CJS - Courses & Degree Programs

To register for classes, click here: http://gtusonis.jenzabarcloud.com

Fall 2023

HR-2000  Modern Jewish Thought
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Tuesdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

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. This story of clash and confluence will begin with the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, the so-called "first modern Jew," and our investigations will lead subsequently through pathways of Jewish "enlightenment" and existentialism, religious denominations and secular nationalisms, mysticisms and fundamentalisms. While we will certainly consider ways in which various groups and thinkers 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. Special attention will be paid to the German-Jewish context as one genealogy of Jewish modernity. This course satisfies the required modern suvey course for M.A. and certificate students at CJS.

HSHR-2000  Everyday Jewish Life: Household, Synagogue, & Street
Instructor: Deena Aranoff | Tuesdays, 9:40am–12:30pm

This course will explore everyday Jewish life from the ancient through medieval periods We will examine classical Jewish sources as they reflect the centrality of day-to-day life in the making of Jewish cultures. Topics will include family life, synagogue culture, ritual, education and language. We will also ask methodological questions about how to read classical texts for their contributions to an understanding of everyday Jewish life.

IDS-6000  Seminar on Interdisciplinarity
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff & Rebecca Esterson | Wednesdays, 9:40am–12:30pm

Through collaborative-based learning projects, students and teachers will explore critical issues and develop sound criteria for doing interdisciplinary work in religious studies in an interreligious context. Students will practice skills for formulating research questions, engage in learning the present contours of the fields that will constitute their primary and secondary concentrations and outside disciplines, and begin to develop an academic plan for their studies at the GTU from course work through the comprehensive examination and eventually the dissertation. Requirements: student presentations, a draft academic plan, two short written reports, a book review, and a research prospectus. This course is required for all students in the first year of the GTU PhD program.

Spring 2024

PR-4500  Midrash: Jewish Seeking & Storytelling
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Thursdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

Midrash—literally "seeking" or "(re)searching"—is a foundational genre of Jewish storytelling and religious imagination. Radically intertextual, midrashim interweave far-flung verses of scripture into ever new hermeneutical tapestries. They are also mind-bendingly inter-temporal, rooted in the principle that "there is no before or after in the Torah," so even revelation itself is eternally present. And they delight in multivocality, presenting contradictory interpretations side by side, separated only by a favorite phrase, "Another thing." Above all, Midrash revels in the cracks, shadows, and ambiguities of scripture, seizing textual wrinkles as catalysts for divine insight. This course will introduce students to traditional Midrash, particularly through close readings of Song of Songs Rabbah. However, we will then focus mainly on contemporary uses of Midrash through prisms of psychoanalysis, postmodern literary theory, feminism, womanism, queer hermeneutics, and the modern media of novels and films.

HSHR-4502  Jewish Mysticism
Instructor: Deena Aranoff | Tuesdays, 9:40am–12:30pm

This course will examine the ideas, narratives, theologies and practices that have been part of Jewish mysticism through the ages. We will proceed chronologically and thematically, exploring the variety of Jewish mystical trends as well as themes such as language, hermeneutics, gender, nomian and anti-nomian emphases, messianism, symbolism and ritual practices as well as the relationship between Jewish mysticism and other communal and rabbinic structures. This is an advanced Jewish studies course; students must have completed at least two courses in Jewish studies to register.

HSPR-6000  Embodied Theology in Jewish Tradition
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Tuesdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

Since antiquity, Christian theologians in particular have criticized Jews and Judaism for being excessively invested in the body, casting the tradition as carnal, corporeal, and even corpse-like. In some ways, the critique is indeed rooted in reality. There is hardly any trace of body-soul dualism in the Hebrew Bible, and classical Rabbinic formulations tended to resist against such distinctions. Generally speaking, Jewish tradition has prioritized practice over belief and actions over ideas. This course explores the theological dimensions of this carnality, asking what it means to grasp and express divinity through the body. We will engage in close readings of "embodied theologies," wherein somatic experiences catalyze theological insights or, even more radically, wherein theological meaning is fundamentally inseparable from bodily events. We will meditate especially on modern Jewish embodied theologies, such as in the writings of Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczno, Martin Buber, and Judith Plaskow, as well as in contemporary movements of "earth-based" Judaism. This is an advanced course, but English translations will always be provided.

Fall 2024

HSST-2026  Reading the Rabbis
Instructor: Deena Aranoff | Tuesdays, 9:40am–12:30pm

This class will serve as an introduction to rabbinic literature. We will examine selections from the vast rabbinic corpus, with a focus on Talmud and Midrash. Our goal will be to acquire familiarity with a variety of rabbinic styles, to think critically about rabbinic culture, and to acquire general access and familiarity with the classical rabbinic library. We will also consider the historical development of rabbinic Judaism in its late-antique context.

HSHR-3726  Revelation in Modern Jewish Thought
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Thursdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

Revelation is the idea that God’s presence or will is somehow manifested to human beings. In Jewish tradition, the archetypal revelation is that of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. Although Jews have interpreted this in countless ways, the belief in revelation has remained a religious cornerstone. However, the social-political-intellectual conditions known as modernity have posed severe challenges to such an idea. Given the historical-critical lens, for example, what could it mean to say that the words of Scripture are divine? Given the advent of scientific materialism, what could it mean to be touched by transcendence? Given investigations into psychological projection and the unconscious, how could one speak of encounters with an actual divine Other? Given the liberal privatization of religion, what is left of divine "commandments"? Given insights into patriarchy, white supremacy, and other structures of power, shouldn't one be suspicious of any traditional claims of revelation? As we study how Jews have wrestled with such questions, this course will illuminate issues at the very core of modern Jewish thought and spirituality. This course satisfies the modern survey course required for the M.A. and certificate in Jewish Studies.

Homeland, Exile, and Diaspora in Jewish Tradition
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Tuesdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

Jewish tradition brims with reflections on the “Land of Israel” and the binary of “homeland” and “exile.” These foundational images have been interpreted in vastly different ways throughout the centuries, from geographic sites and political principles to poetic devices and spiritual archetypes. This course will examine some major trends from ancient through contemporary times and will thereby shed light on the multifaceted landscapes of Jewish culture and spirituality. Contexts to be examined will include the Hebrew Bible, Talmud and Midrash, classical liturgy, medieval Jewish mysticism and philosophy, Hasidism, modern liberal Judaism, modern Zionisms, and contemporary diasporism.

Spring 2025

HRHS-2001  The Making of Jewish Culture
Instructor: Deena Aranoff | Tuesdays, 9:40am–12:30pm

This seminar will examine the making of Jewish culture over time. We will employ historical, literary, cultural, and feminist analyses as part of our investigations into ancient and medieval Jewish culture and history. We will begin with the Hebrew Bible and the culture of Ancient Israel. We will then consider the development of rabbinic Judaism in its late-antique context. We will then explore Jewish life from the ninth through the sixteenth centuries. We will assess features of Jewish communal life, as well as the intellectual and spiritual currents among Jews of this time. This course will allow us to appreciate the continuities and discontinuities in Jewish history and to acquire a more nuanced sense of the overall process of cultural production in Judaism. This course satisfies the ancient-medieval survey course requirement for the M.A. and certificate in Jewish Studies. This course is required for all M.A. and certificate students at CJS.

HSHR-4600  Jewish Countercultures
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Tuesdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

Although countless movements throughout history have challenged structures of the dominant culture, this course will consider “countercultures” as a distinctly modern phenomenon: social-political-spiritual expressions of deep dissatisfaction with the ideologies and conditions of modernization. Despite various luxuries and liberties that have resulted (for some demographics, at least) from industrialization, urbanization, and liberal centralization of state powers, countercultures contend that those very conditions alienate human beings from their own inner depths, from other human beings, and from the natural world. Of course, no counterculture is monolithic, and there are always subcultures within countercultures. Depending on one’s own ancestral background, one might feel a particular sense of responsibility and/or victimhood vis-à-vis particular wounds of modernity, illuminating particular pathways of healing. This course will consider examples of Jewish counterculture—one from Germany during the Weimar period of 1920s–30s, one from North America in the 1960s–70s, and one that seems to be emerging currently in North America. Despite significant differences among them, they have been correlated in intriguing ways, raising illuminating questions about religion and resistance in the modern world.

HRFT-5000  Readings in Hasidic Mysticism: The Piaseczner Rebbe
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Thursdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

This seminar is for students who want to plunge deeply into the religious language of Hasidism, a modern Jewish mystical movement born in the heartland of Eastern Europe. Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczno (1889–1943) was an exceptionally innovative and psycho-somatically sophisticated sage from this lineage, who sought to rekindle what he considered to be lost sparks from the dawn of the movement. A gifted teacher and leader, his writings offer something akin to a Jewish concept of "mindfulness." He is often remembered as the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, as he served there with spiritual resistance through the final years of life, until his murder. We will read sources spanning from the 1920s through those final days. Student engagement with Hebrew will be encouraged, but translations will be provided.

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