Fall Term 2026 Courses

ENG 330U Jewish & Israeli Literature
INSTRUCTOR: Michael Weingrad
MODE: Online
CRN: TBD

This course looks at the Jewish encounter with modernity through literature. The focus will be on literature produced by Eastern European Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period of great upheaval reflected in the emerging modern Hebrew and Yiddish literatures of the time. We will read works such as classic modern Jewish authors as Sholem Aleichem, S.Y. Agnon, and H.N. Bialik. In the second half of the course we will sample literature produced after the 1930’s, including Israeli literature and literature produced outside of Eastern Europe. 

University Studies cluster: Global Perspectives, Examining Popular Culture

JST 335U Sex, Love and Gender: Israeli and Palestinian Experiences
INSTRUCTOR: Nina Spiegel 
MODE: Online
CRN: TBD

No prerequisites are required. 

Note: This course can serve as an elective for the major in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS), and is also on the advisor-approved list for the Middle East Studies certificate of the Global and International Studies department.

University Studies cluster: Gender and Sexualities Studies

JST/HST 372 | History of Antisemitism 
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Natan Meir
MODE: In-Person
TIME/DAY(S): TBD
CRN: TBD

Antisemitism is all over the news these days, and you can find it in many places -- even on our campus. But what is antisemitism? And how does it connect to other forms of bigotry and xenophobia? This course will help you go beyond the one-line soundbites on social media by delving into the long history of hatred of Jews and Judaism from the Middle Ages to the present day. We'll explore anti-Jewish hostility in both Christian and Muslim lands, conspiracy theories, racial antisemitism, and various forms of antisemitism in today's world. We'll also discuss if and when anti-Zionism becomes antisemitism.  

Fulfills Race and Ethnic Studies Requirement (RESR) – International focus

JST/HST 378U Pagans, Christians and Jews
INSTRUCTOR: Loren Spielman
MODE: In-Person
TIME/DAY(S): TBD
CRN: TBD

After Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the 4th century CE, the Roman Empire underwent radical changes. Pagan sacrifice was outlawed, temples were closed, and new churches were built in every town, city and village. Heretics and Jews were forbidden from holding public office and owning Christian slaves. In this course, we will examine the story of the Christianization of the Roman empire from the mid-third century, when Christianity was still a small, largely insignificant movement, Judaism was reeling from the loss of its central temple, while shrines devoted to Isis, Mithras, and the traditional gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon dominated the landscape. By reading some of the ancient literature from late antiquity -- inscriptions and prayers, tales of martyrdom, stories about holy men and women, and the sayings of esoteric philosophers -- we will explore the changes that occurred as the Roman empire officially embraced and promoted the Christian faith. 

University Studies cluster: Interpreting the Past

Fulfills an elective requirement for the Classical Studies minor.
 

JST / HST 380U The Holocaust
INSTRUCTOR: Nichola Farron
MODE: Online
CRN: TBD

This course will introduce students to the Nazi-planned and executed genocide of European Jewry that has come to be known as the Holocaust. Although we will of course study the so-called "Final Solution" and the process of mass murder, the course aims to provide a broad and contextualized understanding of many aspects of the Holocaust. These include the German and European contexts for the rise of Nazism; the nature of antisemitism and its links to Nazi ideology and policy; the nature and definition of resistance; the question of the "bystanders"; and types of collaboration. The goal is to gain an understanding of the Holocaust as an aspect of many different kinds of history: Jewish history, German history, European history, the history of antisemitism, and perhaps also the history of human civilization (or absence thereof). As time permits, we will also touch upon how the Holocaust is understood and "used" in contemporary society. 

University Studies cluster: Global Perspectives.

JST/HST 381U | Kabbalah: The Jewish Mystical Tradition
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Michael Weingrad
MODE: Online
CRN: TBD

Kabbalah, the mystical tradition in Judaism, seeks to understand the inner nature of the divine and the reciprocal relationship between God and humanity. Kabbalistic thought is imaginative and innovative, offering a vision of God and scripture that is dynamic, metamorphic, and mind-bending. In this course we will study the origins of kabbalistic thought, the classic expression of Kabbalah in the medieval Book of Splendor (Zohar), the development of a Christian Kabbalah in Renaissance Europe, and the mutations and misrepresentations of Kabbalah in the modern occult, supernatural fiction, and New Age movements. 

No prerequisites. University Studies cluster: Interpreting the Past