The Program in Jewish Studies fosters the interdisciplinary study of Jewish civilization from ancient times until today.  Students take courses in the Program, as well as offerings from other departments in Jewish literature, history, politics, religion and culture.

Students contemplating a major should see an adviser as early as possible to develop a course program.

The Program encourages international study as a way to enhance knowledge of Jewish history, experience, and languages. JUD 100y or equivalent is required of all students before beginning a semester of study in Israel. Students interested in Jewish Studies abroad, including summer study of Hebrew or Yiddish, should consult the adviser for study away, Justin Cammy.

Recent graduates of the Jewish Studies Major

Advisers:  Ernest Benz, Silvia Berger, Justin Cammy, Lois Dubin, Joel Kaminsky

The Major

The major in Jewish Studies comprises 12 semester courses.
Jump to Worksheet for Major Requirement (Word document)
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A. Requirements
1. Basis:  JUD 225 Jewish Civilization: Text and Tradition, normally taken in a student’s first or second year.
2. Language:  JUD 100y  Elementary Modern Hebrew, counting as two semester courses.  Students who arrive at Smith with the equivalent of a year of college-level Hebrew may petition for exemption from this requirement; in such cases, they are strongly encouraged to continue their study of Hebrew language at the intermediate level or beyond. 

B. Breadth: One course in each of the following:
1.  Classical Texts
2.  History and Thought
3.  Literature and the Arts

Students can expect advisers to work closely with them to select electives that cover the chronological sweep of Jewish civilization.

C. Concentration: Three courses on a unifying theme, period, geographic area, or body of literature. A student defines her concentration in consultation with her adviser, and submits it for approval to the Program by the end of the junior year.  No more than one 100-level course may count toward the concentration.  One course taken in fulfillment of the breadth requirement may count toward the concentration.

D. Seminar and/or Advanced Special Studies: One seminar from the Program’s approved list of courses (for example, REL 310, REL 320, JUD 362, GOV 323) or a research-intensive JUD 400  Special Studies.

E. Electives: In choosing elective courses within the major, students should keep in mind the following:

• Jewish Studies highly values the study of language. Although JUD 100y is the minimum requirement for the major, the Program strongly encourages students to continue study of Hebrew, and to do so at Smith, when appropriate courses are available: JUD 200 (Intermediate Modern Hebrew); REL 295/296 (classical Hebrew); special studies in language. A student may continue her study of Hebrew, or of another Jewish language (such as Yiddish or Ladino) within the Five-College consortium or at an approved program elsewhere.
  
• With the approval of her adviser, a student may count toward the major up to two Smith College courses outside the approved list of Jewish Studies courses, when such courses offer a comparative or additional methodological perspective to the student’s chosen concentration.  In such cases, a student normally writes at least one of her assignments for the course on a Jewish Studies topic. 

F.  Courses Elsewhere: Courses taken elsewhere in the Five-College consortium, on Junior Year Abroad Programs or on other approved programs for study away may count toward the major.  A student’s petition to count such a course must be approved by the major adviser and the Jewish Studies Program after the course has been completed.

G. Additional Guidelines
1.  No course counting toward the major may be taken for an S/U grade.
2.  Normally, at least seven of the courses toward the major shall be taken at Smith College.
3.  No more than two courses at the 100-level, other than JUD 100y, may count toward the major.
4.  In order to support the interdisciplinary nature of a major in Jewish Studies, normally no more than seven of a student’s courses shall be from the same academic department.

Special Studies - JUD 400d Independent study with an individual faculty member on an area of shared intellectual interest. Click HERE for full special studies requirements

Honors - JUD 430d Thesis Full-year course; offered each year, 8 credits. Click HERE for full honors requirements

The Minor

Requirements: a total of five courses

1. JUD 225 the basis of the minor;

2. Four additional courses distributed over at least three of the areas of Jewish Studies (language, classical texts, history and thought, and literature and the arts). Normally, a student electing to minor in Jewish Studies will take at least three courses toward the minor at Smith.  The year-long JUD 100y counts as one course toward the minor. 

Students contemplating a minor in Jewish Studies should see an adviser as early as possible to develop a minor course program. 

Courses counting toward the Jewish Studies major and minor
Those noted in bold are offered in 2008-2009

I. Basis of the Major/Minor

JUD 225/REL 225 Jewish Civilization: Text and Tradition (formerly JUD 187)

II. Language

JUD 100y Elementary Modern Hebrew
JUD 110j Elementary Yiddish
JUD 200 Intermediate Modern Hebrew (offered at Mt. Holyoke in Fall 2008)
REL 295 Hebrew Religious Texts I
REL 296 Hebrew Religious Texts II

Opportunities for the study of modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, and/or Yiddish may be available through special studies at Smith, within the 5-College consortium, or through summer study abroad.  Please consult an adviser.

III. Classical Texts

REL 110 Archaeology of Israel and Palestine
REL 210 Introduction to the Bible I
REL 211 Wisdom Literature and Other Books from the Writings
REL 213 Prophecy in Ancient Israel
REL 215 Introduction to the Bible II
REL 222 Sages, Strangers and Women: An Introduction to Rabbinic Literature
REL 310 Sibling Rivalries: Israel and the Other

IV. History and Thought
FYS 163 The Holy Land
GOV 229 Government and Politics of Israel
GOV 248 The Arab-Israel Dispute
GOV 323 Warring for Heaven and Earth: Jewish and Muslim Political Activism in the Middle East
HST 284/JUD 284 The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1750- 1945
JUD 283 The Spanish Inquisition
JUD 285 Jews and Islamic Civilization
REL 220 Jews and Judaism in the Ancient World
REL 221 Jewish Spirituality: Philosophers and Mystics
REL 223 The Modern Jewish Experience
REL 224 Jews and Judaism in the Americas
REL 227 Judaism/Feminism/ Women’s Spirituality
REL 320 Tying and Untying the Knot: Women, Marriage and Divorce in Judaism

V.   Literature and the Arts

CLT 214 Literary Anti-Semitism
CLT 218 Holocaust Literature
CLT 275 Israeli Literature
CLT 277 At Home With Kafka: Modern Jewish Fiction
ENG 230/JUD 258 American Jewish Literature
GER 190 Jews in German Culture
GER 230 Nazi Cinema
GER 351 Isn't it Ironic? Harry/Heinrich/Henri Heine 1797-
 1856 (in German)
JUD 260 Yiddish Literature and Culture
JUD 362 Punchline: The Jewish Comic Tradition
SPN 246 Life Stories by Latin American Jewish Writers
 (in Spanish)
SPN 280 Life Stories by Latin American Jewish Writers
THE 220 Homelands: Mythmaking, Representation, and Debate in Israeli Drama
THE 241 Staging the Jew

The following are examples of courses that touch on Jewish Studies and that may count as an elective toward the major with the prior approval of an adviser. Students must write one of their assignments for such courses on an appropriate Jewish Studies topic. Please consult the offerings of other programs and departments, and your adviser, for additional possibilities:
GER 248 Laboratories of Modernity, 1800-1900
HST 246 Memory and History
HST 203 Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World
HST 205 The Roman Empire
HST 227 Outcasts: Minorities in Medieval Societies
HST 243 Reconstructing Historical Communities
HST 350 The History of Psychoanalysis
SPN 250 Sex and the Medieval City
SPN 332 The Middle Ages Today
SPN 332 Queer Iberia