Jewish Studies Concentration

Undergraduate Concentration

Jewish studies at Clark is designed to introduce the student to the major historical and religious trends in Jewish civilization since its inception in antiquity. The courses reflect the broad range of developments both encountered and fostered by the Jewish people including their contact with other world civilizations, classical literature, social and religious institutions, as well as their interaction with the modern world. In these courses, Jews and Judaism are studied both in their own internal context and as paradigms for wider trends in history and religion.

Program Faculty

Debórah Dwork, Ph.D.
Everett Fox, Ph.D.
Olga Litvak, Ph.D.
Shelly Tenenbaum, Ph.D.

Courses

• CLAS 267 - Religious Experience in the Ancient World
• HEBR 101 - Elementary Hebrew I
• HEBR 102 - Elementary Hebrew II
• HEBR 103 - Intermediate Hebrew
• HEBR 104 - Intermediate-Advanced Hebrew
• HEBR 105 - Advanced Hebrew
• HGS 212 - Eastern European Jewish History and Culture Between the Two World Wars
• HIST 128 - History of Modern Israel
• HIST 152 - Jews in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
• HIST 175 - Holocaust: Agency and Action
• HIST 252 - The Sephardi Jews in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
• HIST 255 - History of the Jews in Eastern Europe
• HIST 270 - Jewish Responses to Modernity: The Enlightenment and Its Critics
• HIST 276 - Collective Memory and Mass Violence
• HIST 283 - Eastern European Jewish Diaspora: Culture and Community in Twentieth Century US, USSR and Israel
• HIST 292 - Yiddish Literature and the History of Jewish Secular Culture
• JS 117 - Reading the Narratives of the Hebrew Bible
• JS 118 - Introduction to the Hebrew Bible II: Prophecy and Poetry
• JS 121 - Laws and Legends, Maxims and Mystical Tales
• JS 123 - The Midrashic Tradition
• JS 130 - Suffering and Evil in Jewish Tradition
• JS 150 - Jerusalem in History and Imagination
• JS 174 - The Jewish Experience
• JS 203 - American Jewish Life
• JS 258 - Women in Jewish Culture
• JS 262 - Jews and Christians in the Ancient World

Program Requirements

All students must take JS 174 - The Jewish Experience , a survey of Jewish history and thought. In addition to JS 174 , students must take six courses of which at least two must be in the Classical area and at least two in the Modern area. One of the six courses must be an integrating capstone project (internship, independent study, or advanced seminar with the approval of the program director). Two courses in Hebrew language may also count toward concentration.