Fall 2013 Courses: Undergraduate

 About Jewish Studies at Berkeley

The Jewish Studies Program at Berkeley combines resources from two separate institutions: the University of California at Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. It runs a Joint Doctoral Program and an undergraduate minor. In addition, the program provides instruction, guidance, some financial support, and other services to a larger community of graduate students in a range of different disciplines whose research falls under the heading of Jewish studies.

The interdisciplinary program holds as its mission to provide philological, literary, and historical training across the broad chronological and disciplinary range represented by Jewish studies. It draws upon the rich intellectual resources of scholars in Hebrew Bible; Talmud and Midrash; ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish history; Jewish philosophy and thought; and Modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature. The program also cultivates links with departments like Comparative Literature, History, and Near Eastern Studies at UCB, and the Jewish History Area at the GTU.

Graduates of Jewish-studies related programs have gone on to posts in a variety of outstanding institutions including Haifa University, Harvard, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford,  Tel Aviv University, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.