ELEMENTARY HEBREW JUST 1001
Introduction to classical grammar, syntax and modern speech patterns.
ELEMENTARY HEBREW JUST 1002
Introduction to classical grammar, syntax and modern speech patterns. Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 1001 or equivalent.
ELEMENTARY HEBREW JUST 1003
Introduction to classical grammar, syntax and modern speech patterns. Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 1002 or equivalent.
INTERMEDIATE HEBREW JUST 2001
Advanced studies in Hebrew reading, grammar and conversation. Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 1003 or equivalent.
INTERMEDIATE HEBREW JUST 2002
Advanced studies in Hebrew reading, grammar, and conversation. Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 2001 or equivalent.
INTERMEDIATE HEBREW JUST 2003
Advanced studies in Hebrew reading, grammar, and conversation. Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 2002 or equivalent.
JUDAISM JUST 2007
Basic concepts, documents, movements and ractices of classical Judaism from antiquity to the present.
INTRODUCTION TO JEWISH STUDIES JUST 2010
A survey of Jewish culture from the Bible to the present day. A central focus will be the literature and writings that the Jewish people were creating in response to their changing historical situations.
HISTORY AND REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST JUST 2241
How should we talk about the HOlocaust, an event that changed the way people think about progress, civilization and humanity? Can the Holocaust be considered just another event in history that demonstrates the evil that lurks within people? What are the different ways people have tried to come to understand the Holocaust? What was the Holocaust? These are some of the questions we explore in this course. We spend the first few sessions examining what events, names and phenomena can be termed the Holocaust and what led up to the Holocaust. The second half of the course shows the various ways people have tried to talk about these events. We read literature, survivor testimony, watch films and come up with our own ways of trying to represent the Holocaust.
HISTORY: JEWISH EXPERIENCE JUST 2245
In 1492, the world changed forever. Columbus set sail for America, and Jews were banished from Spain. In this course, we use globalization of the world and of Jews as the framework for studying the diversity of the modern Jewish experience. We read mostly primary sources, reading diaries, letters, poetry, rabbinic doctrines and other materials. We also study secondary sources that expose us to Jewish culture and society.
MODERN JEWISH REVOLUTION JUST 2246
In the past century, Jews have become radically integrated into surrounding cultures and societies in ways they had never been integrated before. In this course, we examine 20th century Jewish history by studying how Jews went from a group marked as other to one radically integrated into and in fact leading and shaping surrounding cultures. We look at how Jews and others responded to this radical integration. The course starts at the end of the 19th century with the explosive intellectual, cultural and social revolutions of socialism, Zionism and mass migrations, and ends with the year 2000 when an Orthodox Jew was (almost) elected vice president of the U.S. a country that puts a Christmas tree on the national front lawn.
SPECIAL TOPICS JUST 2700-2702
Topics vary reflecting the interdiscinplinary nature of the department and studies of the faculty.
LITERATURE-JEWISH PEOPLE JUST 2741
Modern Jewish literature: course may cover modern Jewish literature internationally or American Jewish literature.
INDEPENDENT STUDY JUST 2991
INTRODUCTION TO JUDAISM JUST 3001
Basic concepts, documents, movements and practices of classical Juaism from antiquity to the present.
JEWISH/CHRISTIAN/MUSLIM RELATIONS JUST 3006
Seminar on various aspects of Jewish-Christian encounters, looking at dialogues and disputations, differences and common roots, and interpretations of New Testament in Jewish tradition.
MYSTICISM AND HASSIDISM JUST 3008
A historical analysis of mystical trends and literature, including Messiahs and messianic movements within Judaism.
INTRODUCTION TO JUDAISM JUST 3011
WOMEN AND FAMILY IN TRADITIONAL JEWISH SOCIETY JUST 3015
Issues relevant to the status of women, marriage, divorce and other family-related issues as they appear in rabbinic texts; medieval society (especially as portrayed in genizah sources); and contemporary traditional Judaism.
JEWISH-MUSLIM ENCOUNTERS JUST 3019
Political, social, intellectual and religious history of the Middle East, including Islamic and Jewish movements.
CONTEMPORARY ISRAEL JUST 3020
History of Jewish and non-Jewish life in land of Israel from rabbinic times; significance of land and state of Israel to world Jewry.
MODERN JEWISH THOUGHT JUST 3022
Themes in modern Jewish thought from Moses Mendelssohn to Moredecai Kaplan; the crisis of Jewish identity since the emancipation; philosophic foundations of modern ideologies.
GREAT THINKERS: MAIMONIDES JUST 3023
Using the Guide for the Perplexed as our central text, we explore the complex philosophical ideas of Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), one of the central figures in Medieval Philosophy and Jewish Thought. Our study includes analyses of his ideas on: principles of faith, human perfection, intellectual vs. imaginational approaches to truth, pedagogy and politics, reasons for the commandments, the nature of God and Divine Will, the limits of human knowledge, the mechanics of prophecy, and the parameters and implications of Providence.
CONTEMPORARY JEWISH THINKERS JUST 3027
Major contemporary thinkers who have influenced both Jewish and non-Jewish philosophy, such as Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Hannah Arendt, Abraham Joshua Heschel.
RABBINIC LITERATURE JUST 3040
Survey of basic texts and methods of rabbinic Judaism.
LITERATURE OF DISPUTATION JUST 3041
How polemical and other religious works serv to counter opposing religious vewpoints and to bolster faith of author’s co-religionists.
LITERATURE-JEWISH PEOPLE JUST 3042
Post-biblical Jewish literature and evolution of Jewish thought from ancient to modern times; selections from classical works reviewed in historical context.
DYNAMICS OF JEWISH LAW JUST 3043
Judaism’s legal tradition, both written and oral, analyzed from biblical commandments through contemporary response.
ISRAEL HISTORY AND THEOLOGY JUST 3061
Sacred and secular history of land of Israel, both as historical entity and as a sacred land for Jews, Christians, Muslims from Byzantine times to early British Mandate.
ISRAEL IN THE ANCIENT WORLD JUST 3062
Social, political, economic, religious history of Jews in biblical times and their relations with contemporary states, empires, religions.
HISTORY-ISRAELITE RELIGION JUST 3063
Development of fundamental religious emphasis on those central in Judaism and Christianity.
JUDAISM IN THE TIME OF JESUS JUST 3070
Exploration of Jewish milieu in Judea during first century, historical background and contemporaneous currents of Greco-Roman period.
SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN JEWS JUST 3080
Critical look at the social construction of the American Jewish community, including the complex institutions and leadership used to define the Jewish experience, as well as the interaction bbetween the American Jewish population and the larger social, political and cultural environment within which it is located. Prerequisite: SOCI 0100 or SOCS 1810.
JEWISH PHILOSOPHY JUST
This course sets out to explore the self and the sacred in Jewish tradition by exploring the nature of faith and reason, the call to ethical response, and the meaning of divine revelation in multiple Jewish philosophical voices across the ages, including Philo, Saadya, Halevi, Maimonides, Soloveitchik, Buber, Rosenzweig, and Levinas.
THE HOLOCAUST JUST 3085
Multidsciplinary study (literature, history, religion, philosophy, sociology) concerning treatment of Jews in Nazi Europe from 1930-1947.
JEWISH ETHICS AND SOCIAL VALUES JUST 3091
Jewish legal and moral norms as applied to pressing social problems.
UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE: OLD TESTAMENT JUST 3105
Sacred literature of ancient Israel and the history of religious beliefs and practives found in it.
THE BIBLE IN JUDAISM JUST 3108
Development of the view that religions should have a Bible within Judaism, including the ways Judaism has understood and treated its Bible.
JEWISH UNDERSTANDING-BIBLE JUST 3109
Rebiew of classical Jewish biblical commentaries and explanation in English; emphasis on Jewish understanding of Genesis.
MYTH AND THE BIBLE JUST 3110
Mythic themes in the Bible and their relationship to contemporary mythologies; the role of myth in religion.
WOMEN AND THE BIBLE JUST 3114
The place of women in biblical narratives, legal position of women in Israelite society, and use of feminine imargery in the Bible.
PROPHETS OF ISRAEL JUST 3130
Development of prophecy in ancient Israel, beginning with early forms of mantic divination and continuing to classical prophecy within Israel and its role in Israelite thought.
DEAD SEA SCROLLS JUST 3151
The Dead Sea Scrolls in their historical, literary, religious context in English translation, together with relevant scholarly research; meaning for Christianity and Judaism.
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY JUST 3242
Origins and development of Jewish community in the U.S., 1624-1948; interaction of American and Jewish culture and relationships among different groups of Jewish immigrants; extent to which American Jewish history is best understood as essentially American or Jewish.
HISTORY OF ZIONISM AND ISRAEL JUST 3314
Brief history of Jewish and non-Jewish life in Israel from rabinic times to rise of modern Zionism; history of Zionism and developemtn of political, religious, economic, and social culture and institutions of modern Israel; significance of the land and state of Israel to world Jewry.
SPECIAL TOPICS JUST 3700
Topics vary reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the department and studies of the faculty.
READINGS-HEBREW LITERATURE JUST 3701
Selected authors or genres in Hebrew literature. Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 1003 or equivalent and instructor’s permission.
COLLOQUIUM IN JEWISH STUDIES JUST 3703
Topics in Judaic Studies reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the department and studies of the faculty.
SPECIAL TOPICS JUST 3703 & 3704
Topics vary reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the department and studies of the faculty.
MODERN JEWISH LITERATURE JUST 3743
Over the last one hundred years, Jewish writers throughout the world have composed a remarkable array of works that deal with the modern experience. Some of those writers, such as Kafka and Isaac Babel, were disinclined to call themselves Jewish writers rather than merely writers, while others embraced the particular status of the Jewish writer. In the course, students will read and analyze an array of modern Jewish novels, short stories, poems, and plays and will consider the following questions: How did the writers understand modernism and their own identities as modern writers? How did they deal with issues of Jewishness and the intersection of the Jewish and the modern? What were the influences in their writings from European and American literature? How did they place their work in the larger framework of Jewish literature? What language did they choose to write in and what was the significance of that choice?
CLASSIC JEWISH TEXTS JUST 3809
Literary and historical examination of representative biblical, rabbinic, mystical and philosophical works. Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 1003 or equivalent and instructor’s permission.
INTERNSHIP JUST 3982
HEBREW-INDEPENDENT STUDY JUST 3991
Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 1003 or equivalent and instructor’s permission.
HEBREW COMPOSITION JUST 3995
Prerequisite: JUST/HEBR 1003 or equivalent and instructor’s permission.
YIDDISH: BEGINNING I
At one time the international language of Ashkenazic Jews (the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe and their descendants), Yiddish is considered a hybrid of Hebrew and medieval German, as it takes about three-quarters of its vocabulary from German, but borrows words liberally from Hebrew and languages from the many lands where Ashkenazic Jews have lived. It has a grammatical structure all its own, and is written in an alphabet based on Hebrew characters. At its height less than a century ago, Yiddish was understood by an estimated 11 million of the world’s 18 million Jews, and many of them spoke Yiddish as their primary language. Today, less than a quarter of a million people in the United States speak Yiddish, about half of them in New York. But in recent years, Yiddish has experienced a renaissance of sorts and is now being taught at many universities around the world. This course, the beginning of a three-part series, will provide an introduction to Yiddish in an immersion environment.
NOT A BIG GUY IN THE SKY: JEWISH PERSPECTIVES ON VIRTUES, ETHICS, AND THE QUESTION OF MEANING
Jewish thinkers argue that God’s sacred reality is found not in the heavens above, but in the face-to-face encounter with (and care for) your neighbor. In this spirit, 20th century Jewish thinker Emmanuel Levinas teachers that the true message of Judaism lies in one central truth: you are infinitely responsible for your neighbor. Similarly, Jewish existentialist Martin Buber stresses that God is found in direct engagement with fellow humans, even claiming that other attempts to find God (say, thought meditation) risk becoming misguided moments of “theomania.” In his Guide of the Perplexed, 12th century Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides even secretly reveals that the Biblical notion of God as a big fatherly figure is a ruse. Join Sarah Pessin, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Jewish-Multicultural Initiative at the Center for Judaic Studies, for a “Theology of Ethics” journey across Jewish philosophical traditions. What is a life well lived? Am I my neighbor’s keeper? What is the unique role of ethics within the Jewish tradition? Examine a variety of 11th to 20th century Jewish philosophical and poetic texts, come away with answers to the above questions and discover why the Jewish concept of God is anything but and idea of some “big guy in the sky.”
UNDERSTANDING GENOCIDE: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH
From the Holocaust to Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur, innocent individuals have fallen victim to heinous acts committed by those who needlessly wish to destroy them. It’s a sobering reality – and seemingly inexplicable – that genocide has been a constant within our 20th century world. How can we comprehend why such human atrocities continue – or can we? In this course, Julie Lieber, adjunct professor of history and Judaic Studies, uses the rise and fall of one genocidal regime, the German Nazi Party, as a case study to explore the ways in which radical movements rise to power and are able to implement their genocidal programs. Within four years National Socialism (Nazism) moved from its most popular party in Germany. Once in power, the Nazis set out on a path that would lead to the extermination of over 6 million Jewish. What can account for the dramatic rise of Nazism? What was its appeal? How did the Nazi’s manage to implement their plan for the destruction of European Jewry in the midst of a modernized, industrialized society? What can be learned from the Holocaust as we try to understand Darfur? What, if anything, can be done to prevent genocide in the future?
AFTER AUSCHWITZ: RETHINKING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE JEWISH
“That’s the difficulty in these times: ideals, dreams, and cherished hopes rise within us, only to meet the horrible truth and be shattered . . . I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heard.” – Anne Frank
Much has been written about Anne Frank’s famous optimism concerning human nature and the future. Yet, the above passage – one of her last- reveals that Franks also recognized the rupturing effect of the Holocaust. For many Jewish theologians, the Holocaust shattered traditional theological beliefs, thereby dividing Jewish thought into two distinct categories: pre and post-Holocaust theology. For the latter, traditional beliefs cannot be easily reconciled with the “horrible truth” of the Holocaust. Join Janet Rumfelt, Scholar in Residence for the Holocaust Awareness Institute at the Center for Judaic Studies, to examine how the Holocaust changed the face of modern Jewish thought. Is it possible to believe in a God who intervenes in human affairs? Can traditional accounts of suffering as punishment hold up to the reality of genocide? Who bears responsibility for evil – God or humanity? In what ways did the Holocaust change the understanding of ethical responsibility? To answer these questions, Rumfelt draws on theorists such as Richard Rubenstein, Eliezer Berkovits, Emil Fackenheim, and Emmanuel Levinas. Come to understand why the Holocaust stands as an insurmountable barrier to faith for some, while others choose to rethink what it means to be Jewish in the shadow of the Shoah. This course includes attending the performance of The Diary of Anne Frank at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. Discover how one Jewish girl, amid the unthinkable cruelty and despair of the Holocaust, chose to believe that “in spite of everything, people are truly good at heart.” 10% discount to DCTC subscribers.
JEWISH PHILOSOPHY
What is the goal of a human life? What is God and how does He fit into that story? What is the nature of self? Of faith? Of revelation? Of ethics? In this course we set out to answer these important human questions by engaging multiple Jewish philosophical voices across the ages. For our journey we will turn to a host of primary materials (in translation), looking at the works of Philo, Saadya, Halevi, Maimonides, Soloveitchik, Buber, Rosenzweig, and Levinas.
HOLOCAUST LITERATURE
Using novels, short stories, poems, plays, photographs, and films, students will explore the literary, psychological, historical, and religious ramifications of Holocaust experiences. Students will also have an opportunity to engage with the Holocaust Awareness Institute at the University of Denver. All readings will be in translation. Students will seek awareness of the Holocaust and discuss what constitutes “Holocaust literature.” Students will consider issues of representation, expression, and literary and cinematic technique. The texts depict events and reactions that lead up to the Holocaust, that take place during the Holocaust, and that result from the Holocaust; these events may be graphic, disturbing, and perhaps quite upsetting. This course will provide students with tools with which to assess these texts, through which to exercise “critical consciousness,” and with which to participate in the sphere of literary criticism.
