CJS - Courses & Degree Programs

Community members interested in taking a course with us can learn more here. 

Summer 2025

Modern Hebrew Intensive

Register Here

Instructor: Aviv Peretz | MTWThF July 7 to July 25, 2024, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

This course is designed to teach the fundamentals of modern Hebrew. Emphasis will be placed on grammar and vocabulary to enhance your skills in reading, speaking, understanding, and translating short passages. During class sessions, we will review grammar, verb conjugations, and idiomatic expressions, as well as engage in speaking and listening practice using a variety of simple texts and dialogues. This in-person course will run on weekdays from July 7 to July 25, 2024, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The course will meet at 2400 Ridge Road, Berkeley. The course has minimal prerequisites: the ability to read and write both print and cursive Hebrew letters, as well as familiarity with vowel markings. Additionally, students should have a basic knowledge of simple vocabulary, including personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and question words.

Fall 2025

HRHS-3600  Jewish Countercultures 
Instructor: Sam Shonkoff | Mondays 2:10-5:00 PM

Although countless movements throughout history have challenged elements of the dominant culture, the term “counterculture” denotes a distinctly modern phenomenon, referring specifically to social-political-spiritual expressions of resistance to ideologies or conditions of modernization. Of course, these are never monolithic movements—for example, one’s own ancestral background might inform one's sense of responsibility and/or victimhood vis-à-vis particular wounds of modernity, illuminating different pathways of healing. This course will explore Jewish countercultures, focusing especially on those of Weimar Germany, the American “sixties,” and our own contemporary context. We will note both similarities and differences among these different waves, paying special attention to matters of education, theology, race, gender, and national identity.

HR-4348  Hasidism
Instructor: Sam Shonkoff | Thursdays 2:10-5:00 PM

In the middle of the eighteenth century, a loose-knit circle of mystics in Poland formed around a shamanic innovator known as the Ba‘al Shem Tov. In the decade after his death, an identifiable movement known as Hasidism emerged and spread like wildfire throughout Eastern Europe, despite being banned by major rabbinic authorities. What made it so controversial in its origins, and how did such a countercultural movement eventually become an image of both Jewish authenticity and Jewish fundamentalism? This course will offer an introduction to Hasidism, integrating historical, hermeneutical, and phenomenological perspectives. Close text study will be the heartbeat of our semester together, but all sources will be available in English translation. No prior background in Jewish studies is required.

HSHR-4050 Jewish Thought and Practice in Moses Maimonides 

Instructor: Deena Aranoff | Thursdays 9:40-12:30
This course will examine central aspects of Jewish thought, practice and history through the writings of Moses Maimonides. Maimonides, also called the Rambam, was a figure of lasting significance in the formation of Jewish ideas and practice. He produced a highly influential synthesis of medieval Islamic philosophy and classical Jewish traditions, with an emphasis on religious thought and action. In this seminar, we will explore foundational elements of Judaism as defined by Maimonides, alongside broader questions in the study of religion. Through our studies we will acquire an understanding of the complex blend of custom, law, and ideas that together comprise lived Jewish practices over time.   

OT-4901 Book of Daniel: Apocalypse Amidst Empire 

Instructor: James Nati | Mondays 11:10-2:00 PM

The Book of Daniel is considered part of the prophetic corpus in Christian tradition and part of the Writings in Jewish tradition. It has been considered in scholarship, moreover, as a sapiential and apocalyptic text. This course considers the Book of Daniel from a variety of perspectives, paying attention to its literary and theological themes, and in particular, themes around empire and colonialism. The course is conducted as a seminar, with each meeting centered around a close reading of one chapter of Daniel. Primary and secondary readings are in English, but there will be an optional Hebrew/Aramaic reading group for students with facility in these languages. Evaluation is based on participation, short response papers, a presentation, and a final paper. [Foundations course in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament; Faculty Consent required]

Spring 2026

HR-3735 Modern Judaism

Instructor: Sam Shonkoff | Thursdays 2:10-5:00 PM

In this course, we will explore how Jews navigated the intellectual, political, and spiritual conditions of modernity, and the new forms of Jewish thought and identity that emerged from those encounters. Our investigations will begin with Sabbatian messianism and proceed through pathways of Jewish “enlightenment” and primitivism, religious denominations and secular nationalisms, mysticisms and feminisms. While we will certainly consider ways in which various groups and individuals formulated their ideas strategically vis-à-vis their historical circumstances, we will also strive to appreciate the personal tones and textures of their own voices. This course satisfies the required modern survey course for M.A. and certificate students at CJS. [50 max enrollment]

HSHR-6000 Jewish Mysticism

Instructor: Deena Aranoff | Tuesdays 9:40-12:30

This course will examine the ideas, narratives, theologies and practices that have been part of Jewish mystical expression through the ages. We will proceed chronologically and thematically, exploring a variety of Jewish mystical trends along with themes such as language, hermeneutics, gender, sexual imagery, nomian and anti-nomian emphases, messianism, symbolism and ritual practices. We will consider the relationship between Jewish mysticism and surrounding religious systems as well as the relationship between Jewish mysticism and other Jewish communal and rabbinic structures. This course is designed for doctoral students. At least one year of Jewish studies is required. 
 

This is an online GTU program that features a Jewish studies component. For more info, click here.