Jewish Studies Program (JWST) 1
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Jewish Studies Program (JWST) 1 JWST 032 Beginning Yiddish II JEWISH STUDIES PROGRAM In this course, you can continue to develop basic reading, writing and speaking skills. Discover treasures of Yiddish culture: songs, literature, (JWST) folklore, and films. For BA Students: Language Course JWST 026 Jews and China: Views from Two Perspectives Course usually offered in spring term Jews in China??? Who knew??? The history of the Jews in China, both Also Offered As: YDSH 102, YDSH 502 modern and medieval, is an unexpected and fascinating case of cultural Prerequisite: JWST 031 exchange. Even earlier than the 10th century. Jewish trader from India Activity: Lecture or Persia on the Silk Road, settled in Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern 1.0 Course Unit Song Dynasty, and established a Jewish community that lasted through JWST 033 Intermediate Yiddish I the nineteenth century. In the mid-nineteenth century, Jewish merchants, A continuation of JWST 032/ YDSH 102, Beginning Yiddish II, this course mainly from Iraq, often via India, arrived in China and played a major develops the skills of reading, writing, and speaking Yiddish on the role in the building of modern Shanghei. After 1898, Jews from Russia intermediate level through the study of grammar and cultural materials, settled in the northern Chinese city of Harbin, first as traders and later such as literature, newspapers, films, songs, radio programs. as refugees from the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War. In For BA Students: Language Course the first decades of the twentieth century, a few Jews from Poland and Taught by: Hellerstein Russia visited China as tourists, drawn by a combination of curiosity Course usually offered in fall term about the cultural exoticism of a truly foreign culture and an affinity Also Offered As: YDSH 103, YDSH 503 that Polish Jewish socialists and communists felt as these political Prerequisite: GRMN 402 movements began to emerge in China. During World War II, Shanghai Activity: Lecture served as a port of refuge for Jews from Central Europe. In this freshman 1.0 Course Unit seminar, we will explore how these Jewish traders, travelers, and refugees responded to and represented China in their writings. We will also read JWST 034 Intermediate Yiddish II works by their Chinese contemporaries and others to see the responses Continuation of JWST 033; emphases in reading texts and conversation. to and perceptions of these Jews. We will ask questions about cultural For BA Students: Last Language Course translation: How do exchanges between languages, religions, and Taught by: Hellerstein cultures affect the identities of individuals and communities? What Course usually offered in spring term commonalities and differences between these people emerge? Also Offered As: YDSH 104, YDSH 504 Taught by: Hellerstein Prerequisite: GRMN 403 Course not offered every year Activity: Lecture Also Offered As: GRMN 026 1.0 Course Unit Activity: Seminar JWST 041 Israel in Middle East 1.0 Course Unit Also Offered As: NELC 034 Notes: Benjamin Franklin Seminar Activity: Seminar JWST 031 Beginning Yiddish I 1.0 Course Unit Yiddish is a 1000-year-old language with a rich cultural heritage. JWST 051 Elementary Modern Hebrew I YDSH 101, the first in the Beginning Yiddish language series, introduces An introduction to the skills of reading, writing, and conversing in modern the student who has no previous knowledge of the language to the skills Hebrew. This course assumes no previous knowledge of Hebrew. A grade of reading, writing, and speaking Yiddish. Starting with the alphabet, of B- or higher is needed to continue in the language. students study grammar, enriched by cultural materials such as song, For BA Students: Language Course literature, folklore, and film, as well as the course s on-line Blackboard One-term course offered either term site, to acquire basic competency. By the end of the first semester, Also Offered As: HEBR 051, HEBR 651 students will be able to engage in simple conversations in the present Activity: Lecture tense, know common greetings and expressions, and read simple 1.0 Course Unit texts, including literature, newspapers, songs, and letters. Students are JWST 052 Elementary Modern Hebrew II encouraged to continue with YDSH 102/ JWST 032/ YDSH 501 in the A continuation of first semester Elementary Modern Hebrew, which Spring. Four semesters of Yiddish fulfill the Penn Language Requirement. assumes basic skills of reading and speaking and the use of the present For BA Students: Language Course tense. Open to all students who have completed one semester of Hebrew Course usually offered in fall term at Penn with a grade of B- or above and new students with equivalent Also Offered As: YDSH 101, YDSH 501 competency. Activity: Lecture For BA Students: Language Course 1.0 Course Unit One-term course offered either term Also Offered As: HEBR 052, HEBR 652 Prerequisite: HEBR 051 Activity: Lecture 1.0 Course Unit 2021-22 Catalog | Generated 08/18/21 2 Jewish Studies Program (JWST) JWST 053 Intermediate Modern Hebrew III JWST 100 Themes Jewish Tradition: Iberian Conversos: Jew-Christian? Development of the skills of reading, writing, and conversing in modern Course topics will vary; they have included The Binding of Isaac, Hebre on an intermediate level. Open to all students who have completed Responses to Catastrophes in Jewish History, Holy Men & Women two semesters of Hebrew at Penn with a grade of B- or above and new (Ben-Amos); Rewriting the Bible (Dohrmann); Performing Judaism students with equivalent competency. (Fishman); Jewish Political Thought (Fishman); Jewish Esotericism For BA Students: Language Course (Lorberbaum) Democratic culture assumes the democracy of knowledge One-term course offered either term - the accessibility of of knowledge and its transparency. Should this Also Offered As: HEBR 053, HEBR 653 always be the case? What of harmful knowledge? When are secrets Prerequisite: HEBR 052 necessary? In traditional Jewish thought, approaching the divine has Activity: Lecture often assumed an aura of danger. Theological knowledge was thought 1.0 Course Unit of as restricted. This seminar will explore the "open" and "closed" in JWST 054 Intermediate Modern Hebrew IV theological knowledge, as presented in central texts of the rabbinic This course constitutes the final semester of Intermediate Modern tradition: the Mishnah, Maimonides and the Kabbalah. Primary sources Hebrew. Hence, one of the main goals of the course is to prepare the will be available in both Hebrew and English. students for the proficiency exam in Hebrew. Emphasis will be placed on For BA Students: History and Tradition Sector grammar skills and ability to read literary texts. Open to all students who Taught by: Ben-Amos/Dohrmann/Fishman have completed three semesters of Hebrew at Penn with a grade of B- or Course not offered every year above and new students with equivalent competency. Also Offered As: FOLK 252, NELC 252, NELC 552, RELS 129 For BA Students: Last Language Course Activity: Seminar One-term course offered either term 1.0 Course Unit Also Offered As: HEBR 054, HEBR 654 JWST 102 Jewish Humor Prerequisite: HEBR 053 In modern American popular culture Jewish humor is considered by Activity: Lecture Jews and non-Jews as a recognizable and distinct form of humor. 1.0 Course Unit Focusing upon folk-humor, in this course we will examine the history of JWST 059 Advanced Modern Hebrew: Conversation & Writing this perception, and study different manifestation of Jewish humor as a In this course students are introduced to the vibrant world of particular case study of ethnic in general. Specific topics for analysis will contemporary Israeli culture by reading some of the best plays, poems, be: humor in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish humor in Europe and in America, short stories and journalism published in Israel today. They also watch JAP and JAM jokes, Jewish tricksters and pranksters, Jewish humor and analyze some of Israel's most popular films, TV programs, and in the Holocaust and Jewish humor in Israel. The term paper will be videos. Themes include Jewish-Arab relations, the founding of the State, collecting project of Jewish jokes. family ties and inter generational conflict, war and society, and the For BA Students: Arts and Letters Sector recent dynamic changes in Israel society. Students must have taken Taught by: Ben Amos four semesters of Hebrew at Penn or permission of instructor. Since the Course not offered every year content of this course may change from year to year, students may take it Also Offered As: COML 259, FOLK 296, NELC 254 more than once (but only once for credit). Activity: Lecture For BA Students: Advanced Language Course 1.0 Course Unit One-term course offered either term JWST 103 The Messianic Impulse in Jewish History Also Offered As: HEBR 059, HEBR 552 Taught by: Ruderman Prerequisite: HEBR 054 One-term course offered either term Activity: Lecture Also Offered As: HIST 101 1.0 Course Unit Activity: Seminar 1.0 Course Unit JWST 122 Religions of the West This course surveys the intertwined histories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We will focus on the shared stories which connect these three traditions, and the ways in which communities distinguished themselves in such shared spaces. We will mostly survey literature, but will also address material culture and ritual practice, to seek answers to the following questions: How do myths emerge? What do stories do? What is the relationship between religion and myth-making? What is scripture, and what is its function in creating religious communities? How do communities remember and forget the past? Through which lenses and with which tools do we define "the West"? For BA Students: History and Tradition Sector Taught by: Durmaz One-term course offered either term Also Offered As: RELS 002 Activity: Lecture 1.0 Course Unit 2021-22 Catalog | Generated 08/18/21 Jewish Studies Program (JWST) 3 JWST 126 Jewish Mysticism JWST 131 How to Read the Bible Survey of major periods of development of mystical speculation The aim of this course is to explore what the Bible means, and why it and experience within Judaism.