as assimilation, preservation of tradition, family life, social mobility, and male/female relations; Jews in show business, organized crime, and sports; American Jews and the Holocaust; American Jews and Israel; Jews in the modern age; generational and denominational differences among Jews; and Jews and anti-Semitism.
Analysis of women's experience in the Holocaust and exploration of the role of gender in Holocaust Studies. J ST (HIST/WMNST) 439 Women and the Holocaust (3) Most of the early study of the Holocaust focused almost exclusively on the experiences of Jewish men. It was men who wrote the first and most widely read Holocaust memoirs and men who produced the first studies of the Holocaust. The first question motivating this class is thus what we can learn from examining women's experiences. Is it possible that the ghetto, the camp, and the forest look different from women's perspectives? Are there factors we miss when we read primary documents written by only half of the participants in these historical events? Beyond this, however, our exploration will also lead us to look more broadly at gender as a category of analysis. What do we gain by bringing questions of gender to bear on our study of the Holocaust? Are there any ethical concerns that should inform our approach?
Jews have been part of Middle Eastern societies for thousands of years. They flourished at times and endured hardships at others, but they have been part of every significant social and cultural transformation of the Middle East. In this class, students will discuss the significant contribution of the Jewish community to the development of various Middle Eastern societies throughout the centuries. Students will critically read and analyze primary sources and secondary literature. We will delve into national historiographies of places such as Morocco, Egypt, and Iran-to name a few-and seek to discover a nuanced narrative of Jewish histories of the region. We will also analyze popular culture products, such as documentaries, television, and literature. The course will follow a chronological and thematic order, and will examine Jewish history in conjunction with global and interregional processes in the Middle East and beyond, such as colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, relations with the West, the formation of the modern nation states of the Middle East, and the Israeli-Arab conflict.
The primary goal of this course is to gain an advanced level reading fluency in Biblical Hebrew prose. To this end, the course will emphasize matters of language-nominal and verbal morphology, syntax, lexicon, etc.-and include weekly reviews of important elements of Classical Biblical Hebrew grammar. For each class, students will translate select Biblical Hebrew prose texts by making use of essential scholarly tools for the reading and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Additionally, students will be introduced to later strata of Biblical Hebrew prose and ancient biblical manuscripts during the second half of the semester. This course may be repeated for credit.
The primary goal of this course is to gain an advanced level reading fluency in Biblical Hebrew poetry. To this end, the course will especially focus on matters of language-nominal and verbal morphology, syntax, lexicon, etc.-and include weekly reviews of Classical Biblical Hebrew grammar. For each class, students will translate select Biblical Hebrew poetic texts by making use of essential scholarly tools for the reading and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Additionally, students will be introduced to different strata of Biblical Hebrew poetry as well as unvocalized ancient Hebrew poetic texts during the second half of the semester. This course may be repeated for credit.
JST 457Jewish Communities: Identity, Survival, and Transformation in Unexpected Places3
Examines the global array of smaller Jewish communities that have flourished outside the main urban centers of Jewish settlement. JST 457 / ANTH 457 / SOC 457 Jewish Communities: Identity, Survival, and Transformation in Unexpected Places (3) (US;IL) This course addresses an understudied aspect of Jewish experience. It aims to expand our understanding of Jewish communities by focusing on those that are, alternatively, small, situated in out-of-the-way places, culturally outside the Jewish urban mainstream, or embedded in a larger society with markedly different values and traditions. These communities often constitute the points-of-contact between Jews and non-Jews, and in so doing sometimes transform Jews, non-Jews, and the relationships among them. Other such communities constitute experiments in Jewish lifeways and provide mainstream Jews with pilot projects for potential social and cultural change. This course will explore the significance of small, little-known, idiosyncratic, and anomalous Jewish communities on Jewish history and culture, and draw on them to instruct students on the social and cultural processes of small or unusual communities generally. The communities studied will be located both in the U.S. and elsewhere in which Jews have lived as a minority community during modern times. The course will look at the founding, growth, and decline of such communities and at their social processes and institutions. It will explore how to understand and analyze such communities, which vary from one part of the world to another. The social world of Jewish communities, large and small, is a core interest of Penn State's Jewish Studies Program. This course will complement the current offerings in Jewish Studies, strengthening the social, cultural, and contemporary perspectives available in the Program. It will provide students with an opportunity to explore individual experience and micro-level processes among Jews, and to study the dynamics of identity and survival. It will complement the current offerings in Sociology and Anthropology by affording an opportunity to focus on community-level social processes and by adding a course on contemporary Jewry. The course will integrate knowledge from a variety of sources and fields, promote intercultural understanding, and meet US and IL requirements. Materials will be interdisciplinary, and will include ethnographies, sociological studies, population studies, histories, and personal narratives. They will include primary texts, creative works, and scholarly analyses. The assignments will be structured to facilitate preliminary experience in independent analysis, library research, or field research. The course will be offered approximately once a year. Enrollment will be limited to 30 students in order to promote active, engaged learning. Evaluations will be based on short papers and outlines that will prepare students for their final, term papers.
Study of literary writing of and about the Israel-Palestine conflict. This course examines the Israel-Palestine conflict through an analysis of literature written by participants, victims, bystanders, and observers. We will read literature by Arabs, Jews, and Christian; by Israelis, Palestinians, and other populations affected by the conflict; and by writers in the Arab World, Europe, and the Americas in order to develop a nuanced understanding of the conflict, its history, what's at stake for its participants, antagonists, and victims. The course will emphasize close reading and aesthetic analysis, but it will also pay attention to the ways in which literature can be used to think about history, experience, and politics. The course will survey a wide array of writing from a diverse set of global traditions, including significant figures, themes, and histories, and the course will pay attention to literature's intersections with migration history, international politics, faith, nationalism, and revolutionary liberation. The course will showcase national and religious diversity. We will focus on the relationship of writing of and about the Israel-Palestine conflict to other subfields and literary study more generally, including issues such as ethnicity, culture, religion, diaspora, gender, politics, and identity. A major emphasis of the course will be on analyzing literary texts as lenses to reflect, refract, and focus on Arab, Jewish, and Palestinian identity. In addition, by way of analyzing the interrelationships between literary representation and experience, the course will attend to a number of key themes in how we think about Diaspora, with some special emphasis on American literature about the Israel-Palestine conflict: how have American writers, and especially American writers of Arab, Jewish, and Muslim heritage, articulated their identities in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Middle East more generally, including the long history of US involvement in the Middle East? The course will cover both English-language literature and literature in translation from other languages.
Explores major figures and trends in Jewish philosophy and their influences on other philosophical traditions. J ST (PHIL) 468 Modern Jewish Philosophy (3) The primary objective of this course is to encourage students to have a reflective stance on Jewish thought. Students will learn what comprises Jewish thought and how it is distinguished from theology. They will learn what role religion plays in philosophical thought and what is at stake for a philosophy that emerges from a particular religion. This course will give students perspective on how Judaism links to other philosophical movements, for example, the enlightenment of the modern period. It will enable to think about Judaism from a theoretical perspective, adding a new dimension to what they might study from historical, sociological, or literary viewpoints. Some questions we will consider include: In what ways does it converge/diverge, with the philosophical strains that influence it? In what ways have particular events in history shaped Judaic thinking? Does Judaism, or Judaic thinking, have an essence? If so, what is it? What does Judaism mean for the Jews, and what does it mean for others? And finally, what role does mysticism have in the play between religion and philosophy? Students will be evaluated by written work (short papers and a longer seminar paper) and a class presentation.
JST 474Hiroshima & the Holocaust in History and Memory3
The history and memory of the Holocaust and Hiroshima and Nagasaki are often taught separately in different disciplines. This course will examine them together through the various ways different societies remembered, understood and commemorated these. Using the extensive literature on the history of memory, this course further suggests ways in which these memories and histories affected and were entangled by each other. Specific content will vary according to individual instructor, but topics may include victim cultures, cold war nuclear history, trauma, human rights, dark tourism, memorials, architecture as well as the general impact of these tragedies on the fraught politics of memory in East Asia and the Middle East, or the way the memories of the tragedies were entangled with the civil rights and other struggles in American and global history.
The aim of this course is to explore various ways in which philosophers have responded to Auschwitz (a signifier, or name, which is in turn not without controversy and complexity). It will examine, in particular, the promise and failure of post-Holocaust ethical theory, with attention to evil, suffering, goodness, witnessing, testimony, trauma, and human rights. Authors include Levi, Agamben, Arendt, Adorno, Levinas, Jonas, and Jankelevitch. Through reading and discussion of primary sources, this course introduces students to these philosophers' leading questions, methods, and conclusions, with reference to their historical context and their impact on later philosophy. The course will make these writings accessible to students without unduly presupposing prior knowledge, while also encouraging students to rise to the challenge with their own critical analysis and creative interpretations.
