Jewish Civilization (JCIV)

Dynamic Dialogue: Talmudic Takes on Interfaith Engagement

The Text is Personal: Writing My Story Through the Jewish Story. What does it mean to be in relationship with Jewish texts? How do these texts help us understand and tell our story? In this course, we'll read both short and long form writing by rabbis and authors who use the Torah, Talmud, and other Jewish texts, as a mirror, prism, and filter for how they understand their lives and journeys. Over five sessions we'll study Ilana Kurshan's All the Seas are Ink, Aviya Kushner's The Grammar of God, and sermons from modern rabbis, while writing their own reflections and personal essays using text to tell their story.

The Meaning of Human Existence and its common problems from a Jewish Perspective. Since the beginning, different cultures have devoted their best intellectual efforts to the common problems facing humanity and the meaning of human existence. The core texts of the Jewish tradition - the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Talmud - have offered different answers to these existential questions. This course will examine different approaches present in the Jewish tradition, rooted in the sources and commentary, and analyze their meaning and relevance for our days. Course taught by Rabbi Skorka (a dear friend of Pope Francis) and Rabbi Schaefer.

To Pray or Not to Pray? Judaism as a Civilization

Is Judaism a religion or an ethnicity? Do Jews believe in the Afterlife? My grandmother never went to synagogue, so why did she care if I married a Jew? What does it mean to sit shiva?

This broad exploration of Judaism will take as a point of departure the notion that Judaism is neither a religion nor an ethnicity but instead a civilization. It will have two central foci. First, we’ll explore what it means to define Judaism as a civilization. Second, we’ll take a deep dive into the religious dimension of the Jewish Civilization as we study the core religious ideas and practices that animate, shape and reshape Jewish life.

Students with all levels of background are welcome. The intention is that this course will have something for everyone. For those entirely new to the subject, it should serve as an accessible introduction to Judaism. For those with more familiarity with the subject (on any level of depth), this course aims to shed new light on the existing ways one thinks about and understands Judaism.

The course is 1 credit and meets from October 15 - December 18, 2020

Sex, Tattoos and Death Panels? Jewish Views on Contemporary Issues

In this course we’ll explore some the most pressing social issues of our day through the lens of Jewish thought, both ancient and new. We’ll explore classic and contemporary Jewish teachings on topics including: The Who, What. Where, When, Why and How of sex. LGBTQI+ and Judaism. When Life Begins and When Life Ends. Tattoos, Body Piercings and Plastic Surgery.

This course is meant for all, and will be designed to address the questions and interests of students of all levels of familiarity with Judaism. Everyone is welcome. No prior background or coursework in Judaism necessary.

In this one-credit course we will explore the basics of Jewish religious practice. We'll investigate lifecycle rituals, holiday rituals and some core Jewish concepts underling them all.

The course is deigned to bring new insights both to those with some background in Judaism and those with none at all. No prior experience, coursework or knowledge required.

When the archives from the pontificate of Venerable Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) opened in March 2020, additional documentation for a long-debated aspect of World War II, Holocaust and postwar history became available: documentation related to Axis and Nazi war criminals who escaped from Europe postwar. Many fled to Latin America, but also to other continents, some with the help of Catholic priests and prelates. New studies and documents bring to light more detail about the so-called “ratline,” and address how much the Vatican Secretariat of State knew or did not know about such activity. In this course, students will read newly published primary source documents, as well as testimonies and films, describing the process of escape.

In 1933 when Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany, the German population was overwhelmingly Christian. In 1933 there were 40 million Protestants, 20 million Catholics, and small numbers of people adhering to other Christian traditions. Germany's territorial expansion that began in the 1930's meant millions of people, Christian and Jewish, came to be under the control of the Nazi state. The German Army, or Wehrmacht (1935-1945) became a tool for vast territorial expansion, and, in some cases, for war crimes and murder of civilians and Jews. How did Catholics in the Wehrmacht see and understand their role? Why did some participate while others refused to do so, even at the cost of their own lives? This course will examine the role of Catholics in the Wehrmacht, including its crimes against Jews and other civilians. We will examine photographs, diary excerpts and film to come to a closer understanding of the inner lives and decisions of Catholic soldiers.

According to American writer, Pearl S. Buck, “If you want to understand today you have to search yesterday.” This course is a vibrant, comprehensive journey through history that uses a multi-disciplinary approach to bring to life the people, movements and events, that shaped the Jewish nation and left a lasting impact on the world at large. Using documentaries, films and autobiographical works of literature which communicate a people’s lived-experience, the course will comprehensively cover the history of the Jewish people, in detail from ancient to contemporary times. As a result, students will gain a thorough understanding of important movements and events which continue to be of worldwide importance today: the birth of Judaism, the creation of the Hebrew Bible, the ideology of Zionism, the experience of the Holocaust, the establishment of a Jewish state and the development of the Middle East conflict. Comprehensive coverage will make accessible these complex events and issues, endowing students with both thorough historical knowledge and the ability to navigate media coverage of these issues in the news today. No prior knowledge of Jewish history or culture is necessary. Two documentaries and four films will be screened as part of the course, which fulfills the HALC requirement

This course will focus on analyzing the main issues in the field of human rights in International relations and the challenges that the protection of human rights poses to the international community. It will examine Israel as a case study. We will discuss the evolution of the idea of human rights and the salient milestones in the development of the international human rights regime. We will review the establishment of the tribunals for war crimes, the International Criminal Court (ICC), universal jurisdiction, international humanitarian intervention, cultural relativism, and transitional justice. The course will address the rights of the Arab minority in Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank as well as the role of human rights organizations. Emphasis will be given to the recent decision by the ICC regarding Israel and the dilemma of protecting human rights while fighting terrorism. We will also examine the role of human rights in the foreign policies of Israel and the United States. The course will include discussions with Israeli human rights activists and the instructor will share his experiences in the field as an Israeli diplomat for over 40 years. The 1-credit course takes place from 9:30am - noon for the five Wednesdays in September (September 1, 8, 15, 22 & 29).

From Resolution to Management and Prevention: The Evolution of the UN’s roles in the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Countering Violent Extremism: The Role We All Play

After the Nuremberg trials, Germany and other countries brought Nazis to justice for Holocaust-related crimes. These trials ran over decades with varying degrees of success. State interests, legal issues, and public opinion were some of the many hurdles to justice. The most recent trial against a Nazi criminal ended in August of 2024; Irmgard Furchner, a former concentration camp secretary and stenographer at the Stutthof concentration camp, was convicted with 11,412 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to a suspended jail term of two years. Furchner was 18 years old at the time of the crimes and 98 when she was convicted. Why did this trial happen, and why are other trials still taking place? Why are they occurring only now, almost 80 years after the fact? We will approach these questions and others during the class by analyzing trial material, historical backgrounds, and geopolitics. We also will speak to experts, prosecutors, and other actors about the challenges and legacy of these trials.

Third generation biographies of Nazis and their victims

The Opening of the Pius XII Archive and Holocaust Research.

On March 2, 2020, one of the most important Holocaust-related archives in the world opened - the multiple archives relating to the pontificate of Pius XII (1939 to 1958). This course consists of reading primary source and documents, watching films and reviewing key secondary literature from/based on these new archives. Announced by Pope Francis on March 4, 2019 and marking 80 years since the election of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) to the office of pope, the Pius XII archives are accessible in multiple locations across Vatican City and Rome. When announcing the opening of these archives, His Holiness Pope Francis said, “the Church is not afraid of history; rather, she loves it, and would like to love it more and better, as God does! So, with the same trust of my predecessors, I open and entrust to researchers this documentary heritage.” For historians of the churches during World War II, the Holocaust, and the postwar period, we are witnessing an exciting moment. Networks of scholars from Europe, Israel and the United States are already forming to be best prepared for these sizable archives and to share future findings. During the course, students will be exposed to recently released films, never-before-seen primary source documents, and key readings.

How did American Catholics respond to the rise of Nazism (1933-1945) and the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators? Catholics were among those the Germans persecuted, incarcerated in concentration camps, and killed – and also part of a tradition in which antisemitism was not rejected as a sin until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). What messages came from American Catholic leaders and prelates during this era? This course will focus on several episodes and figures in particular: the 1938 radio address on so-called Night of Broken Glass, broadcast from The Catholic University of America; the threat of the far right Christian Front movement, led by Father Charles Coughlin; and the so-called “Hidden Encyclical” authored in part by Father John La Farge, long-time editor of America magazine. During the course, students will be exposed to recently released films, key readings, and the papers of Father La Farge, held at Georgetown University.

The plethora of Jews in America’s theater, movie, music, comics, and television industries has attracted a great deal of notice from observers and from Jews themselves. But Jewish involvement in the development of American popular culture is about much more than religious identification or ethnic jokes. In this course, we explore questions of Jewish identity and social change, as well as the influence of politics, gender, race, and sexual identity on the production of culture. From earlier twentieth century entertainers like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Sophie Tucker to later legends such as Stephen Sondheim, Barbra Streisand, Lenny Bruce and Superman, and on to contemporary figures like Sarah Silverman and Jerry Seinfeld, the study of Jews in American popular culture invites us to reflect on what it means to live as a minority in society, as a Jew in a democracy, and as an American in the modern world.

In this class, you’ll answer the question “What Is a Story?” To do that, you’ll immerse yourselves in the art and discipline of story writing. Partly this means acquiring a writer’s critical eye for fiction, so you’ll study the basic elements of successful fiction (character, plot, description, etc.) and use these tools to read and analyze stories. Specifically, we’ll be considering the example of Jewish fiction, surveying the short story tradition in Jewish literature. Because the writer above all learns through doing, you’ll write a great deal of your own fiction (which does not need to be Jewish, of course)—regular exercises as well as more fully developed and revised work. Much of this development will happen as a result of the workshop process, where you’ll give one another extensive feedback on work submitted to the class as a whole.

This course will approach the Middle East quagmire by way of a historical discussion that centers on the problem of conflicting and confusing definitions and aspirations, both for those within the region and for those outside trying to understand what is operative within. The starting point will be theological, but the endpoint will be the interweaving of religion with other issues, such as politics, ethnicity, nationalism and economics. The goal is less to presume to solve the problem than to have a clearer understanding of why it is so difficult to solve.

The Holocaust is recognized as one of the traumatic moments in human history. The uniquely systematic depths of human-human interaction it revealed, paired with daring acts of heroism which the period yielded, have raised a range of questions which challenge long-held assumptions about what humanity is, if and what God is, and how to understand the concepts of good and evil. This course will have as its goal to assess the Holocaust as it has been approached by a range of thinkers, and to place it within the larger context of theology, history, art and thought. While our primary backdrop will be theological questions provoked by its narrative -- from both Jewish and Christian perspectives -- we will inevitably encompass the larger historical picture of Jewish-Christian, Jewish-Jewish, Christian-Christian and human-divine relations. We will also consider the importance, in the later part of the twentieth century, of visual (and other) art as a means of response -- both in the expression of anger and in seeking healing --to this trauma.

This course examines how Nazi racial ideology dictated peoples lives before and during the Holocaust. The class will discuss to what extent pre-World War II gender roles helped victims not only develop important survival skills, but also affected decisions of ordinary men and women to become killers. Using primary, secondary sources and film, we will discuss the experiences of men, women, and children during the Holocaust both from the perspective of victims and perpetrators. The different source materials will be historically contextualized to strengthen and expand the understanding of how Nazi polices affected both men and women, while examining how racial theory and the concept of “master race” contributed to the suffering of Jews and other victims before and during World War II. This class does not require any background in Jewish, Holocaust or Gender studies.

Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Digital Edition: Propaganda, Conspiracy, and the Politics of Hate. For more than a century, Protocols of the Elders of Zion has been used to advance a powerful and persistent anti-Semitic trope: that Jews are plotting to take over the world. From Adolf Hitler to Henry Ford, rabid anti-Semites have championed the fabricated text as a historical document and published it widely. Using Protocols as a launching point, this course will examine the history and nature of propaganda and conspiracism, with an eye toward understanding how such vehicles of influence are constructed and deployed in the today’s hyper-mediated politics.

This course will ask the following simple questions with their not-so-simple answers: What is the larger context into which the ideas of “death” and “the soul” fit? What did the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, among the myriad pagan, polytheistic traditions of antiquity, believe about death, the soul, and an afterlife? How did those beliefs change and not change with the advent of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? How are the beliefs on this subject the same for these three “Abrahamic” traditions and how do they differ from each other? How has such thinking changed and how has it not, in arriving into the “modern“ era?

This course will examine works of literature and film, from the early 20th century to the present day, which focus on the controversial subject and increasingly prevalent reality of interfaith and intercultural relationships and marriages. The course will begin with a view toward the Jewish perspective on this issue (from Biblical to Israeli) covered in the first three weeks, with the remainder of the semester devoted to the navigation of this complex terrain by different religious and national groups in international literature and film, among them: Christians and Muslims, Arabs, Africans and African-Americans, Asians and Asian-Americans, Indians and Pakistanis, Hispanics and Latinx, the LGBTQ community, and Native Americans. Texts will include primary works of fiction and cinema, and secondary works by literature and film critics, sociologists and anthropologists. Inquiry will focus on ways in which the concerns of each group have intersected, reflecting communal pressures as well as changing realities and norms. The multiplicity of perspectives across all groups, bely both the need to marry within the fold to preserve communal, religious-cultural values, along with a growing admission of the reality of increasing diversity in modern, pluralistic societies and the benefits these bring.

This course will examine Jerusalem through three pairs of multiple lenses that offer a plethora of interesting questions with richly-contoured answers. How, exactly, does the city evolve as a focal point in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions? How does each of these traditions connect to Jerusalem over the course of history, spiritually, liturgically, politically, and with words, images, and even melody?

We will begin with a discussion of the archaeologically-based understanding of the beginnings Jerusalem and how the archaeological record reflects, refracts, validates, or contradicts the biblical references to the city—from the time of the Hebrew, Abraham, to the time of the Israelite King, Solomon. We will trace the history of the twice-experienced building and destruction of, and exile from and return to Jerusalem—with an emphasis on its primary structures (the Temple and the royal palace and, subsequently, uppercrust tombs), that carry across a more than thousand-year period from David and Solomon (ca 100-930 BCE) to the First Revolt against the Romans (65-70 CE).

From that point we will trace the evolving importance of the city, its symbolic structures and/or their remnants to Judaism and Christianity as these two faiths emerge out of a common Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition. How is the importance of the city expressed in liturgy, literature, and visual art as these two contending traditions compete for legitimacy within the pagan Roman world, and how does that change and/or not change in the centuries after Christianity becomes the religion of the Empire by the end of the fourth century?

Where, when, why, and how does Jerusalem acquire importance for the Muslim tradition that emerges on the stage of history in the early seventh century? How is that importance expressed in literature and art? How do politics play a role in shaping the city’s skyline in concert with religion and art? How do all three Abrahamic traditions interweave history and legend within the prose, poetry, and diverse visual art forms that they foster over the medieval period?

How do these issues and ideas become transformed toward and into the modern era and how does “Jerusalem” as a symbol resonate outward in various directions within particularly the Euro-American world? When does music become part of the artistic expression devoted to the sacred city? As we arrive into the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, what elements of continuity and what new issues emerge, informed by the changing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds? What can one conclude about Jerusalem, given recent political events and artistic expressions, with regard to the present and the future?

Also listed as INAF/JCIV 187.

Professor Forman served as the State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism during President Obama's second term and currently he serves as the Senior Advisor for Combatting Antisemitism at Human Rights First. The course is designed to introduce students (through the lens of today's antisemitism) the nature of hate in 2020, the tools governments, non-government organization (NGOs) and citizen activists have to confront that hate and the allies that can be recruited for the battle for human rights. Students will have the opportunity to hear from Professor Forman as well as outside experts from government and the NGO world about as how these institutions can confront Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia and today's antisemitism. Each student will be asked to select a country where they will be asked to analyze the unique nature of antisemitism and xenophobia. The class culminates with students, through their research and interacting with experts in the field, coming up with plans to combat hate and protect the victims of these forms of hate. Course also listed as INAF 188.

According to the Jewish data bank, 42% of the world’s Jewish population lives in North America. What does the term “Jewish Population” mean? To whom exactly are we referring? The liberal Jews who publicly support LGBTQ rights and refugees? The anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta that attended a conference in Iran organized by Ahmadinejad in 2006? The controversial Jared Kushner and his supporters who define themselves as Modern Orthodox and Chabad-Lubavitch? This course surveys Jewish life in North America (Canada and the United States) by looking at a variety of religious denominations (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, Sephardi, Renewal, Non-Affiliated, etc.). In doing so, we discover how these religious affiliations are often aligned with ethnic, cultural, racial, and political differences that constitute North American Jewry. Students will meet members and leaders of diverse Jewish communities and institutions, both in class and during field visits. Issues such as intermarriage, modernity, feminism, secularism, technology, new reproductive technology, and sexuality will be covered. Based on an experiential approach, students will undertake their own fieldwork project of Jewish life in Washington DC, and will present their findings in writing or in a photo/video-based mini- exhibit. Sources will include anthropological and sociological materials as well as film, music, and newspapers. More broadly, the course will attempt to respond to the anthropological question of how Jewishness, in its various forms, takes on meaning in North American society when it comes to the preservation or the rejection of tradition. Course also listed as INAF 195

This course will examine how Israeli and Palestinian literatures depict the “other” through text and image, from the early years of Zionism to the twenty-first-century. Using the methodologies of comparative studies, we will attempt to understand how each nation’s views evolved and changed over time, with a focus on works which shifted these perceptions in revolutionary ways. Various depictions of the “other” will be examined, such as the criminal, noble hero, sexual predator, the lover, the suicide bomber and the ally. We will also discuss how both art forms grappled with the many issues which together contribute to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, including: identity, language, class and the deceptively simple task of defining homeland. Weekly critical readings will include the theoretical ideas of Orientalism and post-colonialism, enabling students to understand both literatures within the wider context of world literature. Among the authors covered are: Yosef Chaim Brenner, S. Yizhar, Sami Michael, A.B. Yehoshua, Eli Amir, Amos Oz, David Grossman, Hanna Ibrahim, Emile Habibi, Atallah Mansour, Ghassan Kanafani, Mahmoud Darwish, Samir El-Youssef and Sayed Kashua. All readings, literary and critical, will be read in English translation, and five films will be screened as part of the course. Course also listed as INAF 196

This course examines the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials (1963-1968), one of the most significant post-World War II attempts to prosecute Nazi war crimes. Sixty years later, we reflect on their impact on historical memory, transitional justice, and impact in German society and beyond. Topics include the reaction of German society to the trials, the role of survivor testimony, legal challenges, and how the trials have been depicted in literature, film, and other media.

This course will examine Jerusalem through three pairs of multiple lenses that offer a plethora of interesting questions with richly-contoured answers. How, exactly, does the city evolve as a focal point in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions? How does each of these traditions connect to Jerusalem over the course of history: spiritually, liturgically, politically, and with words, images, and even melody?

We will begin with a discussion of the archaeologically-based understanding of the beginnings of Jerusalem and how the archaeological record reflects, refracts, validates, or contradicts the biblical references to the city—from the time of the Hebrew, Abraham, to the time of the Israelite King, Solomon. We will trace the history of the twice-experienced building and destruction of, and exile from and return to Jerusalem in antiquity—with an emphasis on its primary structures (the Temple and the royal palace and, subsequently, uppercrust tombs), that carry across a more than thousand-year period from David and Solomon (ca 1000-930 BCE) to the First Revolt against the Romans (65-70 CE).

From that point we will trace the evolving importance of the city, its symbolic structures and/or their remnants, to Judaism and Christianity as these two faiths emerge out of a common Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition. How is the importance of the city expressed in liturgy, literature, and visual art as these two contending forms of faith and culture compete for legitimacy within the pagan Roman world, and how does that change and/or not change in the centuries after Christianity becomes the religion of the Empire by the end of the fourth century?

Where, when, why, and how does Jerusalem acquire importance for the Muslim tradition that steps onto the stage of history in the early seventh century? How is that importance expressed in literature and art? How do politics play a role in shaping the city’s skyline in concert with religion and art? How do all three Abrahamic traditions interweave history and legend within the prose, poetry, and diverse visual art forms that they foster over the medieval period?

How do these issues and ideas become transformed toward and into the modern era and how does “Jerusalem” as a symbol resonate outward in various directions within particularly the Euro-American world? When does music become part of the artistic expression devoted to the sacred city? As we arrive into the world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, what elements of continuity and what new issues emerge, informed by the changing Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds? What can one conclude about Jerusalem, given recent political events and artistic expressions, with regard to the present and the future?

TBD

The world of the Greeks and Roman was one of endlessly multi-aspected paganism, with its consciousness of a range of gods and goddesses, daimons and spirits moving between their realm and ours. It was also one in which the Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean competed with paganism and continued to struggle to define itself—and ultimately split into what became Judaism and Christianity. This course will focus on the times, places and literatures that reflect the interface between paganism as it has evolved within the Greco-Roman world and nascent Judaism and Christianity. It pushes toward an understanding of how Judaism and Christianity emerged out of the Hebrew-Israelite-Judaean tradition as two forms of faith each claiming to be the proper continuation of that tradition. It considers how their theological relationship—their competition regarding the Truth regarding divinity and its relationship to humanity—is not only affected by their mutual interface and their theological relationships with paganism but by the political context of the pagan Roman Imperium in which they both develop. This is a world of meeting, divergence, convergence, synthesis, embrace and rejection of religious principles and ideas. It is a world in which verbal distinctions that we take for granted—such as those between magic and religion, myth and theology, superstition and true belief, astronomy and astrology—have not yet assumed the place to which they arrived within our vocabulary, over time. Our goal is largely to come to understand what comprise the key elements that distinguish and join these traditions, why and how this vocabulary emerges and evolves, and how the shaping of that vocabulary has affected and continues to affect our sense of what Judaism and Christianity are.

Intro to Jewish Civilization: Community, Identity & Politics. Course taught by Dr. Alana Holland.

This course analyzes Israel’s relations and foreign policy objectives in the Global South, with a specific focus on Israel’s relations with Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. Through this one-credit course, students will examine Israel’s overarching foreign policy aims across the Global South. Moving from the Yishuv’s quest for international legitimacy in the late 1940s to the newly founded state’s focus on “peripheral” security, students will study Israel’s relations with prominent Global South nations. Students will also gain insight into how Israel leverages contemporary relations with small and middle powers to enhance its international standing and influence.

While the course is not designed to be a comprehensive examination of Israeli-Global South relations, it is intended to offer students an analytical framework for understanding the historic and contemporary events that have influenced the course of Israeli outreach to the Global South as well as the primary reasons for countries’ receptivity to this diplomatic engagement. Students are encouraged to situate geopolitical developments within specific domestic and international contexts to better understand the multifaceted dynamics driving Israel’s bilateral outreach to countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Great power competition and an evolving geopolitical landscape likewise impact Israel’s foreign policy engagement. Thus, the course will also explore the interdependence and interconnectivity of Israeli and global politics.

Beyond providing a scholarly foundation for a better understanding of Israeli-Global South relations, the course offers students the opportunity to interact directly with academics and policymakers involved in this important – and expanding – field of study. These engagements, along with in-class workshops and discussions, will facilitate consideration and debate of diverse academic and policy viewpoints. Although the course does not require any prior knowledge of Israel or regional affairs, close attention to the weekly readings and extensive in-class participation is expected.This course will meet for 2.5 hours 6 times throughout the semester on the following dates: 28 Aug; 11 Sep; 25 Sep; 9 Oct; 23 Oct; 6 Nov.

I would like to create a section in the INAF dept as well (INAF 2003). The course will run on Wednesdays from 3:30 - 6 and the max enrollment will be 25 total across both sections.

This course offers a constructive, interdisciplinary approach to examining the competing and overlapping ways Blacks and Jews in America imagine, cultivate and perform their religious and cultural identities. Although the groups emerge in the American context with unique histories and traditions, there is an overwhelming popular belief that Blacks and Jews share, at least historically, a special relationship. The course will explore the nature of this relationship and investigate the religious and social inter-sectionality of Black and Jewish imaginations within the context of antiblack racism and anti-Semitism. Using primary, secondary, visual and material resources, students will investigate how Blacks and Jews retrieve religion, tradition and ethics to interrogate, explore and, in some cases, expand definitions of democracy, political liberalism, freedom, citizenship and community.

Who are you? How do you understand and define yourself? These questions lie at the heart of the process of identity formation, and this course will not conclusively and permanently answer them. How could it? Identity develops and changes throughout a lifetime. That said, you will learn to see, analyze, and use the writing process as a primary tool that can help answer these questions again and again, whenever they arise. In this way, a body of literature is, in part, a record of a group’s identity development. Turning to the model of Jewish literature—fiction and poetry—as an example of how a people uses writing to preserve and challenge its cultural and religious identity, we’ll jumpstart your own explorations, which will happen through thought, conversation, and writing, both creative and analytical. Restrictions: N/A

Antisemitism has been a persistent phenomenon in Western (and other) cultures for over two thousand years. This course will examine the nature and historical development of anti-Jewish sentiment and Antisemitic theories, from their roots in the ancient pagan world to their current political and social expressions. We will discuss the texts and ideas that shaped attitudes toward the Jews throughout history, giving special attention to the ways in which they intersected with politics, literature, religion, and popular culture. Finally, we will consider the different ways in which both Jews and non-Jews have responded to Antisemitic behavior and beliefs.

Nazis and Disability

Qualitative Research Methods

The Societal, Political and Security Implications of Israel's Relations with the Arab and Muslim World. This course will review the Zionist Movement's and the State of Israel's relations with the Arab and Muslim World throughout four modules. The first will examine the implications of Jewish immigration from the Middle East and North Africa for the state formation process. Students will also assess Israel's approaches to Arab and Palestinian minorities. The second module will review the development of Israel's relations with Arab and Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa, from the pre-state period through the major military confrontations of 1948, 1967 and 1973. It will also survey the Camp David Accords with Egypt, as well as Israel's wars in Lebanon and their effect on Palestinians. The third module will take a closer look at the development of relations between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran. During the last module, students will study the impact of recent political changes in the Middle East. Specifically, they will evaluate what the end of the Cold War, the Arab Spring, and the Abraham Accords have meant for both Israel's diplomatic relations in the region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

TBD

While many students are familiar with major places of the Nazi extermination of Jews in Europe during World War II like Auschwitz but few know about the Holocaust by bullets. The Nazis conceived of mobile killing units which wiped out the Jewish population of small villages and big cities throughout Eastern Europe, shooting more than two million Jews: men, women and children. Fr. Patrick Desbois, a forensic anthropologist and author of "The Holocaust by Bullets" and "In Broad Daylight" and Dr. Andrej Umansky will teach the Holocaust by bullets in this class. Mid-term and final exams. Class participation and preparation essential. Course also listed as INAF 2750.

This course begins by asking when and how law became separate from religion in the Israelite-Judaean world. It moves on to consider how we might evaluate and understand the narrative of Jesus’ trial and demise in the Gospels in light of information outside those accounts within Judaean, pagan Roman and early Jewish literature. Noting that, regardless of the details that favor or disfavor the Gospel account, many generations of Christians have accept it as unequivocally true, the book goes on with a review that is both concise and extensive of the history of Christian-Jewish relations, examining that relationship through a legal and quasi-legal lens. From medieval Blood Libels to the notorious Dreyfus Affair and from the story of Leo Frank’s trial and eventual murder to that of Adolph Eichmann’s trial and execution to that of Jonathan Pollard’s trial behind closed doors and ongoing incarceration, the narrative suggests that the Jew seems always to be on trial in the courtroom of journalistic and historiographic examination, whether as the accused, the accuser, the jury or the judge.

America, Alliances, and the Politics of the Middle East. This course will review U.S. Middle East policy. In particular, the course will examine the history of America's relationship with autocratic allies. This course will be taught by Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings.

Beginning in 1956, the United States became the defender of a regional order in the Middle East that advanced its interests and those of its allies. In so doing, it built a series of regional partnerships with monarchies, dictatorships, and at least one democracy. Global powers often rely on regional partners to help secure their interests in far-flung places, and these partnerships are often complicated by differences in preferences and priorities – especially in the case of autocratic allies. This seminar will examine the modern history of U.S. Middle East policy through the lens of alliances with states of different regime types. Students will integrate comparative politics and international relations knowledge with regional study to produce a richer understanding of the modern Middle East. As policy makers debate the American role in a Middle East where regional order has broken down in part over the failure of autocratic governments, we will examine the legacy of these complex alliances for the region and for U.S. policy.

One football player crossing the goal line with the ball in hand, bends on one knee, crosses himself and looks heavenward, thanking God; a second, having dropped what would have been the winning touchdown pass, tweets angrily the next day: "I praise you 24/7 and you do me this?!?!" Sports and religion repeatedly interweave each other in a range of ways. But this is not new--it goes all the way back to the Bible and the Iliad, and the interwoven relationship has cascaded down through history. Moreover, sports has always been a surrogate for war, and war has been dictated by politics--which has often justified itself through religion. And one way we see this clearly is in visual art, across history and geography. This course will consider the dynamic and fascinating interweave between sports and religion through history, together with the more complex ways in which these two disciplines are interwoven with war, politics and art. It should be an exciting ride, with plenty of twists and turns.

From Bombay to Buenos Aires: Jewish Literature of the Global South

What did “Brazil’s greatest modern writer,” “The Father of Contemporary Indian English Poetry,” and “the doyenne of South African English letters” have in common? These writers (Clarice Lispector, Nissim Ezekiel, and Nadine Gordimer) were all Jewish—and they were far from alone. The nations of Asia, South America, and Africa have produced a variety of remarkable Jewish writers of fiction and poetry who belong in any canon of Jewish literature. In this course we’ll deeply engage a diverse sample of that literature, and in ways (discussion, creative writing, interactive projects) that take us beyond the borders of the standard analytical essay.

This course will consider the common origins and divergent and often convergent directions of the three Abraham faiths; and how those origins and directions affect their respective visual vocabularies. How have all three traditions adopted and adopted visual ideas from pagan art that predates all of them as well as from each other? How have they transformed or reinterpreted the meanings of common symbols in order to express their distinct sense of God and of the relationship between divinity and humanity? How have Judaism and Islam visually expressed God without the possibility of figurative imaging and how has Christianity gone beyond the limits of figurative expression in visually articulating God? How is the legacy of antiquity and the medieval period still palpable in the era of both modern and contemporary art?

This course explores some of the major minds and movements in Jewish thinking in the last 350 years while asking four questions: what is “modern”? what is “Jewish”? what is “thought”? and how might we understand all three terms combined as one rubric? Stated otherwise: in considering the historical development of diverse thought patterns and issues that emerged outside and inside Jewish life during this period – Secularism, Nationalism, Marxism/Socialism, Existentialism, Psychoanalysis, Reconstructionism, Modern Orthodoxy, the Holocaust—what do the reflections of individuals diverse in background and outward expression share (from Spinoza to Marx to Freud and Kafka to Hannah Arendt), by virtue of which we may group them together under such a rubric? The criss-cross of personalities and genres—philosophy and theology and work that is not typically included within either of these categories—should, in the end, begin to answer parts of our questions, while stimulating yet further questions (at least some of them ultimately unanswerable).

Course also listed as INAF 227

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the study of Zionism and contemporary Israel. This course aims to provide students with familiarity with the main events and features of Israel's history and present, as well as with different interpretations and narratives of that history. The course will begin by analyzing the origins and development of Zionist idea and movement in Europe and the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th century and the subsequent settlement of Jews in Palestine. We will then continue with the establishment of the independent state in May 1948, and will survey and analyze critical events and major themes of the state's first eight decades; such as Israel's ideological and political foundations, the centrality of immigration, religion, Arab minorities, civil-military relations, and inter-Jewish tensions both within Israel and with world Jewry, particularly in the United States. This course is also listed as INAF 230.

Congress & the Making of Middle East Foreign Policy - taught by Danielle Pletka, Senior Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

While foreign policy is the constitutional prerogative of the president, for much of recent history, it has been the Congress that has led the way in shaping US foreign policy toward the Middle East. From aid to Israel and sanctions against Iran to the war on terror, the legislative branch has influenced America's role in the world in ways that few appreciate. Beginning with a detailed overview of the legislative process, this course will explore how Congress has shaped the modern Middle East, looking at key pieces of legislation and historical and contemporary case studies.

This course will address the question of what "mysticism" is—how it differs from "normative" religious experience—and therefore how Jewish, Christian and Muslim mysticism differ from (and are rooted in) normative Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It will also address the question of how Jewish, Christian and Muslim mysticism differ from and share common ground with each other. The course will follow a two-fold path. One will be conceptual: we will be constantly asking how what we are reading, talking and thinking about is specific or not specific to what Jewish or Christian or Muslim mysticism is. The other will be historical: all three mystical traditions undergo centuries of development and part of grasping them is seeing how they change even as they remain consistently focused on the same essential issues. And those issues, not unique to mysticism or to these three “types” of mysticism, but uniquely addressed by each of them, include: why are we here? what, if anything, created us? for what purpose, if any? how can we know what It/He/She is and wants of us? how can we grasp that Other without losing hold of ourselves?—and so on...

The so-called “Arab Spring” has been characterized – among other things - by popular protests for regime change and reform, protracted civil wars, humanitarian catastrophes, the proliferation of failed states as well as state and nonstate actors engaged in terrorist, proxy, and low-level conventional conflicts. How does the Arab Spring affect Israel? How does Israel respond to a transforming regional order? What is Israel’s policy in light of the disintegrating Arab nation-states and Iranian regional ambitions? What are the implications of the regional turmoil on Israel’s relations with Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians? What are the ramifications of the Arab Spring on Israel-United States relations? And, just as important, what are some of the opportunities for Israel amid a transforming Middle East? The purpose of this course is to analyze and understand the political, diplomatic, and strategic effects of upheavals in the Middle East on the State of Israel. To augment the students’ understanding of Israel in the context of the broader Middle East, academic readings and lectures will be supplemented with policy papers, grass-roots level examples, media, comparative analyses, and guest speakers. At the start of the course, readings and class discussions will enable students to gain a basic understanding of Israel’s national security and foreign policy doctrines, including an analysis of some of the main processes which explain the recent changes in the Middle East. The bulk of the semester, however, will be devoted to exploring specific key ramifications of the Arab Spring on Israel’s national security; foreign policy; domestic politics; relations with other regional actors, the United States and Russia; as well as Israel’s strategy towards nonstate actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The course will explore themes and tensions that repeatedly confront Israel in the Middle East. Course listed as both JCIV and INAF 245.

The Bible is the bestselling book of all time and for millions the word of God, yet its main heroes have no qualms about arguing with their Creator, and they’ve inspired a worldwide artistic and philosophical tradition of doing the same. Profoundly inspired by the narratives of the Bible, some of the greatest artists and thinkers in history have responded by appropriating Biblical stories to their unique places and times, producing enduring works of literature, philosophy, visual art, music and film. In the process, they reveal the universal beauty, power and wisdom of the Bible – its profound insight into the human condition, and the eternal human struggle to understand and accept some of its most difficult messages. This course will explore how different interpreters from various faith traditions, from classical to modern times - and in multiple genres – “argue” or converse with and challenge, the Biblical text, and by extension, God who wrote it. Each week, we will focus on interpretations of a different Biblical text by artists and thinkers such as: John Steinbeck, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Mann, Soren Kierkegaard, Vladimir Jabotinsky, Joseph Roth, Yehuda Amichai, Elie Wiesel, Geraldine Brooks, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Marc Chagall and Sigmund Freud. No previous knowledge of the Bible is required. Course also listed as INAF 2761.

This course will focus on Israel’s foreign policy from 1948 until the present. We will discuss the main characteristics of its foreign policy, the tension between ideology and "realpolitik" and the decision making process. We will analyze Israel's relations with the United States, the European Union, Russia, the Arab states, Iran, Turkey, Africa, South America, Asia and the Vatican. Key documents of Israel's diplomatic history will be analyzed. The course will include guest speakers as well as visits to The Holocaust Museum and the Israeli Embassy. We will also view and discuss a documentary film. This course will be taught by Ambassador Zion Evrony, who most recently served as the Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See (2012-2016). Ambassador Evrony will share his experiences as a former Israeli diplomat for over 43 years.

Not a day goes by without a journalist, public servant, professor, or policy analyst invoking the term “secularism” in a discussion about contemporary American politics. But what exactly is secularism? What does it stand for? What is its historical genealogy? Who are those who speak on behalf of, or against, secularism? How is it invoked in debates about religion and politics in the United States? And why is there such tremendous confusion as to what this concept signifies? To think about secularism in the contemporary political context is to wrestle with some of the most contentious issues that confront our democracy. These include the question of LGBT rights; women’s reproductive freedoms; freedom of speech (both religious and blasphemous); the role of science as a driver of public policy; how students are to be taught in public schools, and so much more. In short, developing a robust understanding of the American secular tradition casts an illuminating light on these, the most intractable of our national dilemmas. In this course, we explore the long and complex history of the American secular tradition, and we ask what its future might portend.

This course will examine new forensic evidence about imprisonment in Nazi death camps and labor centers. Informed by the work of Fr. Patrick Desbois, the forensic anthropologist whose book, Holocaust by Bullets, has revised the historiography of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, this study will compare present narratives of the design and operations of the camps to newly discovered forensics which alter our understanding. Taught in tandem with a reading of autobiographical literature from camp inmates such as Elie Wiesel, Jean Bernard, Viktor Frankl, Anne Frank, Ettie Hillesum and others.

The Jewish-Muslim relationship is often synonymous with conflict. However, until the early modern period, most of the world’s Jews spoke Arabic and called the Islamic world home. Indeed, after a long Jewish presence in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans in the 19th and 20th centuries factors like colonization, nationalism, and, migration have utterly transformed this map, triggering a massive departure of Jews from the Islamic world in the 1950s and 1960s. In diaspora communities such as the Sephardim, Arab-Jews, and Mizrahim were born into a heritage anchored in their relationship with the Arabo-Muslim world. This course will explore the Jewish and Muslim relationship beyond the conflict by looking at artistic productions such as music, cinema, and literature from an anthropological perspective. Through this lens, we will discover everyday life and interaction of individuals and communities in North Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East from the past and the present. We will analyze various forms of artistic expression in order to understand how it shaped and is shaping the lives and relationship of these two groups, and how it reveals alternative voices to the official narrative.

More than two million Jews were shot in more than ten countries during the Holocaust by bullets. Who in these countries was able to save the Jews? The Soviet regime, the Righteous among the Nations, and short-term rescuers were among those who stepped in to intervene. This course will look at those who saved Jews, those who were indifferent, and those who participated in their murder. Through historical analysis, survivor testimonies, and interdisciplinary perspectives, students will explore the risks, motivations, and impacts of rescue operations in Eastern Europe. The course aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the moral and ethical dimensions of rescue, the historical context, and the legacy of these acts of courage. At the end of the course, when faced with a mass massacre, past or present, each student will be asked to reflect on what they consider to be a rescue.

This modular course provides a hands-on insight into Israel’s national security challenges, dilemmas, strategies, policymaking, and implementation in an increasingly turbulent and volatile Middle East. Together we shall explore the unique conditions that have framed Israel’s national security decision-making including Regional and Great Power dynamics, the weight of the intelligence agencies and of the military vs. the relative weakness of the civilian national security organs, and the limitations resulting from the proportional electoral system. We shall also examine rising variables in Israel’s national security thinking and strategy including, among others, information warfare and societal resilience. The course includes four lectures and a wrap-up wargaming session: 1) Israel’s Emerging Threats in the Regional and Global Arenas 2) Adapting Israel’s National Security Doctrine 3) Israel’ Decision-Making in Practice: Structure, Mechanisms, and Power Struggles 4) Case Study Analysis: The Israeli-Russian Tango in Syria and Beyond 5) Wargaming Session: Students will participate in a wargame simulation by playing the moves and countermoves of Israel’s national security stakeholders. Students shall be trained to formulate security assessments, generate policy-oriented solutions, and examine their policy objectives and unexpected outcomes. This course is designed to improve decision-making skills across a wide range of policy areas and empower students and young professionals in the foreign policy and national security realms. This is a non-standard class. With an add drop form students may add and drop until the first day of class. The withdrawal period begins on day two. Please see the non-standard course information on the registrar's website This section will meet in the Murray Room of Lauinger 5th (Room 541) floor from Feb 10-14. Course is taught by Dr. Sarah Fainberg.

The Weaponization of Hate: Antisemitism, Racism, Islamophobia, and Xenophobia in the COVID-19 Pandemic era. Over the past several years, the Western world has suffered a dangerous rise in far-right extremism, providing an imminent terrorism and hate crime threat to Jewish communities, as well as Muslims, African Americans, and, in some cases, women. This class will assess the ideological underpinnings of the anti-Semitic far-right, trace the movement’s rise in the Obama and Trump years, analyze the current movement’s tactical and communications preferences, and evaluate ongoing and future counterterrorism and countering violent extremism measures. The aim is to provide an extensive and objective assessment of the current threat to Jewish communities and beyond, and to offer students an introduction to the counterterrorism world and to underscore the importance of understanding and fighting hate in all its forms. Course listed as JCIV 281 and INAF 281.

The Middle East is in turmoil: Conflict in Syria and Yemen; conflict between Saudi Arabia and Qatar; generational changes in the Gulf; Iran and Turkey sowing discord; Salafi-jihadis on the march; and more. How should the United States be dealing with the challenges? Is the Middle East relevant to US national security? This course will explore options for US policy.

This modular course highlights the multifaceted relations that have developed between the countries of the Balkan Peninsula and the State of Israel since the breakup of Yugoslavia. Their encounter draws upon an acute sense of the 20th century tragedies as the Jewish people and minorities across the Balkans experienced genocidal policies and ethnic cleansing. Based on the Ottoman legacy, the Balkan countries and Israel also perceive themselves as “crossroads between Christian and Muslim civilizations” while wrestling with the challenge of integrating their own ethnic and religious minorities. From a geopolitical perspective, Israel and the Western Balkans are viewed as soft underbellies of Western security architecture and aspire to foster a stable neighborhood and regional integration. Specifically, they share a concern for the rise of Jihadi extremism, the refugee crisis’ destabilizing effects, Iran’s and Turkey’s muscle-flexing and rivalry, Great Power collusion, and the imperative to protect their energy needs and infrastructures. Ideologically, they tend to converge in their unwavering commitment to the national principle and the nation-state framework. Israel’s intensifying relations with the Balkan region in the broad sense (from the Adriatic coast to the Ionian, Aegean, and Black Seas) testify to the rise of a new and often overlooked geopolitical continuum between the Balkan area and the Middle East. Together we shall explore Israel’s multidimensional engagement with the Balkan countries by focusing on three main questions: What are the main drivers and constraints of their relationships? What lies behind the US involvement in their relationship dynamics? To what extent can the Balkan countries provide Israel with a second circle of allies in the periphery of the Middle East? This course is designed to empower students and young professionals with a keen interest in European, Eurasian, and Middle East studies in the foreign policy and national security realms. Students shall be trained to formulate security assessments and generate policy-oriented objectives and solutions.

This course explores the fiction of a wide variety of contemporary Jewish authors working in the post-Holocaust era. The body of work that they have produced may be described as comic, dark, critical of self (and others), and, quite often, exceedingly disturbing. These writers, however, can rarely be described as boring. Throughout the semester we will cling to an analytical distinction in which how an author writes is contrasted to what an author writes about. This separation of form and content is performed under the artificial laboratory conditions of literary analysis. Form and content, needless to say, are inextricably bound and comprise an organic unity. Be that as it may, we will often employ this distinction in our study of the novels, novellas, and short stories that we encounter this semester. In terms of form, the questions we ask are simple (though the answers we will come across are decidedly not): how is the work of literary art built? Why did the author decide to narrate the story in this particular manner and what advantages and disadvantages resulted from this decision? How is the overall work structured? How might we describe the prose style of the writer in question? What are the technical strengths and weaknesses of the author? What literary influences can be identified? What is unique or idiosyncratic about his or her artistry? In terms of content, we will notice that certain themes recur in nearly all of the works selected for scrutiny. Using a kind of shorthand we will organize our semester around some recurring obsessions of Jewish-American writers (many of which bleed into one another): “Holocaust,” “Israel,” “American Jews and ‘Others,’” and “Immigrant Stories.” As the term progresses we will come across recurring motifs which might be described as: “the emasculated diaspora Jew”: “the lonely protagonist”: “Jewish women for and against Judaism”: “an American Jew in Israel”: “the eternal immigrant”: “assimilation and its discontents”: “the lure of the secular”: “orthodoxy and modernity”: “the oversexed Jew/ess”: and “the (dysfunctional) Jewish family.”

In this course, we will examine Jewish theological and philosophical responses to the crisis of meaning brought about by the experience of modernity. The course has two aims. The first aim is to show how Jewish thinkers attempt to restore and reinterpret the meaning of traditional religious concepts such as God, faith, creation, revelation, and redemption in an age in which their meaning has been radically called into question by the rise of science and technology and the catastrophic historical events of the 20th century. We will discuss general philosophical and theological issues such as the relationship between faith, reason, and science, the relationship between freedom, community, and religious or ethical obligation, and the meaning of history. The second aim of the course is to analyze how Jewish thinkers interpret the meaning of Jewish existence in the modern age. Here we will discuss questions such as how the focus on the perpetuation of a specifically Jewish life relates to the universalist and messianic dimensions of Judaism and the relationship between “Halakha” (Jewish law) and the ethical and spiritual aspects of Judaism. We will read selections from Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Martin Buber, Hermann Cohen, Will Herberg, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Eugen-Rosenstock-Huessy, Franz Rosenzweig, and Joseph B. Soloveichik.

TBD

Global Secularisms

The Societal, Political and Security Implications of Israel's Relations with the Arab and Muslim World. This course will undertake a broad review of Israel's relations with the Arab and Muslim World in four modules. The first will review the development of Israel's relations with Arab and Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa, from the pre-state period through the major military confrontations of 1948, 1957, 1967 and 1973. It will then look the implications of the peace treaty with Egypt as well as Israel's wars in Lebanon and confrontation with the PLO. The second will look more internally at the implications of Jewish immigration from the Middle East and North Africa on the state formation process, the state's approaches to its non-Jewish minority populations as well as the Palestinian population in the occupied territories (Gaza and the West Bank). The third module will take a closer look at the development of relations between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran. During the last module, students will study the impact of recent political changes in the Middle East. Specifically, they will evaluate what the end of the Cold War, the Arab Spring, and the Abraham Accords have meant for both Israel's diplomatic relations in the region and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

TBD

This course will track and analyze significant moments in history when the Jewish people and Muslims lived peacefully in co-existence. This was based on geography and politics, but also Islam’s debt to Judaism as a predecessor civilization of common prophets, scripture and ethics. The syllabus will be split between history and modern US diplomacy to help students understand why the US plays a central role between Europeans, Muslims and Jews to broker peace within a framework of nation states and the rule of law to facilitate peace agreements for trade, commerce, security and prosperity.

Holocaust Forensics Centennial Lab Trip

Centennial Lab Holocaust Forensics Fieldwork

TBD

How are gender dynamics woven into, contested, or reinforced within the music-making and consumption practices of societies and/or communities around the globe? This inquiry has been a subject of analysis in music and performance studies since the 1980s, marked by the infiltration of gender and queer theory into these fields. Scholars have delved into examining gender power dynamics in the consumption and production of music across cultures, musical genres, and aesthetic frameworks. Their exploration has intersected with studies of gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, age, religion, and disability. Focusing on recent scholarship that tackles the ongoing social transformations of how gender is performed and experienced, globally, we will ask: In what ways has this transformation influenced the emergence of novel global musical genres and scenes? What role do artists and creators play in contributing to these transformative changes? With these questions in mind, this course will explore the historical and contemporary approaches to studying gender and music, focusing on literature in ethnomusicology and popular music studies. It will engage artists, musical traditions, genres, institutions, and audiences that inform local and global gender politics with a special emphasis on women's roles. Course also listed as MUSC 3289.

TBD

Academics, journalists, activists, and policymakers have often treat Israel analytically as exceptional. It is often portrayed as uniquely good or uniquely evil. The course starts from the basic premise that it is neither: The state of Israel and Israel society are like other states and societies. After examining the country’s origins, the course offers an in-depth analysis of the political, historical, religious, and economic forces that are washing over the country and shaping its future.

TBD

Going beyond America, this course takes a global approach to identity, race, and religion. We do this through history, ideas, political movements, narratives, geopolitics, and assess the consequences for world order. We seek to understand race, religion, and terror not as the past, but as a study of the patterns and causes of change. Students are then able to connect the dots between the past and present of major terrorist movements and/or conflicts. We evaluate future trajectories for the intersection of race, religion, and terrorism.

TBD

Music, Politics & Diplomacy

This course explores the dynamics of conflict, security, and strategic behavior in the contemporary Middle East. Focusing on key regional actors and external powers, students will examine the causes and consequences of major conflicts, including interstate wars, civil wars, insurgencies, and the rise of non-state actors. The course investigates the role of ideology, identity, religion, resources, and geography in shaping security outcomes, and considers how military strategies, diplomacy, and alliances have evolved in response to shifting threats. Special attention is given to the Arab-Israeli conflict, U.S. and Russian involvement, the Iranian nuclear issue, and the strategic implications of the Abraham Accords. Through case studies and policy debates, the class will assess strategic decisions and security dilemmas in the region.

The U.S., Israel, and the Middle East from Truman to Trump.

This course will outline American interests and objectives in the region since the Truman administration. Those objectives gave rise to a series of assumptions about the region and the way different administrations from Truman to Trump have viewed the Arabs and Israelis. The course will examine the key assumptions that shaped US policy and the impact they had on America’s efforts to promote peace. Every Arab-Israeli peace proposal from Truman’s time will be discussed and the course will conclude with an assessment of key lessons that need to be learned to produce better policies in the area.

Palestine’s interwar history remains underappreciated and misunderstood – often overshadowed by the history-defining events of 1948. Without examining that decisive era, however, students of the Arab-Israeli conflict cannot contextualize those events, let alone the intervening eight decades. This course is bookended on one side by Britain’s Balfour Declaration and the birth of its Mandate enshrining the Jewish National Home policy, and on the other by the creation of Israel and the dispossession and dispersal of much of Arab Palestine. Students will delve deeply into primary-source material from all three sides of the “Palestine triangle” – Britons, Arabs and Jews – including secret Mandatory documents, classified testimonies, private correspondence, and contemporary press coverage translated from Hebrew and Arabic. Secondary-source readings will likewise reveal overlooked perspectives from all three national and linguistic camps, and the panoply of political, ideological and religious convictions motivating them. Investigating the Palestine Mandate sheds essential light not just on the conflict’s origins, but on its current troubled impasse.

Jews and the Making of Modernity

This course will deal with the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the efforts to resolve it. One basic point to understand about the conflict is that it is not a morality play. One side is not all right and the other all wrong. That is not to say that they are equally responsible for what has happened, but it is to say that both have suffered and both would benefit enormously from ending the conflict and its animating grievances.

We will explore why each side tends to see the world the way it does, and why mythologies have taken hold of all sides and made reality hard to grasp. We will examine narratives of the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the Arabs more generally. Mindsets must be understood in any negotiation, and we will look at what shaped each side’s approach to the conflict historically as well as its approach to conflict resolution over the periods of the most intensive diplomacy. We will analyze how close the efforts in the year 2000 came to ending the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and Israelis and Syrian, and will discuss what lessons must be learned from the past in order to shape a different future.

We will also consider the American role as well as that of outside parties in trying to resolve the conflict. Ultimately, the purpose of the course is to provide insight into why it has been so difficult to settle this conflict, and what, if anything can be done to settle it in the future.

The Jewish-American writer Philip Roth is reckoned as one of the most important novelists in the American post-War literary canon. While the comic, pornographic, and scatological dimensions of his work are well chronicled, less has been said about Roth’s enduring commitment to exploring genres of post-modern, metafictional and autofictional storytelling. In this course, we will read Roth’s “greatest hits” (e.g. Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy’s Complaint, American Pastoral) with an eye towards understanding how he explored the question of (Jewish) identity by recourse to a fiction about fiction. This inquiry will require that we study his self- reflexive masterpieces such as My Life As a Man, The Ghost Writer, The Counterlife, and Operation Shylock, among others. When all is said and done, students will not only learn about Roth’s bold secular Jewish vision, his views on sexuality, and American history, but they will familiarize themselves with some of the late 20th century’s most intriguing forms of narrative experimentation.

Governments and non-state actors are fomenting conflicts and wars by perverting religion, history, and identity. This course investigates Jewish and Islamic influences that form today’s Western civilization. It has been designed to equip students with a deeper understanding of the modern West, evaluate the narrative of a clash of civilizations, and explore a synthesis of civilizations. With extremism and anti-Americanism on the rise in the Muslim world, and anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment increasing in the West, this course excavates the intellectual roots of the threats ripping apart modern civilization.

Combating Terrorist Financing 20 Years after 9/11

TBD

Jews and Muslims are the two most important religious minorities in Europe today. For centuries they were significant “others” in a predominantly Christian Europe and they continue to be defined by their religious identity in states which generally purport to be secular. This course focuses on the triangular relationship of Jews, Muslims and state and society in three countries: France, Spain and Germany. The course will help explain current tensions in Europe (exacerbated by such things as 9/11, refugee flows, and the war in Gaza) by putting them into the longue duree. The first session sets out the issues of the course, discusses the current situation of Muslims and Jews in Europe today, and provides a background on antisemitism, islamophobia and philosemitism. The next two sessions offer an overview of the premodern and modern European context and the geopolitics of religious conflict. This will include discussion of the Crusades, the wars of religion of the 16th century, the impact of Enlightenment thought and of colonialism. This period witnessed the emancipation of Jews, rising antisemitism and encounters between the Western world and Muslim societies. Most of the course will then focus on case studies of Jews and Muslims in France, Spain and Germany, followed by a concluding session summarizing the role of historical memory and the impact of conflicts in the Middle East on the triangular relationship of Jews, Muslims and European states. As a result of this course students will be able to better understand the dynamics of the relationship of religion and the state in pluralist, democratic societies.

Course taught by Steven A. Cook, Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is an expert on Arab and Turkish politics as well as U.S.-Middle East policy. Cook is the author of The End of Ambition: America’s Past, Present, and Future in the Middle East; False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East; The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square, which won the 2012 gold medal from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Ruling but Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey.Academics, journalists, activists, and policymakers have often treat Israel analytically as exceptional. Much of the recent literature on the country portrays Israel as a unique force for good or as the embodiment of evil. This dichotomy is odd and suggests that authors are engaged in political projects rather than an effort to advance knowledge about an important country. Still, it is worth asking: Is Israel unique? How is it like other states? What about the Israeli society, which reflects the country’s politics? The course seeks to answer these questions through a dispassionate examination of Israel’s origins and an in-depth analysis of the political, historical, religious, and economic forces that are washing over the country and shaping its future.

TBD

Since its inception, Israel has confronted nearly unremitting hostility: repeated wars, perpetual hostilities at lower levels, the failed peace processes with the Palestinians and Syria, and even the “cold” peace with Egypt and Jordan. Israel has responded by building up disproportionate national security (NS) capabilities. The course analyses Israel's NS decision making environment, the structures and processes of its NS establishment, basic tenets of Israeli NS strategy and primary issues, such as: US-Israeli relations, Iranian challenge, Hezbollah and Hamas, the peace process, relations with regional countries and the international community. Students draft policy papers to Israeli decision makers on major issues.

Since its inception, Israel has confronted nearly unremitting hostility: repeated wars, perpetual hostilities at lower levels, the failed peace processes with the Palestinians and Syria, and even the “cold” peace with Egypt and Jordan. Israel has responded by building up disproportionate national security (NS) capabilities. The course analyses Israel's NS decision making environment, the structures and processes of its NS establishment, basic tenets of Israeli NS strategy and primary issues, such as: US-Israeli relations, Iranian challenge, Hezbollah and Hamas, the peace process, relations with regional countries and the international community. Students draft policy papers to Israeli decision makers on major issues.

TBD

Insurgency & Counterinsurgency

This seminar explores the theory and practice of irregular warfare in the contemporary Middle East. Unlike conventional warfare between states, irregular warfare emphasizes asymmetry, population influence, and legitimacy contests, and is often conducted by or through non-state actors. Students will examine how a broad variety of armed non-state actors--insurgents, guerrillas, terrorists, militias, PMCs, criminal groups, and proxy forces-- have shaped the region’s conflicts, as well as how states have adapted with counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and hybrid strategies of their own. The course engages both conceptual debates and empirical case studies, covering topics such as the typologies of irregular warfare; strategies and repertoires of action; the role of ideology, religion, and identity; the use of proxy warfare by regional and global powers; and the impact of irregular warfare on international security. Students will sharpen research, analytical, and communication skills through active seminar discussion, a research presentation, and a final seminar paper.

A seminar on one of modern Palestine’s most seminal, formative, but forgotten chapters: the 1936-1939 Great Arab Revolt. The first major, sustained confrontation between Arabs and Jews over the Holy Land, it cost thousands of lives on all sides and profoundly influenced the trajectory for the Middle East conflict ever since. In exploring the revolt and its lasting repercussions, this course will investigate themes including the origins of Palestinian nationalism and identity, the emergence of Jewish military power, and the Zionist ‘counter-rebellion’ – economic, geographical and ideological. It will examine the first attempt (and failure) at a two-state solution, the legacy of Britain’s suppression of the uprising for Palestinian self-determination, and the consequences of the 1939 White Paper that barred most Jews from Palestine on the eve of the Holocaust. Students will engage deeply with primary-source material including archival documents, Mandatory reports, Jewish and Arab diaries and correspondence, and with a diverse array of secondary sources including the instructor’s Palestine 1936. Students will be expected to actively participate in seminar discussion, present a research presentation, and submit a final seminar paper.

Terrorism has long been a means of political expression in the Middle East and has flourished throughout the region from antiquity to the present. This seminar surveys the arc and evolution of terrorism from the Sicarii and the assassins through the violence and rebellions in Egypt and Palestine of the 1920s through the end of World War II; The anti-colonial campaigns in both those places as well as in Algeria and Yemen; The persistence of both Palestinian and Jewish extremist violence; The emergence of Hezbollah in Lebanon; Salience of state-sponsored terrorism across the region, the insurgencies in Iraq; The rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS; And the ongoing upheavals in Syria, Libya, the Sinai, and Yemen.

Propaganda is all around us. It is an art practiced by states and businesses, individuals, and groups. When done right, it colors the way people see an event, analyze a policy, make decisions, and relate to others. In our polarized political landscape, where democratic norms are continuously under attack, the problem of disinformation and media manipulation is particularly acute. This lab is a unique opportunity to learn about propaganda through one of its most storied and powerful applications: antisemitism.

The Lab is specifically interested in the composition and circulation of antisemitic propaganda and its link to political violence and democratic decline. Beginning in Charlottesville, Virginia, the host of the violent “coming out” of the new white supremacist movement in America in August 2017, it will make its way north to Washington DC and the US Capitol Building, the site of the violent attack on Congress in January 2021. It will be co-led by Dr. Emily Blout and Dr. Bruce Hoffman.

Instructor approval required. This course has an associated 1cr course: JCIV 411. Admission to this course (JCIV 410) and the associated 1cr course (JCIV 411) is by application and interview. Please visit the application at: https://forms.gle/uz8R1yQ9iTPpg2xb8 for more information, requirements, and eligibility.

Instructor approval required. This course has an associated 3 cr course: JCIV 410. Coursework for JCIV 410 will be enhanced by this class (JCIV 411) with travel to and fieldwork in Virginia and Washington, D.C. over spring break. Students will conduct deep, on-the-ground student research and to look more closely at the people, policies, places and socio-cultural happenings relevant to the course.

Students must be enrolled in JCIV 410 to be eligible for a seat in this class. Admission to this course (JCIV 411) and the associated 3 cr course (JCIV 410) is by application and interview. Applications are open September 7-October 3, 2022. Please see JCIV 410 for more information, requirements, and eligibility.

The Forensics of Mass Killings: Holocaust and Terrorist Crime Scenes. How do you conduct forensic investigations of genocide and mass killings on the ground? How do you examine the killing techniques of genocide and crimes committed in public or secret? How do perpetrators use propaganda for terrorism, genocide and follower recruitment? In the class, Fr. Patrick Desbois, a forensic anthropologist and author of "The Holocaust by Bullets" and "The Terrorist Factory" will answer these questions. Fr. Desbois will familiarize students with his recent investigation of crimes committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria against the Yazidis and the crimes carried out by the Einsatzgruppen during the Holocaust. The class will compare ground investigation techniques, crime methodology and outcomes.

This course will analyze the past, present and future(s) of Jewish-Muslim social, political, and religious relations from the beginnings of Islam until the Abraham Accords. We will traverse through Arabia, Morocco, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Arabia. Drawing on a depth of history and culture, we will study policy implications for the U.S. government, its allies, and the directions to be taken at the contemporary crossroads of Jewish-Muslim relations in the Middle East.

N/A

The Middle East in Transition: The Arab Revolts in Historical Comparative Perspective

Genocide in Ukraine: From Hitler to Putin. Embark on a profound journey through Ukraine’s history as we delve into the haunting topic of genocide, tracing its roots from the era of Hitler to the present day under Putin’s regime. Through meticulous examination of historical events and political dynamics, students will gain a profound understanding of the tragic occurrences that have shaped Ukraine’s destiny. Engaging with primary sources and expert analyses, participants will critically evaluate the far-reaching impact of genocidal actions against Jews, Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war on the nation’s culture, identity, and its relationships with neighbors. The course will also shed light on the complex politics of memory surrounding the Holocaust in Eastern Europe and its relevance in Russia’s war against Ukraine, offering insight into how historical narratives can be manipulated for political purposes. Course also listed as REES 4462.

What are the origins and manifestations of fascism? Why did fascist ideology entice so many Europeans from different social backgrounds between World Wars I and II? Is fascism something that belongs to the history of the 20th Century, or are there parallels with what some call fascism today? In this course students will find responses to these and related questions, learning about the nature of fascism as an ideology and as a set of practices. The course will explore the birth and first flourishing of fascism in interwar Italy, Germany, Romania, Hungary, and other regions, before turning to its legacy for today's far-right populism and debates about fascism’s resurgence.

This course focuses upon the topic of negotiations and conflict resolution in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1977 to the present.

Going beyond America, this course takes a global approach to identity, race and religion. We do this through history, ideas, political movements, narratives, geopolitics, and assess the consequences for world order. We seek to understand race, religion and terror not as the past, but as a study of the patterns and causes of change. Students are then able to connect the dots between the past and present of major terrorist movements and/or conflicts. We evaluate future trajectories for the intersection of race, religion, and terrorism. Course also listed as INAF 3352.

Why is violence against women and girls are so frequently forgotten or "silenced" in mass crimes and genocide? Why are acts of violence against women and girls so frequently obliterated from the Holocaust narrative? From the Roma genocide narrative? From Guatemala's mass violence history? From ISIS' terrorist narrative before the courts of law? From news emerging from Ukraine? Do ground investigations have the capacity to reveal the crimes against women, or are they choosing not to? This course will investigate these questions, especially taking into account the field investigations of Fr. Patrick Desbois and his team. Students will learn how to conduct forensic investigations of violence against women in the scope of genocide and mass crimes. The course is co-taught by Fr. Desbois, a forensic anthropologist and author of The Holocaust by Bullets and The Terrorist Factory and Dr. Andrej Umansky, a historian and lawyer will teach during this class. It will include mid-term and final exams. Class participation and preparation are essential.

The Holocaust in Ukraine: From Jewish Genocide to Russia’s “De-Nazification.” Why is the Holocaust such a controversial topic in Eastern Europe? How did the genocide of the Jewish population and its long-standing legacies shape local peoples’ identities, political views, and their relationships with neighbors? Why did Russia choose “de-Nazification” as one of the key elements of its official narrative during the 2022 war against Ukraine? Were leaders such as Romanian Ion Antonescu and the Ukrainian Stepan Bandera national heroes or villains? What lessons can be gleaned from the postwar trials of Nazis and their collaborators and how these lessons can inform our understanding of contemporary war crimes? This course will help students find answers to these and other questions, while relying on a wide array of sources, including oral histories, films, and literary texts. Course also listed as REES 462.

What is the context of Putin’s bewildering claim of “de-Nazifying” Ukraine in his current war? Why are the European celebrations of May 8 and May 9 – the end of WWII – a constant source of conflict inside societies in Eastern Europe? Why does the history of WWII create tensions in the post-Soviet space, leading to jailed historians, protest movements, and diplomatic expulsions? Why has 20th century history remained such a gripping topic in peoples’ minds today, and how has it shaped contemporary relations between countries in the region? This course will help students to find answers to these and other challenging questions related to the unprecedented weaponization of history and memory in the region. Course will taught by Prof. Diana Dumitru, https://ceres.georgetown.edu/2022/06/01/introducing-the-new-chair-of-romanian-studies-diana-dumitru/.

This seminar course will look at American foreign policy through the lens of statecraft. Statecraft involves the orchestration of all the instruments of power and influence to protect against threats and to promote broad national interests. Key elements of statecraft include developing strategy, defining objectives and purposes, identifying the means available for pursuing strategy and knowing how best to employ them. Because negotiations represent one policy tool that is central to nearly all forms of statecraft, the course will explore negotiations and mediation. It will look at the American approach to negotiations and also examine mediation as an instrument for settling or defusing local and sectarian conflicts. CJC certificate/minor students only.

As part of the Minor and Certificate in Jewish Civilization students complete a capstone experience: either a traditional research thesis or a project with a creative component. The capstone project will be a topic related to Jewish civilization, prepared under the supervision of a faculty member associated with the Center for Jewish Civilization, the Visiting Professor of Jewish Civilization, Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor, or if appropriate special permission may be granted by the program director for another Georgetown faculty member to serve as essay advisor. Upon completion, seniors make a presentation of their research at the annual senior thesis colloquium held during commencement week, where a prize is awarded to the outstanding paper. Comments: Starting in spring 2018, this course will no longer be offered with an INAF 443 listing (it will only be JCIV 443).

This course examines the multidimensional facets of secular and religious terrorism. It aims to challenge some of the conventional thoughts about terrorism and radical political violence, exposing students to the multiple definitions, historical progression, and political and sociological developments of secular and religious terrorism throughout the past centuries. Drawing on a range of historic and current examples from around the world, we will tackle a variety of questions on the subject, including: What are the differences between political violence, guerilla warfare, terrorism, and international warfare, and why do such distinctions matter? How and why is religious terrorism different than terrorism in the name of a consecrated secular cause? What are the historic developments that led to the rise of religious terrorism at the end of the 20th century, and is it still on the rise? Who are the major secular and religious terror groups that have operated around the world, and which have been more successful in advancing their cause? The course is broadly divided into two sections. The first focuses on the theoretical aspects of terrorism studies, exploring the definitions of the concept and a range of theories regarding why different groups and individuals turn to using such violence. Particular attention is given to the debates regarding the distinctions between secular and religious groups who turn to such tactics, exploring how different theories distinguish between the two, and considering the strength and weaknesses of these distinctions. The second half of the course focuses on the historical progression of terrorism over the past centuries. Exploring the main waves of anarchist, anti-colonial nationalist, ‘new left’ communist, and religious terror, the similarities and differences among the various waves are considered, raising the question of whether the rise in xenophobic white-supremacist attacks around the world constitutes a new wave of terror. Throughout the second half of the course attention is given to exploring select case studies among the main groups that operated in each wave, analyzing and comparing their ideological worldviews, violent tactics, and respective successes and failures in advancing their cause.

This course explores Russia’s and the Eurasian states’ deepening relations with the State of Israel since the end of the Cold War. First, we shall discuss the complexity of Russia-Israel “frienemy” relations in a swiftly changing Middle East. In the past decade and especially since Russia’s 2015 intervention in Syria, Moscow and Jerusalem have perceived each other as key regional players whose moves may significantly affect each other’s national interests. Russia sees Israel as a leading military and political regional actor, with far-reaching strategic capabilities covering all of Western Asia. Also, in Russia’s eyes, Jerusalem can be leveraged to earn dividends in its relations with the West and with Washington in particular. Yet Russia also perceives Israel as a potential spoiler for its military and political designs in Syria and beyond. From Israel’s vantage point, Russia may be a potential regional stabilizer, yet may not deliver when it comes to preventing Iran’s entrenchment in Syria and South Lebanon.

Second, we shall explore Israel’s interests and opportunities across the Caspian Sea area and Central Asia. Azerbaijan and Israel have developed a key strategic partnership while other Eurasian countries turn their eyes towards Israel in search for deeper security and economic cooperation to contain mounting regional threats. However, those “win-win” relations are increasingly constrained by post-Soviet unresolved conflicts (2008 war in Georgia, 2014 war in Ukraine and more recently, the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis). Third, we shall reflect upon the Eurasian space and the Middle Eastern arena as a new geopolitical continuum shaped by parallel developments such as US gradual disengagement, US-Russia-China geopolitical and technological race, Turkey’s and Iran’s muscle-flexing and rivalry, Jihadi extremism and violence, the refugee crisis, and fierce competition over energy markets. This seminar is open to students of the Center for Security Studies and the Center for Jewish Civilization with a keen interest in Russian, Eurasian, and Middle Eastern studies. It shall include lectures and seminar discussions along with snapshot presentations by professionals and experts working in the field. This course will also include two war-game exercises.

A History of Israel's Security and Foreign Relations: Domestic and International Perspectives. Course will be taught by Visiting Goldman Professor Avraham Sela.