HEBREW
* New and Noteworthy: we will offer two separate sections of first year Hebrew for the first time!!

JUDC 101-001 Elementary Hebrew - Mrs. Gutmark | MWF 10-10:50
JUDC 101-002 Elementary Hebrew - Staff | MWF 1-1:50

In this course, students will acquire basic conversational and grammatical Hebrew skills. Students will learn primary grammatical structures and develop a vocabulary that will allow them to carry basic conversations in modern Hebrew. In addition to the linguistic aspects of the course, students will be introduced to various facets of modern Israeli culture - the culture in which modern Hebrew developed and continues to evolve. Students will listen to live Israeli radio, read  newspapers at basic level, watch movies and video clips, learn songs, eat Israeli food, play games, and learn about the Jewish holidays. Emphasis is placed on developing basic skills: listening, reading, writing, comprehension, and conversation.  The course is tailored to accommodate students on different levels.
 
JUDC 201 - Intermediate Hebrew - Mrs.Gutmark | MWF 9-9:50

Games, Israeli movies, songs, and newspapers, recordings of conversations, art, Israeli food, celebrating holidays, live Israeli radio; these are some of the means by which Modern Hebrew is taught in this Intermediate-level class. This course is a dynamic combination of grammar, syntax, vocabulary, prose and poetry, and Israeli culture. Emphasis is placed on developing skills on an intermediate level: listening, reading, writing, comprehension, and conversation. Students have the opportunity to teach their class-mates and give oral presentations regularly. Group work, cooperative learning and discussions are used in every class. In-class work is supplemented by multimedia activities, using  audio-visual  web sites, in order to give students multiple learning opportunities suited to a variety of learning styles.
 
JUDC 331 Advanced Modern Hebrew - Dr. Kaplan | MWF 11-11:50

This is an advanced level course in Modern Hebrew with a focus on Modern Hebrew texts. The aim of this course is to develop students' abilities to read texts in modern Hebrew, through intensive study of advanced aspects of Hebrew grammar, morphology, phonology, syntax and semantics through reading and grammatical analysis of selected texts.  Class discussions will be based on assigned readings, and deal with topics of general interest and with issues related to Israeli society.
Core courses

JUDC 127 - History of Jewish Civilization - Dr. Fine | MWF 11-11:50

The history of the Jews and of Judaism reaches back as early as the Biblical book of Genesis, and forward to our own day. This three thousand year journey is surveyed in this three-quarter introductory sequence, any part of which may be taken independently.   This first segment begins with the civilization and religion of Ancient Israel, tracing the history of the Jews from their exile in Babylonia to the rise of Islam.  We will study the primary documents and monuments, as well as political, religious and social developments against the background of relations with Persia, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium. The centrality of the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the rise of Christianity and finally the Judaism of the Talmudic Rabbis will be explored.  Fieldtrip.
 
JUDC 127H - Honors Jewish Civilization - Dr. Fine | MWF 11-11:50
                                                                                      + HTBA
Students in Honors Jewish Civilization I take JUDC 127, plus an additional tutorial where selected texts and themes of JUDC 127 are studied.  Biblical texts, the writings of the first century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, and Rabbinic literature are discussed in detail. 127H is required for Judaic Studies majors.  Fieldtrip.
 
JUDC 135 - Introduction to Judaism - Dr. Klein | TH  9:30-10:50

Judaism is the religion of the Jews. In this course, we will explore some core aspects of Judaism, emphasizing the concept of sanctity, and seeking to understand what Judaism means and has meant to the Jews who practice it. The course will introduce students to the basic texts of Judaism (Bible, Talmud, prayer book), to some central theological beliefs, to the cycle of festivals and the life cycle, and to some of the variations in Judaism through the ages and today.
 

ELECTIVES
 
JUDC 228 - Introduction to Biblical Studies - Mr. Brolley | MWF 9-9:50

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the rich and intriguing history of biblical interpretation, beginning with ways in which Bible writers examine other Bible writers. We will also examine and apply basic modern interpretive methods used in Bible scholarship, and  develop familiarity and comfort with biblical literature as an object of study, regardless of one's religious or philosophical background.
 
JUDC 229 - Sacred Texts: Hebrew Scriptures - Mr. Brolley | MWF 12-12:50

This course provides the student with an overview of the Hebrew Bible in English translation, without neglecting the significance of biblical Hebrew. We will examine and discuss basic issues of scripture and canon, and will occasionally compare Judaism’s and Christianity’s approaches to the biblical writings. There will also be extensive discussion of such topics as literary genre, authorship and editorial activity, and historical context. Throughout the quarter, we will engage a broad range of scholarly opinion concerning the Bible’s composition and content.
 
JUDC 315 - The Menorah - Dr. Fine | W 6:30-9:10

Why has the menorah been an object of such controversy in our city over the last two decades? This ancient symbol will be the focal point of this course.  The menorah is the most important Jewish symbol, and the oldest continuously used symbol in Western civilization. We will survey varieties of Jewish literature and art against the backdrop of Jewish history in our attempt to understand the significance of the menorah.  Biblical texts, Jewish literature of the Second Temple period (including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Apocrypha), Rabbinic sources, Jewish mystical traditions as well as  the menorah in the history of modern Israel and of contemporary Cincinnati will be explored.  Fieldtrip and guest speakers are planned. 

JUDC 360 - American Jewish Fiction - Dr. Naveh | TH 2-3:20  

In this course we analyze the shifting grounds of Jewish American Literature. We investigate the quandary of the Jewish American writers, who manifestly draw from their Jewish ethnic experience and at the same time, find themselves deeply engrossed in the diverse experience of their mainstream American counterparts.
 
JUDC 362 - American Jewish History - Dr. Krome (ASAP course: contact Terri Premo for details)

This course provides students with a survey of the major themes and events of the past three hundred and fifty years of the American Jewish experience. Special attention will be paid to the question of American exceptionalism and the challenges and opportunities faced by Jews living in a country without an established church. Student will also have an opportunity to examine primary documents drawn from the collection of the American Jewish Archives.
 
JUDC 379 - Judaism and Christianity in Conflict - Dr. Klein | TH 2-3:20

The relationship between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages was a complex and often stormy one, in which theological, economic, social and political factors were interwoven. This course aims to illustrate the complexity of the relationship by teasing out the different strands within it. We will pay attention to both the Christian and Jewish perspectives on all of the issues considered, delineating the variety of responses within each religious community to the other. Although we will be studying the European Middle Ages, we will examine the origins of the conflict a millennium earlier, and we will have occasion to consider its implications in contemporary society.
 
JUDC 383 - Literature of the Holocaust - Dr. Naveh | TH 11-12:20

This is a survey of selected literary and responses to the Holocaust, with primary attention to texts written by victims, survivors, and scholars, who ponder the dilemmas of the post–Holocaust world. Interdisciplinary in orientataion, this course is designed to make students to think critically and examine the Ways in which writers of various socio-cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds depict the Jewish experience on the background of the events of World War II. Students investigate whether we are able to approach this literature with conventional critical methodology, bearing in mind literary hierarchy of aestetics and values, or, whether Holocaust literature constitutes a unique literature which has to define its own aesthetic formulation. Is literature of the Holocaust an extention of centuries of Jewish response? Does it offer a new paradigm and a new context of reading? Should Holocaust literature be read only as literature, or as “Kaddish” a prayer for the dead? Can there be a choice of aesthetics over ethics?
 
JUDC 394 - Modern Jewish Thought - Dr. Kaplan | MWF 1-1:50

This course will follow the major historical developments of Jewish thought since the seventeenth century through the work of some of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the modern era. It will explore how these different thinkers attempted to reconcile a tradition of 3,000 years with the scientific, ethical and cultural tenets of modern Western civilization. The course will begin by exploring the origins of modern Jewish identity in the seventeenth century through the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment (Baruch Spinoza, Moses Mendelssohn). The course will then cover the period of German Jewish Idealism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Herman Cohen), the emergence of the existential interpretation of Judaism (Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig) as well as the emergence of Jewish nationalism as an intellectual and cultural movement (Ahad ha-Am). Finally, the course will look at post-Holocaust trends in Jewish thought; the emergence of feminist Jewish thought; and the post-modern turn in contemporary Jewish thought.
 
JUDC 550 - Film and the Holocaust - Dr. Krome | M 6:30-9:10

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the one of the primary means whereby we remember the Shoah: film.  Students will examine a variety of cinematic representations of the Holocaust, starting with several Nazi propaganda films. The class will also consider how the immediate post-war documentaries, which set the tone for many later films. Students should expect this class to be much more inter-active than a traditional lecture class. Students will participate in class discussion and are required to write several  analytical papers.

Department of Judaic Studies, 50 McMicken, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0169 E-mail: Judaic.Studies@uc.edu Tel: 513.556.2297
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