What are politics in the absence of a sovereign state and government? Before the modern period, were Jews apolitical and disconnected from the governments under which they lived? Or were they engaged in political affairs behind the scenes? While both were at times true, these stereotypes don't scratch the surface of the rich internal tradition of Jewish political thought and practice. This course will explore that tradition through the 18th century: not only how Jews responded to non-Jewish politics, but how they governed their communities, understood the status of Jewish law, and imagined a Jewish state, both past (biblical) and future (messianic). We will read and analyze major texts of the Jewish political tradition (in translation), including Maimonides, Abravanel, Spinoza, and Mendelssohn, as well as the Biblical and Talmudic passages that served as their foundational texts, and other primary and secondary sources that shed light on Jewish concepts of government, nation, and law. (HIST 201)

This course explores anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism in Europe from the age of the French revolution to the present. At the core of the course is the question of how prejudice against Jews (and since 1948 also against Israel) has been tied to the fate of Liberalism in European. The first half of the course examines the development of anti-Semitism until the Holocaust. We will, however, try to avoid applying a teleological approach to the period of 1789 to 1941 that reduces the history of gentile attitudes towards Jews to a pre-history of the Holocaust. The second half of the course examines attitudes towards Jews since 1945 in a Europe without a sizeable Jewish community. The course finishes by looking at the 'New Anti-Semitism.' It asks if the concept of the 'New Anti-Semitism' really adds up or if present European attitudes towards Israel are better explained in terms of a feeling of European post-colonial Liberal 'guilt.' Seminar. (HIST 202)

This course examines the ways in which religiously inspired food restrictions and food practices relate to the establishment and preservation of communal identity. Considering Jewish, Christian, and Islamic sources from their foundations to the present day, we will explore the underlying relationship between food and fellowship, the elements distinctive to each tradition, and the factors that prompt change over time in each. Seminar. (RELS 212, HIST 205, NELC 235)

This course on international politics in the Middle East will focus primarily on episodes of external intervention by Great Powers in the politics of Middle Eastern states. We shall begin by examining the emergence of the Middle Eastern state system after the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire in the early part of the twentieth century. This discussion will provide opportunities to develop key concepts in the study of international politics and will serve as crucial historical background. We shall then turn our attention to the primary concern of the course--a systematic consideration of the motives, operational results, and long-term implications of a number of important examples of intervention by Great Powers in the Middle East. Among the episodes to be considered will be British policies toward the end of World War I, in Palestine in the 1930s, and, along with the French, in Suez in 1956. Soviet intervention in the first Arab-Israeli war, in 1948, will be analyzed along with Soviet policies toward Egypt in the early 1970s. American intervention in Iran in 1953 and in the Gulf War in 1991 will also be examined. Students will write mid-term and final examinations and prepare a paper applying lessons learned to the question of the likely long-term consequences of the American led intervention in Iraq. (PSCI 253)

This course is a careful textual study of the book of Exodus in the light of modern scholarship, including archaeological evidence and ancient Near Eastern documents, comparative literature and religion. Topics will include the events surrounding the Israelite exodus from Egypt, its date, the first Passover, the role of Moses as a prophet, the Ten Commandments, civil and religious law in the Bible, the golden calf incident, and the reverberations of Exodus in later Judaism, Christianity, and Western (particularly American) Civilization. Benjamin Franklin Seminar. Fulfills Distribution III: Arts & Letters, C'09 and prior. (NELC 250, NELC 550, RELS 224, COML 380)

In-depth study of the book of Lamentations (Eichah), the collection of five lyric poems lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple and the Babylonian Exile in 587/6 BCE. The book will be studied in the light of modern scholarship as well as ancient and medieval commentaries. It will be compared to laments and other types of responses to catastrophe in the Bible, ancient Near Eastern literature, postbiblical literature, and other literatures, with the aim of identifying the book's universal features and its unique ones. In addition to close reading of the Hebrew text, specific themes in the course will include the literary characteristics of the book, its theology, and historical and archaeological information about the destruction and exile.
Prerequsites: Thorough command of Biblical Hebrew and prior experience studying the Bible in the original in high school, college or a comparable setting. Qualified undergraduates are welcome but must contact the instructor for permission to register and show how they meet the requirements. Language of instruction is in English. Seminar. Since the content of this course may change from year to year students may take it for credit more than once. (HEBR 550, RELS 521)