A minor in Jewish Studies requires a minimum of 18 hours, including one of the following three Philosophy and Religion Studies courses:
- PHIL 2100: Introduction to Judaism
- PHIL 3510: Hebrew Bible
- PHIL 3575: Judaic Religion and Philosophy
and one of the three History courses listed below:
- HIST 4315: Anti-Semitism from Ancient Times to the Present
- HIST 4390: The Holocaust, 1933 - 1945
- HIST 4395: The State of Israel
In addition, four courses chosen in consultation with the Director of the Jewish Studies Program and representing at least two different departments are required.
Total Course List
These courses are offered on a rotating basis at UNT. These courses run based on faculty availability and departmental scheduling factors. For the courses currently being offering for the current and upcoming term at UNT, click here.
From here, you may jump to course information in the areas of Education, English, Hebrew, History, Journalism, Business, Music, Philosophy and Religion, Political Science, RTVF, Merchandising and Hospitality, Sociology, or Dance and Theatre Arts.
EDUC 4800: Understanding Human Relationships: Resilience and Reconciliation in the State of Israel
Instructor: Carolyn Kern
ENG 3913: Yiddish Literature
Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the ways in which the foibles and fables, wit and wisdom of life in the cities and shetls (small villages) of Eastern Europe are expressed through the works of nineteenth and twentieth century Jewish authors. As well as written works, Jewish humor and folklore will be studied. Films which illustrate their way of life will be shown. Most, if not all, of these writings were written in the Yiddish language and Translated to English. Historical background on the language and the authors will also be provided
ENGL 3913: The Jewish Graphic Novel
Description: In this course, we wil llook at the major figures and tets in the history of 20th-century Jewish-American comics/graphic narratives (Lee/Kirby, Siegel/Shuster, Bob Kane, Kurtzman/Elder, Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, among others), and also the path breaking and formally dissonant work of Israeli writers and artists. Special attention will be paid to the representations of the Israel/Palestine conflict, the main topic of all Israeli comics.
Instructor: Marshal Armintor
ENGL 3923: American Jewish Writers
Description: Study of the cultural and historical specificity of American Jewish literature. Comparison of that literature to canonical texts and trends, or examination of that literature as a counter discourse to dominative theories. May be used to fulfill a requirement for the Jewish studies minor.
Instructor: James Duban
ENGL 4660: Literature and the Holocaust
Description: Study of literary responses to the Holocaust. "Canonical" Holocaust authors such as Primo Levi, Eli Wiesel, and Anne Frank are read alongside criticism, theory, graphic novels, film, and the works of lesser-known authors. Topics of discussion include the relationship between Holocaust literatrure and film, language and trauma, literature and genocide, storytelling and history, arts and ethics.
Instructor: Deborah Needleman Armintor
ENGL 4800: Hebrew Bible as Literature
Description: The Hebrew Bible or Hebrew Scriptures (known to Christians as the Old Testament) is one of the foundational books of both western literature and world culture, and serves as the basis for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this course we will survey the biblical literature, acquaint students with literary and critical methods for the study of the Bible, situate the Bible within the writings and culture of the ancient Near East (ANE), and discuss the artistic and religious heritage of ancient Israel. We will deal with questions of rhetoric, artistry, structure and meaning – what the biblical text meant to its ancient readers, and what meanings it has today - but also with issues of translation and some historical, sociological, and archaeological issues useful to a fuller understanding for the reader. All texts will be read in English translation.
Instructor: Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis
ENGL 4800: Film and the Holocaust
Instructor: Deborah Needleman Armintor
***Note: As of Fall 2012, Hebrew will no longer be offered at UNT. This section will remain until the end of the Spring 2012 semester, as courses are still running. The two-year Hebrew sequence was offered by the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in cooperation with the Jewish Studies Program. It fulfilled the university's language requirement.
HEBR 1010: Elementary Hebrew I
Description: Students will learn to read and understand the Hebrew Bible and the basics of Hebrew as it is spoken today in Israel. The course will examine topics ranging from Biblical archaeology to modern Israeli culture.
Instructor: Ruth Precker
HEBR 1020: Elementary Hebrew II
Description: Students will learn to read and understand the Hebrew Bible and the basics of Hebrew as it is spoken today in Israel. The course will examine topics ranging from Biblical archaeology to modern Israeli culture.
Instructor: Ruth Precker
HEBR 2040: Intermediate Hebrew I
Description: Students will learn to read and understand the Hebrew Bible and the basics of Hebrew as it is spoken today in Israel. The course will examine topics ranging from Biblical archaeology to modern Israeli culture.
Instructor: Ruth Precker
HEBR 2050: Intermediate Hebrew II
Description: Students will learn to read and understand the Hebrew Bible and the basics of Hebrew as it is spoken today in Israel. The course will examine topics ranging from Biblical archaeology to modern Israeli culture.
Instructor: Ruth Precker
HIST 4215: Jews Under Greek and Roman Rule
Description: History of the Jewish people from Alexander the Great to the spread of Islam; covers the Maccabean revolt, the Herodian dynasty, life in teh diaspora, sects of Judaism, the ministries of Jesus and Paul, the Jewish revolts, early Rabbinic Judaism, and the development of Christian anti-Semitism. Readings include the Hebrew Bible, intertestamental literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, Flavius Josephus and other historians and Talmudic excerpts, as well as documentary sources.
Instructor: Christopher Fuhrmann
HIST 4216: Rome's Jewish Wars and the Roman Near East
Description: The expansion of Rome's sphere of influence to the east brought it into open compeittion with the Parthian Empire, which spanned from Arabia and the Caspian Sea to India. Judaea - and independent Jewish kingdom from 160 to 62 BC - soon came under Roman control, as a client kingdom, eventually becoming a Roman province (6 AD). Examination of the sources of Roman power in the East, as well as the military clashes that shaped Rome's administrative expansion into the Near East, focusing primarily on Judaea and the two Jewish Revolts (66 AD and 132 AD). Examination of the consequences of Rome's Jewish Wars for the Roman eastern front with the Parthians, and for Jews and Christians in Judaea/Palestine and throughout the Empire.
Instructor: Guy Chet
HIST 4217:Jew, Greek, and Roman: Backgrounds of Early Christianity
Description: Historical introduction to the original and early spread of the world's largest religion. Historical climate into which Christianity first emerged: ancient Judaism, the Roman Empire, and the cosmopolitan culture of the Hellenistic Greek cities. The origins and growth of Christianity itself: the ministry of Jesus, persecutions, the career of Paul, the slow growth of Christian communities and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.
Instructor: Christopher Fuhrmann
HIST 4260: Jewish Women in World Perspective
Instructor: Eunice Pollack
HIST 4262: Anti-Semitism and Anti-Catholicism in Victorian England
Description: This course seeks to compare, contrast, and understand the two oldest and most significant antipathies in the English-speaking world. We shall examine the root sources of both sentiments, learn seventeenth- and eighteenth-century context, trace the development of each during the nineteenth century, relate those developments to changes in British society during the period, and finish with a brief consideration of the twentieth century.
Instructor: Denis Paz
HIST 4262: Modern Anglo-Jewish History
Description: England has the distinction of being the first medieval western European kingdom to expel its Jewish population, in 1290. (Spain, the only other western European state to do so, waited until 1492.) England also has the distinction of being the only western European state to readmit Jews as permanent residents. (Spain was technically Jew-free until after the death of the Fascist military dictator Francisco Franco.) This course surveys the history of modern Anglo-Jewry (as Britain’s Jewish population is commonly called) from readmission in 1656 to the present.
Instructor: Denis Paz
HIST 4263: Arab-Israeli Wars
Instructor: Robert Citino
HIST 4263: Ancient Israel
Description: This course is a survey of the history of the Hebrew people’s attempts at early state formation from their earliest known origins to the beginning of the Diaspora (ca. 3000 BCE-ca. 135 CE). Particular attention will be paid to the creation of the earliest incarnations of the state of Israel in the context of its geography as a border territory. Thematically, this course will examine the interplay between Jewish monotheism and assimilation with the neighboring polytheistic cultures and how this interrelationship informed Jewish notions of leadership and community. In addition, students will be introduced to the notions and problems of state formation in the tradition of "Western" thought. This course will be heavily based on reading primary sources and some of the more influential secondary scholarship on Hebrew culture and ancient Israel and its neigbors. We will also explore the use of archaeology and other non-literary sources in an attempt to address the basic issues of the course.
Instructor: Walter Roberts
HIST 4315: Anti-Semitism from Ancient Times to the Present
Description: Examines the history of anti-Semitism from ancient Egypt to the contemporary world. topics include pagan responses to Jews, Christian theological anti-Semitism, the first Crusade, the ritual murder accusations, the blood libel, the Inquisition, impact of the Reformation, Russian pogroms, anti-Semitism in America, the Holocaust, Holocaust denial, and Arab anti-Semitism.
Instructor: Eunice Pollack
HIST 4385: Nazi Germany
Description: Comprehensive sophisticated account and analysis of the Nazi period in German history; exploring issues related to the content and implications of Nazi ideology; the role of Hitler, the complicity of elites such as Junkers, the military, the churches, and big business. Examines the origins both of the Nazi movement and of the conditions in Germany that led to the movement's rise to power. Analyzes the consequences of the implementation of Hitler's policies in the forms of genocide, military conquest, and defeat.
Instructor: Al Mierzejewski
HIST 4390: The Holocaust, 1933-1945
Description: European Jews and their destruction during Nazi Germany's ascendancy; Jewish communities and anti-Semitism before the Nazis; institutions and processes of extermination; victims, including non-Jews; perpetrators; historical background.
Instructor: TBA
HIST 4395: The State of Israel
Description: History of the modern State of Israel, including the prestate period, Zionism, the Arab-Jewish/Israeli conflict and wars, immigration, social and religious groups and cleavages, terrorism, culture, politics, religion and identity.
Instructor: Richard Golden
HIST 4435: American Jewish Experience
Description: Examines the Jewish experience in America from the colonial period to the present. Topics include immigration, shaping American Jewish identities, American Judaism, anti-Semitism, American Jews and the Holocaust, Zionism, and Israel.
Instructor: Eunice Pollack
HIST 4475: Jewish Women in Modern America
Description:Examines the changing experiences and representations of American Jewish women (and men) over the course of the last century. Topics include transformation of gender identity; gender and family, work, entertainment, sex, religion, and feminism.
Instructor: Eunice Pollack
JOUR 4210/5210: Public Opinion and Propaganda: Israel and the Middle East
Instructor: Mitch Land
JOURN 4240/5150: Comparative International Media Systems: Israel and the Middle East
Instructor: Mitch Land
MKTG 2980/PHIL 4960: Jewish Business Ethics
Description: Using a comparative Jewish perspective, this course critically assesses the ethical and social impact management implications in the employment of business strategy and tactics. Specific attention is afforded to the rights and responsibilities of the firm, consumers and society. The course explores real-world decision-scenarios to provide a platform for highly interactive dialogue on issues dealing with ethics, organizational compliance, societal marketing, and social responsibility cast against a backdrop of Jewish value systems.
Instructor: Lou E. Pelton
MUMH 4800: Nazism, Judaism, and the Politics of Classical Music in Germany
Description: This course explores the connections between Nazi ideology, politics, anti-Semitism, and classical music in Nazi Germany.
Instructor: Timothy Jackson
MUMH 4810: Jews, Judaism, Anti-Semitism, and Opera
Description: This course explores different roles of Jews in operas, including sympathetic representations by Jewish composers, and negative stereotyping by both Jewish and non-Jewish compters.
Instructor: Timothy Jackson
PHIL 2100: Introduction to Judaism
Description: Examines the beliefs, practices, laws, and movements of Judaism from Biblical times to the present, emphasizing the impact of modernity on the central texts and tradition.
Instructors: Staff
PHIL 3320: Medieval Philosophy
Description: Medieval Philosophy concerns the question of Jerusalem and Athens. It is the question of how the way of life handed down from ancient Israel (namely, the way of life guided above all by biblical piety as taught by Orthodox Judaism, Catholic Christianity and/or traditional Islam) fits, or fails to fit, with the way of life handed down from ancient Greece (namely, the way of life guided above all by philosophical inquiry as exemplified in the writings of Plato and Aristotle). There are three main approaches to the Jerusalem-Athens question. According to St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Anselm of Canterbury, “Unless you believe, you will not understand.” According to St. Thomas, “Grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.” Finally, according to Rabbi Moses Maimonides and the Muslim scholar Averroës, revelation and philosophy remain in a necessary, though instructive, tension.
Instructor: Martin Yaffe
PHIL 3510: Hebrew Bible
Description: Philosophical and ethical concepts of the Hebrew bible compared with ancient pagan thought and subsequent Western culture. Concepts discussed include creation, revelation, holiness, faith, covenant, prophecy, idolatry, chosen people, justice, mercy, truth, and peace.
Instructor: Martin Yaffe
PHIL 3515: David, Saul, and Solomon: The Early Israelite Monarchy
Description: This course offers an overview of the early Israelite monarchy through the biographies of its first three kings: Saul ben Kish, David ben Jesse, and Solomon ben David. Using the books of Samuel and I Kings, combined with the most recent evidence from archaeology and translations of cognate literature, we will analyze the rise of the Israelite kingdom in its historic and social milieu. Special emphasis will be given to the problems of using the Hebrew Scriptures as historical documents, as well as understanding the Ancient Near Eastern context for the events and behaviors recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Instructor: Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis
PHIL 3525: Rabbinic Judaism
Description: The body of Jewish law is filled with details, yet is a coherent system involving the interplay of biblical source material with evolving Rabbinic interpretation and traditions. At its core, this system of “the oral tradition” aims to direct the mutable details of a finite worldly life to correspond to the infinite wisdom and immutable goodness of the Deity. We will investigate the fundamental principles of this system as it has served as a program for practical action in the government of the community and of the self.
Instructor: Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis
PHIL 3530: Kabbalah: Jewish Mysticism, Myth, and Magic
Description: This course is an introduction to Jewish mysticism, presented in historical survey. Through lectures and readings from seminal texts, the course will explore the major topics of Jewish Kabbalah, including mystical cosmogony, apocalypse, and eschatology, theosophy, word-mysticism, meditation, and mystical-magical rituals of power.
Instructor: Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis
PHIL 3535: Classical Jewish Thought: The 13 Principles of Faith
Description: Since its formulation, Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Faith has stood the test of time as Judaism’s seminal statement of creed. Yet, this formulation aroused both opposition and debate among the leading Jewish philosophers of the medieval era. This course will explore these Principles in depth, utilizing the original sources of Maimonides, as well as those of Nahmanides, Saadia Gaon, Halevi and other commentators.
Instructor: Rabbi Jonathan Schick
PHIL 3540: Judaic Religion and Philosophy
Description: An introduction to a wide range of Judaic texts -- biblical, medieval, and modern -- that address Jewish law, history, and thought from diverse points of view.
Instructor: Martin Yaffe
PHIL 3545: Sexual Ethics in Judaism
Description: This course will serve as an overview of historical and contemporary Jewish perspectives towards human sexuality. Invariably, Judaism’s view of sexuality is widely misunderstood or grossly misrepresented. Through text study, film vignettes, and animated discussion, a thorough understanding of Jewish sexual ethics will be fostered.
Instructor: Rabbi Jonathan Schick
PHIL 4960: The Ten Commandments
Description: In this course, the student will become familiar with what the commandments are as well as their details and broader applications within the framework of a society’s moral constitution, to understand the specific structure and order of the ten commandments, and finally to explore the personal relevance of these guidelines.
Instructor: Rabbi Dan Lewin
PHIL 4960:Jews and Judaism in Modern Israel
Description: This course will address the historical, philosophical/political and religious issues at the heart of the juxtaposition of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish State, and how these shape the latter’s legal system and laws, military, relationships within society and daily life.
Instructor: Rabbi David Gruber
PSCI 3100: U.S./Israeli Relations: Conflict, Cooperation, and Advocacy
Description: Israel and United States have been closely allied since Israel’s founding. President Truman officially recognized Israel almost immediately after it declared independence, and popular support for this new state grew among American Jews and Christians alike. Indeed, support for Israel has remained high even as some argued in recent years that the strategic value of the alliance has apparently diminished. This presents two interesting and related political puzzles: First, does U.S. policy toward Israel fall inside or outside the tradition of foreign policy realism? Second, in a country where public policy is made by majoritarian institutions (Congress and the president) designed to represent local interests and opinion, how has the cause of this small country maintained consistently high levels of support from policymakers and the public alike? These are some of the questions that will be explored in this class.
Instructor: Elizabeth Oldmixon
PSCI 3700: Government and Politics of Israel
Description: This course investigates the government and politics of modern Israel. We begin with an exploration of the historical and intellectual foundations of the state, and then we examine Israel’s political institutions and processes. Finally, we discuss some of the governing and policy‐making challenges faced by Israel.
Instructor: Elizabeth Oldmixon
PSCI 4330: Jewish Political Thought
Description: Perhaps no other religion has been so closely associated with the great political controversies faced by humanity as Judaism. Can political life be self-directed by rational, autonomous individuals (as Spinoza argues) or must it be under the umbrella of Divine Law (as the Bible proclaims)? Indeed, is there a conflict between the Bible, properly understood, and reason at all (this is the subject of Maimonides’ investigation in his Guide of the Perplexed)? This course proceeds through a close reading of three of the classic texts that, each in its own way, navigate these complex waters
Instructor: Richard Ruderman
PSCI 4330: Medieval Political Thought
Description: The goal of this course is to understand as clearly as we can the thought of the greatest medieval political thinkers in the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian worlds and the radical challenge that thought poses to modern and contemporary political thought. We will also attempt to determine what light might be shed on contemporary politics by the often neglected masterpieces of medieval Christian, Muslim, and Jewish political theory and theology.
Instructor: Richard Ruderman
PSCI 4330: Zionism and Liberalism
Description: Modernity presents an essential challenge to Judaism (and indeed to any and all revealed religions). For modernity is a secular undertaking premised on the view that there is a universal human nature. Religion is no longer understood as something that constitutes a person’s being and circumscribes all his or her choices but, rather, as a free choice to be made (and remade or even unmade) as the individual wishes. Because Judaism was classically understood (like Islam) as a legalistic religion, its interaction with modernity has been beset by more challenges than Christianity’s. This course attempts to examine the theoretical premises and possibilities of Judaism in its interaction with modernity.
Instructor: Richard Ruderman
RTVF 4415: Israeli Cinema
Instructor: Melinda Levin
Merchandising and Hospitality Management
SMHM 2980: Jewish and Israeli Material and Popular Culture
Instructor:Jessica Strübel-Scheiner
SOCI 4260: The Family in Modern Israel
Description: Families in contemporary Israel vary dramatically in size, structure, and function (or dysfunction), depending to a great extent on ethnicity, religiosity, socio-economic status, and other factors. What is true in the Jewish religious (Ultra-Orthodox) community is often contradicted by the larger secular population of Israel. What was true for both 50 years ago has to some extent changed over the years due to changes in culture and the economy. This course is designed to introduce students to these varying forms of family in contemporary Israel through traditional academic methods such as readings, lectures, and class discussions, in addition to direct interaction with Jewish families in Israel.
Instructor: David Williamson
SOCI 4260: Contemporary Israel and Turkey
Description:
Instructor: Gabriel Ignatow
THEA 4500: Staging Atrocity: Theatre of the Holocaust
Description: This course involves the exploration and examination of performance as a reflection of the experiences of people during the Holocaust. Through readings, plays, films, videos, personal experiences, and family histories, students will form and discuss personal points of view regarding the power of arts as a way of honoring memory.
Instructor: Timothy Wilson
THEA 4500: Broadway: The Jewish Musical
Instructor: Andrew Harris