CJS - Courses & Degree Programs

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

Spring 2023

HRIR-1500  Islamic & Jewish Mysticisms
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff & Fateme Montazeri | Mondays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

Does mysticism transcend the boundaries of particular traditions, or are even the most transcendent experiences always nonetheless culturally embedded? This classic ambiguity makes mysticism a particularly illuminating case study for interreligious study. In this course, we will explore Islamic and Jewish mysticisms. On one hand, students will gain familiarity with each distinct tradition, as it unfolds from antiquity through present times. On the other hand, there will be ample opportunity to engage in comparative reflections, appreciating both similarities and differences in the theological, cultural, political, and aesthetic aspects of Jewish and Islamic mysticisms.

HSST-2026  Introduction to Rabbinic Literature
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.

HR-2052  Neo-Hasidism
Instructor: Sam S.B. Shonkoff | Tuesdays, 2:10pm–5:00pm

Hasidism itself was a radical Jewish mystical movement that emerged in eighteenth-century Poland and spread like wildfire throughout Eastern Europe. Within just a few generations, contending with the allures of liberal secularism and assimilation, Hasidism became a cornerstone of ultra-Orthodoxy. However, starting in the twentieth-century, Hasidism also became an object of romantic enchantment among relatively secular Jews. Neo-Hasidism, the topic of this course, refers precisely to this phenomenon of non-Hasidic Jews drawing upon (appropriating?) Hasidism for purposes of spiritual-cultural renewal, from Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel through Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Marcia Prager. The paths of Neo-Hasidism intersect with stories of post-liberal countercultures, orientalism, cultural Zionism, Jewish navigations of collective trauma, identity politics, psychedelics, and feminism.

HSST-2027  Abraham Joshua Heschel and 20th Century Liberation Movements (Offered by CJS Affiliated Faculty through a Newhall Fellowship)
Instructor: Daniel Stein | Mondays, 9:40am–12:30pm

The life of rabbi, philosopher, and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) aligns with a period of radical change and upheaval that historian Eric Hobsbawm called “the short twentieth century.” Beginning with the fall of empires on the eve of World War I and concluding with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991, this epoch witnessed a world undergoing radical transformation. Heschel, remarkably, found himself at the center of many events that defined the era. Heschel’s engagement with twentieth-century liberation movements included leadership roles as an advocate for the Jewish community during World War II and the Second Vatican Council, and as strong ally during the Civil Rights and Peace movements of the 1960s. This course is designed as a practicum in which a substantial amount of in-class time will be devoted to close analysis of primary sources. While students may choose to prepare them in advance, many primary sources will be read and discussed in class.

Summer 2023

Hebrew Language Intensive
Instructor: TBA | July 3rd - July 28

The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, along with its Madrasa-Midrasha Program, are thrilled to offer the first-ever modern Hebrew language intensive at the GTU in the summer of 2023. The course will meet from July 3rd through July 28th, and registration information will be made available by May 1st. The course will be taught at the intermediate level and participants must be able to read the Hebrew language and to work their way through a basic Hebrew text.

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-4000  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 Mysticisms
Instructor: Deena Aranoff & Sam S.B. Shonkoff | 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.

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