Spring 2026 Undergraduate Courses
Jewish Studies 5 (ComLit 20)
Jewish Life and Literature
Instructors: Yael Segalovitz and Roni Masel
CN# 34115
Meeting Time: Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:30-2:00pm
Location: Social Sciences 56
Units: 4
We live in times of extreme uncertainty, but one thing is undeniable: we are living through catastrophe. From the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine to environmental collapse, global pandemic, political upheaval, and the rise of authoritarian regimes, rupture has become a defining feature of our moment. What can Jewish history teach us about the emergence, experience, and consequences of catastrophe? And what is catastrophe to begin with?
This course traces voices of rupture across Jewish thought and literature—from biblical laments and rabbinic midrash to modernist poetics and contemporary prose. Moving between philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and literary criticism, we will read foundational texts by figures including Walter Benjamin, Freud, Clarice Lispector, S. Yizhar, and Mahmoud Darwish alongside biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern Jewish sources. In so doing, the course also offers an introduction to two millennia of Jewish thought, history, and textual traditions, as well as their ongoing dialogue with neighboring cultures and languages. While telling a story of tragedies, we will also ask ourselves in what other terms, more hopeful perhaps, we could narrate an alternative history of the human experience; and what these other stories could afford us in imagining a peaceful (or at least, less violent) world.
- Meets Arts & Literature L&S Breadth
- Counts toward the Jewish Studies Minor
Jewish Studies 1o2 (Spanish 109A)
Elementary Judeo-Spanish (Ladino)
Instructor: Adam Mahler
CN# 26977
Meeting Time: Tuesdays/Thursdays 2:00-3:30pm
Location: Online
Units: 4
Judeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino, is the linguistic legacy of the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in the late fifteenth century. In this translation-driven course, students will learn to read and analyze Judeo-Spanish literary and cultural texts. Combining language instruction with elements of literary studies, this fast-paced course exposes students to Sephardic culture in the longue durée, including Hispano-Jewish poetry, Moroccan balladry, liturgical texts from Amsterdam, Ottoman-era memoir, holocaust testimony from the Balkans, and Jewish-American reportage and satire. Depending on course composition, students will have the opportunity to practice basic conversational skills. No knowledge of Hebrew or a Romance language required.
- Meets Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
Jewish Studies 110
The History and Cultures of Jews in the United States
Instructor: Gregg Drinkwater
CN# 26988
Meeting Time: Tuesdays/Thursdays 12:30-2:00pm
Location: Evans 87
Units: 4
Since the founding of the United States, Jews have been a tiny minority within a Christian-dominant culture. Just about 2.4% of the current population of the U.S. identifies as Jewish. And yet as this country approaches its 250th birthday, few other communities of comparable size can point to a history of being as widely celebrated as American Jews - while also recalling moments of being widely ostracized and debated. In this course, we will trace the history of American Jews from the colonial era to the present (with a particular emphasis on the 20th century), and reflect on the outsized role American Jews have played in the nation’s cultural imagination. We will examine the richness and diversity of American Jewish culture and the American Jewish experience, while also attending to the challenges and constraints faced by generations of Jews in this land. Topics and themes of the course will include: migration and the immigrant experience; the role of religion in American life; the boundaries of racial and ethnic identities; social and economic mobility; histories of integration and exclusion; cultural and religious innovation; antisemitism and philosemitism; gender and sexuality; and the often contested interplay between personal and communal identities.
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
Jewish Studies 120
Jewish Folktales: Past and Present, Self and Other
Instructor: Sarah Levin
CN# 25064
Meeting Time: Tuesdays/Thursdays 5:00-6;30pm
Location: Dwinelle 255
Units: 4
Folklore helps us make sense of the world we live in at the same time that it entertains us.
• Curious about dybbuks, golems, genies (jinns)?
• Want to know the folktales Shakespeare used?
• Want to learn new Jewish jokes?
In this course, we’ll read a sampling of folktales and jokes from diverse Jewish communities (German, Kurdish, Moroccan, Russian, Yemeni, etc.) while exploring themes such as creativity and artistic expression. We’ll also address gender, group identity and values, stereotypes, and the interactions of Jews and non-Jews. Films, videos, and guest storytellers will complement discussions. Final projects allow students to pursue their interests. Students from all majors and backgrounds are welcome. Conducted in English with readings in English.
– Meets Arts & Literature, L&S breadth
– Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
Jewish Studies 121B
Global Mizrahi Culture: Music, Art, and Cinema
Instructor: Yifat Moas
CN# 24356
Meeting Time: Mon, Wed, Fri 12:00-1:00pm
Location: Evans 41
Units: 4
While Jews are often imagined as having European roots, a significant portion of Israel’s Jewish population descends from once-thriving communities in Arab and Islamic countries. Their culture, and the ethnic relations between Mizrahi Jews (i.e., Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origin) and Ashkenazi Jews (with roots in Europe), have fundamentally shaped Israeli society. This course explores the history, culture, and evolving identity of Mizrahi Jews—from their historical experience in Arab and Islamic lands, through their immigration and struggles in Israel, to their cultural revival and growing political influence. These historical and cultural dynamics offer insights into the diverse forces that have shaped Israeli society, both past and present.
- Meets International Studies, L&S Breadth
- Meets Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
Jewish Studies 122 (Education 150.001)
Religion and Spirituality in Education: Israeli and American Cases
Instructor: Hanan Alexander
CN# 23701
Meeting Time: Tuesdays/Thursdays 2:00-3:30pm
Location: Evans 5
Units: 3
This course will examine the roles of religion and spirituality in education from the perspective liberal democratic society in two paradigm cases, Israel and the United States. It will review similarities and differences in the ways each school system conceives and practices such notions as secular and religious, initiation and indoctrination, diversity and inclusion, and public and private. For example, public schools do not offer religious instruction in the United States, due to the constitutional separation of religion and state, whereas religious schools receive state funding in Israel, as they do in many other countries that require no such separation. The course will also consider critiques of these concepts and practices based on gender, race, class, nationality, language, and the search for meaning, as well as similarities and differences between the impact of religious affiliation and nationalism and the influence of extremism in each educational system.
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
Jewish Studies 123
Social Movements in Israel
Instructor: Yifat Moas
CN# 25463
Meeting Time: Mon, Wed, Fri 10:00-11:00am
Location: TBA
Units: 4
The course takes us far beyond contemporary tensions between Muslims and Jews, and deep into a more complicated history that spans the Mediterranean and beyond. We move through topics that include the earliest encounters between Muslims and Jews during the years of the rise of Islam; the historical impact and legacy of the dhimmi (the system of rights and restrictions that defined Jews’ status for centuries under Islamic rule); the culturally fruitful shared experience of Jews and Muslims in Medieval Spain and the Ottoman Empire; the effects of French, British, and Italian colonialism in the modern Middle East; and the important conflicts over Zionism and Arab nationalism during the past century.
- Meets International Studies, L&S Breadth
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
Jewish Studies 126 (Education 150.002)
Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought: Faith, Culture, and Education
Instructor: Hanan Alexander
CN# 27964
Meeting Time: Tuesdays/Thursdays 9:30-11:00am
Location: Social Sciences 54
Units: 4
Jewish thought is a field of Jewish studies that analyzes the themes of Jewish tradition, culture, community, and education throughout the ages from a conceptual point of view. The field often deals with connections, parallels, influences, and tensions between Jewish ideas and those of the wider world through studies of Jewish philosophy, theology, and mysticism. Key topics that are considered in this field include the existence and nature of God, the rationale for religious observance, the purpose of the Jewish people, the demands of Jewish ethics, the bonds between Israel and the Diaspora, the authority of revelation, the relation between faith and reason, and the transmission of Jewish culture across the generations.
** Students may petition to use this course towards the Jewish Studies Minor, in lieu of Jewish Studies 100.**
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
More Spring 2026 Undergraduate Courses that Count Towards the JS Minor
Yiddish 102A
Elementary Yiddish 2
Instructor: Miriam Borden
CN# 28177
Meeting Time: Mon,Tu,Wed 10:00-11:00am
Location: Online
Units: 4
This course is a second-part introduction to the language that has been spoken by Ashkenazic Jews for more than a millennium, and an opportunity to discover the rich world of Yiddish language and culture through literature, music, folklore, television, blogs, and even memes. Using the communicative approach, we will learn how to speak, read, listen, write, and think critically about the worlds of Yiddish past and present..
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor
Yiddish 103
History of Yiddish Culture in English
Instructor: Miriam Borden
CN# 26416
Meeting Time: Tu/Thu 11:00am-12:30pm
Location: Online
Units: 4
Who are the Jews? Yiddish culture holds one set of answers. Yiddish, the heritage language of Ashkenazic Jews in Europe, is the key to 1,000 years of Jewish history and culture. This course traces the development of Yiddish culture from the first settlements of Jews in German lands through centuries of life in Eastern Europe, down to the main cultural centers today in Israel and the Americas. Through transnational Yiddish folklore, literature, music, drama, and more, we examine how the Yiddish language became a powerful tool to respond to changes and challenges to Jewish life. We will consider the Jewish encounter with travel, exile, race, violence, and politics across several centuries, especially in the modern period. And we will consider more recent representations—and reinventions—of Yiddish culture in contemporary film, television, digital media, and popular culture. By the end of the course, students will be able to unravel the mystery, the wit, and the beauty of the mameloshn (mother tongue).
- Counts towards the Jewish Studies Minor